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Today, I could finish the trip report of my
latest China trip in December and January. This time, I decided
to stay a longer time at each destination instead of losing a lot
of time between a lot of destinations. I visited Jixi, Zhalainuer,
Meihekou and Yanzhou.
Jixi area, 25/12/06 28/12/06
Hengshan :
They've created a sort of siding on the line from Xin Hengshan
towards Zhongxin, just aside of the CNR exchange station (so in
fact just after leaving Xin Hengshan). There is also a second
connection here with the CNR-tracks. I saw this track in use for
shunting, but watch out as suddenly one train leaving Xin
Hengshan can pass a train shunting at this other track. So: it's
not so clear anymore what will happen next if you are standing at
the level crossing at the east of Hengshan CNR and you see a
train coming
Also: to protect this new situation, they had to place some extra
signals. At the west side of the well known level crossing on the
road to Zhongxin (in the middle of the gradient), they've placed
a warning signal (is this the correct English term?). So: if you
want to make a shot at the level crossing, this signal will
definitely be in the picture, but like I already said last summer:
there is a new and better place for pictures now some 150 metres
east from the level crossing.
For the rest: everything was business as usual with a lot of
empties leaving Xin Hengshan just after shift change.
Didao & Chengzihe:
Nothing new to report
Lishu:
Also here: business as usual with SY0951 just coming back from
smaller repair at the workshop at Jixi and SY's 0477 and 1118 in
service. The train pattern was identical as last summer: trains
to and from Pinggang and Qikeng before noon, the train to
Pinggang was sent to Lishu CNR while the train from Qikeng was
emptied at Xinfeng. In the afternoon around dusk, a second train
was sent to Qikeng. Very friendly staff at the station who kept
sending SMS-messages in English to me, even some days later when
I was at Zhalainuer :-). Although it's always dangerous to make
speculations about the future, staff at Xinfeng said they're not
expecting any diesels over there in 2007. So, if diesels arrive
at Jixi, it seems Lishu is not influenced yet.
Addendum:
On my departure at Beijing airport, English gricers told me that
the following days, traffic was not running according the here
above described pattern, so apparently you'll need some luck
visiting Lishu
Jixi shed:
For the second time in a row, I got refused at the gate
Next time, I'll have to put on a happier face I think :-)
Jixi in general:
Although my visit here was influenced a lot by fog and grey
weather in general, this place stays one of the biggest steam
resorts in China to me. The amount of heavy action is okay, staff
is friendly everywhere and due to the amount of different small
systems, you can choose for yourself which system is your
favourite (for me, this is most definitely the Lishu-system). It
was also nice to meet some British gricers, thanks for the nice
time guys :-)
Zhalainuer 29/12/06-1/1/2007
Hehe, I think almost everything must already be said 100 hundred
times on the newsgroup so I'll try to give some particular
details from my visit.
Deep mine system:
- SY1416 (the misses with the long ears) was used for shunting at
the washery on the two days I searched for her. This made it
impossible to get a "30° sun ahead-shot" :-(
- I've seen no steam passenger train at the deep mine system
although I was at Daqiao long before the shift change around 7:15
on the 30st of December (Saturday). There was one passenger coach
standing in the station, but it clearly hadn't moved for some
time and I hope this is not the normal car for this service as it
missed some windows
- The gradient between Dongfanghong and Daqiao is interesting for
trains in the late afternoon. Depending on the weight of the
trains, some engines keep on working, even while entering Daqiao.
- There is quite a lot of traffic between Dongfanghong and Daqiao
(at least during my visit
). I saw a lot of light engines
moving from the washery to Daqiao to be serviced, but in 2 hours,
I also saw 4 trains (3 up, 1 down) between these two stations.
- I've seen SY1284 (open mine loco!) riding towards somewhere
beyond Daqiao (I passed at Daqiao later and I didn't see the
engine over there
). My guess is that it went to search for
spoil tipping cars, used for transport of sand somewhere as I saw
the same kind of operation the day afterwards being at Nanzhan (then,
SY1371 left Nanzhan in the direction of Dongfanghong, only to
come back 3 hours later with this kind of cars).
Open mine systems:
- new to me (second visit here) was the sight of banked trains
and even some double headers! Both compositions were in use for
longer spoil trains. On two days, they kept one of the passenger
train engines in the mine to assist where needed.
- A very interesting train which you can chase by foot, if the
dynamite train, bringing in the explosions into the mine. This
train was seen on three of four days, and everytime, it entered
the mine around 9'o'clock. The entering is of for course not
interesting, but when it leaves the mine, you can make pictures
of it on the different levels by taking the stairs between these
levels while the train has to go all the way to the different
reverse stations.
