Shire survivor
In the mid twenties Nigel Gresley, one of the greatest locomotive engineers of the steam age, began to design a new locomotive for intermediate express duties on the LNER network. The result was the D49 class of 4-4-0 locomotives, each named after a shire county or fox hunt. Seventy-six locomotives of this class were built at Darlington works between 1927 and 1935, mostly allocated to the Scottish and NE areas.
I have long wanted to see the sole survivor from this class in steam, but as the locomotive (No. 62712 Morayshire) is normally based at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway this is not so easily arranged! My last attempt failed rather miserably as she was not rostered for service when we were in the area, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that a number of photocharters had been organised by Timeline Events for the start of 2015 at locations much further south. I opted for a day on the Nene Valley Railway at Peterborough.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast for today’s photo charter made grim reading, particularly with the threat of heavy rain from midday until mid-evening. I’m not complaining – this is the chance that you always take with a photo-charter but it is a little more frustrating when you know that the forecast for tomorrow is for sun all day long! Conditions aside, Morayshire was a wonderful sight in steam.
Morayshire had the longest working life out of her classmates prior to preservation, having been one of the earlier locomotives to have been built (in February 1928) and she was the very last to be withdrawn (in July 1961). The late Ian Fraser, a former LNER locomotive engineer, purchased the locomotive and donated her to the Royal Scottish Museum, ensuring the long term survival of an example of the class.
For most of her time in preservation she has worn the familiar LNER apple green livery, but for the last 18 months of her boiler ticket (which expires at the end of 2015) she was repainted in the BR lined black livery that she wore at the end of her working life. After her overhaul she will return in apple green.
Morayshire can be seen at the Nene Valley Railway’s 35A New England Steam event this weekend (21st and 22nd February 2015), which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the closure of New England Shed to steam.
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Reading the clouds
Our final day on the territory of the EF Doña Teresa Christina took us back to Eng. Paz Ferreira and the spectacular sight of Santa Fe no. 205 doing her best impression of a volcano as she departed with around 20 loaded wagons. It was a great sight to start the day, followed soon after by a run through the road crossing we had visited a few days earlier.
Throughout the day we had the diesel following close behind to retrieve the freight train after each run through which I am sure spared us from some of the difficulties that we experienced earlier in the week. Our translator, Marcia, told us that the local children thought that the steam locomotive was broken and that the diesel was coming to rescue it. Thankfully, on this occasion, that was not the case!
In the afternoon we headed to a rather spectacular rock cutting and watched in dismay as shadow fell on the line as our steam freight passed through. Inevitably, sunlight illuminated the rocks beautifully afterwards but the question we had to grapple with was, could we get a second runpast in sunlight when clouds were closing in rapidly? We waited and waited, trying to read the wind direction and the path of small gaps in the cloud cover.
The peril of betting on the wrong gap became apparent when the sun poked through a small gap in the clouds but quickly closed up again. It was 45 minutes before a slightly larger gap in the clouds looked set to give us a slim chance and the instruction to go was urgently transmitted by radio to the waiting crew. The steam freight passed through in perfect sunlight and disappeared moments later. Incredible!
The long wait was worth it for the shot it produced but had come at the price of the next photospot, the tunnel mouth outside Sideropolis, which was now in shadow after a brief moment in sunlight. It is a shot that will have to wait for the next tour to come here. It looked like this was the end of the light as we trekked back from the tunnel mouth to see Sideropolis under a blanket of clouds.
Our luck held a little longer, with glorious rays of sunlight greeting the arrival of the steam freight at Rio Fiorita’s wooden loading facility and setting up the perfect finale to our tour. Large crowds of locals had gathered at the level crossing to witness this final act in the week’s events which gave the end of the tour a rather unexpectedly lovely atmosphere.
In the evening the crew, translators, railway managers, museum team and our tour organiser were deservedly the toast of the room with many a speech taking us into the night. I am sure that the crew in particular needed their sleep after a hellish week in ‘the office’ but all of could say with absolute honesty that they had delivered a magnificent spectacle.
As I headed to bed the sound of thunder, lightning and torrential rain pounding down reminded me that luck really had swung our way today!
