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| Mongolia?
Tibet? Siberia? Help! I'm lost already |
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| The
impressive Beijing Railway Museum. The guy on the right is
Chairman Mao himself. |
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| The
steam powered narrow gauge Dahuichang Limestone Railway proved a neat diversion to fill
out Saturday afternoon before our overnight train was to depart to
places unknown. Here one of two wee locos in steam cuts off a train,
letting gravity
take the limestone hopers into the tippler building. |
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| Here,
number 1 heads up the line with empties. In addition to the two
working locos, another two rest in the brick shed behind the
tracks here |
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| And
number 2/3 (3 with 2's tender) heads downhill with loads. If
anyone finds a 1.4x teleconverter at this spot, its mine. |
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| The
same train sans teleconverter |
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| Both
locos are visible here passing with loaded and empty trains. The
line is double tracked to make things easier
.
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| Cruising
downhill. The hoppers have no brakes so its all up to the loco |
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| Empties
working up towards the road crossing |
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| Another
downhill at the same spot. We struck plenty of trains in our
fairly short visit |
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| A
nice little scene at the road crossing |
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| And
again. The two barrier arms are linked by wire so that when the
crossing keeper...
...raises
or lowers one, the other side moves also. This guy had a fairly
busy afternoon, but didn't have much to do between trains but be
amused by the weirdos with cameras. And there were plenty of
them around with a couple of minibuses showing up as well as our
tour.
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| Steaming
toward the crossing |
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| Some
locals watching a guy with a crash helmet and a parachute
repeatedly throwing himself off a very small hill and then
walking up to the top again. |
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| Back
towards the tippler building |
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| A
minor problem with the tippler sees a little congestion back at
base. The light-starved photographers rejoice of course |
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| #1
steaming off uphill with another round of empties |
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| Number
3/2 waits for a string of wagons to be unloaded |
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| And
finally heads off again as the sun sets
More info on this
railway might be found here if the intraweb hasn't broken itself:
Dahuichang
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| After
a meal, we headed to one of the Beijing stations and waited outside in
a long line for the station doors to open. In quite a bizarre ritual,
women in uniforms with small megaphones herded people this way and
that in what appeared to be a random fashion. Anyway, eventually we got
onboard our 'soft sleeper' to Chifeng.
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| Sunday
morning finds us tired after an all night train ride but raring
to go (comfortable train though). A few directional issues
meant it took a while to find the line, but the weather was
pretty average anyway. The first train seen was an eastbound single
header with QJ 6998 on the pointy end, seen here passing
Xiakengzi villiage |
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| We
booted up the brickworks valley and a brief but steep climb
bought us to tunnel 2, and from here the train is seen
crossing the ErDi viaduct. The weather has miraculously cleared
as an added bonus. |
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| And
popping out of tunnel 2. The steamers on the line are all QJ 2-10-2s
bought second hand from the now-dieselised government railway
(the JiTong railway is pseudo private enterprise). The last QJ
was built in 1988 - far newer than the green DF4 diesels that
are replacing them!
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| At
SanDi (can't you seeee, I'm in mis-er-eee) on the other side of
the hill, a train with a mix of diesel and steam (0582+6981)
heads around the lower horseshoe |
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| And
crosses our single header at SanDi loop |
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| As
the light was fading, we headed to the inside of the famous
SiMingYi curved viaduct to see if we could pop off a nice sunset
silhouette. As you can see, we did, but a light diesel wasn't
what we'd hoped for! Steam trails in the shadows hint at action
to some. |
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| As
the light faded, a double QJ train steamed uphill behind
SiMingYi village, before looping over the road in a 180 degree
horseshoe and heading left... |
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| ...and
crossing the bridge which
is part of another 180 degree horseshoe which brings things it back to
the direction they stared on. These double QJ trains are, like ,
you know, way cool, dude.
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| The
next morning we were up early, but there were no trains on the
radar, so we headed north of Jingpeng on the new
2-lanes-each-way motorway. Upon seeing steam in the distance, an
emergency 7 point U-ey was executed, followed by some 'wrong
line running' (on the wrong side of the dual carriageway due to
the median strip) to find a suitable spot. Luckily
the few cars around (there may have been more donkey carts)
didn't seem to find this behavior out of the ordinary in the
least. |
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| The
same train crossing the Jingpeng bridge. All the viaducts on the
line that I saw are of a similar concrete design. This is 6981 again with another QJ |
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| Jingpeng
is a water stop that usually holds trains up for 20-30 minutes
before they begin climbing the western slope of Jingpeng Pass.
