This trip consisted of 3 members: Henry Tang, Martin Wong and Popeye Chan. We started our trip at 21:13 by getting on T186 from Shenzhen to Shenyang (North). This train goes to Shenyang via Jingjiu Line. The scene of Jingjiu Line was not attractive enough to report.

After a long travel of 36 hours we arrived at Shenyang Station at around 9:30 am. We were brought by a local railway fans (GREE) to the Shenyang Depot and took some photos of SS9 (prototype), 1-1 axle type tender (scrapped already), DFH5, SS3B, ND5 (from Dalian). Then we visited a fan shaped engine shed which was built by the Japanese 50 years ago. This type of engine shed is seldom seen in China. The shed in Shenyang is not used now. Its usage is only limited to revsersing the shunting locomotives.

In the afternoon, we went to see the Shenyang Steam Locomotive Museum. However, the project had not finished yet. We could only see some steam locomotives wrapped by nylon bags and it is a challenge to guess what were inside!

After lunch, we went to Sujiatuan, a freight depot 15 km south of Shenyang. We saw two small shunting steam locomotives (Gongjian) there, with 1-2 SY. From a rubbish bin which was formerly the tender of JS, we knew that JS had been used some time ago. The depot was full of SS4G (my favourite!). There was one SS9-0004 (prototype) which had a serious crash with freight train last year.

We took an hour's train K95 to Fushun with Shenyang's railway fans (Hema). It is a industrial city 48km east of Shenyang with a huge coal mine. The coal mine company, together with iron extraction plant and electrolysed-aluminium plant, had their own local electrified-railway. The railway was more than 100 km long, standard gauge (1435mm) and was powered by 1500V overhead cable. Previously, they used the Germany made locomotives (the crocodiles) but then the Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Factory made the Shaofeng Locomotives for them. The Shaofeng has two types: single-unit and double-unit type.

Inside the depot of the local industrial railway, we found some strange passenger trains which may be modified from the offical coaches or YZ31. (Fig. 1, Fig.2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4) They looked like EMUs with one motor coach and two trailer coaches. They were called "Diantie" and each trip only costed RMB0.8. They used bogies similar to the 201 or 202 type, which were used in the 21 and 22 series passenger coaches. But the bogie of the motor coach was installed with motors and gear.

At noon, we went to see a huge coal mine. I estimated that the mine has a area of a Kowloon Peninsula. A very big hole of a few hundred meters deep was dug. A railway track was built down the hole, running in circles. To go down the mine, trains had to run at least 24 loops!

In the afternoon, we went to an iron factory. Some SY and GKD1 were working there. Two suspected YJ (Yuejin), which were similar to SY but with only 3 pairs of driving wheels, were sitting idle inside the factory. Then we went to another old engine shed and saw the original Germany made "crocodiles". Some modified YZ21 and "Gongwuche" were found there.

We went back to Shenyang by taxi.

We took train 6687 from Shenyang to Daqing. The train ran along the Shenyang-Changchun mainline. After Tieling, many passengers got off and the train switched to an industrial line to Daqing Station. It was hauled by DF4D.

Our initial plan was to go to Tiefa. However, the steam hauled passenger train had been cancelled. So we photoed some SY at the depot and took a mini-bus to Diaobingshan (Tiefa). We took another steam hauled passenger train to Faku. We saw two DFH3 (Nos. 2003 and 2007) hauling freight trains. They are rarely seen in China now. We saw another DF4 in blue livery which was a characteristics in the industrial railway.

At 4:30pm, we took a mini-bus to Shenyang. Then we had a rest. At around 9 pm, we took train 2095 to Harbin. The sleeper tickets were very difficult to buy. At first, we had only 1 sleeper ticket for 3 people. With the help of Shenyang railway fans, we could buy 2 more on board.

We arrived at 4 am at Harbin. Because Harbin is at a lattitude of 45N, the sky was as bright as 8 am in HK. We did not sleep well in the non air-conditioned train during the previous night. So we had a morning sleep at the hotel and came out in the afternoon.

We took a taxi to Sunjia Station and got on Train 2015 to travel around Harbin City. Sunjia Station was special that it was a small station but it had five direction of departure. Train 2015 was also special because it departed at Changchun in the morning, travelled via Haji Line, passed through Sunjia and Harbin Station at noon, made a loop to return to Sunjia and Changchun in the afternoon. It was a good choice for those who have free time to take this non air-conditioned "green" train to wander around the city. We passed the hundred-year-old station Xiangfang, which was built in western style. We got off the train at Pingfang (around 20 km south of Harbin). We saw a rail-bus which was made by Harbin Locomotive Factory.

At night, we went to the Central Street to see the Songhuajiang Bridge, Monument in Flood Fighting in 1998 and western-style buildings in Central Street.

27/7/2005

We went to the Children's Park in the morning. Outside the park, there was a diesel powered tram named "Longjianglong". The tram could travel only 800m along the street. It was modified from rail-bus and built by Harbin Locomotive Factory. Inside the Children's Park, there was a Children's Railway which ran on a 762mm gauge circular track. There were only two stations: "Beijing" and "Harbin". The local people said that during the 1960s, China had a good relationship with USSR. There was no "Harbin" Station but "Moscow" Station. But then their relationship became worst and "Moscow" was renamed as "Harbin".

