Jan 15, 2024, JS8089, the last industrial operating steam-powered train in China (maybe even the world) retired. JS8089 was operating in the Sandaoling coal mine.
"Sir, we just finished to build one of the most advanced high speed rail systems in the world". "good, and what about the trains that haul coal?" "we're using an old rusty steam engine" "perfect".
There are a total of 6 operational steam locomotives used for actual work in China including this one, and a some preserved for tourism uses, like ones here in America.
@@rickd3777 suprised america had tourism rail tbh we call them heratage rail lines they run a few trains pw across rail lines that are no longer used but have lovely seanery of the english countryside
........... when you're mining coal ....... the "fuel" is right there...... no sense in paying extra "electricity" to haul it .. right? Further more the rail line may change as the mining area move ahead. Just an opinion ya guys.....
The type of coal being used to raise steam is likely a lower quality, causing these spectacular waste emission effects. By comparison, Anthracite coal (high quality) is smokeless; all that smoke and afterburn is impurities. Ships like the Titanic had problems securing good coal; shady coal sellers would charge for high quality coal but then mix crap coal in with the shipment.
@@rcasper4700 Yes, though they could be burning lignite, which China is the #2 producer. Germany is #1 and they use it in their power plants (which in turn, powers their electric trains).
The 3rd train coming out of the pit has to be one of the most awesome displays of steam locomotion I have ever seen, it looks like a moving erupting volcano, train number 4 is also a damn impressive sight.
All steam engines can do this if they are under a heavy load. You just can't see the embers as well at night, and many engines ended up with a screen in the funnel to help catch coal and wood embers. It's essentially the same principle as looking at your chimney at night and seeing sparks and embers that you don't see during the day. They are always there
The UP Big Boys had a crew following them to put out the various grass fires the embers caused on the stretch they pulled freight. Pretty wild to think about in this day and age but it is a real threat in dry and high environments where Big Boy operated. Maybe not so much in humid China and other areas of the world.
Milo Flint yep, rural China still uses them as they have yet to fully dieselize. China doesn't like to admit it though as it's an embarrassment on the global stage for a country trying to cut pollution.
The Steam Locos are belonged to the local Coal Mine ，not the China National Railway. All Steam Locos of CNR retired 20yrs ago . But in the Coal Mine Railways they survived because the coal is easy to get (just dig it) while diesel need to be bought from oil companies , so they kept alive to cut the fuel cost
@@EM-fi2qg not quite, the Eastern coast of China at least is starting to undergo a rapid shift as the Government is realizing just how bad the pollution is. There's a reason EV incentives are very strong there, and why Tesla is making their second factory in China. It's a slow process, but China did admit that they want to cut down on pollution.
Note that the sparks tend to fly when the wheels are slipping - the extra rush of exhaust steam will briefly increase the airflow in the firebox and suck burning embers straight out of the fire.
Whilst it's a truly amazing sight. It's a miracle that no fires were started as this undoubtedly presents a huge 🔥 fire risk in hot dry weather when vegetation becomes tinder dry. Thanks for the video.
It's because it's filled with dirty coal. You mine coal there obviously dirt and other crap mixed with it. So that stuff doesn't burn away and become fuel, it just circulates at high temperatures, scraping up against the insides and each other and spit out the top. They don't waste good or refined coal in those trains because they're supposed to transport the good coal to be sold. These trains are meant to be used and abused.
This was common in late 19th century / early 20th century U.S.A. which is why there were so many forest fires. In the Northeast, as I'm sure was also true in other areas, many side valleys and hillsides had small logging railroads as well as the mainline railways running through larger valleys so, very little forest area was not exposed to the repeat burnings ...that helped to encourage the development of our oak dominated forest stands.
Maybe that's why Southern Colorado has so many aspen stands. The San Juan mountains were long revered for the minerals in the mountains and now there's huge aspen groves in the high elevation valleys. Since Aspen are the first trees to grow after a stand replacing disturbance in the subalpine like fire, one has to wonder.
Well... mixed emotions! I would absolutely love to be in the engine with that going on, but at the same time... scared out of my wits. The engine is right at the very limit of its tractive force, judging by the slippage going on. As long as it doesn’t burn down all the little villages along the way!
