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Accordingly the line was surveyed and estimates and plans were prepared; but the construction work was temporarily postponed for want of funds.

In March of this year this administration received, through the Ministry of Communications, instructions from the State Department as to the necessity of having a branch line from Hsichihmen to Chengyangmen constructed at the earliest possible date. Consequently the work was begun on the 16th day of June and the time fixed for its connection with the Tungchow Junction of the Peking-Mukden line at Tungchihmen, and thence to Chengyangmen, was six months. This line passes en route the four gates, namely, Teshingmen, Antingmen, Tungchihmen, and Chaoyangmen, covering 23 li (7 miles). The cost of construction was estimated at 441,000 odd dollars.

SOURCE OF CAPITAL.

As already stated, this line has been built entirely with Chinesecontrolled funds and mostly from surplus earnings of the PekingMukden Railway. In two instances short-time loans were made, but these were paid out of 1914 earnings, and during the latter part of 1917 a one-year loan for $1,000,000 was floated in China. In the summer of 1918 a new short-time loan was advertised, being for $4,000,000 at 7 per cent, repayable by annual drawings of $1,000,000 each year to 1922, inclusive.

PRESENT CONTROL.

The present control is entirely in the hands of the Chinese Government.

CLASS OF TRAFFIC.

Revenue from freight on this line constitutes about 75 per cent of the earnings, leaving 25 per cent for passenger business. This is the largest proportion of earnings from goods business on any of the lines of the Chinese Government Railways. The preponderance of tonnage is toward Peking and the Fengtai connection with the Peking-Mukden and Peking-Hankow railways, this giving the advantage of a down-grade haul over the West Hills. Agricultural and pastoral products constitute the largest part of the business.

PRESENT PROFITS AND OUTLOOK FOR FUTURE.

Since the completion of this line to Kalgan it has shown a satisfactory profit, and will no doubt continue to do so in the future, particularly if branches are built as contemplated and the growing of additional special products along the line is developed, such as is now the case with the potato crop raised between Hsuanhuafu and Kalgan. The earnings and expenses for the Peking-Kalgan section have been as follows:

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As stated above, two short-time loans were included in the 1914 expenses. The continuation of the line is already under construction

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from the present terminus at Fengchen to Suiyuan, which is a considerable caravan center. Although it is somewhat smaller than Kalgan and not so important at present, it is quite probable that, on account of its being farther in the interior, Suiyuan may in time attain equal or greater importance. This, of course, would be of advantage to the railway because of the longer haul and the down grade. It is also probable that other branches will be built in the future, particularly in a southwesterly direction from Tatung, but on account of the development of caravan travel it would seem wise to make the extension slowly, for the reason that a relatively small railway mileage will probably serve this part of China adequately for a good many years to come. This viewpoint, of course, does not take into account military or political considerations, which are entirely outside the scope of this report.

ROADWAY AND TRACK MATERIALS.

The bridges for this line were largely fabricated at the Shanhaikwan bridge works of the Peking-Mukden Railway. The rail and joint material came largely from the Han-Yeh-Ping steel works at Hankow. The weight of all rail is 85 pounds to the yard. The Sandberg section was used at first, but for some years the standard Chinese section shown on page 75 has been used instead. A good many of the requirements, such as switch stands, have been purchased in America from time to time.

ROLLING STOCK.

The greater number of locomotives on this line are of American manufacture. As already stated, the average tractive capacity of all locomotives on the Peking-Suiyuan Railway is about 50 per cent greater than the average on the other lines of the Chinese Government Railways. The passenger locomotives for this line average about 30,000 pounds, the freight locomotives about 35,500 pounds, and the switching (shunting) locomotives about 15,750 pounds. On the Peking-Kalgan section the passenger locomotives are about 34,700 pounds, and the average of the freight locomotives is about 35,800 pounds, though some of the latter run to more than 70,000 pounds. The Chinese are quite proud of the fact that the heaviest locomotives in use in the Far East are the Mallet-type engines in service on the Nankow grade, built by the American Locomotive Co. There are also in use on this same grade six Shay geared locomotives, but by experience it has been found that tractive engines will do the work satisfactorily under all weather conditions.