- Passenger trains run as described before. On one day, I've seen
the train leaving the mine as described by someone before
composed SY+2 cars+SY. The following day, the second engine was
kept in the mine to assist where needed
- The light during sunset is magnificent for some more
experimental photography, standing near the control station. The
sight of the smoke coloured orange and red by the low standing
sun is really magnificent. Pictures are on my website at
http://www.spoorwegnostalgie.be/China/oudejaar%202006/oudejaar%202006.htm
(Link broken by December 2021)
In general:
Zhalainuer is a world on it's own
The freezing temperatures
in contrast to the warm people who work there are almost a reason
on
it's own to go there. The continuous action of some 20-30 SY's in
the mine make this system an absolute gem in the shortening list
of steam
locations in the world.
I had some heavy discussions with taxi-drivers here as they
really asked unreasonably high prices
Par example: for a
ride from Zhalainuer-centre to the Zhalainuer Xi-station, someone
wanted 70RMB! The normal rate is somewhere around 10RMB
Maybe this is given by the fact of the Russian border nearby, but
it might be interesting for first time visitors to keep this in
mind.
Meihekou 2/1/07-3/1/07
3 steam engines and the diesel were in service on this little
system. There was not so much freight traffic, but the passenger
train was steam and like John Raby stated some weeks ago: this
really made life a lot easier :-) The only problem was the fog (which
appeared in big parts of China those days, according CCTV news).
I rented a taxi to follow the train from Sijing towards Sanjing
and back. I found a young and very enthousiastic taxi driver
which was reasonable with his price: 80RMB for the whole trip,
taking us more then 2 hours. His phone number is 13624455513 . I
can really recommend him, as he understands "what gricers
want". During one ride from Sijing to Sanjing, I was able to
make 4 decent pictures of this train.
In general:
This was my first visit to this system which I made for two
reasons:
a lot of people are relatively enthousiactic about this system
and the opportunity to finally make a nice shot of a decorated
engine was difficult to resist. Yes, after 7 previous trips, I
still don't have a satisfying shot of a decorated engine working
with a train
Of course, the curse continued as both
decorated engines were nice put one aside the other in the
shed
Will this curse ever stop?????
Not all Chinese train guards want to rob gricers: when I boarded
the passenger train at one occasion, the woman didn't want me to
pay for the ride, I was her guest :-) "Of course", the
Chinese passengers had to pay as always
There is a very good restaurant (mainly fish but also other very
nice food) on the road in front of the station a little to the
north. It's called TangLongJoZhian. The boss here even brought me
some free dishes as he was really excited to have a foreigner in
his restaurant. Really great atmosphere!
Yanzhou 5/1/07-6/1/07
After the reports from previous visitors, I decided to give it a
go and also to visit Yanzhou during two days. Looking at this
decision afterwards, I don't regret one single bit of it :-)
On the way from Tienjin towards Yanzhou, my fellow passenger was
an engineer who had worked in one of the mines around Jining for
2 years. His English was quite good, so I could get some extra
information from him. The mines north of Jining (Daizhuang and
Xuchang) indeed belong to the Zibo Coal Mining Company as Peter
Haworth stated before. The other system (operational centre at
DaDongZhan) belongs to the Yanzhou Coal Mine Group Industrial
Company. He could confirm that steam is still running but that it
would vanish soon
You have hotels/guesthouses of different quality classes around
the big square in front of the station at Yanzhou. Renting a room
here
suits fine as you'll easily find a taxi here and a lot of busses
depart here (I didn't check them out though).
About transport around Yanzhou: it's very unadvisable to go by
bus to the steam railways in the neighbourhood as once you are
left behind around the mines, you won't find another taxi to
continue your steam chase so chasing trains or reacting to
changes in schedules might become very, very difficult without a
private taxi.
I started my QJ-chase at Dadongzhan at 7:30. As mentioned before,
the QJ's under pressure (4 in total) were gathered here around
this time for shift change. The stabling point (there is no real
depot at Dadongzhan in contradiction to some previous reports) is
not extremely scenic. However, 4 QJ's standing 2 by 2 next to
each other provide are a nice sight to start the day with :-) The
guy I met on the train the day before translated a lot of useful
phrases into Chinese language concerning the schedule for the
engines. Unfortunately, this didn't help as the local railway
workers gave me completely wrong information, so watch out with
their hints about where to go
Around 9:00, high deflectored
QJ7126 ran loose towards Fucun to search for a long rake of
empties. It then ran directly towards Jining-Sankuang to get this
train loaded. I followed this train and met QJ7190 at Nantun
which just left with a long and loaded train towards the power
plant at Zouxian. Now, I could continue to Changying, where staff
was very helpful and told me that QJ7126 was about to leave with
it's train at Sankuang. So, I searched for a place nearby the
station but then the police showed up
An old guy, not even
in uniform but definitely a cop wanted me to stop taking pictures.
