Re: Regular service versus charter

John,

There were a few interesting locomotive types running earlier. Notably the Pacifics. The RMs and my favorites, the SL class. Particularly the SLs shedded at Jilin. Those locomotives were certainly the cleanest steam in China. Always in supershine condition. By comparison, the RMs were nearly always grotty looking. Probably just a reflection of the shedmasters desire. Had they been shedded at Jilin, the RMs we saw around Changchun and other places would have no doubt been cleaner.

Here SL 626 waits in the siding at Longchuan while SL 618 sails through at track speed with a train headed to Changchun.



The engineer of 626 is rightly proud of his immaculate charge.



Here, 626 gets underway toward Jilin. Chinese steam was seldom run hard. 626 is just sort of whiffling away from the station even though there is an opposing grade.



Here is the ugly stepsister, an RM on the table at Changchun. Thankfully not all were as dirty as this example.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2017 11:22AM by jgunning.