China First Train of the Day, Sandaoling December 2018

The preparation of a steam locomotive at minus 20 degrees centigrade is not an easy task. Yet the loco crews at Sandaoling, in China s Xinjiang Province, perform the duty every winter morning at Dongbolizhan Station. We see here, the crews freeing up the frozen valve gear with open flames and boiling water. A hot loco is used to get all the motion moving on a colder loco. Crews also have to loosen frozen coal in the tender and many other small jobs that European loco crews might not think about. The first t