Beijing Area

13th February, and 8th/9th March

A "Diefang Tielu" (Local Railway) approximately 60km east of Beijing was briefly researched. This line, linking Sanping Station on the Beijing-Qinghuangdao line to the town of Pinggu approximately 25km north, is not shown on Nelles or Quail maps. It is apparantly owned by the county or town of Pinggu and is used for general freight traffic, no passenger service being operated. It has two 'old' JSs and it seems that up to three short freights are operated every day, only one though normally during daylight hours. This train usually departs from Sanping Station at between 11am and 2pm. The locos face north. At Sanping the terrain is flat. The line intersects the Da-Qin coal line and may reach more hilly terrain near its northern end. The depot (not visited) and HQ are at Pinggu.

A representative of a new mainline diesel freight class was seen at Fengtai depot. It carried the number 0008, looked like a de-streamlined DF11 and was in a blue, gray and red colour scheme. It is probably a Qishuyen design (DF8B, DF9B, DF11B or DF12?) and is likely to be the most powerfull single-engined freight diesel type now in use.

There are now significant numbers of new passenger DF4Ds and DF11s operating in the Beijing area and this has led to a big drop in the use of the old BJ diesel hydraulic locos for passenger work (where have they been transferred to?).

Additional blue and ivory DF4Cs in the 50xx (1997) series are now based at Fengtai and it seems most GE ND5s have been transferred away (where to? Shanghai Bureau?). Several French-built ND4s were seen on local freights.

Fuxin Area

14th and 15th February

A quick way of getting to Fuxin from Beijing is to overnight by train to Goubangzi on the Shenyang line and then to taxi from here to Fuxin (1 hour).

New DF4Cs are appearing on the Beijing-Shenyang mainline in the Jinzhou area which would account for many of the older green DF4Bs being cascaded from this part of the Shenyang Bureau to places such as Yebaishou and Tumen.

At Fuxin steam activity remains virtually unchanged at a high level on mainline freights and the coal mine network. Orange passenger DF4B diesels now appear on several of the passenger trains to and from Shenyang and also appear to be working through to Yebaishou. These locos have been cascaded by new DF4Ds and in turn are cascading the older DFH3 diesel-hydraulics (where have the DFH3s been cascaded to? QJ passenger turns somewhere?).

An interesting and unusual steam working here, found by an Australian enthusiast recently, is the daily near simultaneous departure of two SY hauled passenger trains from the local station and junction at the village of Minzu (has a big church visible from the main road and mainline) a few kms south of Fuxin. One train arrives as an empty. The second arrives 15 minutes later and a fair number of passengers transfer across the platform. The two trains then depart for different mines at about 14h45. It seems the second train to arrive generally departs slightly ahead of the other.

Shenyang Area

17th February

At the Shenyang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works at Huanggutun the JF6 and a pair of SYs continue to perform pilot duties. (Does anyone know of presently operating JF6s in China apart from this one and its sister at Guansui?). The factory overhauls DFH3 diesels as well as building and repairing freight wagons. An old DFH1 diesel hydraulic was also present but it could not be ascertained where it had come from.

Sujiatun repair works contained two JSs and many SYs. Of interest was that the one JS was a Chinese Railways loco from Lingshan depot as against an industrial JS. (Has this works always repaired national railways locos or is this an example of the introduction of more open and competitive policies in the industry?).

1998 Dalian-built DF4Ds 0164 and 0181 were noted on passenger workings in the Shenyang area. This appears to indicate that Dalian is continuing to concentrate primarily on this passenger type since commencing mass production in late 1996 or 1997. One of the new DF4Ds was double-heading with an orange DF4B on a train of double-deck stock, presumably one of the new accelerated trains.

Sujiatun depot had several QJs. Apparently locos working in from Lingshan, Meihekou, Fuxin, Shenyang-West/Huanguttun and Zhangwu depots turn here. An interesting diesel at the depot was a DFH1 in running order - this loco had previously been reported at Tongliao so this type may have been replaced there by cascaded DF4Bs.

