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- Zhun Dong Railway (QJ + QJ)
- Wuhai Xi - Jilantai (QJ, JS)
- Da Gu Railway (QJ)
This line was part of the FarRail Tour in April 2003.
The city of Zhungeer is situated about 120 km south of Hohhot, the capital of the Province Inner Mongolia.
With money provided by the Kuwait Fund the Zhungdong railway was built between 1998 and 2000. The line was opened for public freight service on December 16th, 2000. It's an extension of the Datong - Zhungeer line. The railway runs over 72 km from Zhungeer to Xiyingzi. The kilometre 0 is in Zhoujiawan, three kilometres from the interchange terminal with the West Railway Co. in Xuejiawanfangmie. The depot for diesel and electrical locomotives of the West Railway Co. is in Zhoujiawan while the depot for the Zhundong steam locomotives is in Xuejiawanfangmie, together with the administration buildings. The distance between Xuejiawanfangmie and Zhoujiawan is about three km. Xuejiawanfangmie is located at the eastern end of Zhungeer.
Empty coal trains, arriving with electric locos of the West Rly. Co. in Xuejiawanfangmie, will be separated into two or three separate trains. Normally two QJs take each of these trains to Xiyingzi. If sufficient locomotives are available, about every 30 minutes a train of empties will depart for Xiyingzi. The complete trip Xuejiawanfangmie - Xiyingzi and back takes about 4 to 5 hours. Trains will come back one after each other, with a headway of 20 to 45 minutes.
Most of the QJ's are well known from the Depot Dongsheng: QJ 6563, 6565, 6573, 6613, 6759, 6907, 6946, 7054, 7067 in service with QJ 6555, 6827, 6944, 6995 dumped.
The line passes a loess mountain area with difficult terrain. On its way it has to pass two summit tunnels and 29 bridges (with at least three large ones). According to the control office in Zhungeer (Xuejiawanfangmie) there are five to 15 pairs of trains every day depending on the number of empty coal trains received from the West Railway Co. If you're unlucky, all trains will run during the night, if you're lucky, you may have not sufficient time to change the photo position between two following trains. The two days in November produced only a single train and two light engine moves in the daylight.
To reach the best positions you need to walk a lot. About two kilometres behind Xuejiawanfangmie the line turns south east and passes a large concrete bridge. Behind the bridge the line passes several deep cuttings and reaches the first summit tunnel about 6 kilometres later. Behind the tunnel the line passes several bridges and cuttings to reach the next river valley. The river is passed by another large bridge, then the line turns south and reaches the railway station of Haizita. Right after Haizita the line turns north east, before another large bridge over a river follows. Behind the bridge, the line heads south east again and the next steep climb to the second summit tunnel begins. The main road to Dongsheng crosses the railway over the second summit tunnel. We didn't explore the area further.
With the right car you may be able to use the unpaved roads which where built for the construction of the line. These roads often lead to bridges and cuttings, you may say to every place which demanded an extensive civil engineer work. We hired a mini bus which was able to pass the very rough construction roads along the line. With a usual Volkswagen Santana it's impossible to go these ways.
The Zhun Dong Railway from Zhungeer to Xiyingzi is part of a large project. Planned are the lines Xiyingzi - Batuta (south of Dongsheng), Dongsheng - Wuhai/Wuhai Xi (at the main line Baotou - Wuhai - Yichuan - Lanzhou and Zhungeer - Hohhot (Huhehaote). While for the first two lines no dates for the realisation exists, the connection Zhungeer - Hohhot is planned for 2003. Somewhat in the middle of the planned line is a power plant, which will be finished in late 2003. This power plant needs to be supplied with coal, probably from the mines at Xiyingzi.
To order a better copy (not a good one - I havn't) of this map (about 12 MB tiff-document on CD) please send 5,00 Euros to FarRail Tours, Bernd Seiler, E.-Weinert.Str. 46, 10439 Berlin, Germany.
This line was part of the FarRail Tour in April 2003.
Wuhai is in Inner Mongolia province on the main line Beijing - Hohhot (Huhehaote) - Baotou - Lanzhou. The 128 km long CNR-line Wuhai Xi - Jilantai is still one of the most rewarding line for those who like to experience a special kind of steam.
The times of the freight with passenger service are not in the China Railway Timetable. However, you can find it in the Timetable for Inner Mongolia Province (published by Inner Mongolia Railway International Travel Service, price 3 Yuan). This small book is available at many main stations in Inner Mongolia. In November 2002 it was: Wuhai Xi - 19.20 - 47091 - 23.46 - Jilantai - 07.30 - 47092 - 12.14 - Wuhai Xi.
