At the start of the tour two participants were regretting joining it - if they had seen the autumn trip just a bit earlier they would have booked this instead of the spring tour. The fresh mornings with white steam exhaust and the colourful leaves would have been much nicer than the spring green. At least they thought so - after just three days all these objections were blown away, despite mixed weather conditions, we got such beautiful shots that everyone had to admit that it was the right decision to visit China in May! After several days in Huanan one person even booked the autumn tour to Huanan as well.
The tour was remarkable in another aspect too. After being hassled for months and almost years to dump my antique photographic equipment (a Nikon F100), I finally did. I spent more money than I had ever spent on a camera before just to purchase the brick that was said to be the best around. I’ll reflect on this subject further in the summer 2008 issue of my newsletter. In short, this tool is able to record pictures. But I wouldn’t do this step again, it’s definitely too early. It’s crazy to believe that over 100 years in the development of films could be outclassed by a single decade of digital imaging. You should wait until digital can really match film. (Oh yeah, I already hear the outcry of the digital community. If you’re not already registered to my newsletter, take your chance now and read why this is my conclusion).
Back to something more enjoyable - steam in China!
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Everything worked fine, three or four locomotives under steam with three on the line. The track gang had replaced about 30% of all sleepers which indicates that there are no plans to shut down the line.
C2 21 043 seems to be the unlucky loco of the season as a coupling rod cracked on the way from Honguang to Lixin:
They removed the broken rod and the counterpart on the other side and send the loco light engine back to Huanan:
Overnight they replaced the broken rod with a new one and put the loco back into service:
Just one day without incident and the following day the same thing happened again, on the way uphill from Tuoyaozi to the summit (before the horseshoe curve covered in shadow) ...
... and short before the summit in sunshine ...
... with some passengers aboard ...
... the last coupling rod on the right hand side cracked again!
The crew realised this just a few metres before the summit and stopped the train there:
They removed both coupling rods again ...
... and tried to restart the empty train to bring it down to Lixin:
But they failed, so off the loco went as a light engine to Lixin:
From there they sent C2 004 chimney first to the summit to pick up the struggling train. 004 went up there, picked up the train and went back tender first to Lixin, are very unusual sight.
Unlike two days earlier, they didn’t send 21 043 back light engine, at least not the first (and most stressful) part of the line. With 004 as train engine ...
and 0-6-2 C2 21 043 as a banker they came up the hill!
The unfortunate locomotive was removed at the summit and went back to Lixin for another check, then it went light engine to Huanan.
The first two days we got the impression that the locos of Huanan are not good performers in sunlight. They always managed to dive under the shelter of the darkest cloud around. Something like light sensitive locomotives! Eventually, we got several excellent sun shots, but one thing for sure, spring in Huanan is something which must be repeated – as long as the line exists!
There is a post in Tuoyaozi where some authorities check who is entering the area beyond this village. As a foreign visitor you need to pay a daily fee of 30 Yuan – what for was not clear. This fee applies only during four months of the year - for now, you may say. Once they find out that visitors come all year round, at least as long as the railway is working, they may find out that it’s easy to extract money from people who have paid hundreds of times more to get there. It all starts with 30 RMB ...
Locos in service (all class C2):
We found almost no change in the entire system. In and around Jixi, steam locomotives are still allowed to run over the state railway. It seems steam will last at least until the year 2010, even in the Hengshan system we were told that they were not expecting further diesels until the end of 2009.
A serious loss is the closure of the line to Qikeng in the Lishu system. The production of the mine has been low for several years now, but finally they’ve closed the mine and together with it the last interesting line of the system with two reversals and a steep gradient. On this line they used the self discharging wagons with the wooden side walls right to the end.
Locomotives seen in use:
Donghaikuang system
Chengzihe system
Didao system
Hengshan system
The name of the city has definitely been changed back to Diaobingshan. Tiefa was the name before, but only for a couple of years. The original name of the place was Diaobingshan. No one could explain why they changed it to Tiefa and back.
Since the depot became capable of carrying out heavy overhauls, they have received orders from the Beitai steelworks for overhauls. Beitai used to use the Sujiatun workshop for overhauls before this place near Shenyang closed its doors. As Beitai don’t issue visitors permits it’s interesting to get an idea which SY’s they are using. Their fleet still seems to be large.
Overhauls of locomotives from Beitai Steel Works in Tiefa (sorted by the date of overhaul):
No news from Diaobingshan’s locomotives except that they’ve bought three new diesels! They’ve retired several of the expensive and unsatisfactory DFH3 (only two remain serviceable) and replaced them with brand new DF5B industrial diesels. I didn’t note their numbers but if I remember correctly they were DF5B 0037, 0038 and 0039. No 100% guarantee for these numbers - but, so what? These are just boxes.
It was nice to see SY 1770 getting fresh paint with DFH3 2008 (what a fortunate number in this year of the Beijing Olympic Games!) parked alongside awaiting the cutting torch!
They’ve opened a new exhibition hall with some railway exhibits and one SY parked outside the building. I forgot to note the number. Newly introduced is a charge of 50 RMB for visiting their dumped and stored locomotives which are placed in a special shed in the depot. Of course, you need to pay the entrance fee for the depot as well (which includes the photo permit on their system). If you want to ride the model SY (762 mm) you need to pay another 50 RMB as well.
During our visit only one freight train was seen behind steam. All other freight trains were hauled by diesel.
The passenger schedule was reduced slightly. One pair of trains no longer reaches Wangqian any more. Now the train terminates in Xiaonan. The other trains are still running to Wangqian.
Locomotives seen in service:
Because I love to see diesels being scrapped while steam is still alive, here’s the list of noted DFH3 and their state:
None of their class were seen on the line.
Map of the Diaobingshan system:
Nanpiao was under steam! Two BJ diesels were working, and four SYs! Recently (actually since March 2008) the manager of the railway system prohibited the taking of pictures in the station area at Xiamiaozi (this is the station where the stabling point is). The police were friendly but strict, after a couple of minutes (when we had taken all the pictures we wanted) we had to leave the station. On all the other stations there were no problems. The railway staff were as friendly as always.
Locomotives in service:
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