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Dahuichang
Sujiatun
Tiefa JiTong
Chengde
Part 5: Yuanbaoshan Coal Railroad
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| Virtually all of the steam engines working in China today
are of the three most recently constructed standard classes, QJ, SY,
and JS. The last one of these is the least common and three of them
are shown here getting ready for day shift at the
Xi Zhan main station of
the Yuanbaoshan Coal Railroad. A forth JS is just
visable inside a fenced coal yard in the background, being coaled
with a european style overhead crane. |
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| Mixed trains to Fengshuigou run in morning and afternoon for the mine
workers. Fifty years ago these engines were
considered pretty radical looking, and their flashy style is even
more evident today. The three slanted louvers for air intake on each
side of her skyline casing give JS 8250 a particularly carnivorous
appearance, like the gills of a Great White shark. |
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| Most traffic is coal from several mines online.
Loads and empties meet all day long at Majiawan station and sidings, and
power of all trains runs around to the point of movement, just as we
would do it in the USA. What is interesting to me is that Chinese
freight cars do not have steps and railings for trainmen on all four
corners, needed to allow cars to be boarded and ridden on the
leading edge of movement. And some of these modern, all steel, roller bearing cars still have rooftop flat mounted mounted handbrake
wheels. |
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| The locomotive fleet consists of 9 JS class locomotives,
but the diesels are supposed to begin arriving next year. |
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| One of the best photo locations is from this bridge
overlooking the yard throat. |
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| Another fine steam locomotive improvement made by the
Chinese is the use of a third blowdown valve, located on the belly
just under the front tube sheet, and directed to the fireman's
(right hand) side just behind the cylinder block. What a brilliant
idea !!! Why didn't we do that in this country, or the external dry
pipe, either ?? On JS 8216, this is leaking just a fizzle, but it
doesn't slow her down much with these 20 or so empties. |
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| Lunchtime view from the driver's seat.
Two weeks in China convinced me that diesels aren't the best motive
power for every railroad. In other parts of the world where oil is
cheaper, the equation can also favor steam power because oil burners
do not require any digging and shoveling, saving in labor costs. Here in Yuanbaoshan, traffic is light,
coal is free and labor is cheap, and the working environment is
dirty. When one considers the much lower initial cost for perfectly
good modern steam power, you have to wonder if dieselization for
it's own sake isn't just "fixing something that ain't broke." |
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Pretty spiffy looking power for coal drags, I
bet these engines once had classier assignments. And did I mention
that Chinese steam engines have STORM WINDOWS ?? That's another one
for the "Why didn't we do it that way" file. |
Dahuichang
Sujiatun
Tiefa JiTong
Chengde
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