QJ 7045 marched up the 1 in 80 gradient west of Mengjiawan with train 43, the 11:01 from Beijing to Lanzhou, on 10 January 1994. The train had already travelled 1534 km in just over 28 hours and still had another 277 km and 6 hours to go. Expresses averaging around 50 km/h were nothing unusual at the time but things have speeded up considerably since. The fastest Beijing - Lanzhou trains now take around 9 hours instead of 34!