Heilongjiang Net News (Xu Rate Reporter Shi Qili) "Today is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it is also the 75th year of our train...... "On October 1, on the 6238 train from Hailar to Tarqi, the conductor Liu Tang was in the No. 3 "Sanwei Library" theme car, taking everyone to recall the historical changes belonging to this train.
75 years is a memory, but also a feeling that is difficult to let go. With 13 small stations, 6 boarding and landing stations, and 200 households, this 348-kilometer train has now gone through a half-century journey. This 6238/7 green skin "slow train" from Hailar District, Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Taerqi Town, Yakeshi City, ran in September 1949, formerly known as the 393/4 train running between Boketu and Wolf Peak, and was extended from Boketu to Tarqi in May 1971, since then the 6237/8 train has been fixed to the present, which is a "slow" train of the same age as the Republic of China.
Because the whole train has only 4 cars, it is known as the "minibus" on the Bolin line by the locals. The whole ticket price of the train is 39.5 yuan, which is equivalent to only 1 dime and 1 cent per kilometer, which has not risen in price in the past 20 years. This line is not only the "lifeline" for middle-aged people to earn money to support their families, the "career line" for young people to work and further their education, but also the "emotional line" to maintain exchanges between the countryside and the city.
In 2021, this train is still a coal-burning "green" slow train, with low body configuration and poor cold protection, relying on fans in summer and boilers in winter. Whenever the outside temperature reaches minus 40 °C in winter, it is not enough to add plastic sheeting and thickened felt, but it is still necessary to concentrate most of the energy on the incineration, which can ensure the temperature of the carriage and prevent passengers from being exposed to the cold, and each trip has to use nearly 1 ton of coal. Not only that, but the water supplier will also push the hot water, carefully shuttle through the carriage, and deliver the hot water to every passenger, which has also become the exclusive memory left by the "minibus" to passengers. At that time, although the car body is backward, but the service is constantly upgrading, in order to facilitate the people to buy tickets to take the train, the train has established a "service housekeeper" WeChat group, which can not only help passengers buy tickets, but also help patients to contact the ambulance in advance, contact in advance to change the route, help buy medicine and carry documents, etc., and now the "service housekeeper" WeChat group has developed into 3 large groups, with more than 1400 people joining.
In order to better serve passengers and enhance the brand image of slow trains, in 2022, Harbin Bureau Group Co., Ltd. launched measures to further deepen the quality improvement of public welfare slow trains, upgraded the coal-fired car body to an air-conditioned train, and the train was fully newly painted, crowned with a new service brand of "Bolin Old Railway", and the riding environment was significantly improved. At the same time, they also carried out the interior decoration of the theme carriages, created 4 theme carriages of Love Assistant, Sanwei Book House, Love Man Hagong, and Bolin Huinong, and established a nursing room for caring mothers, and established the "Bolin Laotie WeChat Group" to provide reservation sleeper services. In addition, the train also prepared small lamps, pens, paper and other school supplies, as well as military chess, chess, poker and other entertainment supplies for everyone's leisure and entertainment.
In 2024, the "slow train" will enter a new stage of development, relying on the railway line, the scale of the township market along the line will continue to expand, and all kinds of mountain goods will be purchased in an endless stream. In order to build a good trading platform, at the beginning of the year, the train crew added a wild specialty introduction column on the information column at both ends of the carriage, and set up a temporary mountain goods specialty display area at the last seat of the No. 4 carriage, and placed 12 kinds of representative specialty samples and ornaments such as birch tears, nasturtium, wild monkey head, fungus, etc. provided by the people along the line.
A slow train, a long railway. This "minibus" running through the mountains has been with the mountain people for 75 years, opening up the lifeline, life line, transportation line and economic line of the people in the mountainous areas, not only building a bridge of people's hope, but also witnessing the development process of the railway, interpreting the feelings of the railway for the people, so that this "slow pace" continues, even if it is only for one station and one person to stop.