Last May we passed on news from our Beijing-based member, Liang Chenyuan, who reported that experiments were being conducted in Tianjin and in Inner Mongolia to power to preserved steam locomotives using compressed CO2 gas instead of steam – see http://advanced-steam.org/ast-news/news-from-china/.
Chenyuan now reports that modification work on Tianjin’s SY1007 is near completion and that it is expected to be put into service soon – see photo below.
CO2 tank and heat exchanger (to evaporate the liquefied gas) mounted on a flat wagon. Presumably, the locomotive behind is SY1007 with Tianjin high-rise flats in the background.
Another picture of SY1007. Presumably, it was taken at a later date
since it shows the finished enclosure over the tank wagon.
Chenyuan goes on to report that SY 1007 belongs to the Tianjin Giant Heavy Industry company and is used as a factory shunter. The CO2 conversion was undertaken because the company was asked to stop using coal because of environmental issues, so presumably the intention is to eliminate smoke pollution in Tianjin’s urban environment rather reducing CO2 emissions.
Chenyuan also reports that the JiTong Keshiketeng (Inner Mongolia) steam tourist festival will be held on December 28th after a two-year suspension. Two QJ locomotives have been modified to run on high-pressure CO2 during the festival, however the purpose in this more rural area is quite different from that in Tianjin. It’s being done because the QJs’ boilers are in a poor state of repair so presumably it’s less costly to modify the locos for CO2 operation than it would be to overhaul the boilers.
Whilst no coal-fired locomotives will be running during the Neimenggu festival, the Liaoning festival (presumably at Tiefa) will have coal-fired SYs in operation.
Thanks to Liang Chenyuan for these news updates.