The freight trains have a schedule, too. This schedule is not fixed, trains can run a bit early and, more commonly, heavily delayed. The most delayed train during a three day visit in November 2002 ran about four and a half hours behind schedule. On the other hand, we never noticed a cancellation of any freight train.
The full schedule (minor differences on the time table sheet were found in Jilantai and Benjing):
| Station |
km
|
47093
|
47095
|
47097
|
47091
|
| Wuhai Xi |
0,00
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
19.20
|
| Heishatu |
44,48
|
02.58
|
11.03
|
18.08
|
20.39/20.44
|
| Benjing |
85,43
|
03.53/04.13
|
11.58/12.18
|
19.03/19.23
|
21.58/22.18
|
| Jilantai |
128,05
|
05.26
|
13.31
|
20.36
|
23.46
|
| station |
km
|
47094
|
47092
|
47096
|
47098
|
| Jilantai |
128,05
|
23.50
|
07.30
|
10.30
|
17.35
|
| Benjing |
85,43
|
01.29/01.49
|
09.04/09.24 |
12.07/12.27
|
19.12/19.32
|
| Heishatu |
44,48
|
02.43
|
10.24/10.35
|
13.21
|
20.26
|
| Wuhai Xi |
0,00
|
.
|
12.14
|
.
|
.
|
Four locomotives were in use: QJ 7053, 7056, 7057 and 7065. Besides, we saw two JS shunting in Wuhai Xi and in Jilantai (here: JS 8266). According to the staff, there are four JS in Wuhai and Jilantai.
Freight to Jilantai is food and industrial equipment, from Jialantai coal and salt.
The line has outstanding photo potential although it is spoiled by concrete poles and electric wires. Some of these electric wires were never put into use, very annoying. Although there have been more than ten enthusiasts who visited the full line by train, I could not find a reliable report about the whole line. Hans Schaefer and Florian Menius offer the best available reports on their sites.
The line starts from Wuhai Xi with a steep climb in a sharp bend. The line in this part is documented by Hans Schaefer, check out his page. At the bridge at Qinnianqiao the line is flat, loco drivers respectfully close the regulator here, so you'll never see a working locomotive over this nice bridge. The bridge itself has stone-looking pillars and steel girders and is surrounded by mountains. Beyond the bridge, another steep climb follows up to kilometre 25. At the end of the gradient the landscape becomes more open and the hills are about 5 km from the line. Then a long decent starts. For trains from Jilantai, which are mostly heavy loaded ones, this part guarantees good action. The problem is that the line has no road access behind Qinnianqiao. You have to walk all the way (as we did).
The other end of the railway, Jilantai, starts with a flat part in the desert. Jilantai itself is a real town with all facilities you need such as a good hotel, a guest house, several restaurants, shops etc. The station is south of the centre. The main road from Wuhai (a perfect road with two or three toll gates) crosses the railway just behind the station. Jilantai has an allocation of a single JS (which belongs to China Railways) for shunting, it serves four factories in Jilantai. Beyond the station the line continues about 2 kilometres.
The area is clearly a former salt lake, you can see the former lake bed between the sand dunes. The first five kilometres or so of the line has plenty of bushes and grass. But further from Jilantai, the vegetation slowly disappears. There is a way along the track, which seems to lead to the halt "Km 106". This is passable for 4WD cars and trucks, but not for ordinary cars. At around km 90 the gradient starts and although mostly 1 per cent only, loaded trains have to work very hard. Shortly after, the line has to wind up through huge sand dunes and especially around km 96 you can get real 'desert' pictures. The parallel pole lines (three: one telegraphic and two electric) are a nuisance, but if you go a bit further back from the line, they becomes less intrusive. Although we found some road vehicle tracks in the sand, it seems to be absolutely impossible to go this far even by 4WD cars or trucks. The station "Kilometre 96" consists only of a handful of small houses in the middle of the desert. We only saw a single railway worker here, who was checking the track. The passenger train stops at this station (which has no siding/loop) to supply the workers there. The station "Kilometre 91" is not used any longer and the few houses there are ruins. The line curves around the sand dunes (see my sketch map) and finally reaches Benjing, a small location with a coal deposit and a very small private restaurant. A water crane is at the east end of the station. Normally they do not take water here. Just 2 km before Benjing station, the landscape changes and grassland starts. Beyond Benjing, the line climbs steeply towards Wuhai again. So far as we could see, it's less interesting now with mountains in the far backdrop.
