In Search of Steam in Southern China

It seems I sent Robin Gibbons on a wild goose chase but he enjoyed it nevertheless...

Ganzhou, Shaoguan and Pingshi (June 1999)

The trip was originally prompted by a wish to explore the narrow gauge at Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, but ended up being a good grice on the JingGuang main line at Shaoguan and Pingshi, and a reccy for the JS worked NanLing railway at Pingshi.

Ganzhou Forestry Railway, Jiangxi

Rob Dickinson had mentioned Ganzhou to me a couple of months previously, and I had to confess I had never heard of it. Fortunately, Ganzhou is now on the new JingJiu (Beijing - Kowloon) line and Rick Wong and I took train 538, soft sleeper, Shenzhen - Jiujiang, as far as Ganzhou. The train seems to have been re-timed since the April timetable, and leaves Shenzhen at 21.03, getting into Ganzhou around 07.00 (timetable changes seem to be pretty frequent at the moment – the SanMao has also re-timed following the arrival of the DF4s which now do Maoming - Guangzhou in 5 ½ hours). At some stage during the journey, the DF4 we had on leaving Shenzhen must have been exchanged for a DF4C, as we saw the latter coming off the train at Ganzhou, to be replaced by another DF4.

The first sight of the narrow gauge line was very unpromising. We followed the very overgrown tracks to what looked to be the yard/depot area, where there were some logs still scattered about and at the end of this area, alongside the river, was a "preserved" C2 and coaches, which have been incorporated into the landscaped entrance to the JinShaWan holiday resort.

This was not very inspiring, nor was the weather so we re-traced our steps back into town. The track looked somewhat lightweight but we did remark that something appeared to have passed along it, as there were impressions of flanges where the earth was up to the level of the track. However, it did not look hopeful at all and we were just on the point of negotiating with a taxi driver to take us to Shaoguan, when incredibly, a diesel loco, bogie van and coach appeared (this was around 08.30). At which, thoughts of retreat disappeared, we clambered aboard and sat back to see what would happen. The loco set off back the way we had just come, pushing the van and coach, alongside the bank of the river, until it came to the yard, where we took the right hand arm of the triangle, which proved to be the "main line" (although even Railtrack would have had difficulty to grow more luxuriant weeds).

Next we stopped, the diesel loco uncoupled, set back into a siding, and we rolled past it so it could then come on the front – and off we went, at a very reasonable speed considering the lightly laid and obviously unmaintained track. First stop was to pick up the remainder of the train crew. They numbered five compared with we two passengers - two on the loco, two ladies, one who knitted and collected the fares, and one garrulous old boy whose function was not clear.

The loco was a ZN120 0-6-0 diesel mechanical, built at Shijiazhuang, No 028 of September 1978. Gauge appears to be 760mm.

The scenery was very pleasant and we were told that the line was originally 85km in length, but was now only 37km due to a landslide(?). The train runs every other day, so it appearing there and then was really quite extraordinary. After about an hour or so, the train stopped, where it came near to the road and there then followed a "Titfield Thunderbolt" - like scene, as various cans and containers filled with diesel were fetched from a garage on the far side of the road by several of the crew and garage staff, to refill the loco’s fuel tank. This was quite laborious as the railway was above the ground level and every thing had to be lifted first onto the running board and then onto the top of the loco, the tank filler being just forward of the cab.

We were advised that the terminus was not near a road, and as the train did not return until around 17.00 (it was now around 10.00) decided to get off at the next stop, TangJiang.

In some ways, it was a pity that we did not go as far as we could, but it would have meant waiting around for several hours and, as usual, we were pushed for time.

Shaoguan, Guangdong

After debating the merits of various modes of transport, a friendly taxi driver flagged down a bus, which we took from Ganzhou to Shaoguan. This looked to be an interesting journey on the map, but in the event was unspectacular. At Shaoguan, we checked into the Guotai (Cathay) Hotel, next to the railway station.

Shaoguan is at the southern end of the electrified section of the JingGuang line through the north of Guangdong, as far as Chenzhou in Hunan, and is a busy place, with an active hump yard. All trains need to change locos, which leads to lengthy station stops, with the exception of a few DF4D-hauled prestige trains, which work through the electrified section.

To get to the marshalling yard, take the subway to the right of the station as you face it, and immediately climb up at the far end onto a dirt road which, in one direction, leads to the JS stabling point and, in the other, runs alongside the marshalling yard to the hump, and if you keep going, eventually to the electric depot.

There was a bit of drizzle around, but there is a good vantage point over the whole station and yard area from a path over the top of a retaining wall and, at the south end of the yard, there is the opportunity to photograph north and southbound trains, watch the hump shunting etc. The yard shunters are all JS - there appeared to be four in steam.

The variety of motive power may seem a bit limited to some, DF4s to the south, SS1s to the north, the occasional DF4D, and JS shunters, but there are not many places you can see steam, diesel and electric, and watch hump shunting, all in one place. The main line is also very busy so periods when there are no trains are rare.

