TRAINS & TRAVEL
P.O. BOX 312
PORTOLA, CALIFORNIA 96122
Chris@traintrips.biz Rail Tours Manager. For questions regarding tour itineraries and details.
1-800 359-4870 USA
1-800 752-1836 CANADA
1-800 266-8751 FAX
(530) 836-1944
OFFICE HOURS 10AM TO 3PM MONDAY-THURSDAY
PACIFIC WEST COAST TIME
CLOSED FRIDAY-SUNDAY



China-Full Steam In The Northeast
RAILFAN TOUR
MARCH 21-30, 2012
Operated by Tanago Tours
SURE GO




We shall not only visit the coal mines' rail networks at Pinzhuang (steam + electrics), Yuanbaoshan, and Fuxin, but will also go to the sensational SY action at the steelmill of Beitai! Due to the high frequency of simultaneous operations, you will need at least 2 days to cover the Beitai basics! This tour covers all major steam highlights in the region, giving you even three days at the Beitai steel mill.





Day 1 Wednesday March 21: Arrive Shanghai, China.

Day 2 Thursday March 22: Arrive at the chinese megacity in the morning, continuation by air to Shenyang. Participants from overseas and/or those who booked land-only, meet at Shenyang airport at 13:00 local time. After arrival we transfer to the city´s railway station to board the night train to Pinzhuang. We have booked 1st class sleeper compartments ("soft-sleeper").
Overnight on the train.
Meals: Dinner.

Day 3 Friday March 23: The coal mine railway at Pinzhuang is home to some nicely decorated SY steam locomotives, carrying headboards with political or safety propaganda, partly equipped with large deflectors. The SY serve the coal-washery, the line to the Chinese National Railway yard, some minor loading points, and, hauling permanent way trains, the open cast pit. Here they meet former East-German electric locomotives.
Overnight at a Hotel in Chifeng.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 4 Saturday March 24: Yuanbaoshan uses a small number of the once ubiqitous JS. A seldomly reasonable mine´s management realized a few years ago that the purchase of new diesel locomotives doesn´t make sense if the exploited mine will close anyway in a few years time. Therefore the JS received a new overhaul and are still in service today, hauling freight trains and workers´ passenger trains.
Overnight at a Hotel in Chifeng.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Update on 18. July 2011: sadly, the first two diesel locomotives arrived at Yuanbaoshan, with two more to come in the following months. We will see how the situation develops and adapt our itinerary to as much steam as possible.

Day 5 Sunday March 25: We will spend another day at Pinzhuang or Yuanbaoshan. Evening transfer to the railway station where we board the express train to Fuxin. We have booked first class compartments ("soft-sleeper").
Overnight on the train.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 6 Monday March 26: Arrival at Fuxin in the early morning hours. Fuxin offers finest steam action: quite a large number of SY are rostered daily, lots of activities, classic workshop atmosphere, 6-8 steam locomotives are prepared for their duties outside the shed area every morning, heavy trains on steeply graded lines.
Overnight at a hotel in Fuxin.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 7 Tuesday March 27: Another day at the busy system of Fuxin, latest reports show up to 14 SY working! Even the workers´trains are partly still steam hauled. Evening bus-transfer to Beitai.
Overnight at a hotel in Beitai.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 8 Wednesday March 28: SY share the shunting duties with some industrial diesel locomotives but still handle an attractive ratio of the traffic. The mill´s management changes frequently and so does the attitude towards foreign visitors: sometimes the entry is strictly forbidden, sometimes there´s a friendly welcome. The current management follows the latter path and we hope that this will not change until we have been visiting the mill with its SY in classic steel work traffic: slag trains, hauling ore and waiting under the huge blast furnaces. Overnight at a hotel in Beitai.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 9 Thursday March 29: The steel works offers so many fantastic photographic opportunities with a lot of parallel action that we stay here another day.
Overnight at a hotel in Beitai.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 10 Friday March 30: Today, we pay the last visit to the fascinating steam operations at the Beitai steel mill. One of the three blast furnace groups has been dieselized recently, a second one sees a steam/diesel mixed operation. It is surely just a question of time when the last steam-only blast furnace will see the loss of its SYs. Tour ends in Shanghai .
Meals: Breakfast, lunch.



PRICES                      ALL PRICES ARE PER PERSON

Double room occupancy...........................$2398
Single room supplement..........................$ 258
Deposit to hold your space confirmed............$ 500
Final payment is due December 21, 2011


TOUR BOOKING CONDITIONS

TOUR PRICE: All tour prices are corrected to November 1, 2012 and are subject to change without notice, at any time. All prices based on double room occupancy. We reserve the right to change tour prices if necessary.

PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE: Personal items, meals not listed in the itinerary, laundry, phone calls, excess baggage charges, rental cars, side tours, insurance, passport fees including visas, vaccinations, gratuities, medical costs, tips to train or motor coach staff, extra tour costs due to unanticipated changes in the itinerary for reasons beyond our control, including weather, travel conditions, or cancellations, government intervention, sickness, political disputes, and failure of transportation or other causes beyond our control.

TRAVEL AND HEALTH DOCUMENTS: A valid passport is required for our international tours. In some cases a visa is also needed. Consult your health professional for the recommended immunizations and documents. Trains and Travel International , here on referred to as TTI, assumes no other responsibility if a client is refused entry into a country. Cost and cancellation fees will be paid by the client in the event they do not have valid documents.

CHANGE OF ITINERARY: We reserve the right to substitute, alter or modify the tour if any unexpected and unforeseen conditions beyond our control preventing the completion of such. Conditions can include weather, train schedules, equipment, motive power, revision of train consist, train delays, labor strikes, political disputes, derailments, closure of a rail line, break down of railroad or motive power equipment, railroads not honoring contracts and bus equipment problems. We will always endeavor, in each case, to provide substitutes, if any changes take place. TTI is not responsible for canceled trains, delays, hotel rooms, route changes or missed connections, for any reason whatsoever. We will not give refunds if such conditions or cancellations take place.

