The following article comes from CCTV National Memory, the author's National Memory
In 1952, in order to connect the two emerging industrial cities of Baotou and Lanzhou, China decided to build a railway connecting Baotou and Lanzhou, called the Baolan Railway. The Baolan Railway not only plays the role of connecting North China and Northwest China, but is also the first railway to pass through Ningxia.
With the approval of the Government Council, in 1952, the Ministry of Railways began to survey and design the Baolan Railway.
However, after a survey, the railway builders found that the only way to build the railway was to pass through Shapotou in Zhongwei, Ningxia.
Ningxia Zhongwei Shapotou is located on the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert, the fourth largest desert in China. There are large areas of tall mobile sand dunes, which often fly sand and rocks, and the environment is extremely harsh.
At that time, although some countries in the world had built desert railways, they only built the roads on flat areas on the periphery of the desert. Is there any hope of building a railway on the moving dunes?
Responsible for the survey and selection of the first section of the Shapotou section of the Baolan Railway is Zhao Xingcun, a geological engineer of the Northwest Design Branch of the Design Bureau of the Ministry of Railways.
During a survey, Zhao Xingcun and his colleagues found a temple standing in the vast sea of sand.
The ancient temple that Zhao Xingcun saw was called the Chafang Temple. He pondered that if the railway line in Shapotou was planned on an extension near the Chafang Temple, there should be hope for the construction of a railway.
Therefore, after full investigation, repeated research and discussion, he and his colleagues submitted a plan for crossing the desert.
It was a bold move to build a railway in the desert. However, the completion of the Baolan Railway can not only rapidly promote the industrial development of Northwest China, but also open a precedent for the construction of desert railways in New China, which is of far-reaching significance! Therefore, after the Ministry of Railways organized expert appraisal, Teng Daiyuan, Minister of Railways, approved the adoption of this plan of crossing the desert.
In order to make a design plan for the desert roadbed, it is necessary to carry out a period of scientific research work first.
Zhao Xingcun's next work is to settle down at the head of the sand slope to conduct observation for a period of time and find out the movement law of quicksand.
At that time, Shapotou was a place that made the local people smell and change. There is a proverb among the people, "On the head of the sand slope, no one collects the white bones, and when you step on the head of the king of Hades, your life is handed over to the sky." ”
It was in this harsh environment that Zhao Xingcun and his colleagues began to make meteorological observations such as wind direction and wind speed.
After observation and analysis, they concluded that the settlement problem caused by building a roadbed on sand is not much different from that of ordinary soil. The most worrying thing is that the roadbed is easily damaged by wind and sand.
In order to speed up the overcoming of this worldwide problem, the Ministry of Railways sent Weng Yuanqing, a researcher from the Academy of Railway Sciences, to Shapotou to preside over the design of sand prevention in the roadbed.
Weng Yuanqing proposed to first design and build a 450-meter-long experimental roadbed at Shapotou, and made a detailed design plan for roadbed sand prevention: use pebbles to pave small grids to fix the slopes on both sides of the roadbed. In order to prevent quicksand from accumulating on the rails, they also designed platforms and sand fences on both sides. Combine a variety of methods to avoid roadbed erosion and flooding by wind and sand.
In May 1955, after three months of hard work, the 450-meter-long test roadbed was successfully completed.
The completion of the experimental roadbed has preliminarily proved that the mobile desert is not a forbidden area for the construction of railways. This has given great encouragement to the railway builders and the people of Zhongwei.
What problems will they encounter when the railway is officially built? A protracted battle against quicksand has only just begun......
Please watch the CCTV-4 "National Memory" and "Railway Through the Desert" program "Challenge Quicksand" broadcast at 20 o'clock (June 3).