Steam Locomotives in China 1996

Bryan Acford has sent me the following copy of his and Duncan Cotterill's trip. Sorry Bryan for any typing errors!

Jingpeng Pass (Mon 11 - Sat 16 Nov 1996)

Jingpeng Pass really is a spectacular piece of railway by any standards. There may not be many trains but photogenically it's absolutely first class with numerous sweeping curves, viaducts and tunnels, many semaphore signals but few nasty concrete poles, superb mountain backgrounds and plenty of good vantage points from which to photograph the action. Undoubtedly, Jingpeng Pass stands head and shoulders above any other surviving steam worked routes in China and comparisons with Tianzhu are inevitable but not entirely justified. Tianzhu was in a class of its own with 50km of 1 in 50 culminating in a summit 10,000 ft above sea level. Halve all the statistics and you have a fair representation of Jingpeng Pass, 25 km of 1 in 100 leading to a summit 4,000ft a.s.l. However, Jingpeng's still good enough to go straight in at number one in the surviving steam spot stakes.

The relatively gentle gradients combined with the double heading of comparatively short trains mean that all out thrash is unusual and many westbounds seem to make the climb without too much effort. Eastbounds tend to be heavier and put on a good show, particularly over the last couple of km to the summit at Shangdian. The track is generally in reasonable condition and speeds are now quite respectable. Trains take 35 to 50 minutes from Jingpeng or Galadesitai to the summit and while chasing is possible you don't have time to stray far from the road. The best shots are often between 10 and 40 minutes walk into the hills so if you want quality it's generally one shot per train.

Trains are currently infrequent and timings unpredictable compared with some other Chinese lines but workings weren't quite as random as they first seemed. Most days would see at least seven trains over the hill, a considerable improvement on the four or so seen in March.

The normal daytime pattern westbound seemed to be two freights in the morning, usually both up the hill between 08.30 and 11.00, and a third in the afternoon between 14.00 and 16.00. The only daytime passenger was 402, booked into Shangdian at 13.41. I couldn't find the passenger services on this line in the 1996-7 timetable but all appear to run on alternate days only.

Eastbound there were an average of four freights in daylight but no passengers. The first freight was always over the top about 09.00 but could be there by 08.00 on days when 401 wasn't running. A long gap followed until between 11.00 and 12.00 when a second train always made the summit. Between one and there further freights would follow before sunset with one usually running between 14.00 and 15.00

Locos seen were all QJs and apart from QJ2706 were all from the 6xxx and 7xxx series. Most were reasonably clean and many still carried the ChinaRail emblem on the tender as well as a four character depot code. I didn't recognise the "Bureau" character but the "section" was always "Da", presumably representing Daban. There has to be some doubt over the ownership of these locos. Have they been sold to the new line or are they still ChinaRail property? Loco seen:

QJ 2706, 6110, 6274, 6301, 6351, 6389, 6632, 6735, 6760, 6876, 6878, 6992, 6998, 7007, 7009,
7020, 7012, 7041, 7048, 7143.

In mid November sunrise was about 07.00 but the high hills to the east prevented the shadows clearing from many of the best positions above Reshui until about around 08.30. The incessant south-westerly wind made photography tricky in the morning but there were places where the wind and light were both right on the Reshui side of the pass. The Jingpeng side was more problematical until late morning when the sun was further round. In the afternoon shadows started to become a problem from about 15.30 and by 16.30 the light had gone everywhere.

Julien Blanc's detailed map published in WS 96-4 proved very useful and the information shown was, in general, accurate but there were many more good photo positions in addition to those shown. Treat the alignments between km 483 and Shangdian as rather approximate and note that there are, in fact, three tunnels in the 'U bend' south of Shangdian and not two as shown.

The weather was generally very good during our visit with entirely clear, brilliant blue skies and exceptional visibility for the first three days and partly cloudy mornings followed but good afternoons towards the end. There was a thin covering of snow on the ground which gradually evaporated, but never entirely disappeared. Temperatures were generally about -10ºC at sunrise rising to about freezing point but the wind made it feel much colder.

