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4 hours sleep in what was left of last night after our crossing of the China/Mongolia border in the wee small hours but, what better way to wake than to the sight of a herd of camels right outside the window of the train and right beside the railway line when I awoke at 7-30am and peered out. Camels on the Gobi.
Yesterday was a very long day and last night even longer.
We had travelled all day from Beijing to Erlian Station, arriving about 9-20pm, an hour later than expected, for we had lost an hour mid-afternoon when we had pulled to a siding to wait out something that was happening - never did find out what - sitting there in the heat of the day.
The part of the train that we are in isn’t air-conditioned so, it’s only the breeze coming in from the few windows that are allowed to be open and the cooling effects of the wall fan mounted high on the wall between the 4 bunks in our cabin that provides any cooling. The fan is very efficient but, by this time of the day, it is only churning the warm, stuffy
conditions inside.
The rail gauges between China and Mongolia are different and, Ksenia (pron. Kzenya), our Intrepid guide, (as well as our travelling bible, our Lonely Planet guide), had informed us earlier in the day as to what to expect when we got to the China/Mongolian border.
Because the gauges are different, they have to change the bogies (wheels) on the train to accommodate the rail tracks of Mongolia. We had previously heard stories about how watching this event is really quite amazing.
After travelling all day and having endured the hot, stuffy conditions in the train itself, upon our arrival at Erlian, we asked if we could get off onto the platform whilst all of this was going on, to be told that, yes, we could but, once off the train, we had to stay off for the next two hours whilst railway personnel attended to the train.
We weren’t sure as to what the best option was for getting to see them change the wheels as we really wanted to see it – stay on the train or get off the train – information about this aspect was a bit scant – but, the
lure of stretching our legs in the cool night breeze after a hot afternoon, was too appealing to ignore.
There was much to-ing and fro-ing going on on the platform itself as well as the tracks, with railway personnel walking backwards and forwards, talking on their two-way radios, flashing torchlight around and inspecting the undercarriage of our train.
We still didn’t really know what was happening apart from the obvious and hung around hoping to see some indication of the wheel change.
After about 20 minutes, we noticed that they had detached some of the carriages off our train and were taking them somewhere else.
In the meantime, we could hear whistles and horns blowing and voices shouting whilst hearing a lot of clatter and banging going on in the railway sheds behind the station itself.
It seemed as though we needed to be on the train itself if we wanted to witness the changing of the wheels so, had to get back on board.
Things were starting to happen and we noticed a couple of other people get back onto the train so we decided to board again, if allowed. We thought, if
they could, we could too.
We approached the train and just continued on as though everything was normal and made for the steps to climb back on board, even though there were a number of railway personnel standing around, whilst expecting at any moment to be stopped after having been told that once off the train, we had to stay off.
We needn’t have worried for they didn’t turn a hair or even interrupt their chatting as we climbed up the steps and back onto the train.
After a few minutes, our section of the train started to move forward and we were being shunted behind the station and into the railway workshops.
Here was where the real action began.
Now, from here on, you will have to bear with me regarding my explanation of the whole process for, as I am no engineer and have no knowledge of the correct terminology for such things, I will have to explain the procedure as best I can.
The first thing we saw as we rolled in were rows and rows of rail bogies (wheels) all lined up along the walls on either the side of
the workshop.
The next thing we noticed were these huge, red hydraulic jacks spaced either side of the tracks that our train had been shunted in on.
We waited for a few minutes, noticing the railway workmen in dark overalls and yellow hard hats and looking like little Lego figures, making adjustments to these hydraulic jacks. The next thing we heard was a lot of clanging and banging and a huge jolt as the train lurched forward.
This was to occur a lot over the next couple of hours and, whilst we couldn’t see a lot from our part of the train, luckily we were able to watch what was going on with the next section of carriages that they had brought into the workshop onto the tracks beside us.
It was fascinating to watch the process of them positioning the train carriages between these huge hydraulic jacks spaced at regular intervals along the track on either side and then, ever so slowly, raise the whole carriage length 7 or 8ft (2 to 2 and half metres) completely off the ground.
One would assume that they had already released the locking apparatus that holds the
wheels to the carriages so that, when the train was lifted off, the wheels were then free to be removed.
When we looked down on the railway tracks, we could see a thick steel able running in the recess of the track itself and, it was this cable that was doing all the work of pulling the wheels out from under the carriage and out of the way.
Once clear of the train carriage, a massive gantry then rolled along and over the length of the train itself with the bogey being lifted up and out of the way by a huge cable attached to the gantry which then rolled to the end of the workshop with the wheels dangling on the end of the cable and was then manoeuvered and swung over to the side of the workshop and the wheels stored.
The process was then reversed to put the new different gauge bogies into place to be attached to the train and complete the operation.
All of this took about two hours to complete and, once this was done, we were shunted back out of the workshop and around to the
station again where the 3 sections of our train were joined back together and, where we once more became the Trans-Mongolian, back in one piece and ready to continue our journey.
Prior to all of this happening, about an hour out from our border check, we had filled in all of our documentation for departing China and entering Mongolia.
I always feel very nervous when I have to surrender my passport for any reason but, this was the case when the Chinese authorities came through to collect our documentation as well as our passports and, take it all with them to process whilst our train was getting its new wheels.
We were ever so pleased when, finally, just after midnight, all were returned safe and sound and were once more back in our possession.
However, these were only the formalities for our departure from China. The whole process for our arrival into Mongolia was to be repeated at their border control a bit further on.
More sitting around in our cabins for hours after identification checks and documents were checked and passports surrendered … again … with the resulting nervousness
about having to hand over our passports once more.
By now, we’d been travelling for about 17 hours, non-stop. It had been a very long day and night. We were dog-tired and feeling as though our eyeballs were almost hanging down onto our cheekbones and just wanted to go to sleep.
Many of us had been cat-napping, sitting up dozing in our compartments (we couldn’t go to bed as we had to be available for the authorities), or whiling away the time until departure by chatting, reading or otherwise occupying our time when, finally at 3-30am, after immigration, customs and other border checks had been completed, we rolled into our bunks, fully clothed, as our train slowly started to pull away from the platform and we were once more on our way and heading towards Mongolia …..
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Mal & Ron
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From Narvik
Great reading your blog. We are having enough trouble with the motel rooms being too hot, don't think I'd cope well with your heat. Pleased you had an early morni g/late night too - we had the opposite going to North Cape to see the midnight sun, then leaving at 5.30 am to catch the Hurtigruten. Glad we didn't do the whole trip on that ship as we have heard some good and more bad remarks on the trip. In Narvik tonight, been seeing some beautiful scenery with greenery, mostly red homes, blue fjords and snow on the mountains. Gotta sleep, this almost 24 hours of daylight is very tiring. Was gunna send you a photo of us with Santa but they wasnted too much! Love to you all Mal & Ron