China News Service, Shantou, January 29th: The "little spider" on the Shantou-Shantou High-speed Railway Bridge

　　Author Guo Jun Sun Yupeng Xia Wenbo

　　At 0:15 on January 26, on the Chaonan Cross-Shenzhen-Shantou Expressway Bridge of the Guangzhou-Shantou High-speed Railway of the Guangzhou Railway Group, a group of railway workers were counting materials before going on the road, preparing to clean the high-speed rail contact network insulators. It was cold. The sea breeze mixes with the salty and wet breath and pours into the collar.

Li Yanjie is cleaning the insulators of the high-speed railway contact network. Photo courtesy of Guangzhou Railway Group

　　"The line has been blocked, the catenary has been powered off, and the ground wires on both sides have been hung up, so we can start working." After hearing the instruction, Li Yanjie quickly put on the foot buckle, first stuck his left foot in the lower position of the pillar, and used the force of his right foot to move upward Buckle it tightly, and at the same time pull hard on the safety rope wrapped around the pillar. Put your weight back and bend your legs to kick hard, like a spider crawling on the web. In a blink of an eye, he climbed to the flat arm of the pillar 10 meters above the ground.

　　Li Yanjie, 23, is a catenary worker in the Shantou High-speed Railway Power Supply Workshop of the Shenzhen Power Supply Section of Guangzhou Railway Group. He is mainly responsible for the daily inspection and maintenance of the catenary. I saw him holding a wet towel at the top of the pole, wiping the insulator from top to bottom, and then from left to right. After wiping, he carefully checked and confirmed, refusing to miss any blind spot. A gust of sea breeze came, and the bridge and pole trembled slightly in the wind. The towel tied to Li Yanjie's side flew out with the wind. He calmly and quickly fished it out with his hand, and the towel was pulled back into his hand again.

　　At 0:30, Li Yanjie completed the cleaning of the first catenary insulator. He had to climb pillars like this at least 20 times that night.

　　"The Shantou-Shantou High-speed Railway is located in a coastal area with high humidity and high salt density. Insulator flashover will occur if you are not careful, leading to large-scale power outages in the contact network. Insulators in the coastal area must be wiped on time." Li Yanjie said, "In order to Make sure the insulators are clean, often one towel only cleans one string of insulators.”

　　During the Spring Festival last year, Li Yanjie was still a trainee studying with the class. However, during the Spring Festival this year, he is already the technical backbone of the team. "I remember the first time I climbed this 10-meter pole. I was afraid of heights. I watched the objects on the ground getting smaller and smaller, and the wind around my ears got stronger and stronger. My hands and legs shook involuntarily. When we reached the top, the pole was shaking very hard, as if it was going to be blown down by the strong wind." Li Yanjie recalled: "In the end, it was only after the master's earnest persuasion that I dared to slowly let go of my hands holding the pole."

　　"He grew up with the construction of Shantou-Shantou High-speed Railway." During the break of work, foreman Qiu Zongbin said: "When he first entered the railway, Li Yanjie was not very courageous. He had to adapt to climbing a 5-meter pole for several weeks, but he had always been He has a spirit of refusing to admit defeat and has made very rapid progress. This year he participated in the Spring Festival operation of the Shantou-Shantou Line for the first time, and we are all happy for him."

　　As the instructions from the walkie-talkie sounded again, Li Yanjie's team started working again. They held wet towels and cleaned the insulators one after another, climbing or sweeping or wiping, riding or lowering them. On the contact network of the nearly 7,929-meter Shenshan-Shantou Expressway Bridge, they are like a group of hard-working spiders, maintaining the power supply network.

　　At 4:00, there are still 30 minutes left before the end of the "skylight" (a term for railway traffic interruption and line maintenance) period. The cleaning work comes to an end. "1 seat belt, 1 pair of ankle buckles, 1 towel, 2 towels... ...A total of 60 items are correct." Li Yanjie carefully counted every item for fear of missing anything.

　　At 4:30, they finished their work. At a glance, the brand new power supply "spider web" seemed to be connected to the sea level, glowing silver under the faint moonlight. (over)