The latest news about the electrification of the mining railway in Chengzihe (Jixi) is that the poles are now being set up. At the moment they just finished doing the western part with the poles set up exactly say from the Xingfa mine (Xi Jixi) to the old viaduct which is parallel to the CNR. They might finish at the end of this winter or the first part of next year.
(Mike Ma)
For anyone who missed his recent posting on the Steam_in_China group, Duncan Cotterill has updated his Railography Chinese Loco Lists to include sightings received since May 2009.
Guangyuan (Rongshan) Prison Railway:
Guide Zhang Guangyu ("Zebedee") visited the line in September 2009. Locos are three C2 210, 211 and 218, two SY 1305 and 1434. He heard from a few drivers there that the line will be electrified after September 2010 because of purchase by the Panzhihua Iron and Steel Company. The line is still restricted to foreigners at this moment but he hopes it could be open to the public in future after the Panzhihua Company takes over.
Three web pages have been found with pictures of the line:
by Joeri Vanvaerenbergh (Steam_in_China 9093),
http://zengmh26.blog.sohu.com/21137943.html
two more by Derek Jenkins,
http://zengmh26.blog.sohu.com/59935795.html
and
http://zengmh26.blog.sohu.com/66068656.html.
Emei Iron Alloy Foundry:
A "new" location which "Zebedee" has visited. Three SYs, 0465 and 0516 were working, 1146 out of use. However the latest news is that steam finished in November 2009 with the appearance of a diesel. Emei is 156 km south of Chengdu on the line to Kunming, not far from Shibanxi.
Qu Xian Freight Depot:
Another "new" location visited by "Zebedee". Two SYs here, 0560 and 1500. Seems they don't like visitors. Qu Xian is about 170 km north of Chongqing (Quail Atlas line 26, km 660).
Qinghua Iron and Steel Works:
Visited around June/July 2009. Working loco SY 1635 newly repainted looking very smart, with spare loco SY 0529 in the depot. This location does not work every day.
Mianzhu Freight Depot:
SY 0045 is probably scrapped as it now has SYs 1198 and 1656 bought from Songzao in 2009. This could mean steam at Songzao is now finished.
Peter Semmelroch reports information from photographers he met on his visit to Xingyang.
Pingdingshan (Yuzhou):
He was told that Yuzhou still has 2 or 3 steam locos (QJ or JS) but only for shunting, they go to Pingdingshan only as bankers of diesel hauled trains now, if at all.
Guangyuan:
Interestingly the place to be for Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese gricers seems to be the so-called Guangyuan Prison Railway. For Asians visits seem possible, although Japanese gricers have been arrested and thrown out there recently. At least the Taiwanese we met had been there recently together with Chinese friends. For westerners the line seems to be off limits. Traffic levels are high, the line is said to be extremely scenic ("much better than Shibanxi") and serves a coal mine. There should be pics on Taiwanese websites available. Unfortunately the line will be electrified during 2010… Maybe we should go there now and disguise as Haibaos…
Steel Works
The Steel Works at Xuanhua no longer uses steam, (David Longman) and Chengde finished 18 months ago. (Xuejun Liu via John Raby, Steam_in_China 9079).
I can add that steam also finished at Tangshan about 18 months ago.
In April at least 5 steam remained in use at Panzhihua and 2 at Qian'an. (D.F.)
Shijiazhuang Local Railway, Hebei Province
Thanks to Colin Martindale for an update to Steam News (December 21st 2009). He visited Shijiazhuang on March 21st and found QJ 6391 and a second QJ, 6887, at the line's depot, neither in working order.
Further QJs
With reference to the Steam News (December 31st 2009) item extracted from Simon Colbeck's post 8883 on Steam_in_China, I have had it pointed out to me that the pictures of QJ 3174 and QJ 3233 are headed 老图支持 which translates as "Old picture", so interesting as the pictures were, probably not news. (D.F.)
Ameling Algra visiting from February 8th to 11th pictured a long train of empties from Liushuquan top and tailed by two JS and only mentioned diesels in passing, so clearly steam was still working alongside diesel on the connection to China Railway. So arriving late on March 1st (for explanation of lateness, await a full trip report), I wondered if the situation had changed. Passing Liushuquan station, there were two green DF4s present, were these the Coal Company diesels? Shortly after, the answer came as very unlikely as we were passed by a coal train from Nanzhan to Liushuquan hauled by a very non-industrial looking blue and white Co-Co lettered, according to Mike Ma, our guide, in Chinese as Luan (or maybe Lu'an) An Xinjiang Coal Company. The full extent of diesel arrivals was shown next day with DF8B 0247-0250 stabled at Nanzhan. Mr. Fu later told us the four secondhand locos had cost the price of two and a half new ones. On their visit in March 2009, Richard Turkington and Keith Strickland had learnt from an assistant driver that four second hand diesels would be delivered from Shenyang the following month, with two more in July/August. We know that the arrival of diesels did not keep to these dates, but it appears that both here and at Baiyin, non appearance of diesels in 2009 was merely postponed to the first quarter of 2010. If the DF8Bs are to be put to work on block trains over China Railway to a power station at Hami, as has been reported, will that keep them busy enough to see the return of some banked steam workings from Liushuquan to Nanzhan? Peter Haynes in Steam_in_China 9000 and 9047 notes during the three days he was there, on 9th March, one JS took a loaded coal train down on its own and returned light engine, and on 10th March a single JS brought up a rake of 37 trucks from China Rail. No banking engines however, all others were diesel hauled. He had the older CITS guide (Mrs. Gou?) and she had train control ring her when they were running the steam down to the China Rail. There didn't appear to be much running to and from China rail while he was there. I was there a few days earlier, from late on the 1st to the 4th of March. The only steam working seen to Liushuquan was SY 1729 on loaded coal around 17:30 on the first day, returning later on the rear of a diesel hauled train of empties. There may have been other steam workings, but we were without Mrs Gou and any contact with the control office.
