Yingde Mineral Railway (762mm)
Map
showing the Yinde Mineral railway. The branches from Jingchongjiao
and
Jintang (pink) meet just west of the river and the standard gauge main
line (green) at Donguapu. Also shown is the short line at Hetou further
south.
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Access to the
Yingde Mineral Railway was not easy and it took me a couple of trips to
work out the
best route. It required travelling on to Dongguapu,
a hamlet reached from the main line about 160 km North of Guangzhou.
I stayed in a very basic hotel with a balcony overlooking the "main" street
which was basically a row of food and merchandise stalls. There was also
the attraction
of a JF
shunting
in the nearby sidings. From here I walked to a ferry point
to cross to Hejiacun. This was a bit dicey and on one occassion we got stuck
for a while
on a sand
bar! Iron ore from Jintang and Limestone from Jingchongjiao
was
brought here and then via an overhead cableway to standard gauge wagons
on the other
side
of the river. There was an erratic passenger service and on
one of my visits I managed to get to the mines and back in a day (unfortunately
diesel
hauled).
At Gongcun about halfway between Hejiacun and Jintang I was
surprised
to find two Polish built (local BL class) locos from 1952, one in steam
and the other in for repairs. Also, inside the shed were three other C4's,
two built in Guangzhou the other in Sanshui in the early 1970's, and
behind the
shed a derelict Shijiazhuang built C2 from1962. Later visitors
have reported
that by both BLs were derelict, the mines closed and diesels
on passenger service (JL) with steam (presumably C4's) reserved for tourist
work (RP).
The
main street at Dongguapu with the main line station in the background
and the hotel balcony on the right
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The
river crossing to Hejiacun
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Polish
built 1952 BL
class locomotive no. 50 simmers gently outside the
shed at Gongcun
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BL
class locomotive no. 50 ready for action outside the shed at Gongcun
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C2
class locomotive no. 51 built Shijiazhuang 1963 dumped behind the shed
at Gongcun
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Diesel
hauled local
passenger service at Hejiacun.
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Coaling
and watering point at Hejiacun.
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Off
loading iron ore at
Hejiacun.
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The
Jintang iron ore mine at the end of the line.
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Returning
from the
Jintang iron ore mine with a load of iron ore behind a C4 locomotive.
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