The train driver in the courtyard

On the locomotive.

"Master Zhang, thank you for your hard work!"

Li Aiguo took the notebook and checked it over.

Seeing that the pressure increase on the barometer was a little slow, but within a reasonable range, when the driving time came, I took Liu Qingquan and Lao Zheng on the train.

The fire in the furnace was simmering, and the driver's cabin was very hot, almost as if the heater had been turned on.

Li Aiguo took off his hat and hung it on the hook on the side.

Sounded the horn, took the dispatch order, and drove the locomotive to Beijing Station.

The crew is also very busy today.

In addition to greeting passengers to get on the bus, Captain Bai and Zhang Yazhi also had to insulate the carriages.

After a busy period, the train left on time.

Li Aiguo didn't feel it at first.

As soon as the train left the capital and entered a slow uphill section, something felt wrong.

The air pressure shown on the barometer never went up.

The train is driven by steam, and if the air pressure is insufficient, it is similar to a petrol train running out of oil or a tram running out of electricity.

"Old Liu, you also go and help Old Zheng add coal."

Li Aiguo stared at the air pressure gauge and issued the order immediately.

Liu Qingquan was a little disapproving at first.

Train 131 is a passenger train, not a freight train, and generally does not suffer from insufficient power.

Out of trust in Li Aiguo, he stood up and came to Lao Zheng's side.

Coal filling is also a technical job.

The opening and closing of the furnace door of the boiler's coal-fired room also uses the wind power of the cylinder to push the door.

Open the furnace door, fill the coal, close the furnace door, remove the coal, open the furnace door again, and fill the coal. These reciprocating actions must be completed in one go.

Liu Qingquan is an old co-driver and a half-stoker.

The moment the furnace door opened, a large shovelful of wet coal was thrown into the furnace with a bang.

As soon as he shoveled a shovelful of coal, he felt something was wrong.

"Driver Li, there are burnt spots in the furnace."

Li Aiguo's heart trembled, and he shouted: "Hurry up and clean up! Old Zheng, take the bait!"

Burnt coals are the product of incomplete combustion of coal.

With this thing suppressing the bottom fire, the fire in the furnace will definitely not be strong.

Lao Zheng found a hook more than five meters long and worked with Liu Qingquan. It took a long time to pull out the burnt lump.

bang.

It fell on the iron plate on the ground, and Li Aiguo took a look. It was as big as a human head, lying on the floor and smoking.

Later, Liu Qingquan and Lao Zheng pulled out five burnt lumps from the furnace.

Arranged in a row, each one smelled of charcoal.

Liu Qingquan cursed: "We are a passenger train. How can those guys on the coal team deceive people with these low-quality coal?"

"It's not necessarily bad coal."

Li Aiguo always felt something was wrong, but he couldn't figure it out right now, so he could only ask Liu Qingquan to pay attention to the furnace, and if he encountered any burnt lumps, he would pull them out as soon as possible.

When the locomotive returns to the locomotive depot, it is sent to the maintenance workshop to be inspected by professional masters.

During the subsequent driving process, the fire in the furnace was not burning brightly. Li Aiguo had to open the valve wider.

Liu Qingquan and Lao Zheng were so busy that they were panting and sweating. They finally stabilized the downward trend of the pointer of the steam pressure gauge and barely stabilized the steam pressure to 14 kPa.

Of course, as an experienced driver, Li Aiguo still has a few tricks he can use.

Such as starting the automatic stoker and borrowing water.

However, both methods have drawbacks, so Liu Qingquan and Lao Zheng can only work harder.

Train 131 was puffing out thick black smoke, panting heavily, and moving slowly, like an old scalper without enough food.

Fortunately, we were not delayed and arrived in Jincheng on time.

When Li Aiguo handed over his shift, he reported the problem of the furnace to the driver on duty, Cao Wenzhi.

"Huh, the annual winter transportation is the most difficult period for railway transportation. Your boy only became a train driver this year, and he doesn't know what happened before."

"Those of us who run passenger trains are doing better, but the train drivers in the freight workshop are working even harder."

Cao Wenzhi took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

The thick smoke could not hide his sad face.

Li Aiguo wanted to ask a few questions, but seeing that the departure time had already arrived, he could only suppress his doubts in his heart and turned back to the camping car.

Lying on the berth, Li Aiguo began to think about the furnace.

In the past, every time he drove in winter, Li's father would be more nervous than before.

