As this report was written over 5 years since I went there, it is not as formal as my other ones are.
After 16 months suffering from Chinese Railway withdrawl sypmtoms, I finally found time while in Hong Kong to step into the mainland for the day and relish what I could find. I had contemplated heading up to Guangzhou or somewhere inbetween, but decided to take the safer option and stay close in the city of Shenzhen. Robin Gibbons assisted me by email in finding directions for the so called "Rainbow bridge", a road bridge curved in the middle with large iron 'rainbow' shaped girders on each straight section. It crosses over the Shenzhen freight and passenger railyards, situated approximately three and a half kilometers north of Shenzhen Railway station. You can find the exact location on Google Earth at co-ordinates 22°33'59.13" N 114°06'38.46"E .
This is an extremely busy section of rail. Three railway companies serve Shenzhen. The obvious one, China Rail, provide intercity passenger and freight trains. The Guangshen Railway company is a semi-privatised railway that uses China Rail rolling stock and provides freight and passenger services in the local area, including passenger trains to Hong Kong. The other company is the KCR (Kowloon-Canton Railway) which runs between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. The KCR provides passenger services between Kowloon and New Territories (HKSAR), an intercity passenger train named the 'Ktt' which runs the whole length of the KCR using push-pull Re460 Swiss-built electric locomotives and double decker passenger coaches, and freight services from the Shenzhen freight yard to Hong Kong and possibly as far as Guangzhou as well.
China Rail freight trains come from the North and stop at the railyards in Shenzhen, i.e. there is no CNR freight traffic that goes directly to Hong Kong. The KCR provides these services from this railyard. At the time this was hauled by G12 (rarely), G16 and G26 locomotives. There was at least two daily return services.
Here is a view of the north end of the Shenzhen rail yard. In the background there is an 18 car passenger train heading north out of Shenzhen led by a DF4B. Only 5 different passenger car liveries on this one!
Green DF4B's aren't common in Shenzhen. They are primarily used to haul freight trains into the yard, however on this particular occasion I was blessed to see 7598 with a two car workers train come and go. I saw the same engine return to the yard with with a substantial mixed freight later on in the day.
The orange DF4B's were a common sight around Shenzhen with what seemed to be local trains. Many seemed to be too short or too outrageous to be a premier service. The above photo shows what I mean by that. Chinese railway modellers have the benefit of operating prototype trains as colorful as these where any other continental layout would seem odd!
On the left, we have an ageing orange (passenger) DF4B heading into Shenzhen passing DF4B 7598, which has just disconnected from a freight train. And on the right, ladies and gentlemen, another orange DF4B, number 2185 passes under the rainbow bridge on the way to Shenzhen.
Here is one of the vulnerable DF5 hydraulic locomotives. These are used as yard shunters all over China, although hundreds of these units were built, and still are to a more modernized design, they are starting to be replaced by other types such as DF7's and DF5D's. Hopefully they will be around for some time yet, as they are very good looking locomotives as far as diesels go.
And here is one of the DF5D's, which will hopefully not make their much more attractive predecessors obsolete. A handful of these serve Shenzhen yard now. I remember seeing 6 of these lined up ready for delivery at Guangzhou the previous year. I saw numbers 0003 and 0004 working the Shenzhen yard this day. In the photo on the right, you can see 0003 shunting a rare class DJ inspection car. This particular one is rarer than most having video cameras installed on the roof and airconditioning. There is a bubble window on the sides and large windows on the ends. Also in this photo you can see part of the bridge itself in the background.
Here is DF11 0016 heading for Shenzhen with five SYZ double decker cars and a KD to provide power for the airconditioners. Number 0016 (and many other low numbered DF11's) are leased by the Guangshen railway company.
Electric locomotives are also just as common. When I was there, apart from the push pull services, I only saw SS8's on rather long passenger trains, some China Rail and some of the Guangshen locomotive company. This locomotive (SS8 0067) is leased by the latter. You can now tell the Guangshen machines by the red/gold banners in the cabin windows. The umbrellas are for track workers to protect them from the stifling heat.
These two photos show both of the Guangshen Railway companies two push-pull e.m.u. (Electric Multiple Unit) sets. These are permanently coupled together and run at considerably high speed.
The train on the left is the DDJ1 "Blue Arrow" rated at 200kph. It runs between Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The train in the right is the ABB X2000 tilt train, i.e. it tilts slightly when going around corners. It is rated slightly higher at 210kph and operates between Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
Here is the KCR's answer to intercity push-pull service. It differs from the train above in the fact that both locomotives could be uncoupled and used on any other train if needed. There is really no need to do this as there is no other rolling stock for them to take. What is odd about this photo is that they were designed to run with the red cab end first (for aesthetic purposes!). This train operates on the KCR's Ktt service between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. There are 12 passenger cars available, although I can't ever recall seeing it that long. I think the most I've seen was 7 cars. The rest are stored at the KCR workshops at the KCR depot at Racecourse, HKSAR.
These photos shows the daily Hong Kong pig train. Thousands of these animals are consumed daily in Hong Kong - just go to any restaurant and there is guaranteed to be a barbeque pig with an apple in its mouth and cherries in the eyes! Well, this is how they are all transported. The loco in charge today is G26-60 and there are about a dozen J 11 livestock cars in tow. I can't recall seeing stock cars anywhere else in China. Presumably because Hong Kong prohibits livestock from being walked through the streets! This was an extremely hot day and the train was sat in the yard for at least two hours. It's a wonder there is no pig flu in China...
On the way back from the yards, I walked to through a small park adjacent to the railway which provided some shots nice 'clean city' shots - including this super rare DF9! There were only 2 of these locomotives built (number 0001 and 0002). I saw both - 0002 at the bridge, and 0001 smoking itself silly here. These were the locomotives in which the DF11's were built on. They look like pussified DF8's to me... Something not quite right about them, but that's what makes 'em special! :-)
2310 pulls a train out of Shenzhen with green and gold 22 class cars.
Summary
Obviously this short day trip was quite limited in scope which was how I had intended it to be - at the busiest part of the line in order to photograph as many trains as possible! It's not a photogenic area, unless you like metropolitan style scenery, but there are a lot of types of engines there and the frequency makes it an attractive alternative to train spotting in Hong Kong where you would be lucky to get a China Rail train or freight through every 3 or 4 hours. Here you can see them at 5 minute intervals, plus there's always something going on in the yards. I can't imagine much has changed here in the five years that have lapsed since. Some new classes are running there now, and I can only assume some have gone as well.
The photos in this trip report and more, in larger format, can be found in the photograph gallery.