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Paint your wagon
The latest problem turned out to be much less serious than we had imagined and we were able to make it to Imbituba to take what we all expected to be the shot of the trip – Santa Fe no. 205 hauling a freight train past the lagoon with the south atlantic ocean in the distance. However, the story behind the shot is unquestionably bonkers…
The modern railway uses wagons with a white stripe, but in the 1980s the railway used stripeless wagons. To give us a historically accurate picture the railway had agreed to remove the white stripe from the wagons we would use for the nine days of our trip. However, the stripeless wagons that we loaded in Rio Fiorita had accidentally been discharged on their return to Tubarão and were now dispersed across the system. All the railway could offer us for our run to Imbituba were wagons with a white stripe.
I must confess that I am not absolutely devoted to historical accuracy, so I could have lived with a white stripe but this would have been anathema to purists. After some considerable discussion a compromise was reached – the railway agreed that we could paint out the white stripe on the wagons they could supply to us! It seemed a small price to pay to get things moving again. Our convoy of minibuses rolled out of the museum grounds and headed for Imbituba, via the local paint shop.
At Imbituba we stretched out along the line, armed with spray cans and roller brushes, awaiting the arrival of our freight train (hauled in by a diesel, which would be detached for the run pasts). The moment the wagons came to a halt we got to work, painting out the white stripe on the 14 wagons – though only on the side that would be photographed! On the strength of my efforts I think it is safe to say that I do not have an untapped talent for painting and should not be entrusted with a brush anytime soon…
The paint job was finished surprisingly quickly which was down to everyone playing their part and getting stuck in. We returned to the minibuses and headed to a roadside spot looking down on the line, the lagoon and the ocean beyond. It was a stunning backdrop for our freight train and a scene that I wouldn’t have missed for anything, no matter how mad the build up had been. I fear that for all our efforts we only succeeded in replacing an inauthentic white line with an inauthentic shiny brown line, but I didn’t care a hoot by this point. A beautiful moment had been captured.
We could relax a little now, enjoying a couple of shots further down the line as we headed back to Tubarão. The motorway was heavily clogged with traffic, but when we got going again there was a memorable stretch of driving running parallel to our freight train – exchanging friendly waves. Finally, we ended our day near Cabecudas where we grabbed a last shot before the light faded.
The story of the day was that, once again, victory had been clutched from the jaws of defeat.
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Three new problems and a setback
An early morning drive down the motorway brought us to Eng. Paz Ferreira station (Criciúma, Santa Catarina) for an early start with Santa Fe no. 205. The locomotive underwent something of a transformation in the yard with the smokebox and chimney painted black to give it a more authentic look (something that we particularly appreciated after last night’s video screening showed how things looked in the 1980s).
There are some areas of Criciúma that are not particularly safe for tourists to wander into but it so happens that this is precisely where the line goes – cutting a path through an area that was described to us as the ‘backyards of drug dealers’! It didn’t look too threatening when we turned up but we heeded the warning not to venture in, watching as Santa Fe no. 205 steamed through.
The locomotive attracted plenty of attention, with locals coming out from their homes and workplaces to get a closer look. As the crew answered questions from their loco’s new admirers we drove on to the next position – a long abandoned loading point that looked rather splendid in its crumbling state.
The next stop, on a gradient, gave us one last magnificent burst of steam power before Rio Fiorita. The locomotive had to pass through without stopping as it needed to clear the line for the diesel freights coming out. Finally, we made it to Rio Fiorito in late morning.
The coal from the mines at Siderópolis comes in by truck and after being dumped, the coal is transferred into the loading facility by conveyor belt and deposited into the waiting wagons. At least that was the theory… but as ever, there were a few problems to overcome first! They had run out of coal to load into our wagons, our loco was short of water and there were no paths to get us out of there…
The midday heat made the loading facility a somewhat unforgiving location to rest, with little in the way of shade, but we had no choice but to wait it out. In the meantime, a local journalist from Radio Siderópolis turned up to gather material for the strange story of the foreign tourists visiting Siderópolis, admittedly not a well known tourist destination, in search of steam. The resulting story and photographs can be seen at Turistas visitam Siderópolis para conhecer a „Maria Fumaça“.
A water truck organised by a Brazilian railway enthusiast turned up at 1pm and solved our first problem with impressive speed. As all this was taking place the trucks continued to deliver coal and by the time we were ready there were sufficient supplies to load our train – a process that has now been captured from every conceivable angle by umpteen photographers.