Benjing has a own small motor draisine. BUT: if you want to see the desert part of the line, you have to walk. This draisine is not for hire! We walked all the way from Benjing down to kilometre 98. You should allow a full day. At the end of the day you will probably have walked 30 km through the desert (as we did) and got two or three superb shots.
If you like to chase a train, try to find a fast taxi. The taxi we had (our driver was one of the usual not very honest taxi drivers) reached 60 km/h as maximum. This was not set by the car which was in a reasonable state, it was set by the driver (better described as a parker). With this "speed" it's impossible to chase a train. But if you get a taxi/driver who can reach a speed of 100 km/h (road conditions often allow 200 km/h) then you have a good chance to see a train three times: Jilantai departure, Benjing arrival and departure and Qinnianqiao.For those who want to travel by train to Jilantai, keep in mind that the hotel closes its doors at night and it might be difficult to get access. The small restaurant in Benjing also offers accommodation (hotel category three black holes = minus three stars) for up to four persons. It's better to make a reservation in advance if you can because the train arrives Benjing very late in the evening.
A public bus service operates between Wuhai Xi (the name of the city nearby is Wuda) and Jilantai. This seems to be faster than the train.
The railway workers along the line supplied reliable information about trains. At the stations the staff has wireless communication with the loco crews and can ask them where they are and when they will arrive in their station. Communication with the workers was easy as they understand Mandarin.
Although we took some pictures in the depot in Wuhai Xi, we didn't explore the area. We liked to avoid any "meeting" with the local police. They have a nice coal bunker in Wuhai Xi, but otherwise there was nothing of special interest.
The staff said they have no idea how long steam will last, they guess, at least through this winter season (2002/03).
Conclusions: With only three trains during daylight and quite a lot to walking to reach good positions, this line offers nothing to Jingpeng-lovers. And if you hate concrete poles, do not set your steps in the sand. But if you are interested in fascinating landscape, friendly local people (exception: taxi drivers) and well maintained CNR steam locos, Wuhai Xi and Jilantai are places to go, definitely!
This line was part of the FarRail Tour in April 2003.
Several months ago I was sitting at my computer and searching for some new, unknown lines. I found quite a lot of lines with no mention in news magazines, the internet or Florian Menius's well known newsgroup "Steam in China". Although I have already got my steam shots in the desert, I'm especially interested in lines with something special like endless plains, deep gorges, karst rocks and in the desert. In 1998 I went by bus from Baotou via Dongsheng, Shenmu, Yulin, Suide, Yan'an to Tongchuan. From this trip I knew that there are several desert-like parts in this area, Mus Us Shamo (the Mus Us desert). So I was keen to visit a line some 60 km south of Yinchuan which I had found on my maps. It was impossible to guess what kind of locomotives it might use, so I kept putting aside any idea of visiting. Suddenly, during a discussion about new lines (Zhungeer, Huanan Lime Stone Railway etc.), Bruce Evans posted a suggestion to the group. He said something about a recently opened line from Qingtongqia to the coal fields near Lingwu. The line seemed to be some 70 km long and might still use QJs. The locomotive depot, Bruce said, was situated on the main line (Hohhot/Huhehaote - Baotou - Wuhai - ) Yinchuan - Qingtongxia - Zhongwei (- Baiyin - Lanzhou). Bruce mentioned the bridge over the Yellow River, too. I took a second look at my map. Indeed, beside the line I was interested in there was another line some kilometres south in Qingtongxia. And, on the map there was shown a bridge over the Yellow River. But just beyond this bridge the line ran into a dead end. On the map, at least.
Now I became really keen to visit this place and in November 2002, I finally managed to visit this unknown line south of Yinchuan.
We (Klaus Wesser and me) arrived on an overnight train from Beijing and chartered a taxi. There was a good four lane road shown on several maps south to the final point of the first unknown railway in this area. The road was not as good as we had expected, there were lots of road works and new bridges under construction along the way (where they all going to in the desert?). However, after about 50 km on this road we reached the point called Huiminxiang on the Nelles map and Guyaozi on my Chinese map. There we found a brand new town, an older town around a coal mine and a brand new oil refinery. We went to the old town and found a railway track with a steep gradient into the mine. Beyond the line the desert started.
