Chinese Steam: Baotou Steelworks - Jan 2001

[@SatelliteYL]

No masks, no respirators, just pure vibes

[@eeeeeek]

good ol days

[@DavidOfeldt]

Just carcinogens, living in the moment

[@Leo1239150]

David Ofeldt cause the moment is all you got (left)

[@OfficialUSKRprogram]

Okay calm down kids, there are plenty of people who lived through the age of steam and made it to 80 years old Don't pretend you're healthier than they were.

[@charleswhittington1842]

Not a phone in sight, everyone just living in the moment

[@lawdpleasehelpmeno]

It's like watching film from 1800's London.

[@charleswhittington1842]

To be fair, steam engines were still the mainstay of locomotives in Europe and the US up until the 1960s

[@klenner]

The hell on earth that is china

[@steeveomcjameson8673]

Me: what year was that steamer made? Chinese train engineer: 1996

[@Herbaling]

Probably one of few places where you could say “Do you taste metal?” and it would NOT be radiation

[@steamfreak]

Yeah you could just about chew the air...

[@Ivangode1433]

you can probably chew that air

[@wolstenholme100]

Wonderful location and atmosphere. Thanks.

[@landmine1424]

😂

[@steamfreak]

Thank you

[@SuperMikado282]

It is a great video with some spectacular camera work, especially at the end.

[@steamfreak]

Thanks! It was amazing to see.

[@MegaMech]

Wow the end of the video is beautiful.

[@cuzinitr]

Great video,one of the best Chinese steam video's that I have watched. Beautiful sunset shot. Well done!

[@steamfreak]

Thank you!

[@robertsulley]

A great video, some lovely shots and great audio! Thank you!

[@steamfreak]

Thank you! It was quite an experience to go and see that!

[@arthurkinch1804]

Beautiful, watching in 2021.

[@haaseshouseoscience6377]

Excellent catches, also the slag cars almost look like they have a smile face.

[@steamfreak]

Thanks, it was pretty spectacular!

[@TheOneAndOnlyZeno]

Thomas the Tank Engine moment

[@rustybaws5313]

I heard the workers chain smoke a pack of cigarettes to get some fresh air.

[@steamfreak]

🤣😂😅

[@youreshouldoflearntgrammer8277]

Lmao 😂

[@radiofun232]

That steel furnace (Dutch word: "hoogoven") was bought in the Netherlands, at the "hoogoven" steel mill in IJmuiden, Netherlands. That factory now (2024) works under the name "Tata Steel", it was bought by India entrepreneurs. One of the furnaces there was taken apart (say 20 years ago, or so) and transported to China in those days, where it was reconstructed again and put into service. A few Chinese workers fell to their death in IJmuiden in those days, when that steel furnace was deconstructed for transport to China. Let us remember them. 12 dec. 2024.

[@steamfreak]

Very interesting information

[@stratusfractus111]

At 5:14 are those open hearth scrap buggies?

[@steamfreak]

I'm not actually sure what they are?

[@Whit3Eyes]

i was born exactly a week before this was filmed. lol

[@doncornetto]

Ahh so this is where all those liveleak clips come from

[@steamfreak]

I'm still coughing after visiting there...

[@ZaneSNA]

Mesmerizing

[@steamfreak]

Thanks

[@FUNKER420]

Anyone else have this in recommended? KZbin gods know were into trains and or history.

[@goronguy10]

Finally I have found another train and history brother

[@steamfreak]

Those steam locos are amazing machines!

[@steamfreak]

They do!

[@guguigugu]

basically this was UK 150 years ago

[@fadawi2755]

90 years seems more appropriate

[@idontwanttopickone]

@@fadawi2755 parts of the UK still looked like this in the 1960s. Just the footage from that time is more positive and technicolour.

[@player3prime]

what the heck were they doing at the 10min mark?

[@steamfreak]

Tipping the molten slag down the dump. Looked very pretty!

