Dayan Coal Mine

Jalai Nur open cast mine

Some guys doubt that all customers of my tours are able to take pictures in the same quality I did. To convince them that everybody can take good pics on my tours the photos of this article are exclusively by Hinrich Brümmer, participant of the last winter tour to China.

Huanan forestry railway

In addition to my recent report (Autumn 2002) I can now add something about the operating pattern.

The steam passenger service ceased in the 1990s. and today's passenger service is a private railcar. The company itself has only one serviceable railcar and another smaller railcar is owned by the coal mine railway itself. The private railcar leaves Huanan at 8.00 am and returned at 14.00 hrs. The journey to Hongguang takes about 2 hours. The railcar is turned in Li Xin and operates in reverse for the rest of the way to Hongguang.

Normally they use three steam locomotives for freight trains. One engine leaves with an empty train to Li Xin, where it turns and goes tender first to Hongguang. A single trip from Huanan to Li Xin takes about 2.5 to 3 hours and from Li Xin on to Hongguang it takes another 30 minutes. The return trip Li Xin - Hongguang - Li Xin takes about 2 hours. Back in Li Xin the locomotive takes water and coal. Meanwhile the next freight train has left Huanan. The first train waits in Li Xin until the second has reached the station. After its arrival, the locomotive of the second train turns on the triangle. Then the loco of the first train set out at the head of the train and the loco of the second train acts as banker. Together the two locos will bring the loaded train up the steep gradient which is about 2.5 km long. At the summit the train stops and the banker rolls back to Li Xin. There it takes its own (empty) train and brings it to Hongguang. At the same time normally the next empty train starts in Huanan. Train crossings are possible in Xiahua and in Li Xin. All the other stations between Huanan and Hongguang are closed but still in place.

This pattern will be operated 24 hours per day. If the demand of coal is lower, two locomotives are sufficient.

In January 2003 locomotives 011, 041 and 044 were in use.

Beside the coal there are about 3.500 m³ timber to transport per annum and Li Xin is one known loading points for logs.

The railway suspends operation for several weeks per year. Normally there are holidays starting from Chinese New Year´s Eve. In 2002 the railway was closed for 72 days! Two weeks before the New Years Festival in 2003 it was not clear how long the railway would shut down in 2003.

Although the rolling stock is in poor shape there are no plans to close the railway yet. However, things can be changed rapidly in China.

A normal daylight operation in Huanan is shown in the schedule for January 21^st, 2003:

Qitaihe coal mine railway

Qitaihe is situated east of the CNR main line Jiamusi - Mudanjiang. The local coal mine bureau operate their own standard gauge railway. The line starts in the eastern part of Qitaihe city. Jipei station has an (about) 15 track layout with a link to the CNR and an (about) six track layout for the coal washery and coke ovens' plant. Near the control office is a small stabling point for the remaining steam locomotives.

The line leads through the industrial suburbs of Qitaihe. Up to Fuqiang houses and industrial complexes can be found continuously next to the line. Thereafter the line becomes more open and scenic. There are three large bridges: beyond Fuqiang near Xinfacun village, between Zhuangchang and Zhongxinhe near Dongfacun village and shortly after Fenchang, which is a coal loading point.

The gradient is generally in the west-east direction. Steep gradients can be found beyond Fuqiang, beyond Zhuanchang and between Fenchang and Longhu. Gradients in the opposite direction are beyond Fenchang and beyond Dianchang. The power plant (in Chinese: dian chang) is situated in Laolaishankou city. From Qitaihe to Laolaishankou a new toll road runs roughly parallel to the line. Access from this road is possible using several branch roads, but some are difficult to find. Beyond Laolaishankou you have to use a branch road and the road becomes worse. In Fuqiang an unpaved track follows the line. There are level crossings east of Gongrencun, before Xinfacun and in Fenchang. In Dongfacun the unpaved road passes under the railway while after Xinxingcun the road passes over the railway on a bridge.

Another two bridges over the railway are close together between Dianchuang and Taoshuan. One is a nice arch bridge, the other the new road bridge (the road leads to Yilan).

Although some branches were mentioned in former reports we found only one 2 km (electrified) branch to the south in Gongrencun, leading to Tiedong, a coal washery. The whole line from Jipei to Fenchang has overhead electric wires. The last section to Longhu was opened in 1989, the mine there was opened in 1991. The non-electrified section is the reason why the railway still uses steam locomotives. It is planned to electrify the line to Longhu by 2005 and replace the last steamers.

Locomotives are SY (seen 0894, 1014, 1174), El1 (seen 1002, 1003, 1004) and El2 (seen 1553, 1554, 1555). On November 22nd we saw 4 SY in use.

The SYs are chimney first to Qitaihe. That means uphill trains to Longhu running tender first.

