The new age of steam: mouse-operated steam trains on flat screens (Jixi):
The new age of steam: mouse-operated steam trains on flat screens (Jixi):
Anoter trip to Zoucheng, Huanan, Huludao and Jixi, i.e. with QJ, JS, SY and C2 you'll find here.
In April 2007 not much went on there, at least compared to winter visits. Less than 20 locomotives were active as coal production was on a lower level than in winter. There were many trains with overburden and lots of track maintenance trains. After the (short) summer, most of the locos will be back in service. From September the coaling season starts again, and they expect to have some 30 locomotives in use by October.
No sign of the expected diesels on April 30th. But the first five will come soon, followed by another batch at the end of the year, which should extinguish the fire in the last SY. No changes to the passenger timetable or the freight operations.
Over the summer they introduced a steam hauled passenger train to Shanzhuang. The train consists of four ordinary YZ coaches. The countryside on this line is more interesting than on all the other lines, so if you’re there, don’t miss these trains. The timetable is as follows:
The station names:
Huanan was back in service after a very long break on April 9th, 2007. There are almost no changes to the last reports (see my report from December 2006). Rumours about getting diesels are only rumours - so far. No one could give a reliable answer. The local railway didn’t expect to get any diesels. Locomotive and track maintenance continues as usual. The forecast was good for the mines as well as for the line.
Hongguang has now a mobile phone tower. How long will it take before the road gets paved? This is the key point for the line’s survival. Once the road is paved they’ll almost certainly start to bring the coal from the small mines around Hongguang to Huanan by lorries. I guess that the railway workers will be the last to get the information about when their line to be shut down. Expect the worst and hope for the best and enjoy it while you can!
They said that they will not terminate the coal traffic during the golden week in October (public holidays in China).
During spring and summer the trains are fewer and shorter than in the heating season. We haven’t seen any double-header this time (Hengshan). There is nothing new to report compared to my detailed recent report from March 2007.
Welcome to steam! The dust is caused by a three wheeler on the road, not from steam!
The mine system of Fuxin still offers some good steam operation activity. The current passenger timetable offers two through chimney-first trains during daylight plus a short train consisting of two coaches only in the early morning. In mid-winter you have only one train during daylight (no. 114). All trains with even numbers are running chimney first, odd numbers are tender-first operations. Chimney-first operations are roughly southbound.
We have seen only one locomotive that faced tender first to the south. This was based in the depot called Haizhou lutian meikuang zongzhidaidui (Haizhou open mine public security group) Meitai fendui (Meitai branch). Their stabling point, commonly know as Taiping stabling point, is just beside the power plant and was reported to be deserted some years ago. We found four locos under steam there plus the reported dumped YJ and SY. Next to this stabling point you’ll find the electric depot, which is locked all around, and only hosts electric locos and railway materials which are awaiting their fate.
Haizhou lutian meikuang zongzhidaidui (Haizhou open mine public security group) Meitai fendui (Meitai branch) plate:
We have seen several depots that are out of use along the mining system. Sometimes some older coaches or cranes have been stored their for a long time (Xibu). It must have been an exciting steam location, but pollution might have been immense when the two open cast mines were active.
Traffic from the Xinqiu station of the mine system to the Xinqiu China Railway interchange yard is minor. Maybe one train a day or even less. There is a nice gradient on a sharp curve for trains leaving Xinqiu towards Fuxin. Even the passenger trains worked hard on this short section and on the rest of the line from Minzhu to Fuxin they did not overtake a single bicycle. Bad guys would say passenger trains were being overtaken by snails. The reason for this very low speed (obviously less than 10 miles an hour) is not clear. The brakes seems to be ok, at least on the passenger coaches. Many of the freight cars for internal use do not have working brakes. The parallel road between Ajin and Xibu is in very bad shape and busses are unable to overtake trains in this section. Ajin is the place where a big road bridge spans over the mine railway and the state railway.
In several reports people have been expressed regrets about the demolished Hutong areas. There are still some in place, even along the railway. But if you would be honest, you won’t change your live just to be able to live under such circumstances! The replacement of Hutongs by the new faceless concrete apartment blocks is a big improvement in the life of the people. All over Liaoning province we have seen large Hutong areas under demolition. In Beipiao someone was able to make pictures which really looked like shots you have seen from Hiroshima and Nagasaki after they had been destroyed by atomic bombs. Personally I would not like to live in one of these new apartment blocks either, but having the choice to live in a Hutong or in a concrete apartment cube, I’d take the later option for sure.
