“皮特、金達電子檔案庫”是澳門科技大學唐廷樞研究中心（後稱中心）的子項目之一。2019年，中心有幸得到皮特•科睿思（Peter Crush）先生捐贈的一批與唐廷樞研究相關的珍貴電子檔案。為了使得這批檔案得到更好地利用，中心決定建立數據庫並向全球用戶免費開放。

唐廷樞，時任開平礦務局總辦。他是中國近代工業的開創者和奠基人，洋務運動的積極支持者和重要實踐者，中國保險、近代航運、煤礦、鐵路機車與水泥工業之父，近來更有“唐山之父”之稱。克勞德•威廉•金達（Claude William Kinder），英格蘭人，時任開平礦務局總工程師。他在唐廷樞的授意下，主持設計製造了中國第一台蒸汽機車——龍號機車、修築了中國第一條標準軌道鐵路——唐胥鐵路、建立了中國第一個鐵路機車製造及修理廠。公司還建立了鐵路學院，為中國培養了大批鐵路建設人才。

這批資料來源於“皮特·柯睿思中國鐵路收藏（P. A. Crush Chinese Railway Collection）”，其龐大的內容包含照片、書籍、期刊、地圖、公司檔案等。作為中國鐵路史的專家，皮特•科睿思花費了超過30年的時間去收集這批資料。其中，金達私人文件的複製件是科睿思通過追尋金達後代，獲得他們的同意後拍攝獲取的。而金達文件中關於唐廷樞的照片以及唐廷樞手寫的英文信件，都是罕見的資料。

科睿思先生，出生於英國，自1840年代開始，他的家族中先後有四代人從事與鐵路有關的工作，因此他本人也對鐵路和機車特別感興趣。1965年，19歲的科睿思來到香港，利用香港緊靠中國內地的優勢，深入研究中國鐵路發展史，專注於開平礦務局、關內外鐵路以及其他中國早期鐵路，並在2013年出版了《關內外鐵路》一書。為進一步推進唐廷樞等相關研究的開展，中心於2019年11月20日聘請他為“榮譽研究員”。

澳門科技大學唐廷樞研究中心特別感謝皮特•科睿思先生的慷慨捐贈！

This database is one of the sub-projects of the Research Center of Tong King Sing (hereafter the Center) of the Macau University of Science and Technology. In 2019, the Center was fortunate enough to receive a valuable donation of Tong King Sing-related digital files from Mr. Peter Crush. In order to make better use of these data the Center decided to establish an open access digital archive for users worldwide.

Tong King Sing (a.k.a. Tang Tingshu) was Managing Director of the Chinese Engineering & Mining Company (CE&MCo.). He was a pioneer and founder of China’s modern industry; supporter and practitioner of the Westernization Movement and father of Chinese insurance, modern shipping, mining, railways and cement industries. He is also known as the father of Tongshan (Tangshan).

Englishman Claude William Kinder was the chief engineer of CE&MCo. Under Tong King Sing’s direction, he designed and assembled the ‘Rocket of China’ (the Chinese called this ‘Dragon’), the first steam locomotive built in China. He also constructed the Kaiping colliery tramway, China’s first standard gauge railway and established the first railway locomotive and carriage manufacturing and repair shops. The company also established a railway college, nurturing many talented engineers and technicians for China’s emerging railway and modern mining industry.

The materials in this database are sourced from the “P. A. Crush Chinese Railway Collection”. This is a large collection of photographs, books, journals, maps and extracts from company archives etc. which have been collected over a period of more than thirty years by Peter Crush, an expert on early Chinese railway history. Included in the collection are copies of the private papers of Kinder, made possible by Crush’s tracing of the descendants of Kinder who subsequently granted permission for photographs and documents to be accessed. Within the Kinder papers were very rare photographs of Tong King-sing as well as letters written in English by Tong’s own hand.

Mr. Crush was born in the United Kingdom to a railway family, which for four generations had worked on the railways from as early as the 1840’s, hence his keen interest in railway history. In 1965, Crush came to Hong Kong at the age of 19. He took advantage of Hong Kong's close proximity to the Mainland to study the history of China's railway development, focusing on the CE&MCo., IRNC and other early Chinese railways. In 2013 he published the book Imperial Railways of North China. To forward the Tong King Sing-associated research, the Center appointed him as an “Honorary Research Fellow” on 20 November 2019.

We would like to express our deepest appreciation for Mr. Crush’s generous contribution.