New diesels arrived, the remaining SYs are more or less only stand by.
Due to lack of coal from the Hongguang mines the service on this line was stopped late August 2007, but reopened a few days before we arrived. On the first look everything seems to be unchanged. But hold on – there are hints and signs that the management see a solid future of the line. They not only repair the track as usual, they even re-activated the loop in the station between Huanan and Xiahua, Dajiugang. The station is staffed and was used for crossings. Not all of the good news: the post in Lazifang is staffed again as well! Gives you shelter when it rains and information when a train left Xiahua or Lixin. In addition they erected milestones along the line, counting the old way; Huanan and Xiahua as Kilometre zero. The Lazifang horseshoe starts at km 10, the summit km 13 and Lixin km 16. Nice to know when you walk along the track.
However, this all doesn’t mean the future of Huanan is save for the next couple of years. It means only that they invested some money. They can invest the next money on second hand diesels for example or, even worse for the line, to build a concrete road to Hongguang. The careful visitor may have realised that in recent years all unpaved ways got a concrete surface one after each other, Xiahuan, Tuoyaozi, Sandaogou ... Hongguang will be on the list, earlier or later, be assured.
The line itself can be considered as the JiTong line of Heilongjiang. You have similar weather conditions, flat and hilly sections, a summit – the little pass – and last but not least steam hauled and banked trains. The last steam banked narrow gauge trains in the world! So don’t wonder if you find another Sunflower Quickie in the tour calendar in 2008!
In use we have seen:
East of Mudanjiang we found two C2s stored in a company’s area: C2 30 from Weihe forestry line and C2 number 1 from Dahuichang (limestone railway near Beijing). In addition one passenger coach from the Weihe system (YZ 66010) was stored there as well. The company had no rail connection. It’s a recently established company. We couldn’t find out a reason for storing two C2s there.
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Yep, they made it: Hengshan got a batch of four diesel locomotives. So the system now employs two SYs and four diesels. There is still a chance for double headed steam trains, but you need to be lucky now. No-one we asked could give prospects how about long the last two steamers will survive.
All the other systems seems to be untouched. Some of the Hengshan locos went to other systems, for example Lishu has not three SYs: their own 0477 and 1118 plus 0951 from Hengshan.
The optical shape of the locomotives has declined. Once clean engines are filthy now, SY 0590 even was in service with a broken chimney! It’s obvious that the crews feel the approaching end of steam traction and therefore they don’t care them like they did before.
Hence the old advice: go there, go there soon and stay there as long as you can afford. It’s still VERY rewarding to go to Jixi.
Locomotives noted:
Hengshan:
Chengzihe
Things which seems to be for sure aren’t! They always said they have no money to purchase diesels, even second hand. They always stated that the workshop for steam is so close to Huludao that even thinking about changing to diesel is not on the topics. BUT: the cement factories are booming as the economy is booming. So they set up a new loading facility, at least tripling the loading capacity of the old one. The new installation is almost finished. A brand new track has been built, the point’s for two more tracks are close to be finished. The transport capacity needs to be raised to bring all the limestone to the cement plants in Huludao and maybe, to the harbour. They could use their locos and just run more trains or they could buy some cheap second hand QJs to increase the motive power. But – didn’t you expect this – they will buy a diesel locomotive to cover the additional volume of traffic. So far they say the steam locos will handle most of it and the diesel is just supporting, but as soon as they got their first diesel steam will be banned to be stand by. A diesel will haul at least 50 % more load (12 driven axles versus 8 driven axles plus a higher axle load will allow this). There will be no fight at the summit any more, no coal shovelling, no ashpan cleaning, no cinders to be removed and no smoke box to be cleaned. Doesn’t this all sound very tempting? It does! So be prepared, from January 2008 onwards the JS paradise is in real danger!
Train timings are unchanged. Morning shift usually leaves Huludao around 6 to 7 am, returning at 11am, the noon shift starts from Huludao around 1 to 2 pm, returning at 4pm and the evening shift starts from Huludao round 6 to 7 pm. There is a night shift as well if you want to follow the foot prints of O. Winston Link.
The Yanzhou coal mine line (JiBei railway) finished steam service in July 2007 as they got an additional diesel locomotive. All QJs are still well kept and stored.
The Coke plant is situated next to the Yanzhou Xi station (only a few km south-west from the passenger station Yanzhou) still uses QJs. The numbers seen are QJ 7188 and 7191. It was said that there might be a third QJ, number 6936, but this couldn’t be confirmed.
Usually one loco is under steam and shunts inside the coke plant. It comes out for delivering to and picking up wagons from the state railway. The connection to the freight station Yanzhou Xi is only some 100 metres long, hence the photographic potential outside the factory is very limited. They have between one and three trains to Yanzhou Xi a day. There are no fixed times for these operations. The control office don’t tell strangers when the loco will leave the factory, so it’s a gamble. September 8th the loco left the factory at 5.30 in the morning ...
Shisui is located some 28 km east of Qufu. The Daewoo cement plant still uses one very well kept QJ (QJ 7129) for shunts inside the Cement works. The transfers from and to China Railways are operated by diesel already. The loco is facing to the west, just in case you like light on the smoke box an afternoon visit is to be advised.
This little alloy steelworks is situated next to the city centre, just a walk of less than five minutes from our hotel. They recently dropped the railway activity to a very low level, one track to the factory is out of use now, the other rarely used. The lonely QJ there (7072, high wind deflectors) was said to be used once or twice a week only, but the rusty wheels told us that is has not been used for at least three weeks. On the other hand: there was staff around, the loco is in a good optical shape with cleaned wheels and there was water in the boiler.
Although you can reach the place where the QJ is parked from a public area some railway workers of the factory – at the moment somewhat unemployed – have been concerned to see foreign visitors. However, after a three minutes talk to the man in charge, everything was ok and we could take our pictures home.
A shadow of its former self was it already in May 2007. But it can be always worse: In July they dropped the fire in another QJ, so only three QJs remained under steam. Recently, in August, another QJ was put out of service, so only two QJ remained in service. One is standby under steam, the other still hauls trains. What for trains: we saw long coal trains with more than 3,000 tons weight behind a hard working QJ.
It all don’t make really sense to the visitor: They overhauled QJ 3538 just to se is for four to five months, they have several QJs in perfect condition and with valid certificates, they have no use for the majority of the QJ and despite all this they just send QJ 6811 on the day before we went there to the Laiwu workshop for overhaul! This might be the last of her kind to get an overhaul, but probably not the last of her class to be withdrawn from any service just after being back from the overhaul. There is another loco still in Laiwu: QJ 7190. This one will be expected to be back in service soon.
During our stay QJ 7189, recently back from Laiwu after overhaul was in use while high-deflectored QJ 7126 was spare under steam.
They use the QJ according to the here in May 2007 described pattern (see trip report) The future of steam is a big question mark. Some said they’ll use it at least another year, others expect the end of steam until Chinese New Year 2008.
Jinan steelworks is situated close to the China Railway station Licheng. They had a narrow gauge system for their internal transport. The system was steam powered by the class C2. Unfortunately all attempts to get a permission failed. The management didn’t allow any visitors. Only some railway enthusiasts did it unauthorised – and encouraged the authorities with their behaviour to stick to their no. Unfortunately the C2s have been dumped recently and only several locomotives of the well known class SY remained in service. So no need for further negotiations with the authorities ...
The well known Pingdingshan mine railway plans to replace all QJ by November 2007. The system should be completely dieselised in 2009. All trains to mine 4 are diesel already. Japanese railway enthusiasts chartered a steam hauled train to mine four and have been charged 200 RMB per person – minimum ten people.
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