MORE MOST EXCELLENT QJ NEWS !!!!

QJdriver · **Posted:** Thu Sep 24, 2009 3:55 pm

Shandong and Henan Province QJs

Zoucheng QJs continue at work and are still being sent for overhaul to Laiwu Dong workshop.

From the Chinese http://www.railwayfan.net Web site, pictures from a recent trip through Shandong and Henan provinces (http://www.railwayfan.net/viewthread.php?tid=77064).

Pictures include:
(a) QJ 3461 and QJ 6811 working from Dadongzhang servicing point of the Zoucheng system (working locos as February 2009 report).
(b) QJ 7189 newly repainted (Zoucheng main depot?).
(c) QJ 7072 out of use at Zoucheng Iron Alloy Factory.
(d) Dumped QJs at Jibei Railway depot (7121, 7124, 7127, 7130, 7132).
(e) Yanzhou Coke Plant, QJ 6814 and QJ 7126 working (as February 2009 report), QJ 6936 and QJ 7188 stored (as previously assumed).
(f) Laiwu Dong workshops, QJ 7190 (working at Zoucheng, March 2009) and QJ 7191 (most recently assumed stored at Yanzhou Coke Plant) both being overhauled. Also boiler, frame/wheels and tender of an unidentified JS being worked on. QJ 3460, QJ 6868 and QJ 7032 out of use outside.
(g) Xintai Zhaizhen Coal Railway, newly overhauled QJ 7076 in steam, QJ 7086 spare. Even a Chinese visit, despite introductory letter, had problems here.
(h) Moving on to Henan province, QJ and JS both out of use are probably QJ 7179 and JS 8132 at Yanshi Power Station, east of Luoyang.
(i) Guanlin Steelworks, Luoyang, SY 0866 working and SY 1316 spare(?).
(j) Pingdingshan Concrete Sleeper Factory, QJ 6205 out of use and QJ 3438 very out of use.
(k) Yuzhou-Pingdingshan, QJ 6690 (out of use Pingdingshan?), QJ 6786, QJ 7186 and JS 8030 in use.

They have to have more steam left in Pingdingshan than that, too !!!

(via Joeri Vanvaerenbergh, Steam_in_China 8695)

survivingworldsteam · **Posted:** Thu Sep 24, 2009 5:28 pm

What amazes me about your list is how many locomotives and locations are new to me after a decade of tracking steam in China and the rest of the world. It looks like railfans there are doing what we did in the United States in the 1960s, and looking in every corner for steam still in use.

I am subscriber to the PhilippineRailways group on yahoogroups.com; and also recieved the following e-mail. An 11:59:59 revival of world steam? 40+ years after Ron Ziel wrote "Twilight of World Steam", steam is still hanging on; if just barely!

Quote:

STEAM LIVES!!!!.....

HPCO (Hawaiian-Philippine Suga Company) No5 LIVES! the other day I was standing on the footplate and it had 12psi on the gauge, if I had been there earlyer in the day would have seen it in steam.... BUGGER!

No5 & No7 are being looked after and kept in going order, you can hire a loco for 15,000Php but you have to give them 1 weeks notice, which is great news!

We could only get into the mill after office hours as there is nobdody to guide you around and the person which did guide us did so on his own time after hours, the down side for me was that it started to rain and was 3/4 dark by the time we got out to the engine shed, my photos aren't very good because of it:( HPCO still has about 100km of track out to transfer points and are still using diesel powered trains from there to the mill. infact there was a newly overhaul Plymouth diesel in the shed, looked good, it's lettered as "SSR" (Silay Sugar Railway (I think!)

Anyhow...

Well we have spent 3 full days here in Negros looking for the last of the sugar cane trains, found 20 steam engines and about the same number of them diesel things, the range run from very much not better then scarp to being in steam. Some locos we only saw from from 40 or 50 meters away, some were very easy to get to and the hardest one to see where yesterday at La Carlota,but that netted 6 very nice baldwins! that took a trip to the town hall to arm twist the local tourism people ;) But that worked, I wasn't going to be turned away after all the time and cost to get there! the sad news is La Carlota has no operational engines and from what I could see yesterday has o track left anyway.

I'll post a full report and photos in November when I've made it home and had time to pick out the best photos from the 600+ I've take here in Negros!