The process took a while but by the end we had 14 full wagons, giving us a load of approximately 1120 tons. A path was available to us, meaning that we could finally make our escape from Rio Fiorita – heading off in our minibuses around 3pm. Our destination was a gradient on the approach to Siderópolis where we saw our freight train struggle with her load before finally stopping 800 metres from the tunnel. It might have been a different story in the days of real steam when the locos were in much better condition but today, with not enough of the good coal left, it was just too much. When asked what he would do differently next time, our tour leader said he would take 13 loaded wagons!
The crew asked for a diesel to come and assist, whilst once again an admiring crowd looked on. It was clear that our day of photography was at an end so it was time to relax a little before the long drive back. No-one needed to be told that tomorrow was likely to be problematic.
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Return from Urussanga
The early morning wake-up call was probably the last thing anyone wanted to hear after a late night shoot, but it was just so good to have things finally working smoothly enough that we could start so early. At least we got to sleep in our own beds which is more than could be said for one member of the crew, who stayed with the locomotive all night (in a box car).
Our locomotive, Alco no. 153, had spent the night at Urussanga and the plan was to work this back to Tubarão where it would cross with the second locomotive, Santa Fe no. 205, on its way to Eng. Paz Ferreira. Our day would start with no. 153 and then switch to 205 when they crossed.
The picture we shot at Urassanga with the wooden coal loading facility and a Volkswagen beetle stopped at the crossing could so easily have been a moment in the 1980s when steam was in everyday use here.
In reality, the owner of a VW beetle had been persuaded to join us for a staged scene with the car carefully parked in the optimum position for photographs. The owner assumed this was enough but who abandons a car at a level crossing!? No, we needed a driver… the owner laughed, got back in the car and then showed that he too could add his own touch of authenticity by pointing out that he would put his seatbelt on too!
After the eccentricities of the staged scene at Urussanga we followed our train back down the line, taking shots at a cutting en route to Esplanada and on a fairly uninspiring spot where the road runs parallel to the track (though this did allow me to grab a shot of our VW minibus with the loco passing by).
The final shot of the morning came at a gradient near Morro Grande which provided a great view of 153 approaching from a long way out, although we had to wait a while on the hillside to witness that. The delay suggested that things were not quite as perfect as we had thought, though none of us could understand exactly what the nature of the problem was. I hoped that it was another small but ultimately insignificant problem.
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Railfan’s day at Glenbrook Vintage Railway
Although, for once, my travels have not taken me a country with any real steam operations there are still a number of interesting preserved railways here in New Zealand that I have been keen to see. One of the most impressive is the Glenbrook Vintage Railway (GVR), which is around a fifty minute drive from central Auckland.
The Glenbrook Vintage Railway largely follows the footprint of the old Waiuku branch line, although it deviates from the old alignment shortly before its current terminus at Victoria Avenue, Waiuku.
The Waiuku branch line was first mooted in 1880 but construction only began in 1914. A further eight years elapsed before the railway finally opened in 1922. It connected Waiuku with the North Island main trunk line which connects Auckland and Wellington. The branch line closed in 1967 and the track was in the process of being lifted when the GVR stepped in.
The GVR re-opened a section of the line in 1977 and have made steady progress with their extension towards Waiuku, opening to Pukeoware (1977), Fernleigh (1986) and Victoria Avenue (2010). The railway hopes to be able to extend the line to a final station at the Tamakai reserve in time (an artist’s illustration of the intended future terminus was on display at Glenbrook station and certainly looked impressive).
This weekend the railway are holding a vintage festival and the Railfan’s Day (photographic charter) organised as a prelude to the festival seemed like an opportunity too good to miss. The charter for the day used two visiting locomotives (L507 and Y542 from MOTAT) with numerous run pasts on the railway’s 7.5km of track, starting and ending at Glenbrook.
First up was the L, one of ten 2-4-0 tank locomotive built by the Avonside Engine Company, Bristol in 1877. The locomotive saw service with New Zealand Railways from 1877 until 1903, when it was transferred to the Public Works Department for use in construction work until the early 1930s. In later life the locomotive saw industrial service with the Portland Cement company before her acquisition by the Western Springs Railway (MOTAT) in 1971. To open our day the L was coupled with a single passenger carriage.
After a lunch stop at Waiuku the charter resumed in the afternoon with Y542 on a mixed passenger/freight. The Y was one of three 0-6-0T locomotives built for the Public Works Department in 1923 by the Hunslet Engine Company, Leeds, and remained with the department until 1951. In her time with the PWD the engine was used on the North Island Main Trunk railway construction projects. In 1951 she transferred to New Zealand Railways for a short lived period of service (just seven years) before moving on to the Portland Cement company. Y542 was acquired by MOTAT in 1985.
