Flew Tokyo -> Beijing on JL781, then a two hours drive through crowded city center to reach Bejing-Xi station. Took T177 soft sleeper. Very comfortable. Saw two "cold" JS (numbers unidentifeid) at the east end of Xi station.

Saturday 6/Feb

Arrived at Baotou (main passenger) station. Took the hired bus and went straight to Shiguai station. JS 8325 & 8327 were steaming up at the depot. Then JS 8008 arrived on T803. Drove the bumpy road/river bed to Houba, where we spent the rest of the day. We saw the following trains and the donky mine, all under clear blue sky .

9:50 T804 JS8008 11:00 East bound freight JS8003 13:00 West bound freight JS 8003 + 8027 banking 13:00 East bound freight JS (number unidentified) 16:30 West bound freight JS + JS banking (numbers unidentified)

Overnight in Baotou.

Sunday 7/Feb

Our original plan was to go to the "Singing sands" viaduct. However, due to mis-communication between the guide, we ended up heading directly to Aobaogou. Our friends who visited Aobaogou during the last week of December reported 4 -5 northbound (loaded) trains in the daylight, ALL TRIPLE QJ`s (double engine + banker). We didn`t expect much traffic on a Sunday, but nevertheless we were greeted by three triplet northbound freights during 11:00 - 16:00. Despite of the calm weather (around 5 degrees C at noon), the clag was quite impressive. 

As regards the photo spots, the long bridge north of Aobaogou is good from noon afterwards, whilst the second bridge south of the station offers glint shot possibilities in the morning. It is a pity that there are no steep hills to overlook the long trains. We got the impression that the only locations to capture the two QJ`s in the front and the banker within the same frame were around these two viaducts. Overnight in Dongshen.

Monday 8/Feb

Left Dongshen at 7AM and headed towards Aobaogou again. As it is the case with Houba, skillful driving is required to reach Aobaogou. It took us 20 minutes to the long viaduct north of Aobaogou, another 10 minutes to the station, and nearly 45 minutes in total to reach the second viaduct south of Aobaogou. We crossed a northbound freight just before our destination. The second QJ in the front was very shiny, although we were too far away from the tracks to identify the loco number. (Can anyone tell us what the number is?) To our surprise, the next northbound freight followed within 30 minutes. No wind, -5 degrees, three QJ`s struggling with 50 fully loaded coal wagons. This was THE shot of the tour. We saw two more northbound freights (needless to say all of them Double QJ + coal wagons + QJ banker) and passenger T852 in the afternoon. Southbound trains were a mix of light engines and tender-front empties. Then made a short visit to Dongshen depot. We were told that 21 QJ`s are in service. Some of them have short deflectors (1891, 1892, 1969 ). Other QJ`s we saw during our stay were 2977, 3068, 6014, 6289, 6348, and 7044. Overnight in Dongshen.

Tuesday 9/Feb

Another bumpy ride to south of Aobaogou. For the first time during this tour, we were haunted by some clouds. The first northbound freight came at 9:30, unfortunately a bit too early for the clouds to disappear. We left Aobaogou after seeing T851, and headed back to sunny Baotou. Stood at the dusty west-end of Baotou-Dong station between 15:00 - 16:30. Met two German line-side photographers who were guided by a charming lady from Huhot. Saw a dozen of DF4 freight/passengers and 4 steam engines which were:

QJ6565 on shunting and then west bound freight

QJ6519 on Linhe passenger

JF8279 on Baotou suburban loop T945

JF8004 on Baotou suburban loop T935

Staying at Xinxiancheng station between 8:00-9:30. The main purpose was to photograph the two suburban loop trains (JF8001 on T931, JF8279 on T921) but also saw JF8280 on an eastbound freight departing at 8:10 (could this be the Shiguai freight?), and two unidentified SY`s shunting in the factory located at the east-south end of the station. We also witnessed another cast of smoke from the factory on the north-west corner. It seems this area is worth of further investigation. Visited the loco repair works within the steel factory. SY 0392, 1676, 1719 were steamed up. A wrecked SY0502 was just about to be shunted into the grave yard. Several dead bodies of SY`s and YJ`s were there as well. Took T518 soft sleeper from Baotou to Beijing-Xi, and flew back to Tokyo.