|
March 27 - April 7, 1998
Hans Schaefer
Beijing main station28th March They sell the new time table, but the english/chinese version is only available for 1997-98. A large advertizing table at the staion shows the X2000 train delivered from Sweden. Locos seen at Beijing main station include DF11 0023 (built 96, 0034 (built 97), 0060 (built 97), DF4D 0041, 0152, NY70019 on train to Yinchuan together with DF4 1658, NY60007 ex works arriving with train from Qinhuangdao. Station is undergoing renovation / repair. Electrification is progressing very slowly. Night train Beijing Bei - Chifeng. Soft sleeper ticket from black market in front of station 200 Yuan. Loco = DF4 0404, later 0383.
Chifeng - Reshui29th March Sun, partly clouded. Morning -5, afternoon about zero. Taxi Chifeng-Reshui. Found same driver as last year, Mr Jin Lung Sai from Chifeng, Car reg no D-16792, Phone numer 0476-8355360. Fast but safe driving, 3 hours to Reshui. Road had some winter damage here and there. Hotel at Reshui on right hand side of road, with red chinese lamps, opposite the Telecom building (and hotel). 500 Y double room for 3 nights (the fourth night cost 160Y). Not many guests, friendly people. Phone number 0476-5101101 or 5225033Linesiding on slopes near Reshui afternoon.
09.30 2*QJ east freight (seen at Yushoudi) 10.30 2*QJ east freight 12.12 6631 west passenger 12.50 Liudigou 6998+2645 east freight, both clean machines 13.25 Reshui 6274+6580 west freight 15.10 Reshui 6389 light engine west 16.00 Reshui 2706+6876 freight east, 2706 ex-works 18.40 Reshui 2*QJ west freight Local taxi driver Mr Wu from Reshui with his yellow mini-van arrived and discussed his service. He has recommendations from several Europeans and got our recommendation as well, after his services. He wanted 400 Yuan per day, got him down to 250. He takes pictures of trains himself and got quite enthusiastic during the later days. His phone numer: 0476-5101226. The car is old and in bad condition, but it worked. And he knows the places, as we saw later. He speaks only Chinese. He got the train times for us for tomorrow.
Reshui30th March Sunny, partly clouded weather, about -5 celsius at dawn, about +10 afternoon. Linesiding on foot near Reshui.
06.00 2*QJ west freight 07.25 6578 east passenger 08.40 7040+6577 west freight 09.40 6998+6301 east freight 10.00 6135+7137 west freight, heavy 11.25 Liudigou 2645(clean) east freight Inivited by Liudigou personel to lunch after bringing pictures from last time in December.
13.35 Liudigou 6389 west freight 14.10 Liudigou 6996+6638 east freight 15.50 Liudigou 6580+2706 east freight 18.00 Reshui 7012+6763 east freight 18.00 Reshui 6301+6998 west freight Some German Videots from a large group travelling with a bus behaved like they owned the world here...
Chasing trains with Mr Wu by taxi.31st March Morning light frost, later about +10 degrees. Sun. Very much activity on acres. People, horses, donkeys.
06.50 Reshui 2*QJ east freight 08.00 Xiakengzi 6517+2645 east freight 09.30 Xiakengzi 2*QJ west light engine 09.30 Xiakengzi 6998+6110 east freight Taxi to Jingpeng. Hopeless road.
10.18 2706+6580 east freight, left at 10.45 11.12 6735+6577 arrive light engine from east all locos take water here. They also clean out some slag. 6577s tender was loaded with a whole truckload of vegetables!
13.02 Shandian 6631 west passenger 14.00 Shandian 6389+7137 west freight 14.10 Shandian 6763+6638 east freight 15.40 Reshui 6998+6301 west freight, with 4 caboose 18.30 Reshui 2*QJ downhill Good photo position just east of Galadesitai station. 1st April Sunny. Start at 6.00. Afternoon temperatures allowed T-shirt! Resulted in sunburn. But rivers are full of heavy ice, which makes it easy to cross them. 06.41 Shangdian 6631 east passenger 07.25 Reshui 6577+6876 west freight, chased to SanDi 08.10 Shangdian 6517+6110 east freight 10.45 HaTaShan ?+7012 west freight 11.00 HaTaShan 2706+6996 east freight 11.35 Xiakengzi 7137+6576 west freight Invited to dinner by railway workers at HaTaShan (the station on level 3, 2 km east of 90 degree bridge) after delivering pictures from last time. Mr. Wu drove to Jingpeng to get processed his film.
