Mandalay–Lashio Railway (Burmese: မန္တလေး-လားရှိုး ရထားလမ်း) also known as Northern Shan State Railway (Burmese: ရှမ်းမြောက် မီးရထားလမ်း) is a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge railway line in Myanmar's Shan State, operated by Myanma Railways.[1] The line runs from Mandalay Central Railway Station to Lashio Railway Station in 11 hours, it is under proposal extending towards the Yunnan border from the current terminus with dual gauge rails. The section from Lashio to Muse and Yunnan is expected to be interoptable with both Chinese and Myanmar trains. There are a number of spur lines. There is another proposed project to allow Chinese trains to run 900 km from Kunming all the way to Kyaukpyu under Build-Operate-Transfer. Major stops in Pyin Oo Lwin, Kyaukme, Hsipaw. The line is in poor condition and on many sections the ride is extremely rough. The carriages with open windows serve to trim the trackside vegetation as it moves and attendants sweep away the debris regularly during the journey. On the descent down to Mandalay there is a back and forth switch back.
The Northern Shan Railway was originally built in order that British industrialists could obtain access to southern China, via Kunming. The line is still incomplete and has not extended past the northern Shan city of Lashio. It did provide access to the ancient Chinese silver and lead mines in Bawdwin, which were a major source of wealth for future US President Herbert Hoover.
The Goteik viaduct, a trestle bridge which at the time of its construction, was the longest such span in the world was completed in 1900 in record time. At the time, it was considered to be an engineering triumph.[2]