There is some photographic potential on the line. For visiting the stabling points you need to go there when the shifts are changing. The morning shift change is between 7 and 8 am, but we didn’t check the evening shift change. In Wulong there are two stabling points, one for the engines for the next trains to be moved and another one where engines are parked for minor repairs and occasional use. Here you’ll also find one of the JFs in a very photogenic position near the sand tower. If it didn’t look like scrap it would really make a nice picture.
For chimney-first trains the departure from Xinqiu can be recommended as well as the small halt (also called Xinqiu) just beyond the gradient. There you’ll find a dump from where you have an overlook over the old style village. Unfortunately the engineers of the passenger trains will just open the regulator for a few seconds and then roll all the way to the next stop at about ten miles an hour.
The names of the passenger station from south to north are:
I don’t know why there has never been a published timetable. All reports stated there is no timetable shown. Although most of the passenger stations don’t show a timetable, the railways obviously needed one. So I just went there, asked for it and took a shot of it. It’s that easy. You just need to know the word for timetable, “Shikebiao.” I even don’t know whether the Pinyin transliteration here is right, just say this word and you’ll get results.
After some reports about a new steam location in Beipiao, we visited this place in May 2007. The information gathered by phone was discouraging, after a request in 2004 which said operations were all diesel, and we could not find anyone who was able to locate steam in Beipiao. Japanese rail enthusiasts reported about six SY and one JF in use here, but no numbers and no details have been given (at least not in a language I could read). David Fielding went here in Spring 2007 and gave some very helpful hints. Fortunately, we were able to find many additional details of the operation and the network.
The line is some 30 km long and serves three working coal mines. Obviously the heyday of the coal production passed by some years ago. Coal mines have been closed or have reduced their production dramatically. The power plant in Beipiao is not served by rail any more. The mines are (from north-east to south-west):
These names indicate that there are at least two more mines: Taiji Xiao Kuang and Erjing. The Yijing mine is (almost?) closed, Sijing has little production and Sanjing is abandoned. The main production comes from Guanshan, where a mine and the washery is situated directly at the end of the China Railway Beipiao station. Much of the coal is handed over to China Railways. We also saw a coal train from Guanshan moving towards Yijing. Questions about where this coal is going to couldn’t be answered by the people we asked, or got lost in translation.
Sijing is not connected to the standard gauge network, instead there is a two-km long electric narrow gauge line from Sijing that runs downhill to two bridges and then turning in a 90-degree curve into an unloading station in Sanjing. They have at least two electric mine locos in service, the yellow one was numbered no. 3, while the green one’s number couldn’t be sorted out. The electric narrow gauge line has some nice photographic potential. However, the management of the narrow gauge line don’t appreciate photographers.
There are two operational centres: Guanshan (Beipiao) and Yijing, where the stabling point and the works are situated. All locomotives face south-west. Most of the time you can find one locomotive in Guanshan, shunting wagons or just sitting next to the mine while its crew waits for instructions. There are many light engine movements and short trains, sometimes they even push trains. However, sometimes you’ll find good looking trains, but this needs patience. It’s almost impossible to find out their schedule more than two hours in advance. Mines call the central control office in Yijing when they have a demand for empty wagons or wagons are loaded and then the control office will give orders to the crews to handle these trains. When you ask the control office, they tell you to ask the mines; when you go to the mines they’ll tell you they will know it when the train is loaded. This can take minutes or hours ... However, there are some hints how the traffic can be. On average there is one train a day from Guanshan to Sanjing, often with three interesting looking self-discharging wagons.
From Guanshan to Taiji there are two to five trains in 24 hours, while the line from Guanshan to Sanbao sees about three trains a day, usually two during daylight and one in the night. Between Beipiao/Guanshan and Yijing are the most movements, on average five pairs of trains per day.
The 10-km-long line from Sanbao to Guanshan starts out almost flat and has a gradient towards Guanshan before Zhongxing Zhuanchang, the cement works just beside the railway. Beyond the station the track falls steeply down towards Guangshan. The steepest gradient we saw was 1.62 % between Guanshan and Zhongxing Zhuanchang, so tender first empty trains have to work hard towards Zhongxin Zhuanchang. From Guanshan to Yijing the line continues to fall; tender first operations are interesting, although we didn’t see a heavy train in this direction, only short trains which made the gradients without problems. From Yijing to Taiji there is a minor gradient against chimney-first trains towards Taiji, but this part is not really photogenic. Between Taiji and Sanjing (km 20) trains have to climb up in both directions; the summit is close to Sanjing.