Every time before driving, he would tell Li Aiguo some things that he would not be able to come back from, as if he was prepared to never come back.

Is driving in winter so dangerous?

At this moment.

A freight train loaded with logs was heading towards the capital along the railway line, billowing black smoke.

Snowflakes fell on the black advancing locomotive and turned into white steam for a moment, unable to cover up the light yellow nameplate.

The number on it is X4832, indicating that it is a freight train from the Beijing Railway Bureau.

Freight trains within the tube are generally responsible for transporting materials from distant places to the capital, and they are all long-distance freight trains.

Inside the locomotive.

Freight train driver Feng Zhengde rubbed his red and swollen eyes, yawned and shouted to the side: "Assistant driver Zhang, please give me something to cheer you up."

Assistant driver Zhang, who was in charge of lookout, retracted his head from the window.

He brushed off the snowflakes and ice particles on his dog-skin hat, stood up and took out a paper bag from his canvas pocket.

Opening the paper package, there were more than a dozen dried red chili peppers inside.

"Old Feng, why don't I stand in for you for a while? You haven't slept for more than ten hours. If you continue like this, you won't be able to bear it."

As Assistant Driver Zhang spoke, he pinched a piece of dried red chili and handed it to Feng Zhengde.

X4832 is a freight train specially designed to transport logs. It travels between the deep mountain logging station in the Daxinganling Mountains and the capital. Each trip takes two or three days.

Generally speaking, this kind of long-distance freight train requires two driver teams.

However, winter is about to begin. In order to transport winter supplies, a large number of freight trains have been dispatched, and there is a shortage of train drivers in the Beijing locomotive depot.

Therefore, only one of their crews was assigned to be responsible for the transportation task.

Fortunately, Assistant Driver Zhang can also take over the shift.

When walking on the winding and undulating routes in the mountainous area, the driver, Lao Feng, was in charge.

When the road became gentle, Assistant Driver Zhang took over, and he was able to persevere.

Feng Zhengde took the chili and stuffed it directly into his mouth to chew.

The spicy taste stimulates the taste buds and makes the whole person energetic.

He sucked his lips and said, "It's okay, I can still hold on. Besides, I feel like the train is boring."

"No, even though the carriage of our train is from before the liberation, our forward locomotive is newly purchased, and it is more powerful than the old Jiefang!"

Assistant driver Zhang turned to look at the stoker: "Besides, our stoker Xiao Huang is the most energetic young man in the section. Isn't that right? Xiao Huang?"

The train doesn't run fast and has no energy, and the person who most often takes the blame is the stoker.

Xiao Huang is an honest child. Hearing this, he felt like he had been whipped.

He took off his coat, bare his back, spread his arms and started fucking.

歘-- sound.

Throw a shovel full of wet coal into the furnace accurately. Such a mechanical movement was repeated more than a dozen times in just one minute.

If Lao Zheng from the 131 crew saw this, he would definitely give a thumbs up and say, "What a good boy!"

Unfortunately, there are no eggs.

At this time, the train entered the twelve thousandths of a long uphill slope, and the speed dropped instantly, and it also tended to become slower and slower.

Feng Zhengde is an old master. He has been running on this line for many years. It can be said that he is more familiar with the line than his own women.

He instantly felt that the speed had dropped too fast, and looked at the barometer.

15、14.5、14、13.5、13……

The pointer of the barometer kept beating, and every beat was like a hammer hitting Feng Zhengde's heart.

"Assistant driver Zhang, something happened, please open the furnace quickly!"

Assistant driver Zhang also realized something was wrong at this time. When he stepped on the furnace door and took a look, he was stunned.

The front part of the fire bed has been crushed to death by thick burnt lumps, forming a thick layer of dead coal. The two corners at the back are in a fireless state due to lack of coal.

"Xiao Huang, pull it out quickly, pull it out quickly."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Huang hurriedly picked up the iron hook and poked the furnace hearth. After successfully pulling out a few burnt lumps, he frowned.

"Oh no, Driver Feng, there's a tortoise inside!"

The so-called "Lian Wangba" is a large piece of Jiao Tuozi.

It is usually several square feet in size and cannot be taken out from the furnace door. It can suppress a large piece of the furnace bed without fire, seriously reducing the amount of steam generated.

Feng Zhengde's face suddenly turned ugly when he heard that there was a refining tortoise.

This thing needs to be tinkered with in the maintenance workshop and with professional tools.

With this thing pressed down, the steam capacity of the locomotive would not be able to meet the standard.

