China JingPeng Orient Express Video Clips

This page contains streaming video clips shot during our China JingPeng Orient Express trip in the Fall of 2004. All clips are Windows Media Player format. For best results Click here to install Windows Media Player Version 10. Click on the image to start the clip. Be sure to turn up the sound. Keep in mind these are low resolution streaming video samples. Unfortunately they don't do justice to the high quality video recorded on the Sony PD150 camera. All clips Copyright 2004 Dale E. Muir.

Contact info:
Email is my preferred communication method. Please click here to send email with questions or comments to dalemuir1@comcast.net.
My mailing address is included in case you give a printout of this page to a friend without internet access:
Dale Muir
715 Roberts Ln
Batavia, IL 60510 USA

Use this map of the JingPeng Pass for reference: http://home.c2i.net/schaefer/jitongtielu/jitongmap.gif

Our JingPeng Orient Express Eastbound on the viaduct at Happy Valley. We lived on this train for about 11 days. Photographer busses allowed us to get off the train for these shots. We spent 4 days shooting between Daban and JingPeng. Why don't the sound systems in our model trains sound like this?
This clip is from a video I shot in the cab of a QJ steam locomotive pulling our train. The tour operator arranged for the cab rides. The man in the white hat is the engineer (driver.) Two firemen (stokers) tag team for hours. The full cab ride video is about 35 minutes long. The original intent was to include a 60 second clip in a general JingPeng Orient Express DVD. However, when I played the raw footage for the other passengers in the bar car, they were mesmerized by the constant firing. Requests poured in for copies with overwhelming pleas "Don't edit it." Therefore, I will produce a special cab ride DVD with very little editing. "Night Cab Ride on the JingPeng Orient Express" is the first DVD planned in the trip DVD series.
Double headed QJs Eastbound emerging from the tunnel at Happy Valley . The QJ is the standard steam locomotive in use on the JingPeng line. This is the only place in the world where steam locomotives are still used in regular daily service on freight and passenger trains. Listen as the engines slip wildly just after coming into view. The smoke blackens as each shovel full of coal is thrown into the fire. One engine slips slightly as the driving wheels pass by the camera.
A QJ works a freight train in the rain. We set up under a highway bridge in the muddy river bed for protection from the rain for this moody shot. Fortunately no noisy vehicles passed overhead to ruin the video. Smoke hangs low over the train as it approaches the viaduct on this cold dismal day. The locomotive drivers slip slightly on the wet rail as the locomotive traverses the bridge. The engineman responds immediately by easing back on the throttle and the engine regains her footing. As the train continues into the distance, a new diesel locomotive is revealed after the 10th car in the train, signaling the end of an era. The line is expected to be fully diesel powered in 2005.
Coaling a QJ at the Daban engine terminal. Coal is stored on the ground and loaded into the tender using steam powered cranes as there are no coaling towers. Labor is cheap in China. After the tender is topped off, the engine heads off to turn on the wye for a return trip.
Our JingPeng Orient Express Westbound on the second level near SanDi station climbing to the JingPeng Pass summit at Shangdian. We hiked to the top of a mountain backpacking our video gear for shots like this. ChinaQJInRain_clip.wmv The train was about an hour late that afternoon. The sun was rapidly descending behind the mountains, but the train came into view just in time to get the shot before dark. The setting sun imparts an eerie red glow to the smoke as the locomotive labors upgrade to the summit. As darkness approaches, if you look carefully, you can see an intermittent orange glow in the cab windows each time the fireman opens the firebox door. (This shows up much better on the TV than in streaming video.)
This is the quintessential JingPeng Pass shot of the famous SiMingYi Bridge. We hiked to the top of a mountain with our video gear to a location high above the valley floor. A train can be viewed for about an hour from this vantage point as it climbs three levels of track from the valley floor near JingPeng to Hadashan Station. The clip starts wide to reveal the context of this railway engineering marvel. The SiMingYi Bridge is in the lower left quadrant of the view. At this point, the eastbound train has traversed line on the valley floor in the distance on the left, and passed over the bridge in the distance near the village of SiMingYi. We zoom in on the train revealing double headed QJs working hard upgrade. Listen as the exhaust sounds of the two locomotives go in and out of synch with occasional slipping. The road where cars are passing by marks the starting point of our hike up the mountain. As the train passes over the viaduct the smoke casts a beautiful shadow on the landscape below. The clip ends with the engines going through a cut and disappearing into SiMingYi tunnel. Hadashan Station is about one more kilometer on the other side of the mountain.
Double headed QJs approaching the east portal of the summit tunnel just east of ShangDian Station. Fortunately, the shot did not involve hiking to the top of a mountain. The shot starts with the train approaching with a typical Chinese farming village in the background. As the train enters the tunnel, the view is obscured with smoke.
Hong Kong in 95 seconds. This montage features Hong Kong's famous double deck trams at night, open air markets, a tram ride, the Victoria Peak Funicular, a Star Ferry ride across Victoria Harbour (sic), and Anna the tour guide that did not take us to any of these places. She was our Hong Kong bus tour (ugh) guide later in the day.