As good as ever. An afternoon shift produced nine return trips until 17.00 hrs (new shift starts). No plans for stopping the service yet.
The line is still worth a visit. Thanks to Ronald Olsen, we went to Fuxingcheng. Three kilometres to the south and two kilometres to the north are unspoilt by poles and therefore still excellent for photography. Additionally, there are about two kilometres on the first gradient against empty trains, beyond Xüejiawanfangmie, without poles. All bridges are still without poles. If you can, go there as soon as possible. The poles for the bridges are still stored in the loco shed and will be installed when the temperatures allow. They are planning to introduce electric locos "before next winter". We couldn't find a person who could give us a more exact date.
The detailed maps of how to find to Fuxingcheng are on the internet already. For details please check http://www.qj-country.de/. To reach the first two kilometres beyond Xüejiawanfangmie (the station where the loco shed is) you should hire a minibus or a 4WD. The roads for the line construction alongside the line are still passable for such vehicles although a lack of maintenance makes it really difficult to traverse these unpaved roads after rainfall or snow.
The locos are in a bad external condition. Some of the locos seem to be in a bad mechanical condition as well. During a footplate ride, while passing through the first summit tunnel, boiler pressure of the two locos dropped below 9 atmospheres. However, it is still a very impressive experience to witness these locos working this extraordinary line.
The trip to the open cast mine was excellent, as always. There are no changes to report since my January 2003 visit. Passenger service remains unchanged too. On the public holidays we found 12 active SY and, on the following workday, 17. The dumped locos near the southern shed have disappeared. Also, the JF's were no longer present. We had no time to ask management representatives about the future of steam. No sign of dieselisation or electrification.
They had promised us to turn the locomotives so they would go chimney first up the gradients. However, the turntable has been out of use for at least the last six weeks (covered with layers of snow). Additionally, the practice of turning of the locos every month ceased during last year. Locos now run in "tender-first only" mode for "security reasons". We were told it would be too dangerous to operate locos chimney first up the gradient because they fear a lack of water in the firebox. Either I missed something or the construction of the SY-boiler is wrong ... (it isn't)
The map of this system was already published in my January 2003 report.
As Florian has said, this mine system is well worth a visit. Although on quiet days there are few coal trains (and some of them very short) you can at least take shots of the passenger trains. We found that there is a dump near the mine Sanjing which is also served by trains from the other mines. And, Wujing mine is still served by trains (previously unreported).
The landscape may be uninspiring for some visitors. However, we found several nice positions on the (minor) gradients between Zhonghe and Sanjing. Zhonghe serves as a halt for passenger trains too. There is no station building, trains stop at the level crossing. Just beyond this level crossing there is a Christian church.
The mines themselves are small and the track layouts very basic. But the innovative flair at the mines (including the electrified 600mm narrow gauge systems) are well worth experiencing (if only to see a miner surfing on the roof of a small electric loco whilst holding a makeshift pantograph to the live wire).
On Monday, January 17th, the management held a meeting about the future of steam. As we were in Daban loco shed on this date we got information first hand. Good news first. The decision has been made not to purchase any new diesels in 2004. The plan to dieselise the Chabuga – Zhelinmu (Tongliao) section on 20th January has proved unrealistic. Problems experienced with the limited number of hired DF4B from China Railway has necessitated a new conversion date of April 1st (this is not an April joke!). From April 1st, no steam locomotive should see use over this section anymore, including the passenger trains. The last steam duty will be the passenger train. When we visited the section, observed traffic was 70 percent steam, including both pairs of passengers, and 30 percent diesel.
The next candidate for complete dieselisation is the Baiqi – Benhong (Jining Nan) section. The loco shed Baiqi still hosts 28 QJ, six of which are used on the section to Benhong beside the diesels (DF4D). Additionally, two engines are used on the passenger trains over the section. At the meeting it was said that the JiTong Railway is going to purchase some second hand diesels to replace these eight engines in 2004. Baiqi depot will still remain a steam location after the "new" diesels have arrived for use on the Baiqi – Haoluku section. Surplus steam locos at Baiqi will be forwarded to Daban depot to replace some older QJs there. So there is still steam in use around Baiqi. All the diesels which were spotted and reported during recent months were sent to other railways beyond Jining Nan. We telephoned Baiqi's shedmaster and asked him when he expected the last steam locos to be replaced by diesels. He is answer was "before 2010"! Yes, if you follow past experience you may understand why he cannot give a more exact statement.
The use of diesels on the section Chabuga - Daban - Haoluku - Baiqi was also discussed at the meeting. It was said that the use of steam will definitely continue for at least one more year. After that, step by step dieselisation will start. They plan to use diesel engines alongside steam from Spring 2005. The end of steam is not expected before end of 2005/beginning of 2006. The last steam section will probably be Daban – Haoluku.
Although this is really good news for the steam enthusiast you should consider that these decisions can be changed without any prior notice. If Beijing or Huhehaote (Hohhot) ban steam for prestigious reasons, everything could change within just a few weeks.
Henceforth, heavy overhauls will be undertaken at the China Railway owned workshop in Jilin.
Traffic levels varied widely during our visit, from ten uphill trains from west to east within the daylight hours (yes, no mistake TEN trains!) to three from east to west only (plus five in the opposite direction). On the day with ten trains, there were three eastbound trains which arrived at Jingpeng behind a single engine. The preceding eastbound train (powered by two engines) dropped the train engine in Shangdian and send it back to Jingpeng. There it was attached to the single-headed eastbound train so that it could run double-headed over the pass. This pair ran right through to Daban; the first train arriving at Daban behind a single engine, of course. On this day the line worked near its capacity.
In the loco depot of Daban nearly half of the employees turn to vendors of railway property when spotting foreign railway enthusiasts. Some of them get really aggressive now and try to prevent you from taking pictures until you have made a purchase: stolen plates from freight wagons, railway uniform items, or faked loco builders' plates. This is an unpleasant development which has resulted from the behaviour of many visitors. It would be nice if you could resist all the offers of stolen and fake pieces. If you like to purchase memorabilia, this can be done officially (and no more expensive). In the (brand new) office building you can ask for the secretary of the communist party who will sell you such stuff legally.
The entrance fee is 200 Yuan. This money will be used for a social fund (with the help of this money they plant trees for example). According to the prices in China I find this entrance fee too high (I took a single shot for these 200 Yuan), however once you're there you should spend this money. There is no second place in the world where you can see so many (impressive) steam locos under steam. We found some 20 engines in steam plus several cold and dumped QJs.
Dear reader, if you have never been to the Jingpeng pass before, go there before it's too late. All the first time visitors on my tour found it a really great show, better than great cinema and the ultimate kick for the dedicated steam gricer. Yes, there can be quite a lot of other enthusiasts around. However, if two or three of the positions are spoilt by other steam buffs or their vehicles you can always enjoy the other 100 alternative positions without such unpleasant things.
Yes, we also made the standard shots ...