What made him even more panicked was that the speed of the train was getting lower and lower, and there was even a risk of stopping.

If it is on flat ground, the train can stop to burn gas and then set off again when the gas is sufficient.

A little effort and a little delay will not cause a traffic accident.

At most, I will be scolded a few times by my peers as "technically too poor", "level is too low", "too naughty", "too smelly", "too bad", etc., etc., and I will be unable to hold my head high in my position for at least half a year.

Not much else.

The point is that the train is now climbing.

Once the train stops, it is impossible to stop the train with the train brakes, and it will inevitably roll away.

A train weighing thousands of tons rolled away. Even if the famous Li Dache in the locomotive depot controlled the train himself, he could not avoid the train derailment.

Fortunately, Feng Zhengde is an old freight train driver and has a few unique skills.

I saw him yelling: "Turn on the automatic stoker, turn off the hot water pump, we have to borrow water."

The so-called "borrowing water" means stopping filling the boiler with water.

The water stored in the boiler can be quickly burned into steam, thereby quickly increasing the steam pressure.

But the time to borrow water should not be too long.

Otherwise, once the water level exceeds the minimum water level, it is easy to cause a "white water meter" in the boiler, leading to serious consequences of a boiler explosion.

Most drivers really don't dare to do this.

That is to say, Feng Zhengde is a talented and bold person.

The co-driver hesitated for a moment, but followed his order and performed an operation on the boiler.

As the water storage decreases, the steam pressure gradually increases, providing stronger power, and finally the train successfully reaches the top of the slope.

The co-driver quickly turned on the water pump and filled the boiler with water.

Seeing the water level in the boiler gradually rising, the co-driver finally breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down in his chair.

"Hey, my mother, why are you driving the train like you are risking your life?"

What he said was absolutely correct.

Take the situation just now.

If they don't borrow water, the train won't have enough power and will definitely roll away, and the three of them will burp.

If they borrow water, the boiler may explode due to insufficient water, and their lives may not be saved.

If you want to survive successfully and complete the transportation mission, you can only rely on luck. Therefore, running trains in winter is more dangerous than usual.

Fortunately, as long as we pass through this section of tunnel ahead, we can return to the capital smoothly. It doesn't matter even if the train is crawling at a turtle speed.

Feng Zhengde also relaxed and felt happy that he was about to complete the task.

"When we get back to the locomotive depot, the labor and management will definitely have to go to the guys in the maintenance workshop. There is such a big problem with the furnace, but they didn't find out."

Feng Zhengde took out a packet of large front doors from his pocket, distributed them to the co-driver and the stoker, and then took out matches and lit them himself.

Stab

I struck it twice in a row, but the match didn't light.

"What the hell, I bought inferior matches."

The words have not yet fallen.

Feng Zhengde only felt that his eyes were covered with white. Why did the black face of the co-driver start spinning in circles?

He gradually couldn't hold on any longer and slumped down on his seat in a daze.

"Old Feng"

Seeing that something was wrong with Feng Zhengde, the co-driver stood up and tried to pull him away. After two attempts, he couldn't even stand up and slumped on the chair.

Hoo ho ho.

At this time, only Xiao Huang, the stoker, was still filling coal.

If the motivation is insufficient, Master Feng should curse again.

Why are you tired?

Xiao Huang's body suddenly swayed, and he insisted on throwing the coal into the furnace before falling to the floor.

With all the driver crew down and the train unmanned, it is not an exaggeration to call it a ghost train.

The ghost train continued to run forward along the black railway track, with the capital ahead of it.

Fortunately, steam locomotives in these days required coal to provide energy.

In the absence of stokers to add coal, the fire in the train's furnace gradually went out, and the steam volume was insufficient. The speed of the X4832 train quickly dropped to 20 kilometers per hour.

It is said that the locomotive maintenance section does not support idle people. This is not true.

The operating conductor located at the rear of the train is the most leisurely job on the train.

On weekdays, they are just like passengers who travel for free. They move a chair and sit at the rear of the train. They usually cross their legs and drink tea and smoke. They only need to wave a small flag when the train starts and stops.

It seems unreasonable to still get a high salary every month.

But since such a position exists, it makes sense.

Comrade Jiao, the operating conductor of train X4832, was smoking a cigarette leisurely. When he saw that the train was getting slower and slower and had a tendency to slip backwards, his expression changed drastically.

Throw away the cigarette butt and decisively pull the driver's valve.

