tarboat's photos with the keyword: hengshan

As the light faded and with a wicked icy wind blowing around the mine buildings we must have been mad to want to call at Lijing Mine on our way back from Lishu. The reward was our last look at steam working on the Hengshan system of the Jixi Coal Railway. SY 0804 was still finding plenty to do as it shunted the spoil tippers for loading at the washery.

Falling icicle warning at Lijing Mine, Hengshan.

Panorama of the Lijing Colliery at Hengshan on the Jixi Coal Railway. It always seemed to be cold and windy when I visited this one.

Coal washery on the outskirts of Henshang in the Jixi area of Heilongjiang province in China.

It was going dark and it was very cold as we drove back to town from the Lishu system of the Jixi Coal Railway. By this time there wasn't much steam on the Hengshan bank and associated collieries so we hadn't bothered much about it. "Why not pop in to the Lijing mine" we said, "you never know there might be something happening there". Good call because SY 0804 was busy shunting the washery and this atmospheric location gave us some nice shots before we retreated, shivering, to the van. Oh it was so dark - 1/15 at ISO 1600.

A case of being in the right place at the right time. SYs 1369 and 1095 had brought the 160 tonne capacity Qiqihar based rail crane up the Hengshan bank with the final concrete beam for a new bridge close to the colliery at Zhangzin. The train is being split to take off the match wagon/crew accommodation before the crane is shunted up the slope to the bridge.

Xiaohengshan Mine on the Hengshan system of the Jixi Coal Railway is one of those places that always seems cold, windswept, and downright inhospitable. An yet, it usually had plenty of steam action with both coal and spoil being tripped out on two separate routes. On an unusually bright day, SY 0341 arrives at the mine with two empty coal hoppers.

There aren't many people who can say that they have seen a train of coaches ascending Hengshan bank on the Jixi Coal Railway. This particular working comprised two flat wagons loaded with concrete bridge sections, the 160 tonne Qiqihar based crane, and six coaches of its support train. SY 1369 headed the train banked by SY 1095 as they ran up the hill in fine style.

This sort of headframe is not very common in China but there are one or two on the Hengshan side of Jixi in Heilongjiang Province, China.

SY 0746 at Dahengshan yard, preparing a train of bridge sections to be taken up the bank on Hengshan section of the Jixi system of coal railways in Heilongjiang Province, north-east China.