They were indeed built with stokers. My guess is that while in service with China Rail they were probably used by China rail crews. When sold off to JiTong they were probably not repaired as they failed because the economics of a second fireman vs rebuilding the stoker were in favor of more labor. Labor is cheap and they have a lot of people. Crossings with lights and gates often lack an automatic feature and simply rely on a person to watch for trains and push a button to lower and raise the gates for trains.

Greetings:
Both locomotive have had stokers reinstalled by the 701 Factory.
I have been told that the JiTong crews got a bonus for fuel economy and therefore hand fired. Stokers waste a lot of fuel, especially the ultra fine coal that the Chinese use for their steam locomotives, so much of it went right up the stack.
With the Chinese method of hand firing, the scoop is rotated as it goes past the firedoor and the coal is flung downward onto the firebed. I would note that Chinese scoops are rather narrow by our standards and have longer handles.
I fired an SY 2-8-2 at the Chengde Steel Co. railway and had a difficult time rotating the scoop and remaining accurate with the placement of the coal in the firebox, but obviously if you are trained to fire that way it becomes second nature.
It will be interesting to see how the QJs do with "full size" coal...
J.David

I have fired quite a bit with fine coal like you discribe. Tha largest pieces are about the size of marbles. On one visit to Cass in the late seventies they had bought some of this type of coal from somewhere in Pennsylvania. Firing the hard working Heisler on the steep grades you had to turn the scoop down forcing the coal to the firebed. Laying a bank in the rear corners required rolling the scoop handle around the firedoor and slamming the coal down onto the bank. On top of that the coal clinkered badly and required frequent hooking of the fire or even worse, dragging an occasional clinker back out the door. Making things even worse is the fact that the firedoor on the Heisler is practically on the floor and you nearly have to get down on your knees to look at the fire. It all made for a tiring day.

If a QJ fired good on fine coal it should be a piece of cake with a stoker and good coal.

John Bohon