The conductor's valve is the brake valve with the highest authority on the train. Once it is pulled down, the locomotive and the carriage will brake with full force.

Along with a violent friction sound, the X4832 train finally stopped steadily.

Chang Jiao, the locomotive, jumped out of the car, strode to the locomotive, took off his cotton shoes and banged on the locomotive, but found no one responded.

He knew something was wrong, so he quickly took out the key and opened the side door.

Thick smoke rushed towards me.

Lao Jiao turned around to avoid the smoke and stopped outside for at least five minutes before he dared to enter the locomotive.

The locomotive was filled with smoke, making it difficult to see clearly.

At this time, Feng Zhengde, the co-driver, and the stoker were already unconscious and must have been poisoned.

This place is not far from the capital, and there are often people passing by on the roadside.

Lao Jiao stopped a bullock cart, asked him to pass through the commune, and notified the Qianmen locomotive depot.

After receiving the news, the Qianmen Locomotive Depot started emergency procedures.

A train rescue team was dispatched.

On the other side, the locomotive depot hospital dispatched the only ambulance modified by a jeep, rushed to the scene of the incident, and sent the three people to the hospital.

at this time.

Train 131 returned to the capital, and Li Aiguo drove the locomotive back to the station.

Dispatcher Xiao Liu ran over with the dispatch order.

"Driver Li, freight train X4832 had an accident and stopped on the main line. Duan Li, please pull the train back quickly."

Everyone in the Qianmen Locomotive Depot knows that Li Aiguo has the best technology.

Once something unexpected happens, the first thing that comes to mind is him.

This can be regarded as more work for those who are able.

Li Aiguo did not feel dissatisfied at all.

After all, it is precisely because of people's hard work in these years that they have laid a solid foundation for future generations and have a good life for future generations.

In this era, Li Aiguo naturally has to make a contribution.

Li Aiguo took the dispatch order and asked casually: "What caused the accident? Is there something wrong with the steam engine? Or it derailed."

"No, according to the comrades of the train rescue team, it seems that the driver, co-driver, and stoker were all poisoned by the mushroom."

The dispatcher looked confused: "Did they pick wild mushrooms in the mountains and eat them? Our locomotive depot has clearly stipulated that train drivers are not allowed to get off the train to hunt without permission, gather vegetables from fellow villagers, and pick mountain products."

"Sheep paralysis mushroom? It sounds like cowhide!"

Li Aiguo suddenly felt something was wrong and asked, "Is it carbon monoxide poisoning?" '

"Yes, yes, it's the kind of mushroom that can poison a sheep." The dispatcher nodded repeatedly.

Li Aiguo: "."

He felt that comrades in the education section of the locomotive section should be advised to carry out basic physics and chemistry education throughout the section.

Most of the grassroots employees like dispatchers are junior high school graduates.

In this era, primary schools only studied two subjects: Chinese and arithmetic.

By the time Li Aiguo drove the rescue train to the scene, the captain of the rescue team, Captain Liu Qingsong, had already begun to explore the scene.

Seeing Li Aiguo jump off the locomotive, he walked over quickly and patted Li Aiguo heavily on the shoulder: "I knew Duan Neili must have sent you here."

Li Aiguo looked around at Yi Zheng. The rescue team now has seven or eight young men, a liberation truck, and professional cameras. It can be said that it is a strong force.

He took out his cigarette and spread it around, saying, "Brother Liu, what's going on?"

“Insufficient combustion in the furnace of the locomotive resulted in a large amount of coal not being completely burned, producing harmful carbon monoxide gas.

At this time, the train just entered the tunnel, and the distance between the locomotive boiler chimney and the top of the tunnel was too close.

Carbon monoxide was forced into the locomotive cab through the gaps in the doors and windows, and the concentration gradually reached its maximum value. "

Captain Liu, as the rescue captain, quickly found the real cause of the accident.

"The furnace is not burning enough again." Li Aiguo frowned.

He also encountered this problem when he drove the train between Beijing and Jincheng today.

At this time, the locomotive was being driven by Cao Wenzhi and went into the maintenance workshop for repairs. It was not known what the situation was.

A locomotive is like a train driver’s daughter-in-law. Disobedience is a big problem.

Li Aiguo asked: "Brother Liu, is this situation common?"

"It's very common, especially after winter. Every winter, seven or eight similar accidents occur in our locomotive depot. Even if there is no carbon monoxide poisoning, the power of the train will suddenly drop, which can easily cause serious accidents."