[@Spalterbockl]

Hello Trevor, I liked your video very much! However I like to point out that all the engines were in fact industrial type SY, as it is befitting, neither JS nor JF! The glint shot is marvellous as well as the sunset shot! SB 2012

[@steamfreak]

Thank for the info.

[@RagbagMcShag]

so they are just pouring the slags down the side of a hill? interesting

[@steamfreak]

The hill is made of slag!

[@steamfreak]

They seem to have stopped doing that for some reason?

[@steamcrank]

Hi Love your work not only for the trains but the heavy industrial environment. Would love to take my camera there for a day. Holding the camera still is a great technique. Teamcrank

[@steamfreak]

That's mainly because I'm also taking stills!

[@davedon4616]

I don’t understand the steam engine for the trains. Even if this video is 22 years old

[@steamfreak]

China was using steam locomotives in everyday service until just a few years ago.

[@blackthorne57]

Been there-done that, many thanks for for reviving the memories. Great video, thanks for posting. Was that a gricer standing at the foot of the slag tip at about 9:65? What a nutter. I believe that at about the year your video was shot a Japanese gricer was killed at a steelworks by molten slag, causing great problems for subsiquent visitors.

[@steamfreak]

Yes it was a gricer! He got good photos I think! 😬

[@wantahertzdonut]

8:00 I love the juxtaposition of the steam locomotive with the nuclear power plant cooling tower in the background

[@alexchapman1055]

Looks like a nuclear power plant cooling tower, but very unlikely. Probably just a cooling tower for water that is used during the steel production.

[@northsimulation3386]

Those cooling towers are not proprietary to nuclear power, they range from coal plants to steel as you are seeings here, basically anything that has boiling water which needs to be condensed and doesn’t have a large water body to do the job.

[@steamfreak]

Yeah I think it was a coal power station

[@steamfreak]

Yes, coal power station I think

[@steamfreak]

Actually, there is one JS in the video... There were a couple working that day but I didn't seem to video them in action...

[@tahititoutou3802]

Each time I watch those Chinese train videos, I am always impressed by the density of the smog. Some Chinese workers must have very serious lung and artery diseases!

[@steamfreak]

Yes I think you're right. It hung like a a pall over the cities.

[@chaitanyarao5546]

In which case I recommend you go to Google maps, bring up this factory, and check out the lake next to it. This place is among the worst polluted places in the world.

[@steamfreak]

@@chaitanyarao5546 Yes, it was pretty bad. Other lakes and rivers were also pretty nasty.

[@Herbaling]

@@steamfreak has? Has this changed since then? Is it any better now?

[@SuperMikado282]

It's no different from what the UK was like at the height of the Industrial Revolution.

[@TruckMechaAddicted]

What type of mechanism make the slag pot dumping?

[@steamfreak]

I believe it was air operated from the train air lines, but open to correction!

[@SenorMcChum]

i would love to go there !!

[@steamfreak]

I think it is all diesel now, but a very interesting place.

[@ratking948]

@@steamfreak is there any more recent videos anywhere?

[@jonhart9176]

How did you obtain this vision?

[@steamfreak]

I visited the steelworks and took video and photos.

[@jonhart9176]

@@steamfreak Very interesting. Not sure today that you’d be allowed there. Thanks for the reply.

[@wertiaaudit5746]

He's dressed as thomas the train and was recording inside his suit

[@steamfreak]

Good point! Text amended.

[@PA-ex9qb]

How the hell did you get permission to film this wonderful stuff?

[@steamfreak]

Local contacts! Not sure it would be so possible now though.

[@wertiaaudit5746]

Wait yA'll are getting permission .U.S constitution extends across the universe and it's god given right some guy in the old supreme court said so

[@chrismcgarry2840]

Interesting how this is in the same country as the world's most extensive HSR network!

[@Michael-di2ng]

HSR are only built around 2008, this film 2001

[@steamfreak]

Not much steam left there now

[@steamfreak]

Indeed

[@youreshouldoflearntgrammer8277]

This is like when I discover Steam Power in Civilization 3

[@steamfreak]

It's awesome! 🙂

[@LudeauvieK]

Slip wheels 👍

[@steamfreak]

Yep. Heavy loads.

