In the not-so-distant past, our main means of transportation here was the forest train, which was managed by the Forest Railway. That's a relatively large unit.
At that time, the small train was the lifeblood of the forest area. All the daily necessities and personnel were transported to the ditch and the ditch through this narrow-gauge train, and at that time, everyone called the forest farm the ditch outside the ditch, which of course referred to the outside world.
The forest train track is 762 mm. Half narrower than the big train tracks.
The small train has a narrow track and is very unstable, and the carriage is also a smaller version of the big train, and the aisle is also narrow. Sitting on the train always feels like a sway. There is no sense of security, sometimes the small train has to travel halfway up the mountain, looking down at the deep ravines and some rivers, and from time to time there will be board cars and logs that pull logs down earlier. It makes people shudder and shudder when they see it.
Riding a small train is like stepping on a tightrope, and the nerves are always tight.
The driver of the small train usually has to carry a few crowbars to drive, and when the locomotive or carriage falls off the rails, he uses the crowbar to pry the car up, and then drive it again.
Doesn't that seem unbelievable now?
The safety factor of the small train is extremely low. Accidents happen frequently. In those years, I heard in the news that there was an accident on the Alishan train in Taiwan, and there was only a forest area.
When the small train transports timber, it often rolls over and runs downhill. Or even an accident that fell into a ravine. But what can be done?The small train track is particularly narrow, and the tracks are all built on the mountain road, one will go uphill and one will go downhill, the slope is particularly large, the driver is a little careless, or encounters brake failure, and the accident of running the slope is prone to occur. Hill running is a term used to mean that a small locomotive cannot control its speed and rushes towards the ramp. The faster the train runs, the most likely to rush out of the tracks, causing major accidents.
I listened to a driver master describe a hill experience, that time, the log was loaded a little more, the locomotive to a downhill slope, he went down the brake, pulled the brake pipe, but there was no effect, looking out at the wind and rolling the snow, the snow with the wind, the whole car body is like a snow dragon, the wind is galloping, faster and faster, the stoker is a newcomer who has just taken up the post, is a hairy young man, he still doesn't know what happened, he doesn't know the seriousness of the matter, and keeps saying, master, today's car is really fast!
At that time, the driver and the co-driver were frightened, and the driver told the co-driver and the stoker: You guys jump out of the car. ＂
But looking at the big rocks that keep popping up on the side of the road, you have to break your bones if you jump down. None of them jumped out of the car.
The rail car is different from the car, and the downhill section can be set up to avoid the buffer zone, if you encounter a slope and the brakes fail, it is a bloody trick and can only be resigned to fate.
The driver master said that at that time he repeatedly warned himself to be calm and calm, but people in the life and death of the stake, is not able to calm down, the desire to survive is very strong, he desperately shook the reversal machine, open the big valve, but the speed of the car is still not reduced, just like that, about five or six kilometers away, the front finally reached a small uphill, the driver again pulled the brake tube, down the brake. The locomotive finally slowed down.
That time, they didn't have an accident, and they were purely lucky. Because the speed of the small train is too fast, it is easy to rush out of the track, the track of the small train is unstable, there are many curves, the design speed is thirty or forty kilometers per hour, and he thinks that the speed of running the slope that day is at least eighty, or even one hundred kilometers.
It is not uncommon for a small train to run uphill and die in a car.
Generally speaking, the probability of the occurrence of timber trucks is larger, and the passenger cars that pull people are relatively safe. On the one hand, the passenger car is lighter. On the other hand, the maintenance of people's vehicles is still quite in place, and the drivers are also strict. After all, human life is greater than heaven.
But even so, there was a vicious accident, once, when going down the ridge, there was also a slope accident, the passenger car rushed down the mountain from the mountain, ran to the bottom of the ridge, rushed out of the track, the locomotive head, four passenger car boxes, a luggage car, lying flat a large area. Fortunately, at that time, the fuel locomotive had been used, if it was a steam locomotive, it would be miserable, in the past, the locomotive overturned, the boiling water in the steam engine spewed out, and the driver died of the tragedy.
This time, only one female passenger was seriously injured and suffered multiple fractures all over her body, including her pelvis. Fortunately, after being rescued, there was no danger to life. It was a great blessing in the midst of misfortune.
At that time, there was only one track to each forest farm, and at that time, the production task was very busy, and the locomotive transporting timber often had accidents, and there were no accidents. Usually 100 kilometers take ** hours, sometimes more than ten hours late.
Sometimes it even takes fifteen or sixteen hours to reach the destination. It's not that the little train is going too slowly, it's mainly that it always stops on the road.
At that time, it was often rumored that the small train was easy to sit on, and the XX station was sad. In fact, every time I go to a station, it is a test, and every time there is a message: I am going to meet the car again. This news is the most depressing. Sometimes, the wait is an hour, or even longer. Only the train started moving, and the hanging heart finally let go.
One year, a bureau chief was transferred from other places, and this bureau chief took office three times, and he heard that small trains and passenger cars were often delayed, and vowed to change this phenomenon, and his concept was to put people first according to today's saying. All vehicles should give way to passenger cars. For a while, the distance of 100 kilometers was shortened to five or six hours.
But the good times didn't last long, and later, it was still an old disease**. Because, a train line is too busy, there is no way to ensure the punctuality of the passenger cars. Production tasks still need to be completed, and the key is that accidents often occur. Passenger car delays still happen often.
There is also a fatal drawback of small train coaches, that is, they are too crowded. At that time, the personnel were mainly engaged in timber production, and after graduation, students were assigned to work in mountain farms. All the personnel in the forest area, production and life have to be transported in and out of the mountains by small trains, and there are many people who take buses back and forth. It's not easy to get a seat.
Later, with the development of the times, the disadvantages of the small train became more and more obvious, and this means of transportation became more and more unable to keep up with the development of the times. It's not safe, it's very inefficient. The narrow gauges were stripped away. The gravel road was built, and the transportation of materials was changed to automobile transportation.
Nowadays, after several transformations, this road has also become a spacious and flat asphalt tourist road, which is more than an hour to drive for 100 kilometers.
There is only a small section of the narrow-gauge train road, and a small locomotive is parked there for tourists to take pictures. It also records the past. It was a sad history.