Captain Liu's face became serious.

"Does this happen to only forward locomotives, or does it happen to all locomotives?"

"All of them!"

Captain Liu explained while instructing the team members to pull the train behind the locomotive:

"The situation here is better than Lao Maozi's.

Because the temperature at Lao Maozi is lower and coal is burned more indiscriminately in the furnace, unmanned ghost trains often appear on the line.

Passing by the station without stopping, all the coal in the furnace was burned out.

A passer-by opened it and saw that there were only a few corpses inside.

In fact, it was not a ghost train, but the train driver was unconscious. "

It seems that if you want to avoid this situation, you have to find a way from the furnace, Li Aiguo thought.

At this time the freight train has been hung behind the locomotive.

It's getting late.

Li Aiguo started the locomotive and drove slowly along the rails towards the Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

When we arrived at the locomotive depot, the maintenance workshop was already filled with people.

Two consecutive locomotives had problems, and one of them also caused casualties, which attracted great attention from the leaders of the locomotive depot.

Duan Chang Xing, Director Zhang of the Maintenance Workshop, and an engineer named Zheng from the Dalian Factory all came to the workshop.

After Engineer Dong was transferred to the Railway Research Institute, Engineer Zheng from the Dalian Factory took his place and came to the Qianmen Locomotive Depot to be responsible for the technical issues of the locomotives.

Engineer Zheng was not satisfied with this appointment.

He graduated from Tangshan Railway College before moving forward. He can be said to be a proud son and is now rated as a fifth-level engineer.

No matter which unit they are placed in, they are all great engineers who are responsible for their own performance.

Now he has to work in the Qianmen Locomotive Depot as a customer service technician.

Moreover, these rude and rude train drivers don’t know anything except swearing.

No, as soon as he entered the workshop, the operating conductor grabbed him by the collar and scolded him.

"Look at the locomotive built by your Dalian factory. It killed three of my brothers. They all have families and are the mainstay of the family. If something goes wrong, can you afford the responsibility?"

Operation vehicle driver Jiao was already angry at this time.

Comrades in the private group often drive cars together, and it can be said that they spend more time together than with their own wives.

After getting along for several years, their relationship became closer than that of real brothers.

If there wasn't a problem with the design of the Dalian factory, would Driver Feng and the others have been poisoned?

Engineer Zheng said with a cold face: "Let go, let me tell you, I am an engineer at the Dalian factory, not a worker in your front-door locomotive depot. Don't act arrogant in front of me! If you piss me off, I will notify the factory and have you in the locomotive depot." The accessory is broken!”

As soon as these words came out.

Lao Zhang, the workshop director who was renovating the workshop, couldn't stand.

Most of the train accessories required by the Qianmen locomotive depot are supplied by the Dalian factory.

If parts are missing, there will be no way to repair problems with the train.

Of course, if someone else said this, the workshop director would not be afraid.

After all, breaking off accessories is an extremely bad thing and can easily damage the harmony between brother units.

But for Engineer Zheng, he was a little unsure.

As the person who interacts with Engineer Zheng the most in the Qianmen Locomotive Depot, the workshop director knows that this person is a sinister person.

When Lao Dong was here, he ate in the restaurant every day. He ate what the railway workers ate.

Engineer Zheng, however, ordered the canteen chef to open a small stove for him because of his poor gastrointestinal condition.

There is no precedent for this in the Qianmen Locomotive Depot. Even Duan Chang Xing is eating from a big pot.

So Lao Zhang refused.

As a result, there was a problem with the braking system of a train the next day.

When the masters in the workshop went to ask Engineer Zheng for help.

Engineer Zheng refused to help with the repairs on the grounds that he was not feeling well and could not work.

If Engineer Zheng doesn't help, the master in the maintenance workshop can repair it himself. He just needs to provide the maintenance information of the locomotive.

Engineer Zheng refused to provide the information on the grounds that it was confidential to the Dalian factory.

Lao Zhang originally wanted to report the incident to the Dalian factory, but was stopped by Duan Chang Xing.

Duan Chang Xing specially approved a fund specifically for Engineer Zheng’s food expenses.

The relationship between the two parties has eased.

In addition, I heard that Engineer Zheng still has some problems with his personal style.

As a technical representative, he should live in the locomotive depot expert dormitory on weekdays.

But he had to rent it outside. An employee in the maintenance department once saw him with a woman.

This matter spread throughout the locomotive depot.

(End of this chapter)