Here the train is seen climbing between Jingpeng and the Biligou
bridge
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| The
Billygoat bridge. Quite a scramble up steep and rocky hillside
from the valley floor to get up here. I was not a mountain goat
in a previous life. |
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| A
grab silhouette shot of the same train through the bus window while we
scoot ahead of it at the SiMingYi curved bridge |
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| Approaching
the summit at Shangdian, the train passes one of a decent number
of manned road crossings on the line |
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| Each
crossing has a little brick hut which is conveniently not shown
here. Yes, this a dreadful way-to-wide shot taken pointing up,
in a hurry,
without too much thought. Still, we didn't come all this way to
stand around humming the SanDi song. Don't you hate it when
songs pop into your head to roost? |
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| At
Shangdian, diesel 0490 heads downhill after crossing the
previous train. The original stations from the 1996 opening are
semaphores, the more recent ones have colour light signals |
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| The
same train near Xiakengzi while one horsepower ignores it |
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| QJs
6996 and 7137 enter the Brickworks valley between Hadashan and
ErDi |
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| QJ
6996 puts on a show |
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| More
shots for the lazy photographer
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| We're
all waiting for trains. |
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| 6998
and an anonymous QJ steam up through Xiakengzi |
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| And
up towards SiMingYi viaduct |
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| Three
levels of the Z shaped track loop-de-loop are visible here with
SiMingYi village in the background |
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| The
viaduct |
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| And
again, just to exercise the shutter finger |
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| This
may or may not be the same train at some other spot. Just superb
record keeping... |
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| Back
at Jingpeng, we have the opportunity to watch the next
eastbound train being watered and checked over
Somebody grab me
that plate:
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| A
set of diesels emerge as we wait up at tunnel 4 |
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| Crossing
in the distance at Hadashan |
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| Finally,
7143 and friend appear
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| A
little snow |
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| Tuesday
morning sunrise sees us at ErDi along with several sets of other
nutters for this early eastbound
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| After
ErDi, we head back to SiMingYi for the next eastbound
Here you can see
the rest of our team. I'd invested in too much altitude and
stayed on to explore the line to Hadashan
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| Nice
spot for an afternoon downhill |
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| A
downhill mixed power train at tunnel 1 |
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| Taken
from up near Hadashan, a pair of QJs cross the road at SiMingYi
village |
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| One
of the signature shots on the JiTong line is this one of the
curved viaduct |
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| Steaming
up to Hadashan |
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| The
other signature shot, taken just after the one above, with the
SiMingYi viaduct in the background |
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| Entering
Hadashan station for a crossing with a diesel hauled train. |
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| The
diesels avoid some of the fluffy obstacles on the line |
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| The
herder comes up to see me as I head downhill to meet up with our
group. |
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| Alas
no women drivers to try the 'hey baby, nice ass' line on |
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| Mixed
power behind SiMingYi |
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Scenes
from an Inner Mongolian Village
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| With
no sign of the bus, I hitch a lift with a local up to the summit
using the universal language of money. Coincidentally, our group
is up there waiting for this single. Not a terrible shot given
the weather, which had dulled down considerably. |
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| A
brief break in the clouds back up at SiMingYi |
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The
big wait at the crossing keepers hut just west of Liudigou. The pig below does his best to keep warm in his little
home in
the hill.
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Of
course the train is held up by those damned diesels and it
eventually starts uphill again. These two shots were taken at
high ISO well after sundown, but turned out reasonably well.
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With
the sun disposed of, its back to Jingpeng for a few night
shots
Lighting here
provides by a passing diesel. A quick hand over the lens
prevents it appearing in the pic.
The instant
feedback of digital certainly is a boon when clicking at night.
And I don't mean David Boon.
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| After
the cloud of the previous afternoon, Wednesday morning's sun is
a a pleasant surprise, even if it comes with a biting wind. Most
of our group head up the brickworks valley to repeat the ErDi
bridge shot taken yesterday in better light. I want to try
something different, chancing a glinter at tunnel 2... |
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| Across
the valley |
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| Crazy
wind probably not dong much for those on the far side of this
ErDi shot. This is probably my favourite shot from the trip, and
as luck would have it, was just popped off as card fodder |
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| And
this is the planned but less spectacular shot of the train
emerging from tunnel 2. The colder it is, the more white
steam/smoke mix |
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up, the group does some climbing for the signature Hadashan shots.
Instead, I attempt freezing my nuts off above SiMingYi village. Man that's a
cold wind. Luckily, it lets up for a few minutes, allowing me to
take a picture that isn't just steam blowing towards the
camera at warp speed.
I'm guessing the
wind isn't doing much for the Hadashaner's piccies right now
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After
thawing out in the bus, it was back to Biligou bridge. The first
shot of dancing smoke trails was taken as the train approached
the bridge, the other two are the S curved cutting just beyond
it. Not a bad spot if I might say so myself!
Nice plates, baby
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| Cliche
shot #10 |
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| As
the train headed up towards the summit station of Shangdian, it
slowed considerably, giving us plenty of time to scramble up for
some shots of the signals
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| Our
last assignment was near Luidigou. I walked about 4 kms down the
line and waited in the -6 deg C temp with a heinous wind chill.
And waited. The sun dropped sown, the shadows grew longer and
longer. Flares and sideburns went out of fashion. (Damn). Just as I was ready to call it a day, a train came from
the wrong direction followed by the smoke trails of this one in
the distance
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| The
second train, seen climbing up the lower level and approaching
the SanDi horseshoe |
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| Running
through SanDi |
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approaching Liudigou
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But wait, there's
more... a night visit to the Daban shed, where they'll try to
sell you anything that isn't bolted down. QJ tender headlight
anyone? Loco in the pic above is blowing out sparks
The best of the
night shots are courtesy of Richard Reiff's open flash technique and
generous provision of flashbulbs.
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| And
that, as they say, is a wrap. At 4am the next morning a pair of
crazed locals took turns at driving me to an early grave for 12
hours back to Beijing airport. It would appear you don't need to
have a driving license in China, just a license to operate a
horn.
'Flaps up':
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