[@gtsolidrossi46]

why does the steel is overturned over the edge?

[@acrobaticcripple8176]

Not steel. It's slag. A by-product of the process. I'm no expert, but it's probably, mostly limestone flux. Used to reduce oxidation.

[@steamfreak]

Yes, slag waste...

[@steamfreak]

Yes, that was before this video was taken, but was quit ethe topic of discussion. Yes, it was a gricer standing at the bottom!

[@AluminumOxide]

Just two weeks into the 21st century

[@steamfreak]

And it was good!

[@_sequence_2348]

And i should feel shame using an euro4 diesel.........

[@steamfreak]

Yup... :-(

[@johnsamu]

All the steam trains in China have already gone now and have been replaced by high speed trains for passengers and diesel for freight. So regrettably the resolution of this video is very low (by today's standards) because it's a historical time document of a bygone era.

[@steamfreak]

There are still some steam trains in regular use in China in industrial service, and only a small portion of the rail mileage could be considered high speed rail.

[@johnsamu]

@@steamfreak Did you look at a RECENT map of the high speed rail network. It's already the most extensive in the world and is increasing RAPIDLY every year. I came to China (almost every year) since 2008 and I've never seen a steam train but I've travelled a lot of miles in a high speed train. In 2008 there was hardly any high speed train, but now they are everywhere. Fast, clean, reliable, quiet, cheap/effordable, my ideal mode of transport, it really beats the airplane.

[@johnsamu]

@@steamfreak People (outside China) don't know or don't realize that everything develops and changes very fast every year. So a statement you made, maybe three years ago, for example about the presence of Steam trains might be already totally non-valid this year. I love Steam trains but they are not very loved by the Chinese because they have the "NEW is better" attitude. This attitude translates also in buildings/roads which can be torn down very rapidly to be changed by new projects. That said there will probably be some small steam trains in some backward areas but along the line they are now new electric or diesel.

[@steamfreak]

Yes I keep track of working steam locomotives in China, there are definitely some still working today. I don't disagree with you regarding the extent of the high speed rail network. It is however a small percentage of rail route miles in China. And yes most lines are now diesel or electric. Just because you haven't seen steam locomotives working there does not mean they don't exist.

[@ratking948]

@@steamfreak where do the steam lines still exist?

[@jackuzi8252]

China has to import most of its oil, but has plenty of domestic coal. Combined with low labor costs (especially away from the coastal cities), steam power can make good sense there.

[@wertiaaudit5746]

Nah, it definitely has its own oil judging off Google satellites they just choose to drain other countries oil first

[@steamfreak]

Yep, and it was good to see,

[@HPSmugscraft]

China and India, not the US and Europe, are where Greta Thumberg needs to be doing her climate-scolding tours.

[@steamfreak]

She seems to have disappeared these past couple of years...

[@glenmccarthy8482]

Surely this benign industrial activity could be playing no part in the de - stabilization of the worlds climate system.

[@steamfreak]

No, I'm sure it just makes tiny clouds of local smog which disappear each night!

[@djscottdog1]

Its a 3rd world country

[@steamfreak]

Rapidly rising though.

[@JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke]

@@steamfreak very rapidly

[@SuperMikado282]

It most certainly isn't a third-world country as you so glibly put.You should visit China and inform yourself.

[@nicholascarver1]

All that work for shit steel.

[@steamfreak]

🤣 But there were good steam trains!

[@SuperMikado282]

You are an expert metallurgist, are you? Well, well, what are doing posting uninformed comments on YT?

[@jameshudson7053]

So much for zero emissions!

[@steamfreak]

The sky was thick there... 😢

[@SuperMikado282]

Have you tried to make steel with zero emissions? All industrialised countries did this.

[@TheTomyossarian]

Holy lung disease. Surreal.

[@steamfreak]

I took up smoking there so I could have done fresh air...

[@manoneunproblemadiplanarit7974]

I treni a vapore porcamadonna

[@steamfreak]

Thanks