Steam & Excursion > Another QJ Front Number Plate.

CPengineer’s close-up photo of the beautiful cast brass front number plate on Iowa Interstate QJ 6988 in his post below, stands in marked contrast to what was typically found on QJ’s in service in China.

I have in my collection the front number plate from Jitong Railway 2706. It is crude in the extreme. If I had to guess at how it was manufactured, the scenario would read like something like this.

Jun Ge, shop Forman at the mighty Datong locomotive works is performing a final visual inspection of newly constructed QJ 2-10-2 No. 2706 when something when his eye catches a missing element.

Wong! He yells across the floor at his erecting shop manager. “Get you sorry bleep over here!”

Wong races around the tender of a JS 2-8-2 on an adjacent track, cracking his shin on the end an eccentric rod lying on the floor as he skids to a stop in front of his very angry foreman.

“Wong, your crew forgot the front number plate for this locomotive. It’s due out for delivery in an hour. Get one on it now!” snaps Jun.

“Yessir,” stammers Wong, and he sprints off to the sheet metal shop, almost cracking his head on the end of a superheater tube protruding from a stack on an installation platform. Seconds later he bursts through the door to the shop, smacking the other shin on a stack of cab sheet.

“Wei. Get your skinny bleep over here now!” he thunders. Wei emerges from behind a shear where he had been taking a cigarette break, a Double Happiness dangling out of one corner of his mouth. “What’s wrong Wong?” he asks.

We need a front number plate for the 2706 ASAP!”

“I’m on it boss!” says Wei as he begins riffling through a pile of scrap sheet, while puffing furiously on the 8mm tobacco stick. He spots one close to the requisite size for mounting below the headlight. None of the edges are parallel with their opposite sides, but there is no time to fix that now. He angles the first of the four corners into the shear and hits the floor switch. The cut is not quite a perfect 45 degree angle, and the remaining three are no better but it’s good enough for government work, and moments later he bursts through the door of the paint shop, almost colliding with Hong, who is squatting on the floor of the shop stirring a can of paint with a wooden paddle. Wei can’t believe his luck. The color is red.

“Hong slap some of that on here and don’t make it too thick. We don’t have time to wait for it to dry. When you are through, grab a welder and get over to the 2706 and help him mount it to the headlight bracket.” Meanwhile, back in the sheet metal shop Wong settles himself on a stool to rub his bruised ankles.

A few moments later Hong is gingerly holding the still wet plate in position as Zhao, sans welder’s helmet or goggles, strikes an arc and tacks one end of the plate to the bracket. Three randomly spaced pigeon poop welds later, the plate is secure and Zhao is lighting up a Chunghwa Filter King while Hong hustles back to the paint shop to knock out a stencil for the engine number. By the time he returns with a can of white spray paint and the stencil the paint is dry enough allow the number to be applied.

55 minutes have elapsed when Wong, still nursing his bruised ankles, breathes a sigh of relief and a mouthful of coal smoke as he watches 2706 ease out of the shop and into the glorious sunlight of another Red Chinese day. After work he will forget his bruised ankles in a sea of Yungang beer.

2706 will “Advance” for many years, ending her days at Daban on the Jitong Railway in 1999. Her front number plate will continue all the way to imperialist and decadent California, thanks to my friend Irv Hirsch.

In the first photo below 2706 sits in the dead line at Daban, Inner Mongolia, China. Photo by Irv Hirsch

The second photo shows the plate today.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/11 21:17 by africansteam.

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Greeeaaaat story, Jack. I figure you probably witnessed this, or something very similar, in one of your visits to China.

Yes, Chinese steam shops would turn an OSHA inspector's hair gray!

Cheers,
Jack

Working for China Rail is almost a cradle to grave experience. Typically, prospective railway workers attend a special high school which teaches the basics of railroading as well as other life skills. Based on skill and aptitude, the students graduate to a variety of trades within the railway.

Typically, workers are divided up into brigades. Those little red stars on the smoke deflectors of in service QJ's reflected accomplishments of the brigade in charge of that particular locomotive. The different embellishments on different QJ's reflected the decorative talents of various shop brigades. The incentive to do better was better housing for the family, and even the possibility for paid vacations to special railway owned hotels. By and large, rank and file Chinese railroaders are not Communist Party members, and do not have much contact with their bosses who usually are.

An encounter with a shop foreman would go like this. The brigade leaders would summon all the workers to "fall in" in military style. The national anthem would be played, and the news of the day would be broadcast over a loudspeaker. Finally, the shop foreman would address the assembled workforce. He would praise each brigade for their accomplishments, and especially praise the ones who have met or exceeded their work quota. He would praise the accomplishments of the workers sports teams. Finally, if there was any bad news, such as the impending influx of Df7 diesels and the subsequent closure of the shop, these would be described as challenges to be met collectively. Remember, to Chinese men, the greatest embarrasment is to publically lose face. No public criticism of an individual, or show of anger by an official would ever take place.

Oddly enough, the railways of India work in a similar way, as do several other Asian countries.

Phil, thanks for the glimpse into true Chinese shop practice. That some aspects of the Indian model are similar is interesting in light of the British Influence.

Cheers,
Jack

Jack, great story. I loved the names you assigned to the crew. Brought back chuckles from when I worked at LA City Hall in the 60s. Bureau of Engineering had a couple of civil engineers named Harry Dong and Basil Ung. We used to call them now and then, just to hear "Doong speaking" when they answered. True story, you can't make this stuff up. Then there was my dad's business partner, Harry Hyman, but that's another story.

Naw.......Jack....someone probably sold the original to some Gricer !!

engine3420 Wrote:
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> Naw.......Jack....someone probably sold the
> original to some Gricer !!

EC, perish the thought!

Cheers
Jack