Most of the passenger and freight car equipment of this line was built at the Tongshan shops of the Peking-Mukden Railway, although a relatively small amount is of American manufacture.

WORKSHOPS.

The principal workshops are located at Nankow, but there are also shops of considerable importance at Kalgan. With the extensions to this system and the necessary amount of additional equipment on account of the growing traffic, these shops are not sufficiently equipped with shop machinery and power to handle the work to the best advantage and with sufficient expedition. There are apt to be delays in the shops, involving equipment that is needed for handling the traffic

Additional machine tools, with required power, are needed, and a system of compressed air with air-working tools would be a great asset in putting the boilers of the large locomotives through the shops more quickly than with the present hand-working methods.

ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL.

The nominal organization of this line, because of there being no foreign contract employees, conforms rather closely to the regulations promulgated by the Ministry of Communications. During the last few years, however, there have been several changes in the position of managing director of this line, as well as a considerable number of changes in both the organization and the personnel. In other respects, very capable engineering and management have prevailed on this railway both during its construction and in the course of its maintenance and operation.

On page 262, following the Peking-Mukden directory, there is a list, with addresses, of the present principal officials of this line.

PURCHASE OF STORES.

The general stores depot is located at Nankow, about 25 miles from Peking. Under the supervision of the managing director the purchase of stores is handled by a superintendent of stores whose office is in the general stores depot at Nankow. In the purchase of stores for this line preference is given to Chinese products, but in the case of requirements that need to be imported this railway has always been very favorably inclined toward the purchase of American goods.

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TIENTSIN-PUKOW (TSIN-PU) RAILWAY.

LOCATION AND EXTENT.

This is a north-and-south line. The north end at Tientsin connects with the Peking-Mukden line. The south end terminates at Pukow, across the Yangtze River from Nanking, at which point ferry connection is made with the Shanghai-Nanking line. This line north of the Yangtze River serves practically the same territory as the Grand Canal constructed by the Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan, more than 500 years ago, which provided an inland waterway from Hangchow to Peking. This canal was used for transporting to the imperial court at Peking the grains, silks, and other products from the rich Provinces of Southeast China. The distance from the central station. at Tientsin (where connection is made with the Peking-Mukden Railway) to Pukow is 627 miles. In addition, there are branches to mines and canals amounting, in all, to about 60 miles. At Tsinanfu connection is made with the Shantung ("Santo," Japanese name) Railway, and at Hsuchowfu connection is made with the Pienlo system.

HISTORICAL SURVEY.

The original concession was for a railway from Tientsin to Chinkiang and was granted to a Chinese named Yung Wing, with permission to raise funds by foreign loans. Later, when it was concluded to build the Shanghai-Nanking Railway, the southern terminus of this line was changed to Pukow, which is directly across the Yangtze River from the Shanghai-Nanking terminal. Yung undertook to

raise the necessary capital in England and America, but when Germany seized Kiaochow the Kaiser's Government demanded preferential rights for all railway concessions in the Province of Shantung and the contract that Yung had made for $27,500,000 gold had to be canceled on account of German objections. During the "Battle of Concessions" Germany agreed to confine its railway activities to Shantung and the Hwang Ho (Yellow River) Valley and England to the Yangtze Valley, and a working agreement was reached that Germany should finance and construct the northern section of the Tientsin-Pukow line, from Tientsin to the southern boundary of Shantung, a distance of 390.5 miles, and that England should finance and construct the southern section from the above boundary to Pukow, a distance of 236.5 miles. This arrangement has been continued up to the present time in the maintenance and operation of the line, though there is apparently no reason why one organization should not handle the situation economically and satisfactorily in every way.

The preliminary agreement was not finally negotiated until May, 1899; before the final agreement was concluded the Boxer uprising occurred and negotiations were suspended until 1902; the final agreement, as shown by appendix 6, was not formally signed until January, 1908. The conditions of this loan are known as the "TientsinPukow Terms."

