The K7911 train has been running for more than ten hours, and the unchanging scenery outside the window makes people in a trance, as if the train has never moved. As far as the eye can see, the end of the yellow sand is still yellow sand.
From the opening of the Lince Railway in 2009 to the opening of the Linha Railway in 2015, the poplar forest standing in the sand sea has witnessed the transformation of the vast Gobi from "no birds in the sky and no grass on the ground" to the green germination of the train passing by.
The Lince section of the Lin-Harbin Railway, which was first opened, has a total length of 768 kilometers, and more than 400 kilometers are built in no man's land. From the exploration and design to the construction and opening of the road, this railway has always faced a difficult problem - sand damage.
The Lince Railway has been in operation for 15 years, and it is also the 15th year that the sand control workers of the sand control bridge and tunnel workshop of the Linhe operation and maintenance section of China Railway Hohhot Bureau Group Co., Ltd. have competed with the desert.
As the sandstorms rolled in, local herders tightened their yurts, closed their doors and windows, and even their sheep and camels found shelter from the wind.
The battle of the sand control workers was about to begin, and the wind made it impossible to stand still, and the sand and gravel whipped mercilessly on the face, and even the eyes could not be opened.
"Everyone stand firm, dig sand back to back, and rush through the line as soon as possible!" Workers reminded each other. The line that had just been dug in front of it was buried by the wind and sand, and then it was dug again, which took three days. The wind stopped, the train passed safely, and the railroad people won.
However, the railroad man is a sand control worker, not a sand digger. What can be done to lock the saloon so that the sand on both sides of the railway no longer flows?
Under the guidance of desertification control experts, the desertification control workers adopted two methods of desertification control, one is engineering desertification control, and the other is vegetation desertification control. Engineering sand control is to use nylon nets to build grids on both sides of the line, and lock the flowing sand in the grid. However, in order to completely lock up the salon, there is only one permanent and effective way to control desertification by vegetation.
Planting trees in the desert, local herders say that they are fools' dreams, "our ancestors have never planted trees that have survived for generations."
The sand control workers are not convinced, and they must turn the dream of planting trees into reality and completely solve the problem of safe driving. First of all, it is necessary to choose the right tree species, such as red willow, saxon and caragana, and secondly, there must be water to plant the tree.
The saplings were planted, and the sand control workers squeezed out the water to water the trees and waited, hoping for a miracle. A month, two months, half a year has passed, some trees have just grown a little green shoots and then die, and many more trees have not sprouted, and the survival rate is less than 20%.
One by one, the sand control workers hung their heads in frustration, the dishes and chopsticks were placed on the table, and no one could eat the fragrant meal. Zhang Hongjie, the director of the workshop, shook the sand on his body and said, "Why is it that when the tree dies, everyone wilts?" Come, eat first, have a meeting to analyze and analyze after eating, and facing difficulties is the true nature of our railway people. ”
The results of the analysis are still to solve the water problem first.
The workshop reported to the Hohhot Bureau Group Company that it needed to drill a deep well in the desert. Not long after, a well-drilling team came to the desert. Sand control workers are guarding the road while waiting for water to come out of the well. In those days, they ran to the well drilling site after work.
50 meters, 150 meters...... The well had not yet come out of the water, and when it reached a depth of 200 meters, the sand control workers began to be disappointed, perhaps the herders were right, what kind of living trees in the desert should be lived?
One evening, the well-drilling team came with the exciting news that the water was coming out, and the amount of water was not small. With water, the soil was improved, and the tree survived.
Small trees take root along the railway, oases extend along the railway, and more than 30 kilometers of oasis belt gradually takes shape. Today, Cistanche is planted under the Saxon tree, which not only locks in the wind and sand, but also brings economic benefits to the local herders.
A vegetable greenhouse was built on the open space of the workshop, and the workers were reluctant to pick the green vegetables and heavy fruits. They said: "We grow vegetables, not only to eat vegetables, but also to see a little green in the desert full of yellow sand." ”
The sand control workers are also like the saplings, taking root in the desert, guarding the railway, turning the desert Gobi into a beautiful oasis, and writing the railway miracle on the quicksand.
Text: Wang Ruixue
Photo: Zhang Xiaotu, Yuan Bin, Gao Shuai, Hu Junnan, Xia Liang, Wei Shuxue, Liu Jianjun
Editor: Liang Chengyu
Review: Zhang Xiaozhe