Steam in China - February 2004
by Michael Rhodes
Nanpiao
This is a fantastic system. First can I try and dispell
some myths about when it was discovered etc. We understand that the
first railway photographer to take an interest in the system was
Wang ming Zhu, who went there in December 2002. He is an official
photographer for CNR and also a steam enthusiast. He is a good
friend of Li Weishu, our guide for the last 12 years. He then called
Li and told him he thought the location would be good for taking
tour groups to - Li made a fact finding trip to the lines in Sept 03
having tried to persuade us to visit it twice without success in
March 2003 and Oct 2003, but after his fact finding visit he
persuaded us it was worth a visit. Then the excellent maps by Louis
Cerny appeared on the net in Oct 2003 (and by the way they are
superb without a single mistake and allow very easy exploration of
the lines).
As for the system - it is a bit like steam in the South Wales
valleys - a full report will follow once I've done a weeks work and
then gone back to China in 6 days for 7 days on the last 3 narrow
gauge systems.
Jinxi Railway
Again why has nobody raved about this line?? - it is
quite simply fantastic. There are two return freights in daylight
hours (the times on Florians pages are not quite right) They leave
Huludao at 0900 and 1300 and the journey time to the limestone
quarry at Yangzhangzi is 70 minutes. The trains return from
Yangzhangzi at 1100 and 1500 and load to 14 x 50 tonne wooden bodied
limestone wagons. We were treated to the sight of JS6243 stalling on
the climb 5km out of Yangzhangzi and having to back down the hill,
and take a second run at the summit - fantastic sight with good
scenery and a conveniently located fast highway along the line to
allow chasing - again can I say how accurate Louis Cerny's maps are
for this sytem - they were worth their weight in gold.
Tiefa
The diesels are coming - there was a DF5 No.3137 which was
shunting the Daqing yard on 14th Feb and on that morning inspite of
perfect sun and snow, the Faku empties left Daqing behind DFH 2609
and an SY (rather than the usual back to back SYs). It loaded to 62
empties and the SY wasn't even working at all. I suspect it is the
beginning of the end for Tiefa. The DFH had arrived a week earlier
and was in very poor condition and we think the DF5 may also belong
to the colliery system although things got a bit jumbled in
translation as Li asked about this engine. Of course the optimist
may say that the diesel is needed as there is more traffic on the
Tiefa system (the new mines north of Faku are now producing more
coal) but I suspect like Pingdingshan, diesels will spread fairly
quickly.
Michael Rhodes
© 2004,
M.Rhodes