TRAVEL INSURANCE: TRAVEL INSURANCE: Travel insurance is mandatory and is required, but you can opt out. The Decision to Opt-Out or Decline is Mandatory. Insurance will cover and give tour members many benefits and protection. Benefits include baggage loss, accident, life, trip cancellation, sickness, bankruptcy, strike, weather conditions, employer termination or layoff effecting you or a person sharing the room with you, terrorist incident in your departure city or city of destination, jury duty, you are subpoenaed, hijacked, or quarantined, your residence or traveling companion residence is rendered uninhabitable, emergency military duty, traffic accident, single supplement upgrade when your traveling companion cancels their trip, trip interruption, trip delay, missed connections, itinerary change,emergency medical benefits, medical evacuation, pre-existing medical conditions if enrollment is within 21days of your invoice date, assault of you or your traveling companion before departure, burglary of you or your companion before departure 24 hour hotline emergency assistance, emergency cash transfer and more. We will supply you with a travel insurance brochure with rates and application when we mail you the invoice after your bookings. Travel insurance protects your vacation investments. US law allows us to offer this insurance to all persons worldwide. We will accept a "refusal of travel insurance wavier" if you do not wish to purchase any travel insurance.

RESPONSIBILITY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: Accepting your payment represents an agreement that you understand all the conditions, to be a member of our tours. TTI gives notice that they are acting agents for the owners, contractors and suppliers, providing the transportation and all related travel services and assume no responsibility for injury, sickness, damage, loss, additional expenses accidental delay or irregularities which may be caused through willful or negligent acts or omissions on the part of the companies providing or engage in transportation, accommodations or services related to the accomplishment of the tour. Nor do we assume responsibility for natural disasters, social or political upheaval, acts of terrorism or acts of nature. TTI reserves the right to substitute hotels, tour leaders, equipment, motive power, trains, onboard accommodations, routes and to alter the itinerary when deemed necessary without notice. The right is also reserved to cancel any trip or train prior to departure for any reason . TTI is not responsible for expenses incurred by tour members in preparing for the tour, including non-refundable airline tickets, visa fees, planning, phone calls, or any other expenses. TTI reserves the right to decline to accept, or ask to leave a tour, any person whose actions impede the daily operations of a tour, welfare or enjoyment of other tour members. TTI cannot give any refunds for any unused services. The terms contained herein shall serve as a waiver of liability to TTI. Assumption of risk on behalf of the client, their heirs, executor, administrators, successors, and assigns for any and all known persons injuries

RESERVATIONS: A deposit is due in our office within 14 days after you make your bookings. Full payment is due 90 days before departure. You will receive an invoice, reservation form and current tour bulletins with your confirmation and travel insurance forms. No notice for final payment will be sent to you. It is your responsible to make the final payment on-time.

CANCELLATIONS: TTI does not accept cancellations on the phone. Cancellations must be received by postal mail, email or fax before any refunds will be considered. Allow enough time if sending your written notice by US mail postal system. When a written cancellation is received in the Trains and Travel office this will be the effective date of the cancellation. Please take note that it can take up to 60 days to to process some refunds. Cancellation refund rules: 100 days prior to the start of any tour you will receive a full refund less a $100 per person administration fee. 99 to 61 days before the departure of any tour there will be a 80% cancellation penalty based on the full cost of the tour. Cancellations received 60 or less days before the start of any tour will not receive any refund. GW Travel Ltd has their own cancellation rules and these will apply. If booking on GW Travel Ltd ask for cancellation rules.

PRE-DEPARTURE TOUR BULLETINS: Tour bulletins will be sent to clients that have booked on tours operated by TTI. Bulletins include travel info related to the tour. Final documents will be sent out about two to three weeks before a tour begins. We offer tours operated by other companies and they may or may not send out tour bulletins and updates and most send out final documents only one to two weeks prior to the start of their tours.

PAYMENTS: Payments can be made with personal check drawn on a U.S. Dollar account, money order for U.S. Dollars, bank wire transfer, or credit card. We accept Visa, Master Card or Discover. Final payment for all tours is due 90 days prior to departure. If final payment has not been received 7 days after the due date, a late fee of $50 per week will apply.

SINGLE SUPPLEMENT: All prices are based on double room occupancy. We will try and match you with a roommate if one is available. If not, you may be charged the single room supplement listed for the tour you are booked on. Single rooms may not be available in some remote locations and on some trains.

TOUR REFUNDS: If for any reason tour members amend or delete any arrangements during travel, and leave the tour on their own, we cannot give any refunds on unused portions of the tour. If buses and trains are cancelled by the carrier or there is a labor strike or they go out of business, we cannot be held responsible and we cannot give refunds. Travel insurance will protect you for any of these reasons. If TTI needs to cancel any tour everyone will receive a full refund. Please take note that in some cases refunds can take up to 60 days to process.

PARTIAL TOURS: We will allow passengers to join or leave a tour at certain points. It will all depend on the tour and the conditions. Give us a call and we will try and work up a custom option for you.

MILEAGE COLLECTORS: Mileage collectors please take note that TTI does not cater just to mileage collectors. We cater to all folks that enjoy trains and Rail journeys. We give strong warning that itinerary and route changes do happen and this is totally beyond our control when it does. If the only reason that you would want to book a tour is to collect the rare mileage, you need to understand that possible route changes do happen.

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Last modified: Monday, 25-Feb-2013 13:53:15 PST