Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Zhan Tianyou and Its Background
Zhan Tianyou studied in Weihafen Primary School and Nuhafen Middle School in the United States. He graduated from Yale University with 188 1, and wrote his graduation thesis "Research on Wharf Crane", where he obtained his bachelor's degree and returned to China in the same year. After returning home, Zhan Tianyou attended Mawei Ship Administration Preparatory School and was sent to Fujian Navy flagship "Wu Yang" as a gunner to participate in Mawei naval battle. After the war, he was transferred to the Huangpu Naval Academy to teach.
From 65438 to 0888, Zhan Tianyou was recommended by his old classmate Mou to be an engineer in China Railway Company. Zhan Tianyou, which has been lost for seven years, has the opportunity to join the railway industry of the motherland. At this time, it was the construction of the Tianjin-Tangshan Railway. He didn't want to stay in Tianjin for a long time, so he went to the construction site to share joys and sorrows with the workers. As a result, it was completed and opened to traffic in only 80 days. However, Li Hongzhang played the role of Englishman Jinda and promoted Jinda as chief engineer. Zhan Tianyou's works were therefore copied.
1890, the Qing government repaired the internal and external railways (now Beijing-Shenyang Railway), and Jinda was the chief engineer. 1892, the project goes to Luanhe Bridge, and many countries want to win this business. Of course, Jinda took the Englishman first, but the Englishman Cox failed because the bridge could not be built. Contractors from Japan and Germany also failed. As the delivery deadline approaches, Jinda has to ask Zhan Tianyou. Zhan Tianyou made a detailed analysis of the reasons for the failure of various countries, and made a thorough survey of the geological soil at the bottom of Luanhe River. Later, he decided to change the pile location, adopt the traditional method of China, dive into the bottom of the river with divers from China, cooperate with machine operation, successfully complete the piling task, and build the Luanhe River Bridge. This victory has strengthened the ambition of the people of China. 1894 British engineering research association elected Zhan Tianyou as its member.
Since then, Zhan Tianyou has led the construction of railways such as Beijing-Tianjin Road and Pingyao Road (Pingxiang to Liling).
In order to please Nora, Yuan Shikai invited to build a Xinyi Railway (Gaobeidian to Yixian) in 1902 for the royal family to worship their ancestors. Nora is naturally willing to take the train to worship her ancestors. In order not to miss the use of ancestor worship in 1903, Yuan Shikai was ordered to finish it within half a year. Yuan Shikai appointed Zhan Tianyou as the chief engineer. Although this road is of little value, it is the beginning for China people to build their own railways, so Zhan Tianyou still attaches great importance to it. Zhan Tianyou completely abandoned the routine that foreigners had to air dry the roadbed for one year before laying the track. It took only four months to build the Xinyi Railway at a very low cost. It greatly encouraged the people of China to build their own railways and laid a good foundation for the later construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.
Zhangjiakou is the hub of Beijing's entry into Inner Mongolia, the channel for tourists and businessmen from north and south, and has always been a battleground for military strategists. Therefore, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway has important economic and political value. As soon as the news that the Qing court was going to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Highway came out, Britain, the most influential country in China, was determined to win. Russia, which regards the north of the Great Wall as its sphere of influence, will never give in and the two sides will not give in to each other. Finally, an agreement was reached: if the Qing court did not borrow foreign debts and needed foreign craftsmen, the road would be built by China people, and neither side could reach out. In this way, the Qing government gave up the idea of asking foreigners for help and devoted itself to self-study.
1905 In May, the Engineering Bureau of Beijing-Zhangjia Railway Administration was established, with Chen Ren as general manager and Zhan Tianyou as general manager and chief engineer. 1906, Zhan Tianyou was promoted to general manager and chief engineer. Zhan Tianyou clearly knows the difficulty of this task. He must first resist cynicism from all sides: some people say that he is "overreaching", "only spending a few dollars" and even "daring". In a letter to Mrs Northrop, an American teacher, he said: "If the Beijing-Zhangjiang project fails, it will be not only my misfortune, but also the misfortune of China engineers, and it will bring great losses to China. Before and after I accepted this task, many foreigners publicly declared that China engineers could not undertake the arduous project of masonry and cave dwelling on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou line, but I persisted in my project. " . It fully embodies the patriotism and sense of national responsibility of China intellectuals.
Zhan Tianyou has surveyed three routes, and the second detour is too far. The third is today's abundant sand line. Due to the limited funds allocated by the Qing court and the short time, Zhan Tianyou decided to adopt the first route, that is, from Fengtai to Zhangjiakou via Xizhimen, Shahe, Jingnankou, Juyongguan, Badaling, Huailai, Ji Ming Post and Xuanhua, with a total length of 360 miles. The difficulty of the whole line is to close the ditch, where the mountains overlap and the cliffs are steep and varied. The difficulty of the project was not found in the whole country at that time, and it was rare in the world. The slope is very large, and the height difference between Nankou and Badaling is 180. Zhan Tianyou divides the whole line into three sections: Fengtai to Nankou as the first section, Nankou to Kangzhuang as the second section, and the rest as the third section.