Standing by the southern end of the yard gave us the chance to study the various DF4s. There seems no obvious pattern to which locos have the small grilles in the cab front just above the buffer beam - anyone know what determines if there is a grille? There are some fairly elderly DF4s in the Guangdong bureau and we noted 0019 (Dalian 1975). Interesting to note that this is about 10 years older than most of the JS seen!

JS seen at Shaoguan: 6423, 6459, 6510, 6511 (all in steam), 6426, 6428, 6507 (dead)

Pingshi

An early start was anticipated but it was raining heavily at seven and an anticipated morning of photography was frustrated. We took the opportunity to buy tickets for the train to Kowloon the next day and then got rather wet hanging around the yard. We took the Y18 Foshan - Pingshi ("DaYaoShan Hao" - DaYaoShan being the long tunnel south of Pingshi) train from Shaoguan at 11.01 (it was late), arriving in Pingshi at around 12.45. As a "Y" train, this has soft seats, lots of them in fact, mostly empty.

JS 6459 and 6508 were seen in steam at Huanggang (there is a branch just north of here) and JS6424 at Lechang.

Pingshi is the last station in Guangdong and is in quite a spectacular setting beneath some cliffs and hemmed in by the Wu Jiang. Pingshi is a tourist destination and normal people go there to climb the "golden cock" ridge which overlooks the railway and river. There are several hotels. It is also the junction for the NanLing Railway, which is exclusively JS worked, hauling mainly coal but some general freight, and a passenger service. There is an early morning pax from PingNan station along the branch, at 08.00, returning to PingNan at 16.00, JS hauled (trains 951/2).

By the time we arrived at Pingshi, the rain had stopped. We spent an afternoon of photography at PingNan station and depot, and alongside the JingGuang mainline and caught train 375, Chengdu - Guangzhou, at 18.16 from Pingshi back to Shaoguan, powered by SS1 0776. Weather at this time of year (June) in southern China is not great for photography (or much else for that matter), with an overhead sun, and if no sun, very humid if not actually raining, not to say very arduous if the sun is shining with temperatures of 30 degrees plus.

Nearly all the main line traffic is SS1 hauled of course, but these are very pretty locos and with the mass building of SS3s, and presumably SS8s taking over services when the line is electrified through from Wuhan – Guangzhou, these may become an endangered species fairly soon. We did get DF4Ds up and down in quick succession, one of them at exactly the same time as a northbound pax. This is the downside of such a busy line!

The northbound DF4D 0288 was on the Guangzhou – Shanghai "LanDai Hao", "LanDai" being "blue ribbon" and this train being sponsored by the beer of the same name.

Two trains arrived at PingNan on the NanLing line in the afternoon, the first all box cars, and the second at 16.00 the returning mixed, with three coaches at the rear of a number of box cars. Earlier in the afternoon, one of the JS had a trip up the main line to collect a long rake of coal empties from north of the station.

Another reason for coming to Pingshi was to see if we could shed some light on the rumour that there was a service on the old JingGuang line, which winds its way along the east bank of the WuJiang, whereas the new line spends most of its time between Lechang and Pingshi in tunnels, including the 14km DaYao Shan tunnel (Rick timed us at 11mins going south through the tunnel on 375). Enquiries of the station staff at Pingshi gave rise to some inconsistency, but one plausible response was that a service started from Luojiadu at around 08.00 in the morning. There is a Luojiadu station south of Pingshi on the new line but this is connected by ferry to the east bank of the WuJiang, and the latter can apparently be reached by motorbike/three wheeler from Pingshi.

JS seen at Pingshi/PingNan 6372, 6376, 6377, and 6463.

Shaoguan – Hong Kong

The through Beijing – Kowloon and Shanghai – Kowloon services call at Shaoguan and there was no problem getting two lower soft beds for K97 Beijing – Kowloon on the Sunday morning, leaving Shaoguan at 07.05. The coaches are newer and in better condition than the norm and it was far from crowded. This is one of the DF4D hauled trains and with its 4000hp, it certainly eats up the miles. The DF4D has a top speed of 130km/h compared with 90/95km/h for an SS1, and 120km/h for a DF4B, and further time is saved through not having to change traction at Chenzhou and Shaoguan.

K97 offers a "western" breakfast, which comprises fried eggs, a couple of slices of some sort of sausage, toast, butter, a cup of coffee and a cup of milk.

We noted at JS 6419 at DongGuaPu.

The DF4D (0282 in our case) comes off the train at Guangzhou Dong to be replaced by a DF11 (0008) which does a bit of shunting to remove the first four coaches which go no further than here. The train then spends about an hour at Dongguan for the emigration formalities. We were passed three times between Guangzhou and Shenzhen by the ABB X2000 Xinshishu, which is obviously kept busy. The GongAn were not keen on our using our cameras at Donguan so no photos of the X2000 or the DF9s, both of which (0001and 0002) were in service.

At Hung Hom (Kowloon) terminal, we walked forward to have a look at the traverser which releases the locomotive, but one KCRC employee was not keen on us looking at such a secret installation up close. The railwaymen call the traverser, in typical Cantonese fashion, the "oil fried crab", the crab being obvious, and the analogy to food common in colloquial speech.