At 2:10 you’ll hear the repetitive “chug a lug” sound like it speeds up and that’s exactly what it’s doing. It lost traction for a second abd you can clearly hear the engine speed up for a few seconds. The power these old steamers were putting to the ground is amazing. You can hear it do it again a couple times around 4:15-4:45
Imagine being in the 1800's and not even knowing something like this existed..... And then seeing, hearing, and feeling this monstrosity roar by...... bricks were shat.
LeDibeau I agree with you 100% it's nothing like a steam engine running the sound of it and the whistles just like a rain beating on tin roof will put you asleep in no time
Ice patches and or turns. Wheels will naturally bind and slip in tuns due to nature of solid axles and one rail being longer in the radius than the other. Those engineers we great at catching it, especially with it wide-open on those hills.
The loads that engine is working I am pretty sure the draft is too high and the fire is lifting off the grates, tumbling the cinders in the firebox and filling the flues and smokebox with particles. Its not good for the boiler, and the fireman should be taking measures to prevent this from happening. Spark shows do it on purpose though, but you don't spark show an engine that is actually working for real like these are.
I remember when I was a child, my grandmother took me for a trip in a steam train. She said: "don´t open the window otherwise sparks may enter and go to our eye." I opened the window and a spark came into my eyes. It burned my soul! Fortunatelly no damage happened to my eye, but she throwed a lot of water on my right eye. Everybody in the wagon closed the window after this. The lessons learned is: close the window.
The same happend to my mother, when she was a child in the 1946...... a sparkle hits one of her eyes , when a train drives through our station...... sorry for my bad english, but im german......
Last August I was in Sweden (PFP Relevant) and I was riding one of their heritage railways and they had 100 year old wooden coaches, amazing. And when the loco ran around to the rear of the train to take us back down to the station (They dropped us at this smaller station) you could go out on to the sort of enterance, or like, be able to be openly directly behind this thing with ash and smoke everywhere. On the coach that is.
Having been on a steam train to Barcelona as a child I opened the window just for the rush of air and whatever. Inside of 15 seconds my face was covered with black ash. It was still a blast. Oh, steam trains feel completely different from diesel or electric trains on startup. They have a slow silky acceleration. Memories.
Yep those cinders hurt. We used to have the old 611 steam engine running excursions up to Chattanooga when I was a kid. I got to ride it and they hurt when they get in your eyes for sure.
This display, while incredible, shows how desperately ill-maintained these steamers are. The coal burning steamers tend to build up ash, especially with the kind of coal that's dug up in Sandaoling. These ashes get collected in the ash pan underneath the firebox and also tend to get caught in the flues, especially when the locomotive is working hard. Standard procedure dictates that the ashes get dumped every 12-24 hrs. and the flues get cleaned about every year or so. With these locomotives sparking the way they are, I'd venture to guess that they almost never get their ash pans dumped as evidenced by the way these "eruptions" occur only when the engineer throws the throttle open and the flues get cleaned very rarely.
tame there are no forced air blowers when a steam locomotive is working... There is a low volume blower for when the train is parked or being lit but after that the draft is directly proportional to how hard the engine is working... The harder it works the more draft...
It did, before the FRA existed. The Plains used to burn for days because of sparks from locomotives. That's why all wood-fired locomotives have a distinctive stack: it's a flame arrestor.
exactly. It would be a major waist on the railway's end. Sure the extra steel would be worth something, but what about how much it'll cost to dieselise the entire thing? And the cost for foreign oils to be brought in to power the seizing hunks of metal?
Indeed, mate. Some hero stood in the cold for hours getting this- i have genuinely never seen anything quite like it. Superlative. It's just a shame i can't smell the coal, sulphur and steam oil.
Not so. If anything, steam is still valid as it is easiest to maintain in an area where coal is abundant and oil is scarce, like for example China. Plus, what makes diesel more efficient is their ability to "double up" and go longer distance with more power. China only requires jobs that a single engine can do, which steam engines can do just as well as diesels if not better.
this the only steam train left in china, owned and operated in the side the coal mine, not connect to the state own rails. also heard the train has retired already from last year( not confirmed).
