March - April 2019
Malaysia UP Oil Palm Plantations Visit 12-15 March
China Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Tour 17 March - 9 April
(20 April 2019- Bad Links fixed with Henan & Heilongjiang and Heilongjiang General Reports)
Below are clickable links to the individual Acrobat PDF documents apart
from any marked 'no report'. All reports focus on narrow gauge railways
unless noted otherwise.
Malaysia UP Oil Palm Plantations Visit
The Malaysian visit was a special invite to Narrow Gauge Railway
Society members to visit the Palm Oil Estates owned by United
Plantations Berhad. They have 4 plantations with 700mm gauge railways
operating Motor Rail Simplex locos. We visited 3 of the 4 plantations.
These are the only known active industrial narrow gauge lines in
Malaysia.
China Day 1 - In transit to Guangyuan, Pengzhou plinthed C2 - No report
China Day 2 - Rongshan Coal Railway (closed) - Baishui Coal Mine Railway
China Day 3 - Baishui & Tangjiahe Coal Mine Railways
China Day 4 - Zhaojiaba, Daichiba & Tangjiahe Coal Mine Railways
China Day 5 - Dazhou Shiban Coal Mine Railway
China Day 6 - Dazhou Bailin Coal Mine Railway
China Day 7 - Yongchuan (Honglu) 1
China Day 8 - Yongchuan (Honglu) 2
China Day 9 - Yongchuan (Honglu) 3
China Day 10 - In transit to Chenzhou - No report
China Day 11 - Huangshaping Lead & Zinc Mine, Anling Coal Railway
China Day 12 - Matian Coal Railway - diesel coal line on its last legs
Hunan General - general interest, non-railway photos from Hunan
China Day 13 & 14 - Yujian Tourist Railway - steam & diesel line not yet operating regular trains
China Day 15 & 16 - Hegang Coal Railway - standard gauge electric & diesel
China Day 16 - Hegang Fuli narrow gauge mine railway
China Day 17 - Hegang to Haolianghe
China Day 18 - Huanan Preview (visit en route to Jixi)
Henan & Heilongjiang General - general interest, non-railway photos
China Day 19 - Jixi
China Day 20 - In transit Jixi - Huanan - No report
Heilongjiang General - general interest, non-railway photos
China Day 21 - Huanan - a look at the disused line to Xiahua and Tuoyaozi
China Day 21- 22 - Huanan - the steam passenger train and a railbus charter
China Day 23 - In transit Jiamusi to Beijing - No report
China Day 24 - Return Home - No report
The China tour was the second 'Linesiding with John' tour to see
Chinese narrow gauge lines from Sichuan in the west to Heilongjiang in
the north east primarily focusing on non-steam lines although visits
were paid to 2 steam tourist lines based on former steam narrow gauge
lines and two standard gauge electric and diesel systems. At the
beginning of the tour (days 1-6), we visited a number of small
coal mine railways which proved challenging as we encountered a number
of places where 'no entry' and 'no photography' was the rule. Our most
successful visit in that area was to Baishui were we had good access to
all areas. From Honglu onwards (day 7) we mainly visited longer lines
with the line running through public areas. These visits were generally
more successful with fewer restrictions. The security and health and
safety restrictions eased considerably after we left Sichuan.
Chongqing, Hunan, Henan and Heilongjiang were noticeably more relaxed
and much more like the 'old China' we came to find.
There will likely be a China Narrow Gauge 3 Tour which should revisit
the best of the lines visited in the first and second tours as well as
a few new lines. This may be the last 'Linesiding with John' China
Narrow Gauge Tour. Please contact me if you would like to be on the
mailing list for that tour. The current idea is for 21-24 days in
September-October 2020 possibly including Shibanxi at the end over
Double 10 (10 October). At this point everything is up for grabs and I
welcome your suggestions on dates, which line to visit and how long to
spend at each line.
You can read the China Narrow Gauge 1 Tour Reports here.
I am indebted to Keiichi Kii for his very useful China Narrow Gauge website
and to the additional information he supplied by email before and
during the tour. Without him, we would never have found the way to the
transhipment point at Baishui which gave us access to walk the line
back to the mine. Peter Haworth also provided useful information on Hegang and Haolianghe in his most recent trip report and on two Nanjing cement railways that we didn't manage to fit into the final program.
Contact: john@rabylee.uk