12.50 Xiakengzi 6763+7143 east freight 13.20 Xiakengzi QJ west light engine Visited elementary school at Xiakengzi, invited by teachers to go into every room we wanted, inluding class romms. Very friendly people!
14.20 Xiakengzi 6828+7002 east freight chased to Shangdian 15.30 Shangdian 6301+6998 light engine west 16.40 6577+6876 17:30 Liudigou QJ+QJ start freight westbound
Reshui to Daban2nd April Taxi with Mr Wu to Daban, start at 6.00. Fron Linxi dirt road and more and more desert like terrain. Cost 200 Yuan. To depot on foot, 1 km west of station. Town around station is railway people only, Daban itself is 20 km southeast of station. Very friendly people at station and depot. Visited depot. Typically 10 to 15 locos at depot, varying. 2 steam cranes. Locos seen:
1760 minor overhaul at workshop here 2645 arriving from Chabuga with passenger 6576 very bad condition) taking over to Haolokou 2706 6110 very clean 6274 extremely clean, new painted 6301 6302 6351 6356 6358 6576 6580 6638 6687 6735 6763 6828 6853 6996 7002 7007 7012 7040 7143 7063 shunting at station, very clean Verified with depot staff that the following not seen locos are still working here:
6125 6911 7009 7010Dumped locos at depot:
6230 6630 6632 7037 7048 (or 49 ?) 7105 plus one crashed loco without number, having been used as stationary boiler. One freight from west with one loco front first, one tender first! One freight to east included about 10 ballast cars and about 120 workers with showels.
Daban to Tongliao3rd April Sunny day, temperature about zero at dawn, maybe 10 to 15 plus in afternoon. Up at 5.00. Looking around in depot. About 10 to 12 QJ here in the morning. Friendly staff. Got hard sleeper tickets, access to platform before other passengers, access to signalling room etc. Passenger in with QJ6631, continued east with 2645, 7048 or 49(?) taking over at Chabuga. Footplate ride from Lindong to Chabuga and the last few stations into Tongliao. Took over firemans job between Lindong and Chabuga. kept up pressure, but there were some smiles about my firing... There were five people on the loco, the driver, 64 years old, a younger driver, probably under training, assistant, fireman, and a young boy under training as fireman. And we two. Locos seen on the way include 6853, 6125, 7112, 3073, 6302, 6079, 1760 (all near Chabuga). One dumped QJ at Chabuga (damaged in a crash). Loco had no hard work on the way. Landscape is interesting with some mountains from Daban to Chabuga. After that flat and desert like. They are adding new sidings at several places, amongst others 10 km west of Chabuga. Hotel 50 meters to the right of station at Tongliao. Good service, everything works, 300 Yuan.
Tongliao - Xinlitun-Fuxin-Yebaishou4th April Tongliao: Trains from northeast arrive with DFH3. To Xinlitun with DF4. Flat line, nearly desert. Hard seat, full train. On line to Xinlitun seen QJ 6538, 6885, 2063, 6537. Seen about 4 freights each way during our two hours train ride, 7 with single QJ, one with DF4. JS8202 shunting at Zhangwu. Depot there has standing about 10 QJ in steam, 10 QJ dumped, 1 DF4. At Xinlitun seen both green and orange DF4 on passengers, one QJ at high speed south to north through station with freight. On train to Fuxin-Yebaishou was a soft seat car, in front of diner. Cost hard seat ticket plus surcharge 15 Y to pay to conductor. First 25 km on the way to Fuxin nice landscape, some hills, some gradients, double track line. Seen QJ 6476, 6341 on freights.
