MILEAGE CHALLENGERS

Regarding the recent article on working steam mileages by Tony Streeter, four class ‘JS’ steam locomotives in China also each clock up high mileage.

Of the four in-service locomotives (Nos. JS8167, JS8195, JS8197 and JS8225), one is in the workshop for a week for servicing.

These locomotives work the massive open pit coal mine at Sandaoling (Three Small Hills), near Hami, Sinkiang Province, south of Mongolia (nowhere near Russia as in the recent article).

They run from the ‘Blue Loader’ in the mine to the coal washery, less often to the lorry loading area nearby, generally making six to eight return trips daily over a distance of 5.1 miles loaded and the same back, empty. Each locomotive runs for about 280 days per year; 10.3 miles per round trip, 24 hours a day, so each locomotive operates between 61.8 and 82.5 miles daily.

Thus we get totals of 17,328 to 23,105 miles each annually. Roger Croston, Tarvin, Chester

l It is a pity that individual mileages are not recorded by the mine to enable the respective locomotives to officially challenge the ‘Top Five’ – Ed.