Walking at the grass-roots level in the Spring Festival: Railway Washers: "Sauna" in the workshop

This article is transferred from: People’s Daily Online
Employees put the cleaned bedding into the ironing machine. Ma Lin photo
Walking into the washing workshop of Nanning Passenger Transport Section of China Railway Nanning Bureau Group Co., Ltd., you can feel a heat wave mixed with the smell of wet cloth. There are 228 people in the workshop, who are responsible for the cleaning of 32 pairs of bedding spare parts and 153.5 pairs of motor car seat covers in this section. "During the period of Spring Festival travel rush, there were more trains, and our workload also increased. The washing capacity in one day can reach up to 60,000 pieces." Zhou Guian, secretary of the Party branch of the Labor Service Company of Nanning Passenger Transport Section, introduced.
It is understood that the workshop is hot all the year round, and the four seasons are like "summer". "The temperature comes from the heat dissipation of the machine." Zheng Fengying, the supervisor, said that cleaning depends on 16 large washing machines with a capacity of 150kg, and there are 7 dryers for drying. Employees have big or small sweat stains on the back of short sleeves. Although the water temperature of the washing machine can reach above 90℃, the hottest place in the whole workshop is not here, but the ironing class.
The staff folded the ironed bedding neatly. Ma Lin photo
The working area of the ironing class is covered with brown wooden floors, and the white bedding piles up into hills. The employees repeatedly bend over and stand upright, and hang the wet bedding on the automatic folding roller presses. With a few clicks, I saw that at the other end of the machine, the bedding changed from wrinkled to flat, from wet to dry, from cold to hot, and it was output neatly. The number "+1" on the top of the machine indicated that there was another item waiting for delivery. In order to ensure high temperature sterilization, the machine works above 100℃, and the working environment is around 60℃ in summer, and now it is also around 30℃. You can feel the rolling heat wave emitted by the machine just when you are close. There are several shelves next to the machine to put the staff’s kettles, the smallest of which is about 2 liters. Because of the large amount of sweating, they have to pump water at least three times a day to ensure their physical needs. If there are fever passengers on the train, the bedding will be separately packaged and disinfected at high temperature to ensure foolproof.
Employees are folding bedding. Ma Lin photo
"It’s comfortable to work here in winter!" Faced with such a question, Zheng Fengying recalled: January 22nd was the sixth day in Spring Festival travel rush, which coincided with the influence of cold air. The temperature in Nanning dropped to single digits, but the gas in the washable workshop failed. Because the boiler was heated by gas, it was completely shut down that day. Worried about the impact on the train operation, we tried to start work at the first time when the gas was restored. Everyone simply stood by in the empty workshop and waited for 12 hours. Employees sometimes rub their hands and breathe, and sometimes jump to warm up, without flinching. "At that time, I really missed the normal start-up. Hot is better than cold!" Zhang Fengning, an employee of the ironing class, teased. When the gas was restored, the workshop was hot again. Everyone put on short sleeves, immediately entered the state, improved efficiency, took turns eating, and worked hard until 5 am, finally ensuring the smooth packing of bedding spare parts for the day.
"Cut, cut …" The number above the automatic folding roller presses jumped to 5000, and Zhang Fengning inadvertently took a glance, as if he had achieved a small goal. She wiped the sweat on her forehead, went to the shelf to drink water, and then returned to the station to start bending endlessly … "It’s not hard, as long as I see the passengers can lie down safely on the bus, my work is very valuable." Zhang Fengning said with a smile. (Wang Yong, Zhang Yuyun, Ma Lin)
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