FuxinVery polluted city, locos very dirty, too. JS 6479, 8235 QJ 6708+6478 on eastbound freight Depot full of QJs, one SY. SY0035 just west of Fuxin at power station QJ 6487, 6725, 7117, 6486, 6375, 6479,6753, 6726, 6655(?) Local passenger Baipiao Nan to Beipiao with QJ Local passenger YiXian to Shenyang with QJ at YiXian. JS8236 shunting at Chaoyang Landscape very polluted by plastic bags flying around everywhere. Yebaishou QJ 3345, 6411, 6416, 3250, 6753, 6488, 6412. All passenger trains seen here DF4. JS 8237, 8238 shunting. Friendly staff at station. No problem to run around. Got train times: 7.20, 8.20, 11.45 and 13.20 trains to Lingyuan, 7.45, 9.25, 11.05, 12.05, 13.13 trains to Chifeng. The following day showed that not all trains run on Sundays. (There are more trains latrer during the day, no problem to get the times from the people with a red hat at the station.
Yebaishou, Shinao, Chengde5th April About zero degrees at dawn, T-shirt temperature in afternoon. Night at Jian Ping hotel. No warm water, low standard, high price (336Y), nobody available in the early morning (5.45) for checkout. So we left without our depositum of Y30. On line to Lingyuan one train with DF4 + QJ3339 as banker. JS 8238 also returned from banking service to Hongshi. On Chifeng lkine three trains before noon with single QJ. Took taxi to dam near Shinao, 9 km outside town. Taxi drivers wanted 50Y, got trip for 40, but it should be possible for 20. Lot of traffic on road, so no need to order taxi to wait or get one down later. Seen locos all QJ:
3186 4 axle tender 3339 4 axle tender 3340 4 axle tender 3343 4 axle tender 3345 6409 6411 6416 6479 Fuxin loco, dirty 6677 6726 6727 6728 The seen 33xx locos all had Yebaishou marks on their tender, 6409-6416 also. Dumped locos at Yebaishou shed:
1861 2000 ex supershine 2513 3279 3320 3335 3342 3338 6709 Chengde with train at 15.58. DF4. Soft seat car as yesterday. Passed 2 SY at Lingyuan, no steam seen elsewhere. Night at Huilong hotel. Nice hotel still, end everything works. Hot and cold water!
Chengde6th April Sunny day, warm. T-shirt only in afternoon. Out at 5.45, bus no. 5 to steel works depot. Walked in, took some pictures, were thrown out by friendly railway police. Got instead a footplate ride on a JS the whole forenoon. Dramatical on train up the grade from Chengde. Loco working with full regulator, but train nealry stalled in upper tunnel. In the tunnels they close all windows of the loco, but air gets very bad anyway, and we were on the front loco! It paid off to know how many engines were up and down, so we could walk through the tunnels and have the up trains on both sides. (30 promille on both sides of the top!) Seen JS 5132 with China rail marks, otherwise steel work locos JS 6227, 6218, SY 1765, 1422 Up trains from Chengde at 9.30, 11.00, 12.40, 14.00 Down trains to Chengde at 7.30) only one JS, 9.30 (3 locos), 12.10 (2 locos) Visit to Chengde depot in afternoon. They confirmed that there is no steam left here. Only on steel works branch. Shunting at Chengde station today was done by BJ.
Chengde-Beijing7th April Hard seat on morning train. Breakfast at dining car. Almond trees on hills in full flower. No steam seen at all. All traffic seems to be BJ (most double traction on freight) and DF4 (passenger). In Beijing depot DF10 0001. Some of the german delivered diesel hydraulics NY6 and NY7 are ex works, some seem to be dumped at the Beijing main station depot.
Summary informationThe whole trip was totally improvized. No advance reservations, no guide. We were two people. We had absolutely no problems. Lost time because of lack of guides or other problems was a maximum of 5 minutes a day. Railway staff are very friendly, especially after showing them pictures from earlier trips and the railways of your home country. Absolutely no problem to get hard seat tickets. Upgrading is possible with conductor sitting in YZ car next to dining car (if available space). We strongly recommend Mr. Wus taxi service at Reshui, even if his car is old and near breakdown. (A reservation may apply for the coldest time in winter.) There was no problem to get hotel rooms either. Food is a problem if you do not understand much Chinese. Often we were allowed into the kitchen and just pointed out what raw materials should go into our food. And we had this little book available at foreign bookstores in Beijing "The pocket interpreter". It was of great help most of the time.
Hans Schaefer
return to the trip reports... or return to the China Railways Homepage |
