Zhou Ande: Innovator of Meter Gauge Trains

Chasing a Dream

When I arrived at Zhou’s lab, he was measuring the noise level of the EMU when running at high speed on meter gauge tracks in an isolated space. The lab bears witness to his industrious efforts and his dream of the EMU.

In 1958 the predecessor to CRRC Zhuzhou, Hunan Zhuzhou Locomotive Factory, produced China’s first electric locomotive Shaoshan. Born in the 1970s in Hunan, Zhou grew up listening to the story of Shaoshan. It inspired his desire to explore the locomotive’s power, and the seeds of a dream began to germinate.

His keen interest in the locomotive made Zhou choose electric traction as his college major. After graduating from Southwest Jiaotong University in 2000, Zhou worked at what is now CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd. It is a company dedicated to electric locomotives, intercity EMU, magnetic levitation trains and rail vehicles featuring new technologies.

Upon entering the company Zhou was assigned to the technical services section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway project. It was the first time he had made contact with the motor train unit. As to the births of the “Lanjian (blue arrow),” an electric-powered train for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen line, and “China Star” EMU, whose speed was 321.5 km per hour, the fastest on the Chinese railway at that time, Zhou accumulated experience in research on motor train units.

An EMU produced by CRRC Zhuzhou bound for Europe.

The proposed development plan of urban agglomeration and urban passenger transport made Zhou change his research to that on the intercity motor train unit, which laid foundations for the world’s fastest EMU.

“At that time, no one had studied the operation of trains on intercity lines, though the high-speed railway had been imported,” Zhou recalled. “Different than high-speed rail, intercity EMU applies a public transport operation mode characterized by shorter distances and a large flow of passengers.”

Thanks to several years of efforts, Zhou had the opportunity to realize his dream. CRRC Zhuzhou signed a RMB 4 billion order with Malaysia for electrical multiple units. This marked the country’s first exports of China-made multiple units of electric traction. The first order to Malaysia was for 38 EMUs running on meter gauge track. The design of these “bullet head” trains emulates the Islamic style.

After completion of the first order, the Malaysian side immediately signed a second. Based on his experience, Zhou made innovations to EMUs running on meter gauge track. They thus became the world’s fastest of that kind.