The Jitong Railroad runs from Jining, on the high plateau of Inner Mongolia near its capital of Hohhot, northeastward to Tongliao, on the low Manchurian plain. At the Jingpeng Pass, the tracks rise and then drop sharply downwards in a spectacular series of horseshoe turns, viaducts and tunnels.
The railroad was built to improve the infrastructure in Inner Mongolia, with its vast coal and timber resources, and to help relieve the crowded Beijing rail hub. The line was opened in 1995, and ironically, one of China's newest rail lines started operations using old type QJ steam locomotives. These were being phased out in the rest of China and were inexpensive to buy, and economical to operate with the local coal supply.
Steam has been rapidly replaced by diesel and electric motive power in China, and the Jitong was the last mainline, full-gauge, all-steam-driven railway operation in the world. I made four trips to the Jitong to photograph and video the end of the era. I was just in time. By the winter of 2004-2005 steam power over the Pass, the most picturesque portion of the route, had been almost fully replaced by diesel power, and the entire railway is scheduled to be converted to diesel by the end of 2005.
These clips are not the usual tripod-mounted track side shots. They are hand-held, buffeted by howling winds outdoors or the pounding and shaking inside the engine cabs. Many of the clips show the day-to-day activity of the shops, yards and engines, and I hope that they do some justice to the unique sights and sounds of big steam.
My thanks first to Liu Xue Jun, a private rail guide who introduced me to the Jitong, and was my guide on my first trip. Thanks next to Hans Schaefer, a Norwegian software consultant and dean of the friends of Chinese steam. Hans introduced me to He Li Wen, at the time the Party Secretary of the Daban Locomotive Repair Depot. He Li Wen generously opened the railroad's facilities to me, and arranged for Sun Ya Hong, an able guide with the railroad, to be my escort on the Jitong, "inside the fence". Thanks finally to my wife Terry, who froze with me on the first trip, and who encouraged my independent efforts on the subsequent trips.