As we reached the railway station we didn't know how to behave. Was this a restricted area, were there any policemen who might dislike us, were there security staff for the refinery beside the station??? We appeared at the same time as the first QJ rolled into the station with a train and, of course, we wanted to take a first, safe shot. So we entered the platform and went straight to the engine. There we took our first 'forbidden' shots but nothing happened. We went straight back to our taxi and on the way, some shunting staff crossed our path. They did say "Ni Hao" but nothing else. Wow! Then the loco crew called us. They warmly welcomed us, asked us where we came from, why we had come to such a remote area and ... whether we had some coins for them! Of course, we had. After the first handshake we began to ask our questions about the railway. Yes, the line is new. They have QJs only, 5 engines. I showed them my map and it looked like the railroaders could understand the lines and signs. They told me the line goes to Daba to a power station. They all (about 6 persons were around us) showed us the very small Daba north of Qingtongxia. The loco depot is here in Guyaozi, not in Qingtongxia. The railway does not go to Qingtongxia, this is another railway.
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The last two kilometres up to the mine, trains are pushed.
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QJ 2869 passes the bridge over the Yellow River. The picture was taken from the road bridge. 17.11.2002
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QJ 1465 just arrived Guyaozi. 17.11.2002
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QJ 2690 takes water in Guyaozi. 17.11.2002
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After the first warm welcome we plucked up courage to enter the signal tower at the station and got the same warm welcome. We were told we were the first foreigners on this railway. Owing to our lack of our knowledge of Chinese, I called Mrs. Zhao Yang (my favourite guide in Northern China) with my mobile phone and asked her to be our translator. So she asked again about the railway's destination and other things. It was confirmed that the line has nothing to do with Qingtongxia and goes to Daba only. The freight carried is exclusively coal and oil. There is no passenger service and there never has been. The line is still under construction to another coal mine. They have 5 engines for the daily service in use and several more for spare.
There are about four or five pairs of trains per day. The next was planned for the early afternoon with a second around sunset. The railway is called Da Gu Railway (Gu = Guyaozi, Da = Daba) and is about 70 km long. Then my mobile's battery went flat... However, we had got the most important information. From the tower we could overlook the whole station and the loco depot. We discussed the next operation which was the empty coal train to push the mine. All empty trains from Guyaozi to the mine Lingxingkuang (about 1,5 km east of Guyaozi) are pushed. We took a nice shot of this train before we entered the loco shed. After 5 minutes walking around some official looking people appeared and came straight up to us. There could be no escape. But nothing happened! Just the usual where do you come from, why are you coming and so on. Nice people. The sunlight was very tricky (the shed is best for late afternoon or early morning) and nothing special could be found in the depot. So we didn't stay very long and headed off to Lingxingkuang for lunch.
Then the afternoon train was on the schedule. We entered the signal tower once again to learn that the freight to Daba should be on time. So we looked out for a nice position but it was difficult. There were some good positions, but the line constantly descends down to Lingwu. So we took a shot of the train rolling downhill and tried to follow it over a good road (all the roads here are in reasonable or good condition). We caught it for the second time at Lingwu, unfortunately just too late for a good picture. So we carried on and just as we reached the bridge over the Yellow river, we noticed a train coming from the other direction! We stopped the car and got a shot of the large bridge over the Yellow River in the distance (about 2 km). Now we turned the car round and followed this train, because we knew that it had to work uphill. After Lingwu, the railway crosses the road over a bridge so we left our car and went about 2 km into the hills. From there we got a nice desert-like shot and later another picture near Guyaozi.
The second scheduled train to Daba was half an hour after sunset, so we could only watch. Afterwards, we went back by taxi and continued to Wuhai.
The line is scenic (at least) between Lingwu and Guyaozi, but around the Yellow River itself the land is flat. This line is not made for photographers who like to take master shots from the comfort of their car. You have to walk anything from a few hundred metres to several kilometres to reach the best positions. Trains always consist of about 20 to 30 coal wagons plus several oil containers. The appended map is correct as far as we investigated the area.
We didn't see Qingtongxia and the railway there. We have no idea whether the Qingtongxia line goes further than the map suggests or not. Another pioneer with some more time should go there and find out what happens there. Maybe, I will have the time in May 2003, but I'm not sure about this because there are too many other railways I want to go to (for example the mysterious narrow gauge railway north of Kelan and the narrow gauge railway at Bayan Obo).
The locomotive list:
This line is part of the FarRail Tour in April 2003.
