The 653 km long Daqin Railway is one of the main routes for transporting coal from west to east of China, known as the first “heavy transport road” in the country. Its name derives from the two cities at the beginning and end of the route, Datong, a coal mining center in Shanxi province, and Qinhuangdao, in Hebei province.
And the main character on this arterial road is a super-heavy train with a capacity of 20,000 tons including 210 C80 cars, pulled by two Harmony-1 electric locomotives. The whole train has a total length of about 2,614 meters, and to walk its full length will take you more than half an hour. That’s why it is also called the longest train in China.”
In China, ship drivers will be divided into ranks based on the tonnage of ships they can handle, with the highest group being the heaviest 10,000 ton, 15,000 ton, and 20,000 tonne drivers. If you want to drive this longest ship, you must be qualified to drive a 20,000 ton ship. And according to official figures, the whole of China currently has just over 600 qualified train drivers to operate it.
But despite having a train driver’s license and having more than a year of operating experience, train drivers who want to sit on its front car still need to go through many layers of screening to choose the best one. The probability of selecting a qualified helmsman was recorded as only 15%.
This selection is extremely strict because the Daqin railway is very complicated. With a total length of 653 km, it has bridges and tunnels accounting for 21% of the total length, with arcs accounting for 27%. The train will have to go through the tunnel, over the bridge, there are many continuous turns, there are times when the front of the train is going uphill while the stern is still going downhill.
According to longtime train drivers, with a train weighing 20,000 tons, the scary thing is not not being able to move but just being afraid of not being able to stop. Every speed adjustment and every brake press must be very precise, leaving no room for sloppiness. This requires the train driver to have extremely high skills, and at the same time to understand and understand the condition of the road at each small section to take measures to handle the brakes at the right time and in the right place.
On the Daqin Railway, it takes about 11 hours for a train full of coal to run all the way. During train operation, every time a train driver encounters a signal, he or she needs to perform gestures such as pointing, directing eyes and reading voice commands. The number can be more than 600 times in one trip.
When encountering bad weather and other conditions such as rain, snow, the locomotive up and downhill is easy to slip, so when it is necessary to increase speed before climbing uphill, braking when going downhill must take measures to prepare and respond. deputy first.
During the inspection of the locomotive before running, train drivers can identify the working condition of the parts just by listening to the engine sound. When testing the brakes, they can read the exact time of air intake down to the second without looking at the clock. And when braking to stop, the standard deviation of position of this 20,000-ton train 2.6 km long is less than 1 meter.
Refer iFeng