In recent years, with the continuous development of science and technology, China's high-speed rail has been at the forefront of the world, but few people understand the history of the development of China's railways, in fact, as early as 1881, the first railway in China's history was opened to traffic, this railway is the Tangxu Railway built during the Guangxu years, the completion of this railway has since changed the development direction of China's transportation.
During the reign of the Qing dynasty, China developed dozens of railways, some built by the imperial court, and some built by Western powers to facilitate the export of resources. And now with the rapid development of China's high-speed rail technology, many railways of that year have been replaced by high-speed rail railways, only a small part of the Qing Dynasty railways are still in traffic, the most typical is the Baocheng Railway, this section of the railway along the Jialing River traverses the north and south. Although the railway is still open, the number of trains is very small on weekdays, so many citizens like to walk around the neighborhood after dinner.
In 2015, a citizen walking near the Jialing River Bridge accidentally found that the nearby rail was engraved with many small characters, he took a closer look, the above can faintly see the words "1902 Hanyang Iron Works", "M.C.-1906-A.T", "COCKERLL-1908-AT", if these words are true, then this railway track that has experienced more than a hundred years of wind and rain has an extraordinary meaning, it is not only used as a route to traffic, It is also a precious cultural relic that has witnessed the history of China's transportation for a hundred years. When the citizen discovered this unusual railroad track, he immediately contacted the heritage department.
When experts from the cultural relics department conducted field investigations, they found that part of the railway tracks on the Jialing River Bridge did come from the former Hanyang Iron and Steel Factory, but because the Baocheng Railway was built in 1956, but the Hanyang Iron and Steel Factory went bankrupt in 1924, it was completely wrong in terms of time, and because of its age, its origin was almost difficult to inquire. Experts have preliminarily speculated that when the Baocheng Railway was first built, China had just been established, materials were scarce, and the development was still relatively backward, so it was not impossible to use some of the intact equipment left over from the past.
Although these rails have a history of hundreds of years, but the overall color is dark gray, almost no rust can be found, the quality seems to be better than modern rails, and these advantages have to mention its output place "Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant". After the defeat of the Qing court in the Sino-Japanese War, it began to respond to the slogan of "Shiyi Technicians to Control Yi", and launched a vigorous self-help campaign, Hanyang Iron and Steel Factory was established at this time, it was built in 1891 under the auspices of Zhang Zhidong, and was not officially built and operated until 1894, which was the first steel enterprise in China, and also the symbol of the beginning of the development of China's steel industry, when almost all over the country were produced here.
But the good times are not long, Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant investment is huge, the Qing government at that time has gone into decline, and Hanyang Iron and Steel Factory because of poor planning, and fell into production difficulties, at that time almost no one in the whole of China and even the whole of Asia understands how steel is refined, in order to solve a series of problems such as materials and equipment, in 1898, Zhang Zhidong had to ask Germany and Japan for loans, and finally produced batches of high-quality steel for China.
But even that didn't last long. With the demise of the Qing government and the squeeze of other private and foreign companies, the Hanyang Iron Works eventually came to an end and went bankrupt in 1924, and during the 30 years of its operation, the country's more than 3,000 miles of rails were produced by the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works.
The earliest railway track produced by the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works, which can be seen in the museum today, was produced in 1899. Previously, the China Railway Museum also collected a railway track produced by the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works in 1902, which was listed as a second-class cultural relic, and the rail found on the Jialing River Bridge should belong to the same batch of products as this one, so it also has a very high research value for archaeologists.