There are several photo positions. For chimney first trains the gradients and the arch bridge over the railway near Dianchuang are good. For tender first operation you can find reasonable positions all the way between Fuqiang and Longu. In Qitaihe there might be good industrial or city shots possible. We didn't check this out.

Weihe forestry railway

The last steam operated forestry railway of China is subject to close in April 2003. Operation in January 2003 was unchanged compared to recent years. The only change is the cancellation of the passenger service. Locos in use were C2 SW 21030, 033, 034, 053, 054 (minus last coupling rod) and 055. Active loading points in January 2003 were south of Shuangfeng, 2 km west of Dongfeng, in Weixing and in Qinggouzi (15 km south of Yülin).

Despite the expected closure of the line in April there are some good news. The first section of the line should become part of a tourist project. Between Zhenzhu and Xinli is a forest park for tourists. To this tourist park a railway connection is planned. The total length of the planned line is 18 km. It as said that a construction of 8 km new line is planned. The tourist trains should be steam hauled.

The tourist project is still undecided. However, the forest park already exists and the manager of the railway rated the chances for realisation as good.

The line will be lifted from the track side. It will take several months to lift all the tracks.

Although it makes not much sense to correct my map, I have some improvements.

1) Between Weihe and Wulidi is another station. This is used for freights only and serves a sawmill. The name of the factory and the station is Renzaobanchuang. This station is served by the shunting locomotive of Weihe. Distance to Weihe is about 1,5 km.

2) At road kilometre 17 is another way to Xiping. It will lead you to the northern end of the village.

3) Between Shuangfeng and Dongfeng is another 100 m branch, a loading point. According to elder maps there was a several kilometres long branch line to the east.

4) Dongfeng has a triangle at the north western end of the station. The branch line to the west is lifted 2 km behind Dongfeng. The terminate is a large loading point. At the old branch line is a loop, a track leads to the loading cranes.

5) From the eastern end of the Dongfeng station was another unreported long branch line. This line led west of the road X155 and had at least two branches to the east, both more than 3 km long. It seems the branch from Dongsheng had a connection to the actual line near Qingshanlinchang.

Hulunbeier Coal Industry Group Co.

This group operates 3 mines: the open cast mine at Jalai Nur, the Baorixile open cast mine near Hailar Dong and the Dayan coal mine. While the first one is well known by enthusiasts and the second owns three diesel locomotives, the latter previously unknown one is well worth a visit and further investigation.

Dayan Coal Mine

Dayan (which has a small hotel) is situated on the Qiqihar - Hailar - Manzhouli mainline about 80 km east of Hailar (Hailaer). The first attempts to open up a mine in Dayan were undertaken in 1970, but only in1975 did the mine reach full capacity. At that time more than 20.000 workers were employed by the mine. Now the number is below 10.000. Coal is supplied both to the CNR and a power plant near Dayan.

The first locomotives were 2 JF6. Later they bought SYs. Now they have 5 SYs.

Locomotive list:

SY 1235
SY 1306
SY 1307
SY 1308
SY 1741 (built in 5/1993)

Beside the five locomotives the coal mine owns 32 wagons of which are 6 passenger coaches. Some of the freight cars are still CA62M, the wooden ones!

The line is 15 km long. It starts in Jipei, which is close to Haiman CNR station and runs west just to the north of the CNR. There are three stations:

• Jipei km 0
• Erjing km 4,8 (mine two)
• Sanjing km 14,8 (mine three)

The length of the tracks is 41.5 km in total. There are branches in Erjing to Yijing (mine one) and to Dianchang (power plant). The steepest gradient, 18 per thousand, between Jipei and Erjing and there is another minor gradient before Sanjing. The sharpest curve has a radius of 300 m. Erjing is a large station with a 7 track layout and a water crane. A nice pedestrian bridge offers good photo possibilities.

The total output of the mine is 2.2 to 3.7 million tons per annum. The maximum train load is 1.500 tons. The empties have to work against the gradient while full trains can roll down. For up to 25 empty wagons one SY is sufficient, for up to 43 wagons they use a second engine as banker up to Erjing.

The locoshed, west of Jipei, has a two track house for locomotives and a similar house for wagons. The depot carries out only small repairs. Minor overhauls are made in Jalai Nur and heavy overhauls in Mudanjiang. (this is an interesting fact because authorities of the Mudanjiang workshop said this CNR owned workshop was closed for steam locomotive repairs). CNR does not allow a locomotive to be send under steam to Jalai Nur or Mudanjiang. The depot of the coal mine also contains a turntable and a nice, small coal bunker.

There are two (sometimes three) coal trains per 24 hours from Sanjing and 4 pairs of passenger trains. One passenger train run takes 50 minutes.

Along the line there are four additional stops for passengers. One of them is between Jipei and Erjing in Yanhaiqiao Chengjjiangcuo in the gradient. During our visit all locomotives faced east, so all uphill working was tender first. The manager of the transport division told us that all locomotives will be turned next month to guarantee an even wear of the track and the locomotives. This happens every month and is the only use of the turntable in the depot.

