Rather a unadventurous itinerary but has the benefit of being a comparatively easy trip.

Sunday 27 December

Firstly to the Cheng Dongnan Jiaolou, the city wall south east corner watchtower, just east of Beijing main station, and which overlooks the station throat, to see the action. Typical sunny / hazy winter day. Unfortunately, all the poles are up for electrification, which makes photography more difficult. Classes noted: DF4, DF4D, DF11, NY7, BJ plus shunters. One of the DF11s, 0128, has a large hammer and sickle device on the front, together with the cluster of brass horns which are inevitably applied to the "celebrity" locos. 

Next to Fengtai in south-west Beijing. Just west of the station (which disappointingly is a modern structure - I had been hoping that it might be the original building) the lines pass over an overbridge and the lines to the south and west immediately split, the loco depot being in the fork. The locals all walk across the tracks rather than through the underpass, despite the speed pf the passenger trains. Although all tracks are electrified, we only saw one electric locomotive - which looked like an SS1 - passing light as we were arriving. Many of the passenger trains are double-deckers to and from Tianjin, but there is a good selection of other passengers and freight. Locos seen were as for the main station, but included a couple of the Alsthom ND4s. 

Now, a mystery, to me anyway. The angular DF4s, painted blue and cream and numbered in the 5xxx series. 

They obviously aren’t the standard DF4s although the class designation in front of the number says just DF4. Are these the DF4C which some people refer to? 

Later in the day, we walked through Tiananmen Square (which has been dug up) and noticed that the old station building at Qianmen is being redeveloped into office accommodation.

Monday 28 December

Train Y225 to Chengde. This has been speeded up and takes just four hours. It is a pity that they can’t put back the departure time (07.25) slightly to give us more time in bed! Train half full only. The destination boards now sport the name (in Chinese) "Mountain Resort" which is derived from the traditional name for the summer retreat at Chengde, first developed by Emperor Kangxi. Beijing depot had one or two interesting looking locos but only glimpsed as we passed. Otherwise, nothing much of interest to report although still a fine ride through the mountains. No steam anywhere en route.
 

We checked into the Yunshan Hotel and were up the bank by 12.30 which is pretty good going. The first train we saw on the steelworks branch was double headed (no banker), the next just one in front and one banker. Otherwise, the usual pattern (one in front, two bankers) was generally followed on the hill.

The ice skating rink has been brought forward, nearer the road bridge, which will make it difficult to repeat the classic photo from the bridge, although there is still much activity on the ice. However, this has been a very mild winter in China and they have clearly had problems with getting decent ice.

Tuesday 29 December - Saturday 2 January

I won’t bore people with details of everything we did, just comment on matters which may be of interest.

Notes

The "banking station" is officially known as Chengde Xi (West).

The prison is officially known as the "Chengde Galoshes factory". Presumably the occupants are gainfully employed in making shoes.

The scenic part of the climb out of Chengde begins in the area called "GaoMiao" - there is a bus stop of that name near the foot of the scenic section. There is also a stop on the number 5 route further towards the top at "LingDong".

The bus stop convenient for the west end of the summit tunnel is "XiaDianJie".

If you want to move from one side of the summit tunnel to the other without either walking through the tunnel or climbing over the hill, use the old road. This gives very easy access to the section between the tunnels and to the classic position overlooking the Chengde end of the tunnel.

Platforms exist at number of "stations" along the branch, which inclines one to believe that a passenger service was provided (or at least planned) when the line was opened. I asked one of the drivers whether there had been passenger services but he said no. I am not sure I believe this.
 

DaMiao branch

I was interested to track down what I believed to be a branch north towards DaMiao, which is not that far from Longhua. This is shown in some maps of Chengde, and in the Japanese book, "Dragons on the Great Rail", there is a photo of a freight on this line. In company with Ian Martin and Ewen Brown, two enthusiasts from the UK whom we had also met the previous year in Chengde, we walked the line east from Shuangtashan depot to the tunnel. The line to Da Miao is actually separate all the way from the marshalling yard at Shuangtashan and then rather subtly diverges, about a mile east of Shuangtashan, near to Sanchakou, the road junction for Longhua. I say subtly as it appears to end in an oil storage depot, although the "mainline" of the DaMiao branch actually swings northwards past the depot up the valley. Judging by the rails, this branch is not very busy and you would need to enquire of train times to avoid wasting time hanging around for non-existent freights. 

The branch which diverges south at the west end of Shuangtashan station we were told served a pipe mill, which sounds logical being in proximity to the steel works. The branch which diverges to the north here by the depot is very short and serves a coal mine. 
 

Transport is very easy if you know where you want to go, as there is a minibus ("chuzu mianbaoche" or "for hire loaf of bread car" - the Chinese call any van like vehicle as a "mianbao" or (loaf of) bread.) along the main road (which is never far from the railway), virtually every minute. These minibuses run between Chengde railway station ("huochezhan") and the steel works ("gangchang").

So, what of the action? Still as good as ever. Early morning, I would recommend a visit to Shuangtashan which is very atmospheric. 

January 1 1999 was celebrated with a footplate ride on banker SY1753 which is good fun albeit not very long. The driver basically does not touch the controls on the ascent. How do I know? I was sitting in his seat holding the regulator for most of the climb. We, and the JS coupled to us, came down the hill at a hell of a pace afterwards. The SY cab appears very small after QJs and JS, mainly because it has inset doors, unlike the former two classes which have flaps covering the top of the steps.

Y226 back to Beijing on 2 January. This was really quite empty throughout judging by the number of passengers who detrained at Beijing. I think China’s railways are entering a new and difficult phase as the rapid development / improvement of the road network is making bus transport a viable alternative for rail on longer journeys. Rail has never competed for short journeys in China, but has been hitherto relatively secure as the long distance common carrier. Rail will I believe, have to go slightly upmarket, as it offers neither frequency nor speed as it stands, and people are rapidly getting a choice.

We met another two British enthusiasts at Chengde Xi on our last morning. They were doing Chengde, Yebaishou, Fuxinand and Jingpeng all by car (plus had fitted in a narrow gauge line south of Beijing, Wangdu – Baihe, two hours by road). While the purist may frown on this, it does add a lot of flexibility to the schedule, rather than hanging around for trains at inconvenient times, and putting up with sleeping cars without heat or water.

Robin J Gibbons

January 1999