New locos allocated to Sujiatun were a batch of 1997-built 50xx DF4Cs.

Meihekou Area

18th February

It was a surprise that Meihekou depot still had several QJs in steam in addition to the handfull of JSs used for branch line workings and other secondary duties. One QJ freight was passed heading towards Shenyang but none were seen on the line north towards Jilin.

The trip from Shenyang to Meihekou was behind an orange DF4B, another relatively new duty for this type.

Jilin - Yanji

18th February

One QJ freight was noted at Jilin and several locos in steam could be seen at the depot. Most diesels seen were DF4Cs only one of which though was a 1997 built loco.

No freights were seen between Jilin and Jiaohe but the next section to Dunhua seemed to be almost 100% steam on freights.

Longjing

19th to 23rd February

The branches in this area continue 'old' JS although some re-sleepering with concrete sleepers and re-railing with 50kg rail may herald initial moves towards dieselisation.

On the Chaoyangchuan to Longjing section there are usually four freights and one passenger during daylight into Longjing and four freights and two passengers in the opposite direction. All trains seen were single-headers apart from one double-header. The afternoon freight fron Chaoyangchuan appeared to be a train for the Kaishantun branch that departs from Longjing around 15h00. The one occasion this train was seen departing from Longjing it was banked. According to staff at Longjing this is a frequent occurrence. (The double-header seen was thought to be this train with the banker at the front for the section to Longjing). This banking operation would be an interesting one to investigate further as the light would be good for photography and the terrain east of Longjing appeared quite hilly. Much of the traffic to Kaishantun is apparently timber from the Mudanjiang area for a paper

Possibly the most interesting JS at work on these branches is 5507, which if it is carrying its original number, means it is one of the small batch of 20 or so JSs that were constructed at the Beijing 7 February plant. Sadly no plate to confirm this could be found.

Tumen Area

23rd and 24th February

Apart from the local passenger workings for the Longjing branch most trains from Tumen towards Dunhua appeared to be diesel hauled. Many of the DF4Bs new to the area appear to have been recent cascades from the Jinzhou area. There was also one new 1997 Datong-built example.

The level of steam activity on the section from Tumen to Ludao seemed to be higher than on the Dunhua section.

According to railway workers the new 'Diefang Tielu' linking Tumen to Hunchun on the Russian border is due to be opened on July 1, 1998. This line is due to be linked to the Russian rail system to add another rail link between the two countries.

Mudanjiang Area

25th and 26th February

The steam situation at Mudanjiang appears to be little changed with JSs on the Changting branch, Mudanjiang based QJs sharing freights with diesels on the Ludao line and Jixi based QJs working in from the Muling side.

At Muling the double-headed QJ workings up the grade towards Mudanjiang appeared to be limited to two during daylight, one at about 6h30 in the morning and one departing Muling at 16h30 (sunset on 25 Feb!). There may be other workings which do not occur on a daily basis.

The Mudanjiang Locomotive Repair Factory sees reduced activity due to the run down of steam operations. QJs and JSs from Harbin and Shenyang Bureaux depots were present for overhaul. Another sign of the new competitive spirit in China was a forestry line ng 0-8-0 undergoing overhaul at the works. Works pilot is a JS.

Orange DF4Bs are also starting to work into Mudanjiang from Harbin on passenger trains. These locos are units transferred in from the Shenyang Bureau.

Mudanjiang - Harbin

26th February

A total of about 25 QJs were dumped at Yimianpo and Hengdaohezi depots. The only working steam seen was an industrial SY at Yimianpo.

Freights on the mainline were DF8 and DF4B with passengers DF4B and DFH3.

Harbin - Suihua

27th February

The only steam seen between Harbin and Suihua was an industrial loco at the large power station at Hulan just north of Harbin. At Suihua itself several QJs were in steam at the depot and a QJ hauled passenger train was seen arriving from the Nancha direction.

