tarboat's photos with the keyword: pindingshan

Upcast shaft on one of the many small collieries visible from the train from Baofeng to the mines at Hanzhuangzhan on the Pingdingshan coal Railway

Headgear on the second shaft at 2 at Pingdingshan No.2 Colliery. This is quite a small colliery with a rather nice narrow gauge overhead wire electric railway for moving materials and coal on the surface.

JS 8030 at Qilidian on the Pingdingshan Coal Railway, having arrived light engine to collect the coal train seen alongside.

The trouble with the passenger trains on the Pingdingshan Coal Railway is that the windows do not open and are covered by a protective mesh on the outside. This does not make for easy photography which is a great pity as there is much to see on the line running westwards to Baofeng and on to the mines at Hanzhuangzhan. Everywhere you look on this journey you can see collieries, or limekilns, or coke ovens, or brickworks, or the whole lot at once. Small mines abound and in this view through the grime smeared pane there are four headgears to be seen.

As I learn that steam on the Pingdingshan system has now been relegated almost entirely to a standby role I thought that I would dig out a shot from January 2008 which encapsulates the often dark and gloomy atmosphere there. Here JS 8030 lurks in the background at Tianzhuang whilst the track gang labour on the extensive track doubling that was being undertaken in this area. The weak and hazy sun is about as good as it gets for days on end. I made three visits to this busy railway operation and never managed to see all it had to offer but always enjoyed seeing the big trains operated here.