One hundred years ago, Zhan Tianyou invested 6.93 million taels of silver to build the herringbone railway. What about now?

At the end of the Qing dynasty, the country and people were bullied because of the long-term weakness and poverty in society. In order to find a way to make the country rich and strong, some enlightened people put forward the idea of learning from foreigners to control foreigners, and made different attempts in many fields. Some of them hope to achieve the goal of national rejuvenation by learning advanced western science and technology, and the first railway independently built by China at that time was the result at that time. I believe many people are familiar with this first railway, which is the Jing-Zhang Railway built by Zhan Tianyou. This railway independently built by China people creatively adopted the herringbone structure. Now 100 years have passed. What about this herringbone railway designed by Zhan Tianyou a hundred years ago and built at a cost of 6.93 million taels of silver?

1905, Yuan Shikai proposed to build a railway from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, which is located in the core of the Central Plains and has a total length of 200 kilometers. Its geographical location and strategic significance are very important. At that time, the science and technology mastered by the Qing government was still very backward, especially in railway construction. In order to further invade China, both Britain and France hope to gain the right to build this railway.

In order to prevent the rights and interests of his country from falling into the hands of foreigners, Yuan Shikai decided to build this railway by the Qing government alone. This is a joke to foreigners. In their view, the backward Qing government was simply unable to build its own railways. In order to build this Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Yuan Shikai hired Zhan Tianyou, an engineer studying in the West, to take charge of the design work. Zhan Tianyou graduated from civil engineering department of Yale University, and was the top technical talent of Qing government at that time. Although he did not participate in the design of this large-scale railway project, it was the best choice at that time.

Before the start of railway construction, Zhan Tianyou took people to inspect all the landforms along the railway and designed different construction schemes for different landforms. But after the investigation, Zhan Tianyou realized that it was not so easy to build this railway successfully. Because of the complex terrain along the railway, even with the technology mastered by developed countries, it takes a lot of manpower and financial resources to build this Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway.

However, Zhan Tianyou did not intend to give up. No matter from the actual situation or national feelings, he must successfully complete the task of railway construction. So after the field trip, Zhan Tianyou drew design drawings day and night, and soon completed most of the road design work. However, there is a long way to go, which makes him very entangled. That is, when the railway passes through Nankou Town, a suburb of Beijing, the slope is very large. If it is built according to the general method, it will consume countless times more resources than the normal railway.

Therefore, in order to reduce the construction cost, in the design of this section of the railway, Zhan Tianyou creatively adopted the herringbone structure, which made the railway unfold in a herringbone shape. When going uphill, only two locomotives were used, one pulling in front and the other pushing back, which made the climbing of the train much easier. This design is used for the first time in China railway construction, which can be said to be a very great pioneering work. It took 6.93 million taels of silver to build this herringbone railway.

1909, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway built by China people alone was finally completed and opened to traffic, which showed our wisdom to foreigners and greatly increased our national pride. One hundred years ago, Zhan Tianyou invested 6.93 million taels of silver to build the herringbone railway. What about now? At present, the Jingzhang Railway Station, namely Qinglongqiao Station, has been planned as a cultural relic protection unit, and a special venue has been set up to commemorate Mr. Zhan Tianyou, so that people will always remember this pride in the history of China railway.

When the national society is backward, it is with the existence of people like Zhan Tianyou that our nation has the hope of revival. The Beijing-Zhangjia Railway designed by Zhan Tianyou not only made foreigners sit up and take notice, but also greatly boosted the morale of Chinese people and gave them a glimpse of the future at that time.