As I recall (from third-hand hearsay) Datong was the facility that was going to construct the replica Hudson... until the commissioning 'patrons' discovered that series production was planned after theirs...

I thought then, and still do, that there is a very valid place in this world for knockoff Hudsons, particularly J1e Hudsons...

The tour group I was with in '87 (they were building the last of the JS Mikes at that point) arrived by bus at the Datong works at lunch time and we got to see the lunch rush of bikes leaving the plant. Somewhere I have a slide taken out the front window of the bus of that mass exodus. Any color bike you want, as long as it's black.

I never found a diesel power plant. But there could have been one behind a lock door in one of the Tunnels. I spent a lot of my time doing the UTs and inspections on the boilers at the outside shop. Also, inside the tunnels I could not wonder around too much without a minder.
There was another building outside the rear exit of the upper tunnel which was a forge shop. Once 6988 was all painted and ready to ship factory had a photograph morning all the staff posed in clean newer 701 factory China Railroad Uniforms. The even gave myself and my interrupter uniforms. If I remember one of reasons for the 1/2day event was a schedule power outage probably the diesel generator was out of use.

The power plant outside was mostly a boiler plant for heating. I remember in the tunnels various side spaces for pumps, fans, electrical and various plant equipment.
The two QJ Locomotives that scrapped in 2007 were 6998 and 7002.
The JS Shop Switcher was 8162.

Dennis Daugherty

That came from me, most likely. Someone I knew who had lots of money and wanted to see a Hudson running as he'd had a Lionel one as a kid started asking around if one could be built.
Myself and a mutual friend told him of Datong. He paid someone to get a full set of plans and go to China.
They apparently came up with a price he agreed to and his assistant related a comment they'd made as he was leaving that he'd be able to buy a second or third for a fraction of the cost. Had he not told the money man that, there probably would have been a Hudson in existence today.
He heard the comment, threw a fit over the idea and cancelled the whole thing right there.
He is still alive today and I'm still on good terms with him, which is why I've never named him.

Interrupter? Freudian slip?

Dennis, thanks for the excellent postings, the facility is fascinating.

It would be interesting to know what happened toward the end of the exploration video, that allowed the other two people to get inside, and they then appear to leave through a different and less difficult route.

PC

I'm absolutely baffled by this. Was he upset that a business whose goal is to make money upset by the fact that they looked for an opportunity to make more money? Did he just want the only one in the world? What's the deal here?

Yes, that's what he wanted. He couldn't handle the idea of paying for the setup costs for someone else to get one for well under what he paid.
This guy is NOT a name in railroad preservation in any way. He's really not even a big train fan. He just wanted a real life Hudson as he'd gotten a battered Lionel one as a kid, second hand.

Such a bad way to look at it. I work in the custom machine building industry, and after you do the non recurring engineering (NRE), invest in tooling, and figure it all out machine number two always costs/sells far less money than the first.

The only way this is not the case is if somebody is going to develop a machine as a standard product to sell on the market. And looks to spread their NRE and tooling over multiple units. In the late 1990's -2000's there would be no sane individual willing to invest all the money to make a NYC Hudson on speculation so the first buyer would have to pay all the upfront costs. Even if a second was built would having them double head down the Hudson River really be such a terrible thing?