Feng Yuxiang took a train from Beijing to Xinxiang. The train did not announce the station. He got off the train in a hurry late at night and saw the Yuewang Temple. Only then did he realize that he got off the train early and arrived at Tangyin County, Henan Province, which is 30 kilometers away from Xinxiang. Several stops.

In 1953, writer Zhang Henshui traveled from Beijing to Shanghai by train. Zhang Henshui often traveled around the country by train. This was his first long-distance trip by train in New China, and he looked at everything in the train curiously. He was amazed by the excellent service, clean environment and good management of the trains in New China. In addition, he also mentioned a very special detail: "When we take a train, we often don't know the name of the station in front of us. Now, in addition to hanging three or four calendar-sized place name lists on the wall of the car seat, we change them from place to place. The attendants also use the radio to continuously announce the name of the station in front. As for passengers who arrive at the station in the middle, the attendants must do their best to inform the passengers to prevent them from passing the station. "( Zhang Henshui (Beijing-Shanghai Travel Magazine)

Zhang Henshui is right. During the Republic of China, the railways did not have relevant regulations on reporting stations midway. Passengers who are about to get off the bus midway, if they want to know when to get off, they can only look at the stop sign outside or ask around. If you are driving at night and cannot see the stop sign outside, or you cannot find it out, you may get off at the wrong station.

In 1913, Feng Yuxiang once took a guard with him to take the Beijing-Hankou Railway train from Beijing to Xinxiang, Henan. The train departed from Qianmen Railway Station in the afternoon and arrived at Gaobeidian. Night had fallen and the scenery outside the window was indistinct. The train rumbled in the night. Feng Yuxiang didn't know which station he had arrived at, so he asked the waiter: "How many stations are there before Xinxiang?" The waiter replied: "There are four more stations." Feng Yuxiang told the guard: "Remember, there are still more. Let’s get off the bus after four stops. Don’t sit any longer.” The guard was very serious and said, “We’ll get off after four stops.”

The instructions were completed. , Feng Yuxiang fell asleep, but he seemed to be asleep but not asleep. As the train passed one station after another, he kept remembering it in his mind. Seeing that the fourth stop was passed, he suddenly heard the guard say: "We've arrived at the station, get off the bus." So he got off the bus in a hurry. When they got off the bus, they were stunned. They saw a Yuewang Temple coming into view. It turned out that the station where they got off was Tangyin County, Henan Province, which was several stops away from Xinxiang. (Feng Yuxiang's "My Life")

Now we can no longer verify whether the "tea house" remembered the wrong station or whether Feng Yuxiang counted the wrong stations. This story fully proves that trains in the Republic of China did not have a perfect station announcement midway. Mechanism has brought great inconvenience and trouble to passengers. Lao She's novel "Fan Piao" describes a cautious traveler who got on the train from Beijing. Not long after the train started, he greeted the "teaser": "Let me know when you get to Tianjin." Along the way, I could only hear him not stopping. He kept asking the "waitress" and other passengers: "Have you arrived in Tianjin?" "Are you almost there in Tianjin?" The waiter took the trouble and looked very ugly. The staff on trains in the Republic of China are generally divided into several types: captain, ticket inspector, driver, fireman, porter, baggage attendant, etc. In addition, there are some handymen, such as waiters, carriage boys, cleaners, etc. These people each perform their own duties, and "reporting to the station" is not their job.

Although there is no station reporting system for trains in the Republic of China, it does not mean that passengers getting off at the wrong station will frequently happen. First of all, ticket checks were very frequent on trains in the Republic of China. Tickets were usually checked every time they arrived at a major station or even when passing through any station. The ticket inspectors could remind passengers to get off the train; secondly, trains in the Republic of China had very long stops at stations, and they often stopped at stations. Ten minutes. Even if a passenger arrives at the station and is not noticed in time, there is still enough time to react.

Although the railways of the Republic of China did not require station reporting at the national level, some railway bureaus also stipulated their own station reporting system for the convenience of passengers. For example, the Bac Ninh Railway Bureau stipulated in 1935 that when the train is about to arrive at the station, the carriage boy should "shout the name of the station." However, it is regrettable that many cyclists are very lax about this regulation and "do not have the strength to adhere to it." In addition, carriage boys are senior service personnel and are generally only equipped on first- and second-class cars. However, it is the passengers on third-class cars who need this service the most.