The "Happiness Train" runs on the Mombasa Nairobi Railway | Locomotives and Vehicles | Trains
"Friends please listen to me,
The story of the railroad is long and long.
It is the condensation of friendship,
What it brings is hope.
My hometown, every day more beautiful,
My compatriots, every day more high-spirited......"
This is a song sung by Kenyan singer Sudi, "Song of Mona-Railway has been built to my hometown". The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, which is sung in the song, connects the port of Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, with a total length of about 480 kilometers. It is the first railway built in Kenya since its independence. The railway was evaluated by foreign media as "one of the 13 most experienced railway travel routes in the world" and listed as "one of the most experienced things to go to Kenya".
The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway is the flagship project of the "Belt and Road" jointly built by China Road and Bridge. It is a modern railway built with Chinese standards, Chinese technology and Chinese equipment. Since the official opening of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway on May 31, 2017, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway in Kenya has been operating safely for more than 6 years. The railway development vision sung by Sudi has now become a reality. In the past six years, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has promoted the economic and social development of Kenya, improved the lives of the Kenyan people, and promoted the rapid development of transportation in East Africa. It is called the "Road to Happiness".
Mercedes-Benz's rolling stock on this "road to happiness" is all from CRRC, including 56 diesel locomotives, 41 passenger vehicles and 1220 railway freight cars of 5 types. At the same time, CRRC also provides maintenance services to help localized construction, it shows the great power of "Chinese locomotive" to run farther, pull heavier and run more.
Stations stand, trains roar, and passengers shuttle, and the Mombasa-Inner Mongolia Railway tells vivid stories of cooperation and development every day.
The development of the road "locomotive"
Facing the rising sun, at 8 o'clock every morning, with the crisp sound of the whistle, the first train departs from Mombasa and Nairobi. People go to work by train, travel, visit relatives and friends......
Single mother Fez was one of the many passengers. In order to get a better salary, she found a job in Nairobi and had to leave her daughter to live in Mombasa, her hometown. Life in Twin Cities was extremely difficult for this single mother. The 500-kilometer journey was long and dangerous. Until the opening of the Mombasa-Inner Railway in 2017, this situation changed and Faith's time to return to his hometown was shortened by half. "The train is on time and safe. I can see my mother and daughter often." Faith said.
In Kenya, the lives of more and more people have been changed by the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway. After the operation of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, the travel time between Nairobi and Mombasa has been shortened from 10 hours to more than 4 hours, changing the way and experience of Kenyans travel. The number of passengers sent by the Mombasa-Inner Mongolia Railway has maintained a steady growth, and more passenger trains will be opened during peak passenger seasons and holidays. During peak passenger periods, it is even more difficult to find a ticket.
Diesel locomotives and passenger and freight vehicles from China are all mature domestic models with fast running speed and stable performance. Kenya's climate environment and transportation needs are fully considered in the design improvement. The design of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour for passenger transportation and 80 kilometers per hour for freight transportation, while the DF11 locomotive provided by CRRC Qishuyan ran at a speed of 134 kilometers per hour during the overspeed test, setting a record for the fastest train in Kenya. "The test speed on the speedometer went up, and the Kenyan passengers were so excited that they took out their mobile phones to take photos and videos." Six years later, the Chinese car employees who participated in the joint test still clearly remember the scene at that time.
The legend of the speed of the Mombasa-Inner Railway has made the transportation of goods faster. As the largest port in East Africa, the busy port of Mombasa has 17 international routes and has business contacts with about 80 ports around the world. Most of the goods in and out of East Africa come from here. Nairobi, known as the "Little Paris of East Africa", is the economic center of East Africa. The Montana-Inner Mongolia Railway, which connects the two places, has become a lifeline for the economic development of many countries in East Africa.
For example, grain transportation used to rely on meter-gauge railway and road transportation. It took more than 20 hours for railway transportation from Mombasa to Nairobi. Moreover, the train operation was unstable, and accidents such as derailment occurred from time to time. Road transportation was even more time-consuming and laborious. Today, cargo ships loaded with wheat from Europe, America and other places berth at the port of Mombasa, and the wharf conveyor belt continuously transports wheat to the 16 port branch lines on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, and is loaded on the trains waiting there. In less than 10 hours, the wheat will arrive in Nairobi, and then be transported to neighboring cities and surrounding countries by freight. The person in charge of a local grain transportation company said happily: "The grain that used to be transported by hundreds of trucks can now be pulled away by only two or three trains. The Mombasa-Inner Railway has saved us a lot of transportation time and cost." This way of sea and land transport has improved the efficiency of logistics and further enhanced the status of Mombasa port in regional trade.
