The ice storm cometh

My last visit to the Pindingshan Coal Railway saw the regulation dark and gloomy weather that seems to hang like a shroud around this area of Henan Province. The morning passenger service is departing Mine 8 at Bakuang headed by one of the well maintained JS class locomotives that were the mainstay of traffic on this system. This is 9.30am but it was almost like night. Everything was coated in a thick layer of ice after the overnight rain had frozen as it hit the ground, and walking to this spot proved extremely hazardous. Later in the day it snowed and this was followed in the next day or two by the terrible ice storms that completely paralysed much of central and southern China. Luckily, we managed to escape to the western deserts before the airport was closed, but not until we had experienced a mad drive of 100+ km on roads entirely surfaced with thick ice and littered with crashed cars and lorries.