China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Xing Ting, correspondent Tang Chengkang, Guo Ziming.
On the Jilai high-speed railway, China's first urban high-speed railway, there is a small station located in the hinterland of the city - Licheng Station, where a young signal team is accompanied by the lights of thousands of homes to guard the safe way home for passengers.
Approaching the Spring Festival, the trains on the Jilai high-speed rail line are more dense, and the signal workers are becoming more and more busy. 32-year-old Ru Ping is the foreman of the Licheng high-speed rail signal maintenance work area of the Jinan Electric Depot, who is not very old, but he is the most experienced "old foreman" in this work area. From the new construction of the Jilai high-speed railway to the opening of traffic, he has been stationed at Licheng Station, and for a long time, he knows every cable and every equipment here.
At the beginning of the Spring Festival in 2024, Ru Ping and 8 post-90s colleagues are responsible for the maintenance and maintenance of 28 sets of turnout equipment and 22 signals for 30 kilometers in the tube.
Tonight's operation project is divided into two groups, 1 group for daily maintenance of equipment, and 2 groups to take a look at the comprehensive cable well ......"At 20:30 on January 24, Ru Ping was arranging the day's homework in an orderly manner.
Ru Ping prepares to pump water under the cable well. Photo by Guo Ziming.
Due to the operation time of the high-speed railway, the working time left for this signal team every night is only four hours from 20:30 to 24:30 the next day, and the rhythm is tense and the task is heavy. The area around Licheng Station is dotted with CBD commercial complexes and residential buildings, and the team set off at the time when thousands of homes are brightly lit.
Ru Gong, there is stagnant water in our comprehensive cable well, and it doesn't seem to be shallow! "Okay, you prepare ventilation at the mouth of the well, and I'll be there shortly." Ru Ping, who was inspecting the equipment on the first road, received a request for help from a colleague on the walkie-talkie.
Signal cables, like the nerves of the human body, are spread throughout every inch of Licheng Station, shouldering the important task of transmitting signal instructions and directing the safe operation of trains. In order to ensure the safety of the cable, the staff will generally bury it deep in the ground, and whenever the rain and snow weather passes, some low-lying cable wells will produce water due to soil infiltration, which must be treated immediately.
Ru Ping, who came in a hurry, didn't bother to take a breath, and quickly leaned down, in only 0The 5-square-meter wellhead was carefully observed, and with the continuous downward exploration of the flashlight, Ru Ping quickly judged the basic situation. However, due to the reflection of the water surface and the narrowness of the wellhead, the depth of the water level and the safety of the cable cannot be effectively confirmed.
Zhang Wenrui, you bring someone to transport the pump quickly, remember to bring the hair dryer and gas detector together, just now in the well ** felt a little breathless, the oxygen content below is very low. Ru Ping quickly instructed everyone to do a good job of protecting the confined space around the wellhead, and after putting on gas masks and safety belts, they were ready to go down the well.
In order to save time, the team members quickly fixed the safety belt in a reliable position and quickly transported the pump, and in order to save time, they changed the original natural ventilation to the powerful ventilation of the hair dryer, so as to expel the toxic gases out of the well as quickly as possible, and prepare for Ruping to go down the well. Time passed minute by minute, and 10 minutes later, after the test of the gas detector, the oxygen content in the well had reached a safe range, Ru Ping took a deep breath and put on a gas mask to prepare to go down the well.
The wellhead is narrow and cramped, Ru Ping, who is 1.85 meters tall, can only squeeze into the wellhead inch by inch, with the help of slippery scaffolding to slowly move his body, in less than five minutes, he has descended to the 4 meters deep from the ground, and confirmed through measurement that the water in the well has exceeded 80 centimeters.
I had arrived safely in the well, turned on the diesel generator, and pumped the water down with a safety rope, moving quickly, there were at least a dozen cubic meters of water in it, and the time was very tight. Ru Ping quickly entered combat mode.
As the pump slowly falls, in order to make the pumping work smoother, Ru Ping stepped into the water to find the best placement point, so that the water pipe can avoid bending as much as possible, and ensure that the suction port is not blocked by foreign objects. Although Ru Ping wore a full set of rain boots and a split raincoat, the 80-centimeter-deep water still overflowed his waist, and the cold water began to slowly decrease as the pump turned on at full power.
An hour later, the water in the well was finally completely drained, and when Ru Ping tied the water pump to the safety rope and was about to climb up the scaffolding, he found that his feet were as heavy as lead, and the water had already soaked his rain boots and warm clothes in the process of soaking in the water, and his flexible body had been frozen a little stiff.
Brothers, wait a minute, pull me along, I'll adjust it first. After taking off his rain boots and simply pouring out the water in his boots, Ru Ping gritted his teeth and prepared to climb up with all his might. Ru Ping, who had used all his strength, rested on the scaffold three times before he barely reached the vicinity of the wellhead, and the team members at the wellhead grabbed the safety rope and pulled Ru Ping up.
Originally, he didn't feel cold in the well, but after coming out of the well, Ru Ping found that the temperature had dropped to -10 °C at night, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably. The partners who had been prepared for a long time quickly changed his warm clothes.
The stagnant water below has been treated, how is the equipment patrolling going? How long is it until the end of the job time? Ru Ping, who had just recovered his strength, quickly asked about the situation of the other group. After microcomputer monitoring, another group of team members found that there were slight changes in the moving curve of No. 3 turnout, and they were looking for the problem.
Okay, I'll be there right away, and you'll focus on checking if there's anything wrong with the outer locking device. "It's 23:00. Ru Ping, who couldn't take a break, quickly went to the No. 3 turnout of Licheng Station to check the situation.
Ruping and the workers of the work area are inspecting and maintaining the locking iron of the high-speed rail turnout. Photo by Li Xiaolong.
"Heaven to earth" maintenance equipment has become a daily routine for team members. Switch No. 3 is at the northernmost end of Licheng Station, and they need to trot 2 kilometers on the railway line with a tool bag weighing more than 20 kilograms. Excluding the 70-minute round trip on the road, they were left with only 20 minutes to work.
It's here, Feng Lin, grab the hand crank and shake it to see if there is any jam" "There are wear marks on the locking iron, take it off and take a look." It takes three people to complete the dismantling of the locking iron, and it only took 3 minutes for them to remove the locking iron. Ru Ping quickly took off his gloves and finely sanded them with sandpaper, only by ensuring that the plane of the entire locking iron is smooth and smooth, can the equipment run stably.
At Licheng Station, there are many locking irons like this, and each state will affect the smooth movement of the turnout. "The turnout gap is still too large and needs to be adjusted smaller. Ru Ping's tone was unmistakable.
In order to make the passengers' journey home smoother and more stable, Ru Ping and his colleagues did not let go of the slightest deviation. Looking up, the No. 3 turnout is just located on the bridge across Jinan Jingshi Road, and behind them, there are bright neon lights and thousands of lights.
At 00:30 on January 25, the signal team successfully completed the work within the specified time, and the lights of the city gradually went out.
*: China Youth Daily client).