The Great Leap Forward and the Rise of Local Railways
The first round of large-scale local railway construction after the founding of New China was carried out along with the Great Leap Forward and the People's Commune Movement, forming a mass movement to build local railways. In June 1958, built the first local railway in the Yuxian County (盂县), Shanxi Province since the Leap Forward. Yuxian County is located in the northeast of Shanxi Province and is rich in mineral resources. Since 1957, Yuxian County has built power plants and steel plants without any industry. In just one year, the county has developed thousands of factories and mines with more than 20,000 workers, forming an industrial structure dominated by heavy industry. However, what is unbalanced with the rapid development of industry is that there were only four cars in the county at that time, which was far from meeting the transportation needs of raw materials and products of enterprises. Even if all the donkeys and iron wheeled carts in the countryside were requisitioned, there would still be a gap, and this would inevitably affect agricultural production. Faced with this situation, the local government "came up with the idea of repairing railways and building trains by itself."
The tight transportation situation faced by Yuxian County was also common throughout the country at that time. In 1959, Wu Jingtian, then Deputy Minister of Railways, proposed to build earth railways to alleviate the transportation problems in mining areas, salt areas, agricultural and sideline products distribution points and mountainous areas in response to the transportation situation since the "Great Leap Forward" movement. Local railways were quickly rolled out in provinces across the country. In 1960, the Ministry of Railways established the National Local Railway Management Bureau to coordinate the construction and operation work of various regions. In January of that year, in order to enable various provinces to further exchange and learn about the experience and technical information of local railways in various places, the Ministry of Railways held a national local railway technical experience exchange meeting in Bengbu, Anhui. The topics covered the opinions of the Ministry of Railways, reports from various places, and experience in line surveys, construction methods, track casting, locomotive manufacturing, vehicle manufacturing, operation management and "mass movements", and discussed some technical standards and application regulations. It was also at this time that the local railways in Henan Province began to be built on a large scale.
"Grassroots" local railway in Henan
In the early stage, the construction of local railways in Henan was mainly undertaken by grassroots factories, mines, people's communes, and special, municipal, and county governments. They relied on their own efforts and used local materials. Henan Province and Zhengzhou Railway Bureau only provided certain assistance. By mobilizing the masses to engage in construction and technology, by the end of 1959, over 200,000 people in Henan Province had participated in the construction of local railways, and the completed lines reached 340 kilometers. 25 locomotives and more than 4,000 vehicles were renovated, and the scale had begun to take shape.
The Henan government attached great importance to the construction of "土铁路" ("Grassroots" local railways, or Chinese-style railways). In October 1959, Wu Hao (吴皓), secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, and Wang Weiqun (王维群), deputy governor of the province, organized mayors and transportation department officials from various places to hold an "Emergency Meeting on 'Grassroots' Local Railway Construction" to plan the use of local railways to solve the short-distance transportation of steel, coal and forest areas. In November, Henan Province held on-site meetings in Jiaozuo and Luohe, where local railways were under construction, to further exchange experiences and set off a larger-scale local railway construction movement.
The mode of transportation has shifted to rail-based
The "Grassroots" local railway is positioned to solve the problem of short-distance transportation of raw materials and industrial products. The "short distance" here is shorter than today's understanding. Local railways in many places were first built in factories to realize "in-factory transportation rails".
In-factory transportation tracks are simpler and easier to operate than ordinary local railways. In just seven days in 1959, Mi County, Zhengzhou, built a total of 202.7 kilometers of in-factory tracks for 70 county-owned factories and mines. These tracks are quite effective. Take Jiaozuo Jiaobei Iron and Steel Plant as an example. The plant built a 350-meter-long in-factory track. After completion, only five people were needed to operate it to complete the daily transportation of 960 tons. It is estimated that nearly 2,000 manpower can be saved. More importantly, it ensures the supply of raw materials and reduces the cost of each ton of pig iron.
Both Chinese and Western
Adapting to local conditions, using local materials, making do with what is available, from local style to western style, and doing whatever is available are the distinctive features of Henan's local railway and transportation track construction. During this period, the standardized lines of the national railway system were called "洋铁路" (Western-style railways), and the local railways run by various places were divided into "土铁路" ("Grassroots" local railways, or Chinese-style railways) and "小洋铁路" ("mini" Western-style railways). The materials and funds for local railways can basically be solved locally, the technical level is relatively low, and the transportation capacity is lower than that of small foreign railways. The construction standard of small foreign railways is slightly higher than that of local railways, and the transportation capacity is also greater. Both local railways and small foreign railways are mainly based on 1435 mm and 762 mm track gauges.
The spirit of "doing whatever is available" has made the locomotives and stocks on the local railways flourish: small steam locomotives, locomobile, locomotives modified from car engines, cable cars pulled by electric ropes, etc. The same is true for track construction. The early local railways even had lines using wooden tracks. Dengfeng Country (登封), Mixian Country (密县) and other places temporarily set up small blast furnaces to smelt iron and cast rails ("Backyard furnace"), which produced materials for local local railway construction. There were certainly many problems with the rails made by the original method in the early stage. The iron quality was poor and easy to break. The workers had no experience in laying rails and nailing rails. The rails were "bent and uneven, with the misaligned on the left and right." As the workers gradually understood the railways during the construction process, learned relevant knowledge, and accumulated casting experience such as adding a certain proportion of limestone for desulfurization and increasing the cross-section of the rails, improvements were made.