Although the big engines were not in service today, we were able to see them being prepared at Pukeoware workshops in readiness for the weekend’s festivities. I have to admit that the two members of the Ja class 4-8-2 steam locomotives that we saw (Ja1240 “Jessica” and Ja1250 “Diana”) looked like pretty impressive engines. I’ll have to come back to see one in service on a future occasion!
Our charter came to an end with our return to Glenbrook just after 5pm… I really wish all my 9-5 days were like this! To avoid hitting the rush hour we drove back to Waiuku and enjoyed a leisurely and surprisingly tasty meal at the Kentish Hotel, a historic pub just across the road from the Tamakae reserve and a part of the Waiuku Heritage Area. It has been a pretty full-on day at the end of a full-on week, but I loved every minute of it.
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Kawakawa
In the early morning we drove out of Auckland, heading north on the motorway to Northland. The conditions were fairly miserable, with heavy rain falling throughout the morning.
Our first destination in Northland was Kawakawa, a small town in the Bay of Islands which originally developed around a coalfield discovered in the mid nineteenth century. Although the mines closed at the start of the twentieth century the transport infrastructure built to support them remained, notably a railway line to the deepwater port at Opua. Kawakawa’s railway line was the first to be established in the North Island.
In the late 1980s the line was re-invented as a scenic tourist railway with 14 bridges and a 80m tunnel along its 11.5 route. Sadly, the railway’s operating licence was withdrawn by the Land Transport Safety Authority at the turn of the century and although a new trust stepped in to revive the railway in 2006 it has taken time to restore the line to its full extent.
The line has already been re-opened as far as Taumarere (which is the current destination for services) and the next hurdle is the long ninth bridge on the way to Opua. The bridge was built in the late 1940s/early 1950s and crosses the Kawakawa river for a distance of 230m, supported by 35 piers. The amount of renovation and replacement required to overcome this hurdle is daunting.
The view from the bridge looked terrific as we walked across and I am sure that it would look pretty spectacular to photographers from across the landscape (if they can get trains running across it again).
One of the highlights of the railway is the run into Kawakawa itself, along the main street, which was the spectacle that we were presented with around midday. The rain was teeming down which made photography a little tricky, but after this the weather improved dramatically.
We enjoyed a pleasant ride on the train to Taumarere (a journey of around 16-17 minutes) and back again which gave us a good opportunity to learn about some of Taumarere’s vanished sights and the challenges facing the railway today. I really hope they manage to make it back to Opua.
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Farewell to Sandaoling
Our farewell to Sandaoling was destined to be a short-lived affair as we needed to start our 380km drive to Dunhuang at 10.30am if we were to be sure to make the 6.58pm departure to Lanzhou. It also meant that our breakfast of noodle soup had to be capable of sustaining us for the entire day, with no guarantee that we would get to eat again today if the sleeper train did not have a restaurant car!
We took the familiar road to Dongbolizhan and arrived in good time to watch the tender-first departure of the passenger train with JS 8089. The plan was to stick around until the return of the passenger train and then head to a spot in old Sandaoling but this soon unravelled as the passenger train was delayed at Xibolizhan, awaiting the final trains for the tender show. We couldn’t abandon the plan as some of the group had taken the opportunity to experience the commute Sandaoling style! The passenger train eventually returned around 30 minutes late.
After an obligatory group shot at a ruined gate in old Sandaoling we headed to a level crossing at Nanzhan where we got our last sighting of a JS class steam locomotive with one of the youngest of the fleet, JS 8314, shunting some wagons. It is incredible to think that a steam locomotive like this only rolled off the production line at Datong in 1988.
Although we had seen plenty of JS action in our week at Sandaoling it was still a pleasure to savour these final moments of working steam before we said farewell.
A final stop at Kengkongzhan
It seem appropriate that the end of our last full day in Sandaoling should be spent at Kengkongzhan, given that it was the prospect of chimney first coal trains that lured most of us here. Indeed, a coal train was already rounding the curve as we sauntered along the ledge – prompting a headlong dash down the bank to get to a decent position.
After JS 8225 had passed with its loaded coal wagons I crossed the track to explore the photographic opportunities from the other side, particularly enjoying the spectacular view of the curve with the dramatic ‘grand canyon’ backdrop and a clear view of the mountains in the distance.
