Somewhere in China

We'll be interested to hear more! This photo from internet:

Construction of the Chengdu–Lanzhou high-speed railway. May 2015, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan.

....the pictures as promised

....and looking in the other direction.....

.....and a promise of more to come ...Kunshan, China railroad station, night moves....

A gigantic project with many kilometers of viaducts and tunnels through the mountains. Keep us posted !

A new Great Wall....they must think rail transportation is a viable option...

Cars are hard to come by in outer China.

Are those Japanese trains in China or Chinese copies

Matt, they are copies/modifications of trainsets built in China under technology transfer agreements with various foreign firms -  Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier, and Kawasake Heavy Industries among others.

Seen along the right-of-way...in China

A tunnel in the desert

  It is flat as a pancake clear to the horizon in every direction and yet, here it is, a tunnel.  

The reason becomes clear if one turns around and looks in the other direction...

It may not look like much but it, and some other nearby mud brick constructs, have a lot of historical significance ...

and the tunnel goes right underneath them...As to why the railroad was built this way and not given some other alignment...you will have to ask CRH.

Seen along the right-of-way in China...continued

Part of the large high speed trainset yard outside of Xi'an

Very interesting, Robert. Are you on an extended visit over there? Will you get to ride some of the trains? Keep us posted !

   My wife and I were in China for the entire month of July visiting our son who is working there.  He is just like us when it comes to travel and is determined to see as much of China as he can.  Basically, we put packs on our backs and told him to lead the way. He took us all over central China and northern Tibet.  We used public transportation - local buses, regional buses, local trains, overnight trains and high speed trains to get to various national parks, world heritage sites, and other historic sites.  I'm just now working my way through the pictures so I will be posting more to this thread in the coming days.

Seen along the right-of-way...Yes Virginia, there is more to railroading in China besides high speed trains - freight train passing giant wind farms somewhere east of Guazhou.

Boxcar details - a solid string of boxcars rolls through the Baoji, China train station.  The passenger platforms are the boarding and departing platforms for the slower "Green" passenger trains (more stops - top speed around 60-70 mph) and the station is obviously not one of the new high speed rail train stations.

Heading in

rolling past

tail end

Wire Happy - seen along the lines

  With all of the electrified rail lines it is obvious that there must be a very large amount of equipment needed for construction and maintenance.  As luck would have it on our trip between Xi'anbei and Wuhan on 29 July our passenger train zipped right past one of the places where this kind of MOW equipment is stored/maintained.  The pictures aren't the best - I had to deal with reflections on the window from lights etc. inside the passenger car but I guess it's better than nothing.

A diesel - if you are stringing wire or repairing it you will need something other than an electric engine to pull your consist - BTW the gondolas surrounding the diesel are used for hauling any number of items including coal and containers.

 One of  a string of cars that looked to be cars for the work gang housing.

Cars for handling wire - note all of the cable reels

The platforms appear to be hydraulic lifts that would permit working on the overhead wire.

An overview of the yard storage area

....and a final look... 

Very interesting, thanks for the inside look.

Over 60,000 rail passenger cars in China. Compare that to approximately 1553 cars with Amtrak.

The Green Trains

  As I mentioned above the traditional trains, the green trains, are slower, make more stops, and go many places the high speed trains don't.  Everyone refers to these trains as the green trains and I suppose it is because, with only rare exceptions, that is the color of most of their passenger cars.  Head end power varies but most of the engines I saw were variations on the one above.  The green trains can be found either at the older railroad terminals, like the one above, or on separate tracks and platforms that are an integral part of the high speed rail stations as illustrated below.

  The boarding platforms are not as low as the platforms in the U.S. They are high enough so that no additional step stool is needed.  

   Seats in all of the trains in China are assigned and the seat and car number are marked on your ticket.  The high speed train platforms have the coach numbers marked right on the platform floor and you line up on these markers before the train arrives.  For the green trains the car attendant attaches a small blue marker with a white number identifying the coach and the coach door to be used for entry as in coach #3 above. 

  The interior of the green train coaches look pretty much like the interior of any of the coaches of the U.S. railroads in the 1950's and 60's. (The banners in the coach in the picture below were for some special occasion and were not part of the regular decor.

  This is in marked contrast to the interior of the high speed coaches which look more like the seating in an airplane.

...and yes, that message board over the coach door does say 301 km/hr