Folding sheets in 3 seconds. How did the railway washer behind the scenes of the Spring Festival master his "speed"?

　　China News Service, Zhengzhou, February 29th: Question: Folding sheets in 3 seconds. How did the railway washer behind the scenes of the Spring Festival master the "speed hand"?

　　China News Service reporter Han Zhangyun

　　How long does it take to pull up, fold and stack a sheet from a train sleeper?

"3 seconds!" This is the answer given by Zhang Hairong, who has 12 years of experience in washing.

The Spring Festival Transport of 2024 is coming to an end. During this extremely busy Spring Festival, countless railway cleaners are working silently behind the scenes to provide passengers with clean and tidy bedding (sheets, quilt covers, seat covers, high-speed rail headrests, etc.) to ensure the cleanliness of train bedding. health.

　　During the peak period of Spring Festival this year, China Railway Zhengzhou Bureau Group Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "China Railway Group Zhengzhou Bureau") as an example, sent 791,000 passengers on February 25 alone.

Such a huge passenger volume means that railway washers have to race against time to clean all the replaced bedding to ensure usage.

Washing workers at the Zhengzhou Passenger Transport Section of the China Railway Group's Zhengzhou Bureau folded clean bedding.

Photo by Chen Youhui

　　"Manual + machine wash" bedding cleaning

　　The washing workshop of the Zhengzhou Passenger Section of the Zhengzhou Bureau of the China Railway Group has three washing plants in Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Xinxiang. There are more than 500 washers responsible for the washing, ironing and shaping of bedding on all passenger trains under the Zhengzhou Bureau.

Taking Zhengzhou Laundry Factory as an example, it washes 40,000 pieces of bedding every day on weekdays. During the Spring Festival this year, Linke was added, and the workload increased by more than 10,000 pieces every day, requiring 50,000 pieces of bedding to be washed.

The number of personnel remains unchanged but the workload increases. Behind this is the hard work of railway washers working overtime.

　　The working hours of the washers are basically linked to the arriving and departing trains. After the train arrives at Zhengzhou Station and the passengers have disembarked and the train is put into storage, the washers start busy.

Railway washers carry bedding that has been removed from a train to be cleaned.

Photo by Chen Youhui

　　According to the work process, when washing bedding, you must first sort the bedding, find out the bedding with obvious stains, and rely on manual decontamination.

"Some bedding has stubborn stains such as oil stains, chewing gum, and lipstick marks. It is difficult to clean it with a washing machine. It can only be completely brushed off by manual washing." Zhang Hairong, a team leader at Zhengzhou Laundry Factory, told reporters that during the Spring Festival travel period, bedding washing The task is arduous. At peak times, laundry workers have to manually brush out stains from five to six hundred sheets a day.

　　The sorted bedding is transported to the washing area, where industrial washing machines are lined up waiting to be "fed."

The weight of soaked sheets and quilts doubles, and putting them into the washing machine is a laborious task.

Preliminary estimates show that during the Spring Festival travel period, each washer will throw about 1,500 kilograms of bedding into the washing machine every day.

An industrial washing machine can "swallow" more than 200 pieces of laundry at a time, and can complete the washing task after 60 minutes of automated cleaning.

　　Fold sheets 5,000 times a day to develop "speed hands"

　　After the bedding is taken out of the industrial washing machine, it enters the drying, disinfection, and ironing processes. From entering the dryer to coming out of the ironing machine, it only takes 10 seconds for the originally dripping bedding to become dry and flat.

This places extremely high demands on the hand speed of the washers responsible for folding and packaging.

Railway washer packs clean bedding.

Photo by Chen Youhui

　　Zhang Hairong has been engaged in washing train bedding for 12 years.

"The job of a washer seems simple, but it is actually not easy. It requires both strength and skills." She told reporters that due to years of work, her hands have formed muscle memory. From pulling up, folding and stacking a sheet, It only takes 3 seconds, and her colleagues have similar hand speeds to hers.

　　Zhang Hairong said that the "fast hands" of the washer workers are developed through countless practical operations every day. A dried bed sheet is folded three times, and a work shift can fold 2,000 sheets in 8 hours. So in the hands of the washer workers, Folding must be repeated at least 5,000 times every day. "It is repeated thousands of times every day. Without hand speed and strength, it is really impossible."

　　In the past 12 years, Zhang Hairong can’t remember how many beddings she washed. She only knows that more and more trains are running, and the requirements for the cleanliness of beddings are getting higher and higher. She and her colleagues are getting busier and busier. “During the Spring Festival travel season, although passengers can’t see Although we are busy, we know that clean and tidy bedding can make everyone's travel more comfortable."

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