The next coal train, hauled by JS 8089, caught us a little off guard by arriving tender first. The delight of chimney first trains out of the pit is in no sense guaranteed and when combined with the somewhat erratic schedule of the coal trains shows that such pleasures can come at a price measured in patience! Thankfully, for us, normal service service was resumed by the return of JS 8225 chimney first.
Although we stuck it out till the sun set there were to be no spectacular sunset shots today. In any case, even if the sun had co-operated the last train past us before the light faded was JS 8089 running tender first. I know when I am beaten!
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Spoilt for choice
A short distance from the yard at Xibolizhan the tracks diverge, six lines fanning out from west to east and each ending at a different spoil dump. It’s a fabulous spot to visit as you stand around trying to work out which line is going to be next to receive a spoil train.
The five lines to the west are crossed by a rather rough level crossing (with a rather cute hand-painted sign warning of steam locomotives) and near to here there are a series of small huts. On the way up trains stop at the huts to pick up a worker with the key used to release the spoil onto the dump. On the way back down they stop to drop him off. It seemed like a classic, if baffling, bit of job creation for its own sake!
Originally there were six lines here but one has been lifted since my last visit. The space left by the lifted track is still marked out by telltale pairs of wooden stumps and there are small sections of mangled track lying here and there. A neat pile of track and sleepers could be seen stacked to one side.
In the hour that we spent here we saw spoil trains pushed/hauled back tender first by JS class locomotives 8076, 8077, 8078, 8167 and 8368. In addition to this, we saw JS 6224 coming back from a spoil dump with a crane and JS 8173 with a spreader on the separate line to the east (though a spoil train would have been a more impressive sight on this distinctive tip!).
Gallery from the spoil dumps
A morning at Xibolizhan
A morning exploring Xibolizhan gave me a good chance to see the area from a different perspective to my previous visits, with more time spent photographing the line from the pit entrance/exit to the gantry than I have managed before. A raised bank to one side of the line provided a great vantage point to see trains working against a backdrop of abandoned villages, industrial complexes and the mountains.
The arrival of JS 8225 with a train shortly after sunrise was particularly wonderful. There was something about the way the light caught the train as it passed a small patch of wild grasses in the barren landscape that worked perfectly.
After spending some time walking along the bank I returned to the track and followed it into the pit, where I watched one of the excavators at work on the upper levels – crunching rock from the side of the mine and filling wagons in a waiting train with spoil. It is always an impressive sight to see industrial steam in action like this – as far removed as it is possible to get from the polished image of steam that you get on any preserved line in the UK! I certainly couldn’t tire of the sight of a JS working hard with a spoil train.
It was always going to be a wrench to tear ourselves away from as incredible a scene as this, not least because there was always the promise of another spoil train round the corner (quite literally). On this occasion we stayed around this spot until midday, then headed over to the spoil dumps on the other side of Xibolizhan to see the end of the process.
Xibolizhan Gallery
Shift change at sunrise
After another early morning start, fuelled by a wonderful breakfast of dumplings cooked on a stove in the street, we headed out on the bumpy road to Xibolizhan. The twinkling of stars in the darkness suggested that the cloudy start from yesterday would not be repeated.
The morning shift change at Xibolizhan is a highlight of any visit to Sandaoling as it presents an opportunity to see around eight locomotives lined up, tenders facing towards the pit. It’s not often that I am tempted to photograph locomotives tender first but in Sandaoling it is a necessity – indeed, it has been the most authentic position to find a loco within the pit. I took a grab shot of the line up which gives the smallest impression of just how remarkable this is.
The photographic opportunities abound as the crews change over. The sunrise presented a great opportunity to get amongst the lines and get some interesting shots of the crew, but my favourite shot was the line up of passengers waiting on the platform with loco after loco in the background. Understandably the workers take this for granted but to anyone from an increasingly steamless world it is the most amazing sight to behold.
Amidst all of this, the morning passenger service from Dongbolizhan is scheduled to arrive. At this time of year the train’s arrival coincides with the sunrise, making for a wonderful start to the day. It was great to see thirty year old Datong loco JS 6224 arrive in good time, positively glowing as the sunrise enveloped the train.
After the passenger service departed the trains worked their way back into action one-by-one. As a spectacle it is hard to beat!
