The locomotive, 4-8-4 Class KF7 No 607, was opened to the public at the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York yesterday after a specially-constructed ramp has been built to allow access to the area where the workers would have stood in the days of Chinese steam.

The move follows the museum's ground-breaking photography exhibition, called China: The Last Days of Steam, and comes as interest in the Far East escalates ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

The NRM's head of creative development, Stephen Richards, said: "Given the level of interest in Chinese culture in the run-up to the Olympics, we are very much looking forward to opening the cab of the gigantic Chinese locomotive to the public as our next oriental offering."

The locomotive, which was built at the Vulcan Foundry in Lancashire in 1935, was shipped out from Liverpool to China, where it was used to pull both passenger carriages and freight up until 1977.

It was given to the NRM by the Chinese government in 1981, and was shipped back before it took five days to travel by road the 322 miles to the York museum.

Although it was built to run on British railways in terms of track gauge, the Chinese locomotive had to arrive at the museum by road as it is 2ft too high and a foot too wide to fit under the nation's railway bridges.

During its journey to York, the locomotive moved 17 miles in just one day at its slowest point.

The locomotive, which has Chinese writing on the door that translates as "keep the handtool clean", was one of 24 of its type and weighs 24 tonnes.

On a normal journey, the engine used 3.8 tonnes of coal every hour, and, with its tender, the locomotive is 93ft and 2.5 inches long.