A winter visit to photograph steam worked coal railways in the north-east of China. We visited Jixi, where SYs work on 5 separate colliery systems, Huanan, a superbly scenic narrow gauge operation and Fuxin, where steam operation continues despite the decline of mining in the area.

An Autumn trip to one of Germany's busiest freight lines, running through attractive countryside from Würzburg in northwestern Bavaria towards the cities and ports of the north. As well as a good variety of DB and Railion classes, Swiss and Austrian locos and those of a number of independent operators were seen on trains of all types.

With no QJs on the Jitong Railway this autumn, my thoughts turned to photographing China's diesels and electrics. Steam is now confined to industrial operations and I was beginning to miss the excitement of photographing big trains on scenic main lines. China has a remarkably varied modern traction scene and those used to seeing nothing but QJs, JSs and SYs might be surprised at the plethora of different diesel and electric classes in use.

The Hanusovice - Jesenik line in Northern Moravia was always a top priority for a return visit after my first trip there in April this year. It's a superb piece of railway with good scenery, a variety of traction including vintage class 831 and 851 railcars, a few class 749 hauled passengers and freights hauled by glorious red and blue 751s.

In spite of a huge DMU building programme, there are still a fair number of diesel hauled passenger trains in some parts of Germany. The network of secondary lines in the Allgäu area of south-western Bayern sees more diesel haulage than most these days. This report covers a short photographic trip to the Oberallgäu, the scenic area around Kempten, Immenstadt and Oberstdorf, in July 2006.

Praha is the hub of the Czech rail system and sees a variety of classes working heavy freight and passenger traffic on the electrified main lines radiating from the city. A few less heavily trafficked lines are still diesel worked and see some loco haulage. This report describes a photographic trip to the city in late June 2006.

A short trip to Ceska Trebova on the busy electrified main line from Praha to Ostrava and Brno. Lots of electric action from an impressive variety of classes.