By February 1989, we'd got hold of a timetable and worked out the likely pacific turns around Changchun and Jilin from our own notes and reports in CRJ and World Steam. We'd also moved on from travelling with large commercial tours to organising our own smaller groups, going where we wanted, when we wanted. A new era was dawning.
We landed on our feet. Less than 24 hours after arriving in the country, we were at Changchun enjoying the snow and crystal clear light. We spent an excellent afternoon at Xiaonan, junction of the line to Da'an and Baicheng, photographing the frequent QJ hauled freights and a handful of RM hauled passengers. Former supershine machine RM 1091 had lost it's brass boiler bands and smokebox decorations but still looked good as it pulled away from the station with a slow passenger to Baicheng.