Switching tracks
- Source: Global Times
- [22:11 February 07 2010]
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By Liang Ruoqiao
All of China's major railroad tracks undergo safety maintenance twice a year, once in March, and again in November when work on the rails doesn't interfere with the busiest seasons for train travel.
Last October, 700 rail workers recruited by the Bridge and Construction Division of the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau were given a tough assignment.
They were given one month to manually replace 38 "turnouts, " each weighing more than 100 tons. The turnouts are cross-over switches , mounted on concrete blocks, that allow high-speed trains to switch from one set of tracks to another without slowing down.
The work is critical to prevent two trains from being on the same railroad track, which would be an invitation to disaster. The new turnouts will also allow passengers a less bumpy ride when the train switches tracks.
Ten-year-old cross-over switches at four railroad junctions on the North-South Beijing-Guangzhou line needed to be replaced to allow faster travel on the railway.
"If the old turnouts remained in place, high speed trains designed for speeds up to 200 kilometers per hour would need to slow down to 160 kilometers per hour, as they do now, " said Li Hongyuan, the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau photographer who took these photos.
These former farmers work from six o'clock in the morning till 11 o'clock at night. They have two intervals, each only 3 hours long, when they must work fast to unlock the old turnouts and replace them with new ones.
During these two periods, called "skylight periods," they lift up and set down the heavy iron joints mounted on concrete blocks.
Because heavy-duty machinery doesn't fit in the narrow space between the tracks, this back-breaking labor must be done with bare hands.
They are so close to passing trains that strong gusts of wind force them to turn away and cover their faces with both hands. They earn 1,500 yuan per month, and most couldn't afford to even buy a ticket on the trains whooshing past.
Though it is a demanding job testing the physical limits of the workers every day, "a bowl of hot water is enough to make them smile heartily," said Li Hongyuan who spent more than a month recording the dignity of labor on the rails.
1. At 6 am every morning, the workers set out to work.