Behind the convenient transportation is the reliable guarantee of railway equipment. In order to ensure the safe operation of the Mombasa-Inner Mongolia Railway, CRRC has set up an overseas locomotive maintenance "4S" store and implemented a 24-hour locomotive maintenance guarantee mechanism. As soon as the "4S" store was established, locomotive designer Gu Yatai volunteered: "I want to see personally designed locomotives galloping on the African grasslands and escort them." After coming to Kenya, Gu Yatai was also a designer and quality engineer. Every day, he will carry out routine inspection on each locomotive entering the warehouse, and carry out data recording and analysis. Sometimes in case of emergency, even late at night, the problem should be sorted out and recorded. A locomotive has tens of thousands of spare parts, and the maintenance work is tedious and tense. "In order to ensure the safety and punctuality of each train, the maintenance team has worked hard, worked hard, and gained a full sense of accomplishment." Gu Yatai said.
Today, people enjoy their way and goods flow smoothly. The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has become a "golden channel" in Kenya: 6 passenger trains are operated every day to transport 7000 to 10000 passengers, and 16 freight trains are operated to transport the port of Mombasa. 40% of the goods between the inland areas.
"Good Master and apprentice" on the road of cooperation"
In 2022, Benard, who works for the railway operating company, was promoted again to become a senior technical manager of the Kenya Railway Authority. In recent years, from "Xiaobai" who knows almost nothing about vehicles to the head of the car body team, to the deputy director of the workshop and the deputy director of the vehicle department, Bernard has grown rapidly.
When it comes to his "bond" with locomotives and rolling stock, Bernard often talks about his Chinese masters: "the completion of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has completely changed my life, and the Chinese masters have given me a lot of help in technology." Bernard's inspirational story is a microcosm of CRRC's technology transfer and localized staff training in Kenya.
The development of Kenya's railway industry requires the support of a large number of technical personnel. An important task of the CRRC maintenance team is to train a team of local locomotive maintenance personnel in Kenya, pass on Chinese technology to them, and help them systematically master the maintenance and repair skills of locomotives and vehicles.
In March 2017, He Yunzhong, an employee of CRRC Qishuyan Company, went to Kenya for locomotive commissioning and was responsible for training locomotive drivers and maintenance personnel. Due to the language barrier, He Yunzhong could not communicate directly with the students. When teaching students, although there is simultaneous interpretation, they often make jokes. On one occasion, he Yunzhong mentioned the word "flying car", which the translator translated literally as "car flying". The Kenyan students looked at each other, hard to understand. "Flying car" is actually a kind of protection function on the locomotive. When the locomotive speed exceeds the designed maximum speed, the "flying car" function can be activated to protect the generator. He Yunzhong can only compare pictures and help students understand with the help of common sense in life.
Territorial management is a complex and long-term project. The maintenance of diesel locomotives involves tens of thousands of parts, and different parts have different process requirements and usage methods. To this end, China Railway Joint Mombasa Railway Operation Company designed a customized training system for Kenyan employees. For locomotive maintenance operations alone, CRRC has designed a total of 7 professional positions covering diesel engines, motors, electrical appliances, walking, braking, auxiliary and equipment for locomotive maintenance business, and has planned career development channels for Kenyan employees, setting up positions such as maintenance team leader, technical quality supervisor, safety production supervisor, deputy director and maintenance director. After arriving at the post, a Kenyan employee must first receive training on locomotive theoretical knowledge and operational safety, and then participate in on-site training after passing the theoretical examination. At all stages, Kenyan employees will have their own professional masters and receive "hands-on" teaching.
Kenyan employee Moussa is the beneficiary of the customized training system. In 2017, after graduating from university, he entered the maintenance workshop for internship. After theoretical and rotational training, he chose the most difficult diesel engine maintenance direction. When dealing with a diesel engine failure, all the Kenyan employees present did not dare to start work in the face of fine parts. However, with the encouragement of Chinese master Jia Jiannan, Musa disassembled and repaired it again and again, and successfully found the cause of the failure. Moussa scored in the top three in his first junior skills exam. In 2019, as the first batch of Kenyan exchange trainees, he went to China for a three-month management training. Today, Musa has been promoted to workshop technical director. "From these young Kenyans, I see the Kenyan youth's thirst for technology and the hope for the sustainable development of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway." Jia Jiannan said.
Since the opening of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, China's CRRC has sent a large number of employees to the local area to carry out maintenance services to ensure the safe operation of rolling stock. At the same time, it has carried out localized training of Kenyan employees to help Kenya to improve the maintenance capacity of rolling stock. At present, most Kenyan employees have been able to work independently.
