Our member from China, Liang Chenyuan, reports that steam locomotive construction did not end with the last of the SYs in 1999, but that anyone with enough money can still purchase a brand-new narrow gauge C2 Class 0-8-0 locomotive.
He sent the picture below of the most recent version of the diminutive type, built in 2015 by the Sichuan Jiayang Group based in Qianwei, Leshan, 100km south of Chengdu. It runs on the Bashi railway (芭石铁路) in Yuwei County, Leshan City, Sichuan, primarily hauling tourist trains, but sometimes carrying commuter trains for local residents. [It differs from earlier versions by having an extended front frame.]
Chenyuan further reports that the Dalian Locomotive company no longer has a steam locomotive production line.
Equally exciting is the news that China has just completed what are believed to be its first working replicas of historic locomotives, being reconstructions of British-built locomotives delivered to the Tangshan Railway. No 2 is a reproduction of an 0-6-0ST built by Robert Stephenson & Co of Newcastle in 1888, while No 11 is of an elegant 4-4-0 built in Glasgow by Dubs & Co in 1888.
The two locomotives were built for the Kailuan National Mine Park Museum in Tangshan by the Kailuan Tietuo Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Kailuan Group Co., Ltd., under the inspiration and guidance of Peter Crush, honorary curator of the museum.
A website article on the project can be found here or an English version (courtesy of Google Translate) can be downloaded by clicking here.