SOURCE OF CAPITAL.

As already stated, the loan funds were furnished in accordance with the Anglo-German agreement of January, 1908. The general balance sheet for December 31, 1916, shows the investment assets as amounting to $99,803,208, against which there are outstanding capital liabilities totaling $98,839,324, divided as follows: Permanent Government (Chinese) investments, $3,589,350; mortgage bonds, $84,526,884; other secured indebtedness, $10,723,090.

The obligations other than the permanent Government investments are divided as follows: Deutsch-Asiatische Bank, Shanghai branch, $61,391,364; Chinese Central Railways (Ltd.), London (the banking connection of which is the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation), $33,858,610. It is assumed in connection with the table on page 42 that all the securities are of ownership other than Chinese, but the writer was unable to ascertain the facts regarding the details of this ownership.

PRESENT CONTROL.

After the completion of construction the management was not consolidated as was apparently the intention of the loan agreement, but, with one Chinese managing director for the entire line, the foreign staffs were retained for the two sections. This arrangement continued until China severed relations with Germany in 1917, when the German staff on the northern section was dismissed and replaced by Chinese, except in one instance, in which a British boiler inspector was appointed at the Tsinanfu workshops. The British staff is still employed in the maintenance and operation of the southern section.

CLASS OF TRAFFIC.

For the year ended December 31, 1916, earnings from passenger service amounted to $4,457,837 Mex. and the freight business to

$5,323,963 Mex. Roughly, therefore, the passenger earnings were 45 per cent and the freight 55 per cent. The business of this railway is probably quite typical of that to be expected on a new line, and the probability is that there will be a constantly increasing traffic in mineral products, as has happened on the Peking-Mukden and also, to a noticeable extent, on the Peking-Hankow line.

PRESENT PROFITS AND OUTLOOK FOR FUTURE.

The result of operations in 1913 was a deficit of approximately $1,965,000 Mex. It was impossible to secure reliable figures on the 1914 earnings. The results of operations for the years 1915 and 1916 are shown by the table on page 57. A total accumulated deficit of $5,793,877 was left at the end of the year 1916.

The very disastrous floods along the north end of this line during the last four months of 1917 may have reduced the profits for that year, but this condition will be only temporary and there are good grounds for thinking that this line will be reasonably profitable in the future. The following is an excerpt from the annual report for 1916:

In goods traffic a considerable increase in transportation of agricultural products is to be noted, and still better results could have been realized but for the shortage of locomotives and goods wagons, owing to which a great deal of cargo could not be i carried and was often diverted to the old routes by canal or road. To overcome this difficulty in some way, arrangements were made with the Lunghai (Pienlo) Railway and the Chung Hsing Mining Co. for the hire of cars, and 50 (30-ton) covered cars were ordered from America; but the latter did not arrive even up to the end of the year, owing to the shortage of freight steamers from that country to China.

This statement is typical of the conditions existing on practically all the Chinese Government Railways, and, in connection with the statement on page 77, is in support of the suggestions and recommendations made later regarding an arrangement for these railways to purchase equipment by means of equipment trust certificates.

EXTENSIONS.

At present no extensions are contemplated. In fact, it came to the notice of the writer, in the case of the development of a coal mine requiring a branch of some 20 miles, that the coal company was evidently told that it would have to build the branch and, in addition, furnish 100 coal cars as its share of the necessary equipment, for the reason that the railway at present was not in a position to build this branch or buy the additional equipment. It would appear, however, from a study of the map of this part of China and the railways suggested for this territory, that the natural and economical arrangement would be to construct and later maintain and operate these additional lines in connection with the Tientsin-Pukow line. It would seem also that when the Shantung Railway is turned over to China it should be operated in connection with this system of railways.

ROADWAY AND TRACK MATERIALS.

The roadway of this line is very substantially built and all structures are permanent. On the German section all materials were purchased in Germany, including a large amount of rail for the first section constructed, although it was clearly the intention that this

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