Steam in Southern China, June 1999

Last steam hunt at SanMao: June 4th -6th, 1999, by Rick Wong,

Rick had added a further update (13th September 1999) from Jon Gbur.

"Good news on steam at the SanMao. They have retained 39 QJ locos. Steam operations will remain indefinitely on the SanMao for shunting duties at all depots.

What is more interesting is that the Yangchun-Yangjiang railway when completed will be 100% steam and they have already transferred ownership of a number of QJ units to that operation. Many units are out of service but will be used for spare parts.

I saw several units in operation in Maoming Dong with much hard working action and good sounds and smoke."

SUMMARY

This is a very sad moment for steam fans as Robin Gibbons and I confirmed "No more steam on the SanMao mainline". Active steam engines can still be seen at Baisha, Chunwan as well as Maoming Dong depots on shunting movements.

JOURNEY BEGAN...

Friday, 4 June 1999

We took an evening quasi high speed service from Shenzhen to Guangzhou and arrived on time. Soft-bed waiting room at Guangzhou station does provide some comfort after an adventurous entry. The toilet has to be the cleanest available around station.

Saturday, 5 June 1999

Train #581 arrived 45 mins before schedule arrival (noted brand new DF4 7634 was used, instead of 30 year-old DF) at 0440 hours, we rushed off the train and went to usual Maoming Dasha. No room was available and the other five hotels told us the same story. After 20 mins of hotel room hunting, we ended up staying at Maoming Shi Hua Ying Bin Guan (Maoming Petrochemical Hotel).

Local train used to be a steam-haul 3-car service from Maoming Dong to Chunwan. What a disappointment to me – it is now hauled by DF 2206. Instead of getting off at Bajia, we got off at Reshuidong this time and walked 5 kilometres (or 3 miles) for one of the best photographing spot on San-mao line. During the 7.5 hours’ stay. My skin got sun burnt, the sky was clear, the weather was hot (about 30 deg C) and humid. Well, this is the sort of weather you have to put up with this time in Southern China. The first train we photographed was the fast train Eastbound from Maoming dong to Guangzhou -- hauled by DF4 7634.

We expected the next train to be arrived Guanhe area was Chongqing -- Guangzhou bound pax. But it turned out to be a DF4 (7647) freight two hours later, and look, they are brand new! The only mainline steam sighting was at 11xx hrs whereas the westbound freight heading towards Maoming (DF4 7639 + QJ 6702)  After the excitement we had, there was no more trains crossing this point for at least two hours. Unlike Pingshi which we went two weeks later, we saw train coming and going about every 10 mins (steam, diesel and electric).  Then there was a westbound passenger before we walked back to Reshuidong (we was at km302.7 and Reshuidong staion is now about 5 kms away.) We returned to Reshuidong 1.5 hours before return train arrived. Station staff offered their recreation room for us to rest and airconditioned room and karaoke definitely helped recharging our exhausting souls.

Sunday 6 June, 1999

We had a quick look on the Maoming Dong depot before we return to Hong Kong. Many used-to-be active steam engines now laying dead at this depot.  We saw no more steam engines along the way except Chunwan and Baisha depot. The coaling point at Baisha depot is now been reconstructed as Diesel engines service point.

LOCOMOTIVE SUMMARY

Here is a list of engines we saw during the journey:

5 June 99

TimeEngine NumberDirection, Location and Description04457634 (DL,99)WB, Maoming Dong station #581 GZ- Zhanjiang Passenger08157638 (DL,99)WB, Dianbai, freight11097635 (DL,99)WB, Guanhe Village, 1 pax, 38 wagons, no caboose11267647 (DL,99)EB, Guanhe Village, 40 wagons + 1 caboose11577639 (DL,99) + QJ 6702WB, Guanhe Village, 54wagons (incl. 40 tankers)1353220xEB, Guanhe Village, Chongqing – GZ pax, arrived 3 hrs behind schedule14317636 (DL,99)WB, Guanhe Village, GZ-Maoming Dong Fast pax15157663 (DL,99)EB, Guanhe Village, 47 wagons15427637 (DL,99)WB, Guanhe Village, Loco only16387632 (DL,99)WB, Reshuidong Station, Shenzhen – MMD Express pax18052206WB, Reshuidong Station, Local Chunwan-MMD pax arrived18182203WB, Reshuidong Station, Guangzhou – Chongqing-Daxian Through service overtook local pax18577633 (DL,99)Nahuo station, 36 wagons19357638 (DL,99)32 tankers + 5 reefers + 11 box cars + 2 cabooses DL,99 – Dalian DaLi Built, 1999 WB - westbound; EB - eastbound

6 June 1999

Maoming Dong Depot: In steam: 6556/3575/6560/6702

Out of steam: 2659/1222/6366/6466/3570/3578/1020/and at least five others

DF4: 7647/7634/7646/7637/7640

Chunwan:

Out of steam: QJ 1069/1233/3545/6384/6673/6382/6521/6334/x225 (about 15 of them)

In steam: QJ 1195

Zhaoqing:

In steam: QJ 3573

Baisha:

about 10 QJs plus couple of DF and DF4

CONCLUSION

It was a fairly sad day for me and many steam fans to see steam finished serving this line. I thought the standard gauge steam line was over but only found out the Pingshi coal line (NanLing Tie Lu) was still using JS for their mixed freight passenger service two weeks later. A report on that trip by Robin Gibbons should follow soon. I'd like to thank Robin accompanied and supported me along the journey and helped me a lot on photographing.