With his grandfather and father working at the Jiayang coal mine, Zhang joined the mining group in 1999 and his first task was to take the last photos and videos of the coal train. Zhang's childhood memories are closely connected to the train, which has served local communities for decades.

One year after the coal train stopped running, the local government listed passenger steam trains and the railway as industrial heritage to protect. In 2010, a national park was built, consisting of the railway and a nearby closed coal mine.

As steam trains have been taken off track in most of the world, the old-fashioned locomotive in Sichuan has attracted tourists from home and abroad.

With the train becoming popular with tourists, the fortunes of the declining mining town of Bagou have turned around.