China Daily Global Edition (USA)
END OF THE LINE FOR STEAM TRAINS
As China reduces coal capacity to combat pollution, mines and their locomotives are being shut down
An approaching cacophony of rattles and blasts of steam tore through the silence of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Noises from another era. Then it appeared, clattering and shuddering at 30 kilometers per hour — one of China’s few surviving steam trains at the Sandaoling coal mine in Hami prefecture, currently the biggest steam locomotive operation in the country.
The coal mine will shut down within two years, and so too will the 11 steam locomotives. The train drivers are counting the days.
It was still dark at 7 am in Sandaoling. The only light came from a bathhouse, the meeting place for the drivers, 300 meters from the tracks. Liang Guoqiang, the head driver, approached a blackboard covered with name tags and began to arrange the day’s schedule.
Drivers with blackened faces were each given a white “off-duty” card and headed for the showers, while drivers who had just finished washing got a red “on-duty” card.
“Operating a steam locomotive in the mine is just like driving an open car. Your whole face except your eyes turns black during your 12-hour shift,” said Cheng Zhongyun, 55, a driver of one of the locomotives.
Holding a flashlight, Cheng started his routine security check before departure. His assistant driver Ma Xinsheng was busy adding water to the boiler, while stoker Dai Yanjia poked a shovel into the furnace to check on the fire.
A steam locomotive is usually operated by four people: a driver; an assistant driver; a stoker, who is responsible for power supply; and a flagman, who gives departure and stop signals at the end of the train.
“If you want to be a driver, you have to start as a flagman, which is the most tiring job of all. Then you move up to stoker and assistant driver. It’s taken me eight years and has required a huge amount of practice,” Cheng said.
Cheng waited for an hour before the signal light came on and the train clattered toward the mine.
Without any assistance from computers or smart driving systems, locomotive drivers must stick to one fundamental principle — stay alert. Cheng and Ma opened windows on each side of the train and leaned out as far as they could to take a close look at the environment around the tracks.
Behind them, Dai kept shoveling coal into the furnace. Liu Xiaozhi waved his flags, red for stop and green for go.
“I’ve been driving on these tracks for 23 years. Every turn and curve is ingrained in my heart. But every time I drive, I have to look out of the windows to check the turns just to be safe,” Cheng said.
During winter in low temperatures, when the steam locomotive stops for a while, the rails freeze and become slippery. It then becomes hard to shift the 364 metric tons of coal in the 13 selfturning cars, and they can only be moved by inching forward and back.
“I operate the accelerator and the brake entirely by touch. It requires years of practice,” Cheng said.
At a speed of only 30 km/h, it takes an hour for the train to reach the mining zone. Cheng and his colleagues have some time to relax while the coal is loaded.
“I will be retiring in December. How time flies. I’m already 55. I’ve spent more time with this machine than with my wife. It’s time to say goodbye,” he added.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Cheng started work in 1995, when the mine was in its heyday. “At that time the mine was 170 meters deep, and it was as busy as a fair,” Cheng recalled. “At night it was as bright as in daytime. We made six or seven trips in a shift.”
Deng Yong, who works at Liushuquan station where coal from Sandaoling is transferred to other trains and then across the country, said of the stream train: “This giant piece of metal is pretty noisy, but not very powerful. It’s very slow when it is dragging 50 cars.”
Sandaoling used to be the largest opencast coal mine in northwestern China. Construction began in 1962, and it was completed and put into operation in 1970. The annual output reached 3 million tons at its peak.
As China reduces capacity amid fights against pollution, coal mines like Sandaoling are shutting down. Meanwhile, by 2020, China will have 30,000 km of high-speed railway in operation, connecting more than 80 percent of its big cities.
Steam locomotives are no longer manufactured in the country, so when a train breaks down there is no way to repair it.
The Sandaoling locomotive driver team comprises more than 60 people, most of whom are over 50. Nearly 80 percent of the staff members will retire in the next three years. The rest will be moved to other positions, according to Liang, the head driver.
Ma is worried that when he retires in May, he won’t be able to sleep without the clattering.
But Cheng has a dream to fulfill. “I just want to fly to Beijing after retirement to see what our capital is like,” he said.