Bad weather, great sound... (HD)

On all three days I was here, the weather was grey (Unusual for a region with 320 days of clear blue sky per year...), and the second day even ended in a severe thunderstorm, of which many locals said that they couldn't remember ever experiencing another storm like it! On the third day, the clouds were very dark too, and I was all the time afraid to be caught in another storm like the day before, but apart from some light rain, that fortunately didn't happen... The sound is cool enough though, with this DF8B piloting a DF4D with a long mixed freight in tow... (Hadashan, between tunnels 3 and 4, Inner Mongolia, China, 05/07/2009)

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• DF4D
• DF8B
• diesel
• sound
• Jingpeng
• Jitong
• Inner
• Mongolia
• China
• rail
• train

[robmasterman]

There are two things that struck me about this excellent video, firstly greenery in the landscape, and secondly, sectioned rather than welded rail.....5* Bob

[qj7205]

It was indeed unusually green there, probably due to the rain... ;-)

And the sectioned rail is typical for China, most lines still have it... (Easy to maintain due to high availability of manpower...) And I can assure you that sleeping in a Chinese night train is really very nice due to the rhythmic sound of those rails... ;-)

The tracks are also very well maintained in China, and so there are hardly any bumps, so the carriages roll very stable, regardless of the sectioned rails... :-)

[applecounty]

Is this line new?

[qj7205]

No, but the line is very well maintained... :-)

This line, between Jining Nan and Tongliao was opened in 1995 with steam traction (!), and was only dieselized in early 2005... Since then, the line is getting more and more modern... First, green DF4B's (3000hp)were used, mostly replaced by DF4DH's (4000hp) in 2006/2007, and now the Jitong line mainly uses DF8B's (5000hp) for their freight trains... :-)

In this video, we see a combination of DF8B and DF4DH...

[chunlusun]

Lol, you are not many non-Chinese who distinguish the DF4D's and categorise these as DF4DH - to be separated from the DF4DK for passenger services.

[qj7205]

Haha, well, I always try to be as correct as possible... ;-)

[qj7205]

But I'm still puzzled about some engines though... DF4DH's are normally in the "4000" number series, but some engines, such as numbers 4034, 4035, 4060 and 4092 (And maybe some others too?), are apparently numbered as "DF4DF", have the same "tiger stripes" livery as the DF4DK and have a generator for the energy for passenger cars on board... Are those engines rebuilt as a test? And how about the gearing? A lot of questions remain... :-)

[aussietraindriver]

what engines do they use in these locos???

[robmasterman]

The track in this video does look in remarkably good condition, and thanks for your detailed reply...Bob

[NN2Blue]

5* - More sterling work!