Outstanding shots of the steam exhaust under full power going up grade under a load. That's the built up carbon that's lit. Those steamers were working very hard. We had some Alco 4 cycle diesels that spray sparks when under a load and at full power. That crap burns too if one hits you.
If you get fires sufficiently often, they're always small. The problem in countries where steam running is rare is that when there eventually is a trackside fire, it's a big one.
When i was a kid growing up i remember the steam locomotives coming past and bit further down the line you would hear the fire service had been called to put out the grass fire, haha, maybe this is where the love of steam came from? Then diesels came along, ho hum BORING! They are just a noisy box on wheels.
The coal they use in the loco's in China is typically rice grains in size. It has to be fired wet to give it a chance to 'clag' to the firebed so it isn't just pulled straight thru the tubes. Means there's quite a bit of carry over/sparks that would quickly clog spark arrestors......
It must be quite a steep upgrade, those Locos are being worked right to the maximum, going by the wheel slippage and the amount of steam injection into the stack to pull a draft.
this is the last steam train in china, owned and operated by the mine company. i have heard it was retired last year(not confirmed), china's emission law is very tough now. it will or already have been replaced by diesel powered engines.
Judging by the stack talk, the grade is significant and the loco is working hard. In addition to wheel spin contributing to live cinder showers, the fireman may be sanding the flues on a repeated basis for maximum efficiency.
exact opposite, this is the way NOT to run a steam engine. This is what happens when too much air is let in, burns coal faster and hotter, uses more water and does not produce the torque needed. This was not a long heavy train, most likely had fire box wide open while dumping in coal. Like flooring an old truck up a hill in 5th gear.
That isn't hypocrisy if they're actively trying to change that, it is stupidity if they think scraping petty amounts of unreliable energy will replace all that, call me Atomic.
Scrubbers still release CO2, that doesn't stop coal miners from dying of black lung or ash sludge from poisoning water supplies. It's called the man tax.
they aren't changing it, quite the contrary, by buying electric cars, rejecting nuclear and subsidizing solar that cannot produce enough electricity to keep up with demand, they are actually forcing countries to use more coal. Germany is now using more coal and having to import electricity from France. Same with California, who now imports 35% of their electricity from coal fired states. It's hypocricy driven by do-gooder NIMBY environuts.
Steam trains are potentially more environmentally freindly depending of whether it burns coal or wood. Also steam engines have way more torque at lower speeds which allows the engine to turn slower which reduces maintenance. Steam engines also dont idle.
@@madtrucker0983 The coal in this particular mine is a low grade, so it throws sparks like crazy. Even with the good stuff, you're going to get some sparks and embers from burning solid fuel when a steam engine is working hard, the intense draft sucks them off the top of the fire and shoots them through the flues and up the stack. Most solid fuel burning engines have spark arrestors, but you have to strike a balance between quelling the sparks and letting the blast of exhaust steam draw a draft so the fire can burn properly and keep steam up, so a few will always get through. That's why the Union Pacific converted 3985 over to oil, and the Durango and Silverton is doing the same to their steamers, both have set fires from hot embers getting through and sparking off lineside brush.
@@Shipwright1918 You're exactly right. I've ridden in a steam train and had the cinders get in my eyes. It looked cool as hell, but like I said it shouldn't be doing that. At one point it looked like solid flames coming out of that stack. I was thinking the thing was about to blow. 😂
The Carr Road fire in California was caused because a tire on a camping trailer popped, making the wheel grind on the road, causing a few sparks which started the fire. Imagine what this could do rolling through a California forest.
Has part of the track been oiled or something to alert the driver hes reached the top of the hill? The trains sound as if there spinning out at a certain stage of each video clip
SPECTACULAR. And listen to the occasional wheelslip under heavy load. Those locomotives are being pushed "balls to the walls" with full loads behind them.
Any locomotive can have wheelslip. Modern diesels and electrics have traction control, so wheelslip is minimized. Sanding the rails is done when necessary.
So what’s the technical explanation for these unique shots? I.e. all the sparks? Clearly they are not common - or there would be lots of similar vids... What’s different here?