At Xinglongzhen a DFH5 diesel was noted shunting. Old rolling stock was noted in sidings to the east of the station and a line could be seen extending eastwards. On the Nelles map there is a line shown extending to Wuyapao on the Songhua River. This is not shown on most other maps. (Does anyone know anything about this line?).

Suihua - Bei'An

27th February to 6th March

All freights QJ, some double-headed. Most passengers DFH3 but a few slow trains are hauled by Suihua based QJs.

At Suilin a standard ng 0-8-0 was seen in steam on the logging system and judging by the amount of loaded timber wagons on the ng tracks this system may still be fairly busy.

Bei'An

27th February to 6th March

The line towards Suihua sees 4 or 5 QJ hauled freights plus one QJ hauled passenger per direction in daylight hours. Of the freights up to 2 in each direction are double-headed these generally being the important through freights. Local freights and pick-up workings are generally single-headed. About 60% of the Bei'an QJs are high-deflectored locos and in this area it is thus possible to obtain photographs of double-headed QJs with a variety of deflector combinations.

Between Zhaoguang and the next station south-east there is a long (7 or 8 km) grade against northbound trains. The double-headed QJ workings on this grade are impressive but unfortunately there are few good photo locations. Probably the most thrilling steam sight observed and photographed on this trip was of a triple-headed QJ freight, all locos high-deflectored and all working, charging the base of the grade up to Zhaoguang. Zhaoguang is a jarring one and a half hours by taxi from Bei'an.

On the line from Bei'an towards Qiqihar freights are worked as far as Yi'an by QJ and JS. Of six trains seen on this line at various times during the period at Bei'an three were single QJ, one double QJ and two JS.

On the line to Longzhen traffic continues to be shared between national railways JSs (on most freights and on the passengers that terminate at Longzhen) and old DF1s, belonging to the Heihe Local Railway (on the passengers to Heihe and a few return freight workings). A new through passenger service between Qiqihar and Heihe has been introduced so in the period from about 10h00 to about 15h00 seven trains operate over the Bei'an to Erlongshantun section of the branch, four DF1 passengers, two JS passengers and three JS freights. Again the area is unfortunately not scenicly very great but to the north of Erjing there is a long (6km) grade against southbound trains while to the south of Erlongshantun there is a similar long grade against northbound trains. The heavy JS hauled freights were seen to drop to almost walking speed on these grades.

Most of the JSs now in use are ex-Hohhot 8xxx locos now fitted with high-deflectors but one 'old' big deflectored JS was also sharing duties on this line and on the line towards Qiqihar.

An interesting DF1 belonging to the 'diefang tielu' was one with the early two window pattern nose. This 1965 Dalian built loco carries the number DF 9204 which is not in the generally known series (Can anyone offer any clues on this number?).

For anyone visiting Bei'an the best hotel is the Bei'an Binguan about 10 minutes walk north from the station. There is a superb restaurant offering 24 hour service about 100m on the right up the road east from the hotel. It's name is 'Jia Chang Liao Li' and it can be recognised by the '24' in the illuminated sign above the entrance. A buffet Chinese breakfast with a wide selection is served from 6h00 but fried eggs can be ordered. The restaurant serves hot milk and can quickly put together take away lunches (take your own coffee or hot chocolate). At dinner free alcohol in the form of a fiery local rice wine or similar is offered, perfect after a day in the freezing cold. The astute lady who manages the restaurant has excellent contacts with the local beauracracy and easily arranged a depot visit!

Other News

The mainline electrification between Shijiazhuang, Handan and Anyang is reported to have been formally energised at the beginning of December, 1997. This would have resulted in a large number of diesels becoming available and may account for the DF4Bs that appeared at about this time at Linfen (both areas form part of the Beijing Bureau).

On March 6 a Harbin newspaper caried a photograph of super-shine, decorated QJ 2146 or 2148, and an article indicating that the new railway through Zhou En Lai's hometown had just been completed. This line is a branch off the Xuzhou-Lianyungang line extending south from the Xinyi area to the city of Huaiyin just north-west of Hongze Lake.

Bruce G Evans