Moments of Magic II
November - December 2013

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Baiyin - Just arrived. We caught the afternoon workings. 1470 on the passenger, 1581 on a freight from Sanyelian, 1047 in steam on shed. Two diesels in the yard. The short passenger workings to Sanyelian are no more. The Shenbutong trains now stop there in both directions. See video clip below.

On our second day, we had the same 3 locos in steam with only 2 working and one in reserve. The morning passenger runs to the Shenbutong timings both ways but in the afternoon, it returns about 15 minutes early on the former Sanyelian passenger timings.

This morning saw 1581 take wagons to Sanyelian well after the passenger had returned and return light engine. In the afternoon, it ran light engine to Sanyelian ahead of the passenger and returned with a loaded train after the passenger had passed towards Shenbutong.

What appears to be a new road is under construction from the level crossing below Liugongli towards the China Rail bridge on the east side of the line. If this is a wide modern road, that could be the final straw for the winter steam passenger if it hasn't already finished.

I've got a stomach bug so I only managed the morning passenger before retiring to my room. The weather was cloudy, warmer than yesterday morning with quite a strong wind. This sequence shows the Shenbutong passenger climbing to the halt below Shenbutong from the highest hill I could find.