The depot is situated in Yijing. There are many dumped wagons, which remind me of the wagons on the Xingyang narrow gauge line. These wagons, most of them with traditional bearings and some with spoked wheels, were delivered by the USA-based company Western Wheeled Scraper Co., Aurora, Illinois.
We saw the following locomotives:
Locos carry either of these inscriptions on their tenders:
Bei mei yun duan (Beipiao coal transfer section) or
Bei ju yun duan (Beipiao bureau transfer section).
In the shed we got different information about the JF. Some told us the loco was used for last time five years ago, while others stated the loco was serviceable and just needs some repairs. We found the loco in more or less good shape, but minus its air pump, which was in the wagon works behind a wagon under heavy overhaul. The future of steam is uncertain. The decision when to buy the first diesel loco has not been made by the railway; instead, it will come either from the local government or from the provincial government. At the moment they continue to overhaul their steam locomotives. As far as we have seen they need three locomotives only. They have five serviceable locomotives and soon a sixth one. In my opinion it makes no sense to repair the JF.
To rank the system, I’d say it’s not on my list of favourite places to go to. I would rate it below Tiefa or Meihekou, considering all passengers in Meihekou are diesel hauled otherwise Meihekou is playing in another league). There are some reasonable good shots possible but the unpredictable train operation and the objections some local people have (police as well as railway workers feared that we just came to show to the rest of the world how under-developed China is) doesn’t bring Beipiao onto the list of to-dos. At least as long as the JF is not in service - if they would use their JF, things would change, of course.
Back to well known fields, I went to the control office as I’ve always done to get the information we needed. I didn’t find it; there was just an office with many computer screens on the wall. I thought that I hadn’t remembered correctly where the office was and went a floor down. No, nothing. I asked our guide to help. She asked, and we were directed to the office where I went first. Flat screen monitors, monitors all over the wall! That’s it now, the new age of operation on a 60 % steam-operated railway! The information I could get there was amazing! You could see every locomotive on a map, including its speed. It is a GPS-based system they told me, and they can follow every movement on the whole system with one screen. They have installed cameras at stations and level crossing, and if you want to see the departure of that train for example – he clicked on his computer on one of the many small screens – here it is. A minute later an SY set off with a fright train from Qiupigou.
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| Steam on the line! SY 1092 with 16,7 km/h on a gradient. | Steam is working (SY 1092 shunting, yellow arrow) diesel is dead in the station |
Great playground, but isn’t it a bit strange to follow steam trains on TFT screens with mobile phone and GPS? China sends people into orbit and uses steam power to bring the coal to the power plants that deliver the electricity to run the mobile phone networks, computer industry and even their space program. The combination is unique.
Otherwise the operation is unchanged. The station names given in other reports do not fit, in one place, with the documents the railway is using. Linghai is called Linghe (and also written with the he at the end). Some small stations, just passenger stops, are not mentioned. So I want to give the complete station list according to the documents of the railway:
| Nanpiao line to the north | Nanpiao line to the south | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
remarks: Daxigou = Jianshishan Qiaotou = 628 (Jiuerba) |
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No news is good news. Steam continues. They have planned another overhaul for one of their locomotives for 2008. This says everything for the future. At the moment the only risk is the city council of Huludao, which is not amused about the pollution the cement factories are producing day by day. Maybe they’ll start with the weakest part of the chain, the steam locomotives. It won’t help, as many other cities in the world can proof, but they can say, hey, we did something about the problem. One smoker less in the city.
The mine railway system is dominated by ten DF4DD. Only four QJ are under steam, three of them in daily use, and one as spare under steam. The operation pattern changes from day to day. Fixed points are the shift changes in the morning and evening. Crews are working 12 hours per shift. The morning shift changes at 8 am. Locos will be checked and serviced between 7.30 and 8am, and around 8.30 am they go one after each other to the station, where they’re stabled until a call from the central control office will give them a job. Loco crews don’t know when and where they’ll go to until they get their final call from the control office. Usually the QJs are used on the shorter trains on the shorter lines, but you can still expect at least one of the long coal or bunker trains per day, hauled by one of the QJs. The departure from the main yard is not spectacular, even with long rakes of wagons (more than 50 wagons). The longest steam hauled train we have seen had 71 wagons. Between 9 and 11 am the three QJs usually leave with their trains.
In the evening the shift changes at 6 pm, with steam-hauled trains leaving between 7 and 10 pm.
Although lines are not really long, the locos remain in the loading points, power stations and stations almost the full shift before they return to the stabling point. Shorter trips will make possible two trips per loco, while the longer lines employ the loco the full length of the shift.