I showed him other pictures, my passport and so on, but this didn't
help. Of course, the train was just coming: I already could hear
it whistle. I was just in time to go back to the taxi and to go
some kilometres further down the line to take my picture there.
Unfortunately, this place was a lot less scenic with electricity
poles in the picture, but at least, I didn't miss the picture of
this very long and heavy working train
After this short
excitement, I continued towards somewhere near Nantun and we
could catch this train a second time. Also here, it was working,
but trees just aside of the tracks at both sides made this shot
less attractive standing relatively close to the tracks
Oh,
before I forget: on the loaded coal trains around Dadongzhan are
some 20 police men with fighting equipment (stick, helmets).
Apparently, they have had some coal robberies here in the past?
Anyhow, to us gricers, they are no problem: they were all very
friendly, waving, and one of them even making the peace-sign to
me :-)
After this first real action, we continued to Baodian, where we
heard a train shunting. Apparently, we have just missed it
because when we arrived, it had left
We then headed back to
Nantun, where QJ7189 was shunting with a coal train loaded at the
washery/mine (?) here. Anyhow, this installation is quite big:
also a diesel was shunting here. It was now 16:00 and the QJ's
were expected at the stabling point at Dangzhuangzhan again. This
was only partly the truth as QJ6811 was here all day long as
spare engine and just QJ7126 came in to be serviced. Interesting
though was the diesel crane used to load the tender with extra
coal.
About the diesels:
Yes, there are of lot of D4DD's running here, but once that you've
figured out where the steam engines are going, they don't give
much trouble. I even have the idea that the diesels are
concentrated a lot around the same places (Nantun and Dadongzhan
for shunting par example) but I'm not sure of it. Can anybody
confirm/correct this info?
Questioning a lot of people when steam will vanish here, they all
pointed out 2008 as the year that the QJ's will be gone. I didn't
see the new arrived diesels described by Peter but I didn't go to
the shed at Zouxian neither. Are they still in there or have they
moved to another location of this mine group?
Anyway, at Dadongzhan, I got the information hat there's a second
place where some of the former Dadongzhan QJ's should be active.
They called this place Yanzhou Zioguachang. I visited it the day
afterwards and it turned out to be a newly opened washery. They
normally have 3 QJ's here, 6936, 7188 and 7191, but this last one
was in repair somewhere (Zouxian?). So, I've only seen the first
two engines (both with big deflectors). They were being serviced
(7:30-9:30). Afterwards they went shunting in the yard. The
problem here is that this whole factory, including the yard and
the stabling point, is protected from coal thieves by a big wall.
At the stabling point, there was a whole in the wall so I could
easy enter the facilities, but I don't think it is a good idea to
try the same trick around the yard
So: I had to be
satisfied with some pictures at the stabling point, but anyhow: I
didn't come to China to see some QJ's shunting in a modern
yard
So: yes, I've discovered a new locations with QJ's,
but it isn't that interesting I'm afraid
(read a little
further for a possible exception though)
I then continued towards Yanzhou Xi, which is in fact very easy
to reach from the washery as it is just aside of it, following
the railway line. On the branch coming from Dongzhuan, there was
a train hauled by high deflectored QJ7127 waiting at the entrance
signal of the station. I only had to wait 5 minutes before it
came in, unfortunately only with minor exhaust. Now, THE
interesting thing about Yanzhou Xi is that both QJ's from the
Zibo Coal railway as also QJ's with trains from the washery enter
this station. So: you can make pictures from both company' QJ's
in this station! I didn't check it out any further as the weather
was to nice and I wanted some garanteed results, but it must be
possible to make a nice picture of a QJ entering this station
coming from the washery.