The workshop
The railway workshop is located amidst the demolished remains of old Sandaoling, a short walk away from the compound of stored locomotives and the line to the unloading point. It was reassuring to see locomotives were still undergoing overhauls and there was plenty of work going on around the place.
At the nearby compound of stored locomotives JS 8040 was in use with a rail mounted crane for the retrieval of several lengths of line which were being loaded onto the back of a lorry. It was a surprisingly interesting operation with the locomotive moving forward and back as required for each load.
The weather had improved a little by the time we came to leave the workshop but it still wasn’t worth going for a sunset shot. An early bath tonight!
The pit
Our day began at Xibolizhan where we watched the remarkable sight of nine trains lined up side by side at shift change before making our way along the track towards the pit entrance/exit.
The open cast mine at Sandaoling is an incredible sight, even in conditions as overcast as today, which surely cannot be rivalled in the steam world. The mixture of dust from the excavations, columns of steam and mist evoked a hellish vision with the sun only slowly breaking through the clouds. The eye of sauron wouldn’t have looked out of place here!
The poor light and the persistant wind left us with conditions that were not especially conducive to photography or video, but nevertheless we gave it a go. A particular highlight was the sight of JS 6209 struggling with a spoil train on one of the lower levels of the pit which resulted in JS 8190 being sent to assist – a spectacular double header.
In the afternoon we drove round to another clifftop viewpoint which gave a great vista across the fallen rocks to the lines up from the pit. The ledge we walked along contained some giant cracks and it didn’t take much imagination to realise that some caution was required. The unstable nature of the terrain had led to a series of landslides in the area and a nearby village had been abandoned. A beautiful but potentially deadly landscape.
Along the top of the cliffs a series of abandoned pairings of wooden stumps signalled that the the railway had once come this way in an earlier phase of the pit’s development but the track and much of the ground it was sited on had long gone.
As spectacular as the view was, the light really wasn’t with us today so it was agreed by all that we should head for the workshop and keep our fingers crossed for better weather tomorrow.
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Sunset at Kengkongzhan
We returned to the crumbling cliffs of Kengkongzhan for our sunset shot and hoped for that perfect combination of a coal train with the setting sun. The colours were rather incredible with the rails almost seeming to glow with a glint from the sun. I had a few attempts at the shot and didn’t really get it right, but it still captures the essence of a rather wonderful moment.
The deep mines
After leaving Dongbolizhan we headed to the deep mines at Beiquan where we hoped to see some trains to/from Nanzhan and shunting around the washery shunt. At this point the line crosses a barren and near featureless landscape which makes the soaring background of the Tianshan mountains all the more spectacular.
The control office assured us that a steam propelled train was due but we had a lengthy wait before anything appeared, then we all groaned as the hum of a DF8B drew closer to our positions in the middle of nowhere. We could easily have abandoned our positions but thankfully we persevered and were soon rewarded by a steam propelled train which we followed to the second mine at Beiquan.
At the mine the train was being loaded a few wagons at a time by a few diggers whilst an endless stream of lorries made the trip along the dusty road with full loads of coal to add to the mountain. After watching the shunting and false departures around here we moved on to the first mine and watched a JS make a slow crawl along the line as yet more lorries rumbled along the parallel road.
The landscape here was quite incredible – there was something about the combination of the barren landscape, the power plant chimneys, thick clouds of coal dust and a demolished village that left you thinking that you were looking upon a vision of hell. It was all very well us spending a day there taking photographs, but it must be a harsh environment to live in.
By late afternoon, there were three JS class steam locomotives gathered at Beiquan – two locomotives from the Nanzhan pool (8358 and 8366) and, strangely, one of the locomotives usually seen working spoil trains (6209). JS 6209 is one of the oldest steam locomotives in use at Sandaoling having been built at Datong in 1981 and presumably was a temporary substitute for one of the out of action Nanzhan locomotives. After watching JS 8366 depart we took our leave from Beiquan and headed away to find a suitable spot for sunset.
Gallery from Beiquan
The morning passenger
The early morning passenger train runs from Dongbolizhan to Xibolizhan around 8.40am and then returns half an hour later. It’s not a luxurious commute by any standards, using two box cars, but it is an effective way to get between the two points quickly – especially as the roads in this area are particularly bumpy. The train can be chimney first or tender first, so what you see is down to luck on any visit!
It was interesting to see just how many people could be squeezed into the two box cars and even more surprising to see a motorbike being driven out amongst the departing throng!
Gallery from Dongbolizhan
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