railography photo galleries : China : Hohhot Bureau : Baotou Area : 88-036-02 : (8 of 26)

A Tale of Two Locos

Hohhot and Baotou are Inner Mongolia's largest cities, both situated on the Yellow River and 160km apart. Both cities were the home to locomotive depots with large fleets of QJ Class 2-10-2s including some of the most recent examples. Hohhot's QJs were regular visitors to Baotou Xi depot, where Hohhot's QJ 6909 and Baotou's QJ 6763 stood side by side on the morning of 12 April 1988.

QJ 6909 was built in 1985 and was one of the last steam locomotives active on China's national railway, working from Linhe depot until early 2003. QJ 6763 dated from 1984 and was transferred to the JiTong Railway in the late 1990s, remaining in service until March 2005.