The Qinghai-Tibet Railway's network has surpassed 4,060 kilometers in operational length, with its electrified portion soaring from zero in 2006 to 2,391 kilometers by 2026, accounting for 58.9% and delivering substantial gains in transport efficiency.
This expansion in both network scale and electrification level has been accompanied by a comprehensive overhaul of the power supply system along the line, with particularly notable advancements in equipment maintenance for special sections like the salt lake area and the implementation of intelligent line-wide inspection systems.
Continuous Upgrades to Pollution Control Equipment on the "Mile-Long Salt Bridge"
A 101-kilometer section from Yanqiao to Golmud East on the Xining-Golmud line of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway traverses the heavily polluted Qarhan Salt Lake area, where power supply equipment has long suffered from salt contamination, severely disrupting normal transport operations.
Approximately 33 kilometers of this line, known as the "Mile-Long Salt Bridge," is the world's only railway built on a salt lake.
For two decades, the Golmud power supply workshop of the Xining Power Supply Section has been stationed in this unique area, conducting annual large-scale cleaning operations on catenary insulators to mitigate the risks posed by salt contamination.
The annual precipitation in the Qarhan Salt Lake section is less than 50 millimeters, while evaporation exceeds 3,000 millimeters, leading to high-concentration salt dust that persistently adheres to insulator surfaces, easily causing flashover trips that critically impact the railway's operational safety.
Since the railway's opening, ensuring power supply safety on the "Mile-Long Salt Bridge" has been a top priority, with two major insulator cleaning campaigns organized each year, each lasting 20 days, to ensure the proper functioning of catenary equipment.
Over 20 years, the cleaning methodology has undergone a leap from manual to mechanized processes.
Initially, cleaning involved workers manually climbing poles and wiping with cloths and water sprayers, a method that was inefficient, hazardous, and left uncleaned spots, with a team of 20 people taking three hours to clean insulators on just one kilometer of track.
In 2016, the power supply division equipped the Golmud catenary maintenance team with high-pressure water cleaning vehicles, pioneering a "mechanized cleaning + manual verification" model.
Using a 35-megapascal high-pressure water cleaning vehicle operated by just four people, it became possible to clean seven kilometers of line per hour.
By precisely controlling water pressure, angle, and distance, this method efficiently removes salt crust from insulator surfaces without damaging the porcelain bodies, significantly boosting both cleaning efficiency and quality.
While steadfastly ensuring power supply safety, the division has also integrated green environmental principles into all operational processes.
During cleaning, workers strictly manage wastewater discharge to prevent contamination of the salt lake ecosystem and optimize workflows to minimize impact on surrounding vegetation.
The use of environmentally friendly cleaning materials further reduces ecological disruption, achieving a dual win for both safety assurance and environmental protection.
Over the past 20 years, the power supply workshop has conducted 40 insulator cleaning operations on the "Mile-Long Salt Bridge," cleaning over 300,000 insulators of various types, completely preventing power supply failures caused by salt contamination and ensuring 20 years of safe and unimpeded operation on this critical section.
Digital Transformation of Power Supply Operations Reshapes Maintenance Systems
The implementation of mechanized cleaning in the unique salt lake section has effectively neutralized the long-standing threat of salt contamination.
Beyond this, the past two decades have seen a comprehensive digital overhaul of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway's power supply system, leveraging integrated intelligent detection platforms to fundamentally shift away from the reactive, manual inspection-based maintenance practices of the past.
When the Qinghai-Tibet Railway fully opened in 2006, the technology in its traction substation equipment was relatively conventional, with maintenance relying entirely on visual checks, touch, and sound.
Inspections required checking each device individually, and fault resolution involved repeatedly consulting schematics, a process that was time-consuming, labor-intensive, and heavily dependent on workers' practical experience.
The power supply capacity at that time was limited, struggling to meet growing transport demands.
Over the 20-year period, significant investment has been made in upgrading power supply equipment, with the gradual adoption of smart monitoring systems, digital inspection tools, and remote control devices.
Core equipment such as instrument transformers and circuit breakers has been comprehensively upgraded, greatly enhancing stability and safety.
Latent faults can now be preemptively identified through real-time alerts from intelligent systems, boosting maintenance efficiency by over 60% compared to the initial opening period and transforming the maintenance model from "manual troubleshooting" to a new paradigm of "smart monitoring + precision maintenance."
Alongside equipment upgrades, the working conditions for power supply staff have also been transformed.
The shift from manual foot patrols and outdoor work to intelligent monitoring and mechanized operations has significantly reduced labor intensity and improved job safety.
The training and education system has continuously improved, evolving from traditional master-apprentice guidance to a combination of online learning, practical drills, and skills competitions, providing broader avenues for enhancing professional capabilities.
Following the electrification upgrade of the Xining-Golmud section in 2011, the initial lack of a dedicated data analysis center meant that identifying faults in traction power supply equipment relied solely on on-site manual inspections.
This approach was not only slow and inefficient but also had blind spots, sometimes leaving a section uninspected for an entire year, forcing a reactive "fix-it-when-it-fails" model that posed significant risks to power supply safety.
Starting in 2015, sectional 6C data analysis centers were gradually established in Xining and Lhasa, enhancing the functionality of the group company's 6C data processing center platform.
A total of 66 sets of various detection devices have been deployed and put into operation, enabling the integrated display and sharing of data from all devices.
By utilizing 6C system equipment such as the group's catenary inspection vehicles, high-speed rail inspection cars, and EMU-mounted 3C devices, comprehensive detection and monitoring of the operational status of catenary equipment across the electrified railway network has been largely achieved.
This allows for effective evaluation of catenary geometry and smoothness, providing a basis for maintenance work.
Today, data analysts spend their days meticulously examining the vast amounts of video and image data collected by the system to identify potential equipment faults and formulate corresponding rectification measures.
They operate like doctors performing ultrasounds, repeatedly scrutinizing and comparing each equipment image, fast-forwarding, slowing down, pausing video footage, and zooming in and out on high-definition pictures to ensure no minor anomaly is missed.
On average, an analyst reviews about 300 photos per hour, totaling over 3,000 photos per person per day, with the analysis of detection data for a several-hundred-kilometer line segment typically taking two to three days to complete.
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