To fully understand this trip report you should read the reports of the two recent FarRail trips to the JiTong line or be familiar with the situation. Things are changing quickly, but there is still steam in service and there are possibilities it may last a little longer than expected.
In mid-August about 95 % of all trains where still steam hauled, the rest were pulled by DF4B diesels. Only one train had a mixture of steam and diesel; the others where either steam or diesel. The traffic was dense with a maximum of 20 trains during daylight hours. Single headed trains we saw had a load of up to 2,300 tons, while double headed trains carried more than 3,500 tons.
Beside the student's train L114/115, we photographed another tourist train, numbered L144. This train was steam hauled (QJ 7010) between Chabuga (departure 9.59 hrs) and Daban. The scheduled locomotive for L114/115 was QJ 7030. The departure time of L114 from Chabuga is not 9.09 hrs as reported before, it is 9.21 hrs (other official sources said 9.23 hrs). Arrival time in Daban is 11.58. This train had 13 green state railway passenger coaches.
The daylight passenger timetable on the steam section:
| Station | Arrival | Departure |
| Daban | 04.16 | 04.34 |
| Gulumanhan | 05.15 | 05.16 |
| Lindong | 06.17 | 06.25 |
| Chabuga | 07.38 | 07.50 |
Although the end of steam is near, the overall shape of the steam locomotives hasn't change. Remarkable was the arrival of two QJs (7038 and 7081) freshly overhauled on August 12th. Together with QJ 7119, which was overhauled in June 2005, these three locomotives are probably the last overhauled steam engines of the JiTong line. QJ 7038 was put into service August 13th while QJ 7081 will take over the pair of passenger trains from August 17th. Sad, but the plan says that from mid- September the passenger train will be diesel-hauled even on the steam section Daban - Chabuga.
The highly decorated passenger train locomotive QJ 6911 will be put out of service on August 16th, 2005. They have planned a small farewell ceremony for this locomotive in the Depot of Daban. On August 15th, the loco hauled the passenger train without any problem, although it was one hour late due to a diesel-caused late arrival in Daban. On August 14th, QJ 6911 caught up half an hour delay which was produced on the diesel section of the line. According to the technical and almost immaculate optical shape of the locomotive there is no visible reason to replace it by another QJ or diesel. The only reason seems to be the Chinese believe in technical progress. QJ 6911 would be a good engine for the railway to retain for future use in heritage-style services.
We found these QJs in service:
During our stay we couldn't see any locomotives being scrapped. In the shed we found only some of the elder diesel locomotives that seem to need much care (while the new diesel locos seem to be hassle-free).
In October eight new diesel locomotives will arrive (DF4B class locos are planned). However, these eight locomotives cannot replace all the steam locomotives. So they have to get some additional diesels to replace all steam locos before the end of October, if the current plan is to be accomplished. No one could tell us where the additional diesels would come from. At the moment it seems likely that the situation suggested by most of the employees of Daban will come about: they will use about a dozen of steam locos in November and December as well.
Unless reported recently on the internet, there are still steam locos in Baiqi. Many of them are still serviceable. All together there are 23 stored QJs in differing conditions.
There are rumours that some of the serviceable locomotives will put into service again at the end of this year. This fits to another rumour: Daban would get some diesels from Baiqi at the end of October to replace all steam with diesel on the section Daban – Chabuga. Let's wait and see what will happen. Many times before their plans have changed.
As I reported before they have started to lengthen the tracks in several stations to be able to operate longer and heavier trains. They have also added an additional track in some stations. In Shangdian, for instance, they will introduce the new station layout at the end of 2005.
Big changes are expected in the near future. The JiTong is one of the most successful non-state railways (unless the losses the line incurred since diesel locomotives arrived were very great) and it will be sold to the state railway soon. Some may doubt that the dieselisation during the last months was without economical reasons (ecological considerations seem almost unknown in China), but in part it could be that the government of Inner Mongolia wanted to get a good price for their line. However, the pending project for the construction of the line Daban – Chifeng is now a state railway project. As construction work hasn't started jet, and the planned inauguration in 2008 may be postponed.
The line Lanqi – Sanggendalai is an independent project, not a JiTong line. The line is not planned as a branch Sanggendalai – Lanqi; it is built to complete the line Xilinhaote – Sanggendalai – Lanqi. This line connects a new power plant with a coal mine. It is planned not to be operated by the JiTong company. At the moment JiTong operates the section Sanggendalai – Xilinhaote. This will be changed after the line to Lanqi is ready, or at latest when the JiTong company is sold to the state railway. The first operation over the new line to Lanqi is planned for October 2005. Anyhow, everyone we asked thought that the line won't be finished before January 2006.
The information about the line is puzzling and sometimes contradictory. Some information indicates that there will be steam service on the new line. Maybe the construction of the steam depot in Sanggendalai was prompted by other reasons. With the JiTong line, the government of Inner Mongolia wanted also to develop the area and bring people jobs. This part of the railway's goals where perfectly fulfilled during the use of steam over more than ten years. But now, as the contracts of the fireman and lower educated steam service staff expire (these workers never got an unlimited works contract, they always got time contracts for a limited period), many workers will lose their jobs and their future careers. So to open the new line with steam would save the jobs of several hundred lower educated JiTong railway workers for some time. In this context it is interesting to note that the provincial government extended the works contracts for the steam service staff in Linxi, Jingpeng and other places until 2006, although there was not a single steam train over the Jingpeng pass after March 27th, 2005. The next (and probably last) steam service over the Jingpeng pass will happen on October 8th to 10th, 2005. For a sum with six digits (in US-Dollars) at least one double headed freight train will cover the section Daban - Haoluku. Besides this train, a not authentic special train will run over this section.
However, there are also some reasons, why the use of steam on the new line seems to be doubtful. First, the city council of Xilinhaote does not wish to operate a railway into their city with old steam locomotives (built in 1986 - some of the JiTong diesels are built in 1982!). The omnipresent donkey carts are allowed, of course ... The second point is that banks may give a credit to buy new diesel locomotives after they have already helped to finance the power plant and the new railway line. Anyhow, this story stays interesting and the hope for more steam dies last.
In Malin, about 20 km from Chifeng, you'll find the station Malin on the Chifeng - Jinzhou railway line. From Malin a 3-km-long branch line runs to a coal mine in Hongwei. This line is exclusively SY-powered. At the beginning of August we found SY 1565 in service while the spare engine was stored in the shed of Hongwei. Both engines faced tender first for loaded trains to Malin. Unfortunately, the line is spoiled by trees and offers only minor photographic potential.
During a brief visit to this mine system we found in service:
SY
No changes to previous reports.
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