Locos are facing both directions. Tender first/chimney first operations are hence somewhat unpredictable. The lines are flat with a few exceptions and offer some limited photographic potential. Photo spots worth mentioning include the signal gantry between Nantun and Dadongzhang with a bird’s nest in it. Trains coming from Baodian pass over a bridge, which is best from sunrise to early afternoon, and have to master a gradient up to Dodongzhang. As there are usually long, loaded coal trains to bring in, the locos need to work quite hard. We saw a train with 50 loaded wagons on this line, handled by a QJ. Worthy of mention is also the large bridge over China Railway between Xiagongchang an Dadongzhuang on the Yuejinzhan line. If you have no other options, the departure from Xinglongzhuang is worth considering as a photo spot as well. There is a slight curve and a level crossing.
The lines to Jierzhan and Jisanzhan are 100 % diesel now. All the other lines can still see some steam.
The workshop for carrying out overhauls is in Laiwu. The locomotives hence carry their characters on the tenders: Jinan tielu laiwu jiche daxiuchang (Jinan railway Laiwu Locomotive Overhaul Factory). During our visit two locomotives were there: QJ 7189 and 7190.
We didn’t see all of them. Under steam/in service we found:
In the depot in Zouxian we found:
We haven't seen these locomotives (used at least until September 2003)
We saw most of these diesels, all in use:
There is a map available on the internet from Mr. Tsujimoto. This is the best source you can find. Even the city map of this area doesn’t show all the industrial spurs. However, there are some minor mistakes in the names of the system. I took a shot of the screen in the central control office with my mobile phone. I give the stations shown with there numbers and give a translation further down.
As you can see, it’s easy to locate the trains on this desk. Anyhow, don’t bother them too much, just let your guide contact them and ask for the steam trains for the day. They know around 8.30 – 9 am. Usually there are no changes after they make a plan. Delays are a problem, as the locomotives have to wait until their train is finished. The control office has no influence on the mine’s work, so don’t ask them when you want to know something about times of departure from the mines or power plants, they just don’t know it.
This line has been reported already. The main change is that they’re using two diesel locomotives now: DF4DD 0056 and 0066. These two are doing most of the work while only one or two steam locomotives remain in service.
The depot is in Dongzhuang. Dongzhuang is north of the main road from Yanzhou to Jining, some 16 km southwest of the station of Yanzhou. The name of the place close to Dongzhuang is Huangtun (not Huangcun). If you need to ask, then first go to Huangtun. Otherwise the people can’t show you the right direction. From Dongzhuang there is a four-km-long line to the interchange yard with China Railway in Yanzhou Xi. Because Yanzhou Xi is not a stop for passenger trains, no one can show you this location as well. It’s located close to the Shandong Yangkuang International Coke Co. This factory is signposted from the road. If you follow this sign you’ll pass under a railway bridge – and above is the station.
The line follows almost always parallel to the state railway – giving the impression of a three-track line. There is dense traffic on the state railway, so you might get frustrated while waiting to take a shot of the steam train when you suddenly get a DF4 train in the foreground. Morning light is best for this section. Locomotives are facing north-east.
This four-km-long section was steam operated during our visit. Trains can be very long, more than 50 wagons. Unfortunately there are not many trains on this section. We have been told that there is an almost regular train to Yanzhou Xi in the late afternoon.
The western part of the line we found dieselised, but we made only a brief visit. It was not possible to enter the depot without prior appointment. As this line wasn’t on our itinerary we didn’t arrange an appointment. However, the depot is not a place for taking good shots. You’ll find three QJs dumped in a row and some minor modern sheds where the diesel get repairs. The steam locos are parked outside. Dumped we found:
In use was QJ 7130. This loco is probably the most immaculate steam locomotive in all China with brass boiler bands. It’s a pity that there is not a better operation any more.
All locomotives have high deflectors. We haven’t seen QJ 7134, which was said to belong to this line as well.
We went to the mine in Xuchang as well. This mine looks very modern – and you need to pass the security post if you want to reach the station. On the way you’ll find what is probably a three-foot narrow gauge line, electric operation with the usual boring electric mine locos. The station itself is boring as well, almost everything here looks modern. They said they haven’t seen a steam loco for three months now, only the new blue diesels are serving this mine.
This company is, or was, using two QJs for shunting and bringing trains to the interchange station in Yanzhou Xi. The track looked tarnished and not shiny on top when we visited the coke plant (also a very modern looking one). We didn’t make any attempts to get access to the QJs there. It was said that in recent months there was a regular meeting in Yanzhou Xi station with the coke plant QJ and the QJ from the JiBei line.
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