Survey:
We found three new arrivals, at least two of them came from the Yunnan province: a KD, JF51738 and SN 23.
On Fridays the service ends at 4 pm.
The demanded 100 RMB per person and day is collected in a new way: the man who does this does not count the number of people in the loco shed, instead he drives a Santana to the level crossing in the middle of the railway and requests the money at this photo spot. He's hoping to get more money this way. The money disappears without any receipt probably in his private pocket. The workers and engineers are kind as ever, they do not see a single Yuan from the collected money.
In service we found JS 6243, 6807 and SY 1415. On May 29th, 2004 the morning train was delayed and reached Yangjiazhangzi (it was nice to experience that not only I had problems to speak this name fluently, our Chinese guide had problems too!) around 7.20 am. Due to the high demand of the factory the noon train runs in two parts over the gradient near Yetun. The first part of the train (maximum load) left Yangjiazhangzi already at 09.50 am. In Sierpu the loco left the train and returned tender first as light engine to Yangjiazhangzi to pick up the second part of the train. This part left at 12.20. The two parts of the train were coupled together in Sierpu and the long train reached Huludao at 13.30. By the way, somebody from the station staff in Yangjiazhangzi quoted the departure time of the train as 11.00 am. It was 9.45 am, five minutes before the train left. The scheduled departure is 11.00 am. So if you want to inquire into the departure time in Yangjiazhangzi, go to the control room or ask the loco crew.
The afternoon/evening trains were about one hour delayed.
Meanwhile the railway has three diesel locos which are found to be very busy. The line to Sanjiazi is totally dieselised by now. There is still a minor chance, that the passenger will be steam hauled on this line. Beside the diesels BJ 3241, BJ 3248 and another, unidentified one, we saw four SYs in service of which three numbers could be figured out: SY 0973, SY 1017 and SY 1092 (built in 6/1976, decorated smoke box).
According to earlier publications the passenger timetable is unchanged.
Rumors about the dieselisation of the passenger between Haoluku and Baiqi didn't appear as being true. We found steam in this schedule. Newly dieselised instead is the passenger on the section Baiqi - Benhong. A return to steam is very unlikely. So the parts Jining Nan - Benhong - Baiqi, Sanggendalai - Xilinhaote as well as Tongliao - Zhelinmu - Chabuga are now 100 % diesel.
About new diesels we got no new information. In Daban nobody can tell you a definitive date for the arrival of the first diesel loco. Everybody knows that this can happen every day, but nobody knows when. The management is still waiting for a decision which should come from Beijing.
However, the first diesel loco in Daban can't be very far away. Recently the JiTong management send a request to the government in Beijing to keep six QJs in serviceable condition for special trains over the next two years. Until now no reply from Beijing returned.
Among the about 10.000 employees of the JiTong line, the Baiqi depot (with the sub depots Benhong and Xilinhaote) employs 1.116 persons. The depot owns 26 steam locos and 12 diesel locos, 6 DF4Bs and 6 DF4Bs. It is planned to acquire more diesel locos year by year until the last steam loco can be abandoned in 2006. The year 2006 was new in the discussion. But, plans are made to change them ...
In Daban we were told that the expected diesel should replace steam first on the section Daban - Chabuga. What ever will turn out to be true, the end of steam is close, very close!
With the introduction of the new timetable in April the passenger train has been accelerated. Unfortunately it's often delayed, nearly every day we found the passenger late. Even the Daban - Tongliao passenger had trouble to keep time. This is not caused by the steam traction, no, we found that the QJs made up some minutes with delayed trains even in the new timetable. The problem is connecting trains at the terminuses and the number of trains on a railway which is working near or even over capacity. To be on time the railway would need more crossing points. We saw up to eleven freight trains during daylight from both directions or on one day 17 trains from one direction! Delayed passengers (and even the express railcar) by more than 60 minutes was the result.
The story about the two following pictures is available in German only:
| K502/503 | © www.farrail.com | K501/504 |
| 10.30 | Huhehaote | 08.18 |
| 11.44/46 | Zhuozishan | 07.08/10 |
| 12.44/52 | Jining Nan | 06.00/12 |
| 12.58/13.04 | Jining Bei | - |
| 13.34/41 | Benhong | 05.17/23 |
| 14.20/24 | Shangdu | 04.34/38 |
| 15.17/23 | Huade | 03.37/41 |
| 16.53/17.05 | Zhengxiangbaiqi | 01.55/02.07 |
| 18.25/27 | Sanggendalai | 00.32/35 |
| 19.37/43 | Haoluku | 23.16/22 |
| 20.45/48 | Jingpeng | 22.15/17 |
| 21.29/37 | Liudigou | - |
| 22.00/09 | Galadesitai | 21.11/13 |
| 22.38/50 | Linxi | 20.38/41 |
| 23.34/44 | Daban | 19.46/54 |
| 01.00/08 | Lindong | 18.27/30 |
| 02.00/10 | Chabuga | 17.29/35 |
| 03.42/52 | Kailu | 15.55/57 |
| 04.56/05.13 | Zhelinmu | 14.45/51 |
| 05.28 | Tongliao | 14.30 |
This is part of the current timetable which started April 18th, 2004. It's amaizing that the freight trains have fixed times too!
