Lixin is the main centre of operations at the east end of the line. Locos are serviced and turned here and loaded trains take a banker for the 4km climb to the line's summit.
The Autumn colours were well advanced on the hill above the station on the afternoon of 22 September 2004 as No. 044 led a loaded train out of the station banked by 043. Minutes earlier this shot would have been impossible as the air was thick with a swarm of flying ladybirds which landed everywhere, including on the lenses of our cameras. Fortunately they had gone by the time the train left.