Century-Old Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway "Special Train Depot" Becomes Rented Warehouse, Suffers Partial Collapse and Opens "Skylight"
The special train depot has been identified as a dangerous building.
Photo / Reporter Cui Yifei
Three of the former four depot doors were sealed up, and new rooms were added inside the old building.
Photo / Reporter Cui Yifei
May 26, 2018, Legal Evening News
Current Status of the Nankou Special Train Depot
The special train depot is located inside the freight yard of Nankou Railway Station and is currently rented out to store chemical raw materials. Therefore, many people in the freight yard commonly refer to this old building as the "Large Warehouse." The large warehouse is 99 meters long and 21 meters wide, with four arched doorways lined up side by side on the west side to allow locomotives and vehicles to enter and exit. Today, three of the large doors are sealed up, leaving only a single doorway for goods to be moved in and out, while the rusty door hinges are still embedded in the entrance.
On both the north and south sides of the old building, more than 30 tall windows are symmetrically arranged, all of which have now been blocked with bricks, reducing the light penetration to less than 1/6 of the original and resulting in dim indoor lighting.
"This building is dangerous, entry is prohibited, going up onto the roof is prohibited, violators bear their own consequences." On the north wall of the large warehouse, an informational notice set up in 2016 by the Nankou Building Construction Work Area can be seen. Meanwhile, the roof on the east side has indeed suffered a collapse, causing the depot to open a "skylight."
With the doors of the special train depot wide open, two workers are busy packaging glass-clarifying whitening agents, and the dust of chemical raw materials is dispersing inside the large warehouse. Due to long-term disrepair, the wooden support columns have rotted and decayed, sparrows fly in through the drafty windows to roost, an additional single-story room has been built onto the southwest corner inside the large warehouse, and the original four parallel steel tracks leave no trace.
"I rented this large warehouse in 2015, and at that time I already knew it was built by Zhan Tianyou." Said Ms. Zhang, the lessee. When she first rented the large warehouse, the area was overgrown with weeds, but because it was close to the railway station and convenient for freight transport, she still decided to rent it.
History: Situated at the "Heart" of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway; The Only Special Train Depot Along the Entire Line*
"Nankou, where the special train depot is located, has a historical significance no less than that of the famous zig-zag railway, because Nankou is the 'heart' of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway." Railway cultural scholar Wang Wei defined the importance of Nankou in his new book My Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.
Wang Wei took stock and found that, in addition to the old station building and the special train depot, Nankou also housed a manufacturing plant, a material plant, and a train shed, and the engineering department office of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was also located in Nankou. These historical buildings are all important components of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway and are in urgent need of rescue and protection.
According to Wang Wei's textual research, the special train depot first appeared on a map in 1916, possessing a history of over a hundred years. At the time of the initial completion of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, it was used to park special trains transporting high-ranking officials and dignitaries. Its exterior was similar to a locomotive shed, but later, as its original function was lost, it was converted into a warehouse and underwent partial renovations. As the only special train depot on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, although it has undergone successive renovations and lacks maintenance over the years, fortunately, its original architectural layout still survives.
The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is the first trunk railway independently designed, constructed, and built by our country, and it is an early industrial heritage of our country. The "Nankou Section to Badaling Section (Guanguan Section)" was announced as a National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit in 2013. The cultural relic description for this section includes the Nankou railway station building, modern and contemporary architectural remnants of the Nankou Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works, the "Human-Foot" shaped railway, Qinglongqiao station building, staff dormitories and supervisory office, and Zhan Tianyou's tomb and bronze statue, among others. However, the special train depot did not appear in the description, meaning the special train depot has not yet obtained official cultural relic recognition.
Yesterday, Legal Evening News reporters called the Cultural Relic Section of the Changping District Culture Commission, and a staff member stated that they would report the situation of the Nankou special train depot to their leadership. A staff member from the news section of China Railway Beijing Group Co., Ltd. expressed that they would contact relevant departments to look into the matter. Shi Wenyi, former curator of the Zhan Tianyou Museum, said in an interview with Legal Evening News reporters that this old garage in Nankou is extremely important because garage buildings surviving across the entire Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway line can be counted on one hand. "The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway needs a comprehensive cultural relic census of the entire line," he said.