In order to work coal trains out of the pit loco first, the embankment at Nanzhan from which the trains are unloaded has had to be extended to allow for the added train length including the loco. On the unloading operation observed, the loaded train passed over the unloading point to position the final wagon to be unloaded first. The loco then reversed its train, unloading each wagon in turn. Not all loco first trains are chimney first, one train noted was tender first. Not all loco first trains are loaded at the new loading point. Whilst making observations there, an empty train, which would return loco
first, passed the loading point and descended deeper into the pit. In addition to the conveyor belt to the new coal loader, another belt continues eastwards just above ground level to where a large stockpile of coal had been created using a complicated piece of "conveyor belt engineering". This stockpile had its own siding and a train was being loaded by one of the conventional tracked bucket cranes as used in the pit to load coal and spoil trains. Sandaoling is now unchallenged as the number one industrial steam hotspot worldwide. If you are lucky enough to picture a top and tailed train between Nanzhan and the deep mines at Beiquan, you will have some consolation for the diesel takeover of the line to Liushuquan. (D.F.)
You will have read all about the unwelcome arrivals in Duncan Cotterill's latest report. They did not arrive completely "under the enthusiasts' radar". On February 6th, Trevor Maxted passed on a message from guide Liu Xuejun of Chengde that diesels were expected at the end of February. Trevor remarked that of course this has been threatened before and nothing happened and this could be another rumour or mis-information. With Trevor's remark in mind and knowing I would be on the spot myself on February 27th, I decided not to pass on a possible rumour, so my apologies to Jun for ignoring his well sourced information. Only GKD1A 0206 had arrived by the date of my visit and it was decorated with small bows of red ribbon to celebrate its entry into service at its new home.
In Steam_in_China 8992, Joeri Vanvaerenbergh references link http://bbs.hasea.com/thread-427811-13-1.html which indicates Dalian will deliver a batch of four GKD1A. The link includes a picture of a loco body in undercoat described as 0206, and a picture of completed 0208 which is not in the BNMC blue colour scheme.
The more powerful DF7G 5183 seen by Duncan Cotterill has a lower running number than might have been expected. 5182 was noted at Pingdingshan in December 2007, as was 5186 at Haishiwan. 5195 and 5196 were at the Yaojie-Tiehejinchang Railway by February 2009, the same month as 5198 and 5199 were seen at Jalainur. Maybe the number had been reserved for an optional purchase that was not completed. (D.F.)
Thanks to Tim Arnot for informing me that the address of Liu Xuejun's Web site is now http://www.hasea.com/jun-railjourney/. The Links page entry for the site is now updated, but other links to his site will be changed as and when time permits. (D.F.)
Note: Duncan has made a draft report from his recent trip to Jixi and Baiyin available at ... http://live.railography.co.uk/ ... along with some pictures from each location.
He had intended to publish this material from China but was unable to upload the files from there.
He has provided a link (which will be used by SY-Country) for the final version of the report ... http://www.railography.co.uk/reports/2010/20100301-cn.htm ... It will reach the draft report until he gets round to publishing the final version. So just click on the link before this Note: in the usual way.
All clear, alles klar?
(Duncan Cotterill, Steam_in_China 9023)
Attempts to link to the Web site of Liu Xuejun (www.jun-railjourney.com) are not being resolved currently. If Jun reads this or anyone travelling with him can ask on my behalf, I would like to know if this is a temporary problem or if the site has been permanently closed. (D.F.)
Sandaoling diesels
The latest news today from Sandaoling is that they have tried to run the two new-bought diesels on the main line from Nanzhan to Liushuquan. Sometimes they are seen working together with steam. They are still using steam on the line to Beiquan.
(Mike Ma)
Zoucheng QJs
Li Yi, a student studying at Hainan University whose home town is Zoucheng, reports QJ 3461 and QJ 6811 still very busy when he visited on January 16th. QJ 7189 and QJ 7190 are both stored after recent overhaul at Laiwu Dong. Working QJs on heavy trains survive into the new decade.
Click here to view three of his pictures.
Note: Yi loaded a greater selection of pictures at http://www.ourail.com/thread-64916-1-1.html.
However access is currently impossible as the ourail Web site "needs to be checked by the authority. Maybe you know the Chinese goverment is cleaning the bad information such as erotic pictures or articles at the moment. Ourail.com needs a licence, so the website will be closed some days before we get it back".
Also, when it reappears and assuming it is in its previous format, you need to register to view. At the top right in pale blue there were two links each of two Chinese characters 注册 登录. The left hand link took you to registration, the other to login.
G W Travel
In case you are unaware, G W Travel have a tour with the China Orient Express, Beijing to Beijing, 18th - 27th March, visiting the industrial steam locations of Tiefa, Jixi, Huanan, Beitai and Fuxin.
There is an optional extension to Sandaoling and Zoucheng (for QJs) using air and hotels.
The itinerary and other information can be found here.
Price (without the extension) sharing a twin berth cabin is £ 3,995 / US$ 6,595 / € 4,595.
If you are interested, e-mail Rachel at G W Travel in the next week.
... SYs located
Peter Newsome has found additional information concerning the December 31st request for "SYs to be located ..." at Chinese Web site page http://english.rednet.cn/c/2009/03/04/1719319.htm .
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