Large quantities of steel rail used on China’s early railways were imported from Britain. Lines such as the Imperial Railways of North China, Peking–Kalgan Railway, and Peking–Mukden Railway all used rails manufactured by different British steelworks, including Barrow, Cammell, Bolckow Vaughan, Dowlais, and Port Talbot. A common rail weight was 85 lb/yd, approximately 42 kg/m.

These rails usually carried rolled inscriptions on the web recording the manufacturer, year of production, railway name or abbreviation, and rail section or weight, with markings such as I.C.R., I.P.K.R., and P.M.R. As a result, they are not merely surviving pieces of railway equipment, but also important physical evidence for identifying the construction dates, material sources, and subsequent history of early railway lines.

As main-line rails were progressively renewed, some rails manufactured in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were transferred to freight yards, industrial sidings, branch lines, and other secondary tracks, allowing them to survive into the present day. These century-old rails also bear witness to the close relationship between the British steel industry and the development of China’s early railway network.