According to statistics, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has trained more than 1700 railway professional technicians and management personnel for Kenya. Groups of young Kenyans have started a new career under the guidance of Chinese masters. James Sele, head of the commercial operation expert team of the Kenya Railway Company, praised that China has left a "team that cannot be taken away", which has brought tangible benefits to Kenya.
"Good partners" on the road"
At the locomotive maintenance base, Joash and Robert's daily task is to replace the filter element of the diesel engine oil strainer. The two of them cooperated with each other, skillfully opened the oil return valve, recovered the oil in the coarse filter cavity, opened the sealing cover of the coarse filter, unscrewed the fastening nut on the top of the old filter element, grasped the filter element and pulled it out, and then carefully inserted the new filter element, tightened the nut and covered the sealing cover, and closed the oil return valve of the coarse filter. After confirming that there are no operation leakage items, they engine the car and check the effect. Hearing the locomotive rumbling and normal start, the two happily high-five to celebrate. Standing on the side of the Chinese master Chen Jun for their thumbs up.
What gratified Chen Jun was not only that Joash and Robert were skilled, but also that they accepted the regular replacement of the filter element from the bottom of their hearts. When he first arrived in Kenya, the work of Chen Jun and the entire maintenance team was often not understood. "Readiness inspection, minor repairs, minor repairs, special maintenance... Why do so many maintenance tasks need to be formulated? Shouldn't the rolling stock be repaired after it breaks down?" The Kenyan staff wondered.
"What we have to do is'preventive repair', which is to prevent problems before they occur, and not to leave hidden dangers to the operation of locomotives and rolling stock." Chen Jun explained. In order to make Kenyan employees realize the necessity of "preventive repair", Chen Jun and his colleagues made a lot of efforts.
Take the replacement of the filter element as an example, the locomotive maintenance team specially organized special training. "After a long time, the filter element will not be able to play a filtering role, and sediment and oil residue will block the oil filter. What will happen if it is blocked? The diesel engine will have no oil to lubricate, and the shaft and tile will be stuck, locked together and unable to move." Speaking of excitement, Chen Jun could not help but cross his left and right hands together, indicating that he could not twist. Out of the classroom, Chen Jun took the Kenfang students to the job site, took out a filter element that had been used for a period of time, and "dissected" it for everyone to see. Seeing the sediment in the filter element, the trainees realized that only by maintaining the small parts can the locomotive run be guaranteed.
In this way, the concept in the subtle change slowly. The current Kenyan employees have accepted the concept of "preventive repair. It has become the consensus of all. In their minds, the safe operation of locomotives has become more and more important. The common concept has made the employees of both sides more tacit understanding in their work, and the work efficiency and quality have been greatly improved.
Every year at Christmas and New Year, the number of passengers traveling in Kenya increases and the number of passenger trains increases. Technical management personnel will join the maintenance team and share the maintenance of key components with team members. The technical backbone will follow the train to add rides, find hidden dangers and eliminate faults at any time.
Train technician Samuel has set his job motto as: "Customer satisfaction!" In the face of day-to-day train maintenance work, he has always maintained a strong sense of mission: "For the Mombasa-Inner Railway, we are pioneers, and our work is laying the foundation for the future generation."
Chinese employees bring ideas and standards. Huang Huizhong, technical director of maintenance business, has customized maintenance procedures for locomotives. "The maintenance regulations for rolling stock in different environments are different." Huang Huizhong tracks the performance of key components and makes detailed record analysis. Kenya is close to the sea, and the air with high humidity is very unfavorable to the locomotive dryer. Comprehensive climate and other factors, Huang Huizhong statistical analysis of the environment to match the dryer maintenance frequency. "Over the past six years, we have accumulated experience in maintenance and repair covering various systems and key components of rolling stock, and have formulated operation procedures and standards for maintenance and inspection, minor repair, minor repair and medium repair. These are the technical support systems for the localized operation of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway." Huang Huizhong said.
Based on the standardized operation management system and the system maintenance of rolling stock, safety, efficiency and punctuality have become the highlights of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway. The trains that depart and arrive on time have greatly changed the Kenyan people's understanding of transportation.
The "happiness train" running on the Mombasa-Inner Mongolia Railway has brought more young people from all over the country the opportunity to pursue their dreams, continue to write a beautiful story of Sino-African friendship, and rush to a promising future together.
The "happiness train" running on the Mongolian Inner Mongolia Railway provides more young people from China and Kenya with opportunities to pursue their dreams, continue to write the beautiful story of China Africa friendship, and run towards a hopeful future together.