There's more than one reasonable hotel in Reshui. The place we stayed at was on the opposite side of the main road from the one on Julien's map with the rooms at the back overlooking the railway on its climb out of Galadesitai. It wasn't the best hotel in China but it was more than adequate, there was plenty of hot water and the food was pretty good as well. One big advantage of staying in Reshui is that many excellent positions are within walking distance of the hotel.

Pingzhuang Opencast Coal Mine (Sun 17 Nov 1996)

The drive to Yebaishou took us through the mining town of Pingzhuang where we visited the opencast mine. Although the railways system is electrified and East German Bo-Bo electrics are used on the coal hauls, steam locos work construction and maintenance trains. SYs form the bulk of the fleet but there is still one operational KD₆ (USATC S-160 2-8-0). We were extremely lucky to find the loco at the track depot with a short maintenance train. After photographing the beast we tried to get some shots near the big hole but were told that photting was verboten. There was little else worth doing in the area so we continued to Yebaishou, arriving in early afternoon.

Yebaishou (Sun 17 - Tie 19 Nov 1996)

Very little appears to have changed since January. There is no evidence of the epidemic of DF₄s that was predicted to arrive in September and the only units seen in action were from the original batch of 5 (DF₄ 7452-7456). They appeared on the usual Chengde line workings (passengers 221 & 22 and freight 3164) and a rogue working piloting a Chifeng line freight, DF₄ 7321 and 7322 were on the shed at Yebaishou but bore an unidentified shed code. It wasn't Yebaishou or Shenyang though. We didn't waste any time on the Choayang line so the situation there is unknown.

On the steam front, the highly decorated engines seen the winter before have not reappeared but the general standard of cleanliness has improved since January. Several locos are now in extremely good external condition, usually a reliable sign that replacement is no imminent. Locos seen were:

QJ 3180, 3186, 3279, 3320, 3335, 3338, 3339, 6409, 6414, 6414, 6675, 6677, 6705, 6706, 6728, 6989, 6990
JS 8239

Traffic on the Chifeng line seemed a little lighter than in January with a few freights not running. In particular the early morning goods at 06.55 off Yebaishou didn't show up either morning. Traction was virtually 100% QJ in daylight and the usual practice of running tender to tender double headers out of Yebaishou continued, the second engine usually returning as pilot on the next available southbound goods from Tianyi.

On the Chengde line, the morning freights in each direction over Hongshi summit ran both days, 3138 EB and 3165 WB. As usual 3165 was banked from Yebaishou to the summit where the pusher dropped off. Train 3165 was chased to the summit at Yangshuling near Pingquan. Several stations on this line still have semaphore signals and there are good climbs through Shiquan and from Laogou to Yangshuling. A number of excellent photspots on the latter climb are within easy reach of the road.

Again, the weather was generally cold, but not as cold as Jingpeng, with clear skies, excellent visibility and a chilling wind. We stayed at the usual Jianping hotel.

Chengde (Wed 20 Nov 1996)

The steelworks branch operation continues as before with a mixture of JS and SY in use and double banking the norm for loaded trains on the climb out of town.

On the main line, trains were a mixture of steam and diesel as before with the morning Longhua passenger QJ and a mid-afternoon freight JS. For some reason, the booked afternoon Longhua passenger at 14.16 didn't run. Three freights were seen on the main line south, a DF₄ arrival at 14.18, a BJ arrival at 15.05 and a QJ departure at 15.15. The use of a DF₄ is worrying as they had previously been restricted to passenger trains. The loco concerned was DF₄ 0651, one of the regular passenger engines on the Beijing line. Station pilots were both DF₂s. The station area is quite open and photogenic with an extremely attractive mountain background for afternoon shots. Unusually for a major Chinese station, our presence was tolerated for almost 2 hours as we wandered around the platforms, across the tracks and in the yard. Steelworks branch trains leave from the main yard adjacent to the platforms and departures can be really volcanic as the loco gets the train moving on the grade up to the river bridge.

The day started gloomy but the weather was clearing up to give a pleasant sunny, afternoon. Temperatures were around zero all day. We stayed at the Yunshan hotel.