After having digitalised the incoming QJ7127, I headed for
Dongzhuan where I couldn't get in to the workshop. The guard
phoned the manager but he was afraid the language problem would
be too big so he preferred not letting me in, so I was told by
somebody who translated this to me. The guard then made it clear
that he could let me in for some money which I refused. I was not
so keen on spending a lot of time here anyway but I wanted to get
an idea from the whole situation in this depot as
I saw 2
diesels from a distance :-((((( So: bad news is on the way from
this steam location :-( I then headed for the two mines at
Xuchang and Daizhuang but no trains were seen at these mines. The
only logic conclusion was to return to Dongzhuan and to see what
was happening over there. This turned out to be a very good
decision as just when I arrived, QJ7127 was leaving with a very
long train of loaded C62's. It must have formed this train while
I headed for the mines of course. The departure of this train was
quite spectacular by the way! Once the train was gone, I could
see the two diesels a little bit better. Looking the place where
they stood, it seems, they already replaced 2 QJ's around here so
only QJ7127 was still in service. I could see 3 other QJ's cold
at the depot in a distance so this seems to confirm they are only
using 1 QJ anymore. Luckily, this one was doing all the work
during my visit. With this bad news, we headed for Yanzhou Xi
where I could just see the train coming in again. After this
engine returned to Dongzhuang again, I headed for Dadongzhan (Yanzhou
system).
On the way to Dadongzhan (half an hour ride from Yanzhou Xi), we
met QJ6811 on it's way to Xinlongzhuang. It started shunting
there directly and was ready to leave with a very long coal train
towards the power plant within half an hour. I found a scenic
point between the two cross roads in front of the mine, but while
waiting for this train for 2 (
) hours, the sun turned too
far so the light wasn't that good anymore. Quite disappointed, I
headed for Dadongzhan-triangle where I then wanted to make a
picture of this train as the sun would be in a better position
over there.
Arriving at Dadongzhan, only QJ7189 was in the depot and high
deflectored QJ7126 just left towards Baodian. Within 5 minutes, I
could hear a train moving in from Nantun. It was QJ7190 with a
very long coal train. Unfortunately, it was impossible to make a
picture from it as the sun was really in a bad position for this
train, but it definitely was a very nice sound with this QJ
working hard. I then walked about a mile towards Baodian when I
saw QJ6811 coming with it's long train from Xinlongzhuang. This
engine was really giving the best of it with this heavy train,
taking the triangle to the power plant at Zouxian! I made my
picture at a cross road, where it was very difficult to cut all
the electricity poles out of the image. Anyhow, I've got my
picture from a QJ with a long train working hard and it certainly
was a very nice moment to hear a hammering QJ once again :-)
Believe it or not: only 10 minutes later, also QJ7126 returned
with a short train of loaded C62's, towards Dadongzhan. Wow, this
was the third train with a QJ in 30 minutes! Also this engine was
working at the gradient towards the triangle. I've made a picture
from it when it crossed a small bridge, which suited fine for
this short train. Finally, I headed for the stabling point, where
QJ7126 just arrived, giving me superb possibilities for a glint
shot. With 10 children looking at the laowei, 2 QJ's and a magic
sunset, this was a nice end of yet another China-trip
Conclusions about Yanzhou:
The good news: I saw 7 QJ's in steam on three locations (that's
one more then expected hehe). Their appearance goes from nice to
"like new"! What a sight to see such clean QJs, great!
The bad news: it seems the end is very near for at least one of
these systems (Zibo coal mining group) but probably for all three
of the systems
A good taxi driver is definitely needed to get the maximum out of
this place. Not only will you drive around a lot on one day, you
also will have to take some very bad roads (my brand new taxi had
only 4000km's on it's counter, ouch
). Also, your success
will depend a lot of the driver itself: if he doesn't help you to
get information about the whereabouts of the tracks, you will
loose a lot of time. My driver did perfect over the whole line. I
really can recommend him a lot. His number is 13054950919. I paid
260RMB per day for his services.
Conclusions in general about this trip:
If you don't like SY's, it's probably best to stay at home from
now on
If you do like them however (and why shouldn't you?),
there are still a lot of nice things to see. Okay, the distances
between locations are increasing but you can counter this problem
by spending more time at interesting, heavy action locations as
Jixi and Zhalainuer. If Bernd's info is correct and Jixi will
dieselise as fast as predicted from may on, this will hit hard as
it is one of the most intensive steam locations
dissapearing
The biggest problem this trip was the fog in a lot of places (5
days on 12
) but I suppose this was really bad luck as it
was the head news on CCTV9 for two days
Thans a lot to everybody sharing the info about their trips.
Especially to the people who helped me with my visit to Yanzhou.
This info turned out to be very, very usefull at this relatively
unknown place.
Pictures:
The pictures of this trip are on my website. The photographical
trip report, you can find at: http://www.spoorwegnostalgie.be/Azie/China8/China8.htm
A special report, dedicated to a superb sunset is reachable via: http://www.spoorwegnostalgie.be/Azie/oudejaar%202006/oudejaar%202006.htm
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© 2007 Dave Habraken