Another clear start in Baiyin. While it was misty up the valley, it was nowhere near as bad as the previous morning and a reasonable shot was had of SY 2008 on the morning passenger to Shenbutong. The morning Sanyelian train was also steam, heard clearly but not seen. The ore train ran early today, arriving at Shenbutong around 08:55, before the passenger had returned to Baiyin. GKD1A.0206 was the power as expected.

At the depot, SY 1470 was in the shed for a boiler washout and minor repairs and SY 2008 was having a rest between passenger duties. SY 0819, which we thought might have been taken out of service, was said to be awaiting repairs and a return to traffic.

After photographing SY 2008 on the 15:15 passenger to Shenbutong, we saw the GK1A leaving a couple of wagons at Sanyelian and returning to gongsi light engine. It was getting a bit late for the diesel to work the empty stock up to Sanyelian so we waited by the lineside in case the train was steam - it wasn’t.

Afterwards, we set up close to the top of the bank out of the complex. SY 1583 was seen on the slag train, a strange affair consisting of a caboose, the loco, five flat wagons and three ladles, in that order. SY 0965 was shunting one of the factories in the complex and SY 1581 went down light engine to the same area. A few minutes later, both engines came back double-headed on a long train, working flat out up the bank - a very impressive sight. Both crews appeared to be enjoying the thrash to the full.

SY 2008 brought the day to a close by working the 18:15 passenger to Shenbutong. The weather had been clear all day after the morning murk had dispersed but during the afternoon it had become so warm that neither Shenbutong train produced any white exhaust. Fortunately, the double headed trip didn’t disappoint.