The British project was working against the background of the successful French Kunming-Haiphong railway that had been established on the nearby Hanoi to Kunming route from 1904–1910, some 30 years earlier. To secure the rights to construction, Britain referred to Article IV of the Anglo-French Siam Convention for 'mutual privileges'.
Planning and surveying
's article discusses the question of a railway to Yunnan from Burma. There are references in the 1898 British Hansard regarding possible construction of the line. Archibald John Little's 1905 book The Far East mentioned the proposed route on page 124: In 1911, Leo Borgholz, the US Consul General in Canton, published a trade report entitled 'Yunnan Trade Districts and Routes', in which he mentions that the British appeared to have shelved the project for lack of financial viability. In 1938, Edward Michael Law-Yone travelled to Yunnan from his native Burma to see the proposed route.
Construction
By 1938 construction had begun. In 1941 25 2-8-8-2 mallet-type articulated engines were ordered from the AmericanALCO company, and American promised to supply steel for the construction effort. In 1939 it was proposed to construct the western section of the Yunnan–Burma railway using a gauge of, since such minimum gauge facilitates the tightest of curves in difficult terrain. An article by Royal Arch Gunnison published in the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, November 27, 1941 stated that American Engineers still expected "12 to 15 months to complete" the railway and described a Dr. Victor Haas of the United States Public Health Service as in charge of sanitation and malaria prevention. Additional American personnel such as Paul Stevenson accepted commissions with the United States Public Health Service and were sent to assist with malaria control during the construction effort.
Abandonment
Construction of the line was abandoned due to Japanese advances to Lashio in May 1942. As Japanese advanced towards Yunnan the Chinese army implemented a Scorched Earth policy and dynamited rail and bridges to prevent enemy advances. In 1943 fighting occurred between Japanese and Chinese forces aided by US Air Support along the Yunnan-Burma railway: Construction was never resumed. Burma's limited trading value to China and its internal political and military instability have probably been two major contributing factors.
Legacy
Today the Yunnan side of the line lies in ruin. Though signs here and there attest to its presence, there is little actual rail left, and the line has all but vanished from local history and barely graces itineraries of all but the most determined travellers. One such sign can be glimpsed opposite the ferry to Baodian, slightly south of Manwan in the far north-eastern section of Lincang prefecture. The sign records a tunnel from the construction, but the entry has long been covered over and there is no visual hint to the line's presence whatsoever.