In the afternoon, we visited the St. Sophia's Cathedral. It was a Russian Orthodox Church built a hundred year ago. At night, we went to Harbin East Station and photoed train N23 heading for Suifenhe. There were two Russian coaches at the back of the train: one headed for Valdivostock and the other headed for Khabarovsk.

28/7/2005

We went to the Dongbei Tiger's Park in the morning. The entrance fee was RMB50/60 and tourists could get on a minibus/bus to watch the tigers outside the windows. They may also pay RMB40 to feed the tigers with chicken/duck and RMB1500 for a cow. It was interesting to watch tigers swimming and chasing ducks in a lake.

At noon, we went to Harbin Station. We saw the NZJ1 comming back to Harbin from Jiamusi. We also found YZ25DT coaches hauled by DF4D. These coaches were trailers for DMU. However, due to some technical problems, the locomotives (motor coaches) were not used and dumped in the depot. Then a DF4DK arrived, which hauled the International Train K20. These Russian coaches were in white, blue, red livery. There were two types: MECT-18 and MECT-36. They ran between many different destinations. (eg. Beijing-Moscow, Pyongyong (N. Korea)-Moscow) There were two green Chinese coaches in the middle which ran from Manzhouli to Beijing. They were the rarely seen CA18 and YW18. The destination plate was written in Russian, Chinese and English. The coupling between Chinese and Russian coaches was the Russian type. All coaches have their national emblem.

Then we went to Sankeshu Depot which located east of the city. The depot had a fan-shaped engine shed still in service. Many DFH3 were phased out from service just a few months ago. Apart from the usual DF4/4B/4D/4DK, there was one special DF4D (freight type) which belonged to Jitong Baiqi Depot.

We went to Manzhouli by N91 at night. Unluckily, we could not buy sleeper tickets. We sat for the whole night. Terrible!

29/7/2005

The sky became bright at around 3 am. We had passed the Daxinganling Forest last night and entered Inner Mongolia. The train ran on the grass land for a whole morning. We passed many small cities and arrived at Manzhouli at around 10 am.

The platform distination plate was written in Chinese and Mongolian characters. We found an internation train opposite to our platform. The locomotive, which belonged to Russia, was named T3M-2A and had a similar bogie to the DF3. The coaches were MECT-18/36 but in green livery.

We paid RMB300 to rent a taxi for a whole day. First we went to the freight yard to see the Russian freight trains. (box wagon, oil-tank wagon, flat wagon) The wide guage (1500mm) trains stopped at the right and Chinese standard gauge trains stopped at the left. Then the goods in Russian trains would be unloaded and transferred to the Chinese wagons manually by workers. We also found the standard guage DF7G and wide gauge DF7C (with standard driving panel). All locomotes there carried a national emblem.

At noon we went to the Sino-Russian border to see the National Gateway. The entrance fee was RMB20. There was a stone tablet numbered 41 which stated the Chinese border line. Below the National Gateway, there were two tracks, one standard gauge and the other in wide gauge. The Russian Gate was about 100m from the Chinese one. About 40 minutes later, a Russian locomotive which hauled a long train of raw wood, went through the two Gates.

In the afternoon, we had a Russian lunch and went to sight seeing. We found an "Aobao" which was a pile of stones used by Mongolians as a road sign or a boundary sign. We went to the Manzhouli Custom Building and found many Russian vans waiting to cross the border. We visited a restaurant which had Mongolian Tents as rooms for customers. At 4pm, we went to Dalainuoer Lake, which was an inland lake about 25km south-west of Manzhouli. There were some resort facilities around the lake.

We went back to Manzhouli to visit the Manzhouli Depot. There was a turn-table with 3 rails (Two gauges). The middle rail was thinner than the outer ones. The locomotives inside were mainly green DF4 and DF7C/7G. Only the latter carries national emblems. All belong to Angangxi Depot (To our surprise, not Manzhouli Depot) of Harbin Bureau. The wide guage DF7C had blue and orange livery respectively. From the appearance, we could not tell whether they were standard or wide gauge. We could only distinguish from their Russian couplers. Then we went to one end of the freight yard where the Russian locomotives were waiting for return trip.

At 6:30pm, we took N92 to return to Harbin. N91/92 was special that there were 1 mail coach and 3 lugguage coach. We guessed many people brought goods to Russia for trading. Again, we were unlucky that we could only buy 2 sleeper tickets for 3 people. I sat a whole night back to Harbin!

30/7/2005

We had plenty of time. We went to the "Museum of 731 troop" to see the evidence of Japanese using live people for experiment to produce biochemical weapons. (Fig.6: The site for breeding of mice to produce plague)

We took Train 2015 at Pingfang Station again to have a loop journey around Harbin City. We had a rest in the afternoon and at 8:30pm we took Z16 (Harbin-Beijing) to experience the deluxe RW25T coaches. The feeling was very good!

30/7-1/8/2005