/kloc-0 started construction on September 4th, 905, and/kloc-0 started track laying on February 6th, 2. On the first day of track laying, the coupler chain of an engineering vehicle broke, causing derailment accident. This has become evidence that China people can't build their own railways, and all kinds of slanders have poured in. However, Zhan Tianyou didn't panic, but thought calmly: the slope of this road is extremely high, and the connection performance between cars is slightly unstable, so the accident is hard to avoid. To this end, he used the method of automatic hook and finally solved this problem.
On September 30th 1906, all the first blocks of the project were opened to traffic, and the second blocks started at the same time. The difficulty lies in the second quarter. First of all, we must open four tunnels: Juyongguan, Wuguitou, Shifosi and Badaling. The longest length of Badaling Tunnel is1.092m.. This requires not only accurate calculation and correct command, but also new mountain cutters, ventilators and pumps. The former is not a problem for Zhan Tianyou, while the latter is not available in China at that time, and it can only be imagined by the hands of workers. They overcame many difficulties and finally completed the second bid section in September 1908.
The difficulty of the third bid section is second only to that of Guangou. The first one is Huailai Bridge, the longest bridge on Zhangjing Road, which is erected by 7 steel beams 100 feet long. Thanks to Zhan Tianyou's correct command, it was completed in time. April 2 1909 train goes to Xiahuayuan. Although the section from Xiahuayuan to Jimingyi mining area is not long, the project is extremely difficult. On the right is Yanghe River, and on the left is Rocky Mountain. A six-foot-deep tunnel should be opened on the mountain, and a seven-mile-long riverbed should be padded under the mountain. Zhan Tianyou paved the river bed at the foot of the mountain with stones paving the road on the mountain. In order to prevent mountain torrents from impacting the subgrade, cement bricks were used for protection, and the third section was successfully completed.
Zhan Tianyou never paid attention to the engineering difficulties, but Zhan Tianyou was extremely worried about man-made obstacles. There is a man named Guangzhai in Qinghe. He used to be a Taoist priest and a relative of the royal family Zaize. Both the ruling and opposition parties have influence. As soon as the railway passed its grave, he led the crowd to make trouble, stopped the project, and bribed heavily in private to demand diversion. The postal department is afraid to ask. There is the tomb of King Zheng in the north, the tomb of eunuchs in the south and the tomb of Nora's father Guigong in the west. I wonder how much time and money will be wasted to divert traffic. Zhan Tianyou is ashamed of taking bribes, never misappropriating them, and strives to stay or stay. Finally, because the five ministers were bombed when they went abroad, Zaize was too scared to talk about foreign affairs. Guangzhai agreed to pass through the grave wall because he lost his backer.
Nala spends tens of millions of dollars to build the Summer Palace every year, but is unwilling to pay for road construction. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway relies entirely on the surplus of internal and external railways, but this money is controlled by the British HSBC. When entering the second phase of the project, HSBC deliberately made things difficult and delayed payment, which led to the delay. Zhan Tianyou was very angry because he was not good at getting close to powerful people and was ashamed of pandering to foreigners.
Imperialism always wants to seize this road. At the beginning of the project, Japanese Yujiro wrote to Yuan Shikai at the imperial gate, saying: China people can't afford to build this road, so it's safer to ask Japanese technicians. The Englishman Jinda also came to intercede for Japan. Zhan Tianyou flatly refused to hire any foreigners on this road. After the Juyongguan tunnel project started, hordes of foreigners often came to spy in the name of hunting, hoping that the project would fail in order to take advantage of people's danger. Zhan Tianyou set the tone for the people of China with excellent results.
The road was originally scheduled to be completed in six years, but Zhan Tianyou finally opened to traffic in August 1909, 1 1, two years ahead of schedule, saving 282,000 silver. The successful completion of Zhang Jinglu is a victory for the people of China and a full expression of the patriotic spirit of patriotic intellectuals in China.
After the completion of Zhangjing Road, Zhan Tianyou was employed by Guangdong Commercial Yuezhong Railway Corporation as the company's prime minister on 19 10, and in May 2002, he also served as the office of the John-Sichuan Railway Association. Due to the corruption and incompetence of the China government and the competition of imperialism in China, this patriotic and talented outstanding engineer was unable to display his talents and was extremely anxious. Finally, he died in Hankou at 3: 30 pm on April 24, 2009, at the age of 59.