Dayan Coal Mine asks visitors for an entrance fee of 80 Yuan per person per day. They had never had foreign railway visitors before so this price may be increased later.

The map was drawn by the manager of the transport division.

Jalai Nur Coal Mine

The well known open cast mine is situated south east of the city. The whole area is full of railway lines, so It's quite difficult to describe the location. I couldn't find a reasonable report about the layout of the coal mine and its lines although there is already a map available in the internet (Rob Dickinson's and Florian Menius' web sites). Also I couldn't find any reliable information about the passenger service. There are still many places which need further investigation in Jalai Nur, so this is not a full report which covers all details.

The CNR line goes roughly in an east-west direction while the mine is south of it. There are two links from the mine railway system with the CNR. The first starts in the northern part of Jalai Nur station, passes under the CNR line and climbs up to the washery just south of the CNR track. The other is east of the washery with the CNR freight station of Jalai Nur. The CNR freight terminal is about 2 km west of the passenger station in the outskirts of Jalai Nur.

There is a loco shed in Daqiaozhan on the CNR passenger station - washery line. In fact, we didn't find the Daqiao = Big Bridge there. Here are four dumped locomotives (known numbers: SY 1234 (built 1979) 0924 (built 12/1974), 1448 (built 4/1986)), water facilities and a loco house. However, these repair facilities seem to be insufficient for a fleet of more than 50 steam locomotives. Although we found two more loco depots, we couldn't locate the workshop of the mine.

From the washery a line heads east and turns south to the open cast pit. After about one or two kilometres the remains of the former East Station (Dongzhan) appeared. This station was closed between 1998 and 2001. Nearly all the tracks have been removed and only one building (the former control office) left. Far in the south-east corner of the open cast pit is situated the south station (Nanzhan). Here is a stabling point with a coal bunker, sand tower, several water cranes, small repair facilities and a small wagon repair shop. Many dumped locos are stored here. These locomotives are in reserve for the summer, when traffic levels are higher than in winter.

Dumped locos in Jalai Nur Nanzhan (built in month/year):

All SY
0471 2/72
0613 1/75
0682 7/73
0867 8/74
1286 4/84
1371 5/85
1375 6/85
1376 6/85
1450 4/86
1617 7/88
1664 9/89
1678 1/80

From Nanzhan a double track line leads east to Wobulizhesuren. It is thought that there is a reverse which has a connection to the line which goes around the open cast pit on the western side. From Nanzhan another track leads directly into the coal mine. This line goes down to the bottom of the mine. Another track to the ground starts at the control office station. The control office is south of the washery just behind the public road.

Below the control office station, which is in two parts on two levels one above the other, there is another locoshed with repair and service facilities. This locoshed is about three levels above the ground level of the pit. Sunlight for the Nanzhan depot and the "Control Office Depot" is best in late afternoon.

It seems that the open cast pit is explored from west to east. So coal will be exploited at the eastern central part of the mine and the spoil will be brought to the north western part of the open cast pit.

Locos seen in service:

All SY
0958
1041
1257
1374
1416
1424
1600
1601
1650
1686
1689

While being busy taking pictures we were not able to note all numbers and we saw many more locomotives. Of special interest is SY 1416 with deflectors.

Passenger service in the mine area:

There are two destinations for the passenger trains: One is heading for Nanzhan, the other for the bottom of the mine. The train normally consists of a SY and one YZ coach. The trains start in the "Control Office Station". The locomotive of the train to the bottom is chimney first, the train to the south station tender first. Both trains start from the same track and, because they wait close to each other, it appears that they are coupled together with one loco at each end.

The first turn starts at 7.30 with a train in each direction (bottom and Nanzhan). Both trains need between 40 and 50 minutes to reach their destination and both return immediately after their arrival to the Control Office Station. There, the two passenger cars will be coupled together. Around 9.15 hrs this (two coach) train returns to Nanzhan where it is stored until 16.00. Then it starts back to the Control Office Station where the coaches are separated again. At 19:30 hrs the two trains depart again to Nanzhan and to the bottom of the mine with the same procedure as before.

According to the traffic control staff, there are 18 locomotives in use during winter time when the ground is frozen. Therefore it is not possible to exploit the coal to the same extent as in summer time when they use 40 locomotives. However, even in winter you cannot manage to take pictures of every, even not every second nor every third train movement.

You can find photo positions everywhere. The open cast pit itself is one huge photo position. Then the shed in the south station (Nanzhan) is worth mentioning, especially the coal bunker where there are two steam cranes to serve it. The coal washery is another point with plenty of action and an interesting industrial backdrop. The line from the passenger station to the washery sweeps under the CNR. The gradient from to the washery with small houses on the southern side of the track is perfect in the morning light. Many other positions can be found and, in my opinion, the mine is definitely well worth a visit.