The last steam operated mainline railway in the world
Jining to Tongliao in Northern China.
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Updated December 2007
This railway line is 945 kilometers long. It was opened on Dec 1, 1995 and was, until July 2000, 100% steam operated by QJ class engines. Steam was gradually replaced by DF4 diesels. Replacement was finished by December 2005, to the railways tenth anniversary.
Replacement of steam followed this procedure: First from Baiqi to Benhong, then Zhelimu to Chabuga, in summer 2004 the first diesels appeared on the sections Chabuga to Daban and Baiqi to Haoluku. On Sept 30, 2004, four diesels were put to Daban - Haoluku section for crew training. Daban - Chabuga was then again 100% steam. In November 2004, ten more DF4B went into service at Daban, making the section Daban-Haoluku at least 50% diesel. As train weights were increased now, steam locomotives on the remaining sections worked mostly in double traction. In spring 2005, Daban got more diesel engines and on March 27, the last steam train ran between Daban and Haoluku. Baiqi also got more diesel and finished using steam at the same time.
In April 2005, there was only steam between Daban and Chabuga, 155
km. Every two hours or more often, there was a heavy freight train in
every direction, hauled by a mighty QJ or two! Steam ran all trains
short of the DMU train between Chabuga and Daban until end of September
2005. Then, 3 (after 10th October 4) DF4 started running there,
replacing the remaining Daban based steam locomotives.
The last steam passenger train was 6052 on December 7th, 2005,
daparture 20.04 hrs from Chabuga. Locomotive was QJ 7081. The
locomotive handeled another freight on December 8th together with 7012
and returned together with 7012 light engine from Chabuga to Daban
December 8th, departure Chabuga 13.50 hrs. On December 8th, train 6051,
departure Daban 04.24 hrs was hauled by DF4D 4250.
The last revenue steam train was train 33521 December 8th, 2005,
hauled by QJ 7030 and 6988 with a load of 3,367 tons, departure Daban
09.30 am. Locos returned back to
Daban as light engines, train number 51070, departure Chabuga 3 pm.
Next day they run an special with QJ 7119 and 7038, train number Y502,
departure Daban 10.00, return from Jingpeng 13.12. December 10th these
two locos hauled 44166 with only 1,968 tons of load from Daban to
Jingpeng, departure 8.00. They returned from Jingpeng at 14.10 as 51041
light engine. The latter two engines are preserved and scheduled to
haul some trains in November 2006.
They used to have about 100 working steam locomotives, still about 60
in December 2004, about 50 serviceable ones in April 2005, 23 and
falling in October 2005. They also own three diesel motor units
and otherwise DF4B and DF4D. Their all station stopping passenger
service was still, in winter 2004, steam hauled from Chabuga to Baiqi
and in middle of October 2005 Chabuga- Daban.
The most interesting part of the line is between Daban and Haoluku, the so-called Jingpeng pass, Chinese: Dabaliang. On this part of the line, most trains were double headed with QJ. Two QJs handled up to 2300 tons, two diesels up to 3200 tons. However, this part was dieselized in spring 2005.
Contact Jitong railways in English language, Mrs. Sun Ya Hong: Phone +86 471 2247140 or 6902324. Mail address is s-u-n@sohu.com . Be aware that their computer is a bit unreliable: it sometimes takes long time until they get their mail. The Jitong home page is here.
