"(Most grips would use a coupla C-clamps, and sandbag the dollies for eventual sound dampening/ mass).
Guess this (Chinese?) team has more people (than hardware) to spare." Hence the title grips
You asked about why make it look as though the train was backing out of the station.
There are many stations where the loco pulls into the station head first. around the world. I've been on many in Germany and Austria before ICE and ICEII where it was the norm for this and as recently as 2009 at the Frankfurt(Main) Hauptbahnof their trains still pull in and back out
Yeah I just noticed the guy under the tripod