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This is the fourth part of a series of pages arising from a March 2015 visit
to Taiwan. James Waite and Takahide Yamamoto have contributed as indicated.
Introduction
Part 1 - Main Line Steam
Part 2 - The Alishan Railway's Shays
Part 3 - The Alishan Railway's Diesels
Part 5 - The Sugar Railways' Diesel Locomotives
Part
6 - Miscellaneous Sugar Rolling Stock
A full list of known surviving former TSC sugar steam locomotives in Taiwan
is elsewhere
on this site. Historically before World War II, they were mostly supplied
from Japan, afterwards the mills were re-equipped with steam locomotives from
Belgium before total dieselisation in the late 1970s.
The tourist mills are listed below, the first two are readily accessible by
public transport, the other three much less so, we visited them using a hire
car with James Waite.
- Qiaotou is at the end of one of Kaohsiung's metro lines, it also has a
TRA station which is served by local trains between Tainan and Kaohsiung.
It is just a short walk south. Although we visited on a Saturday, there
was no sign of the reported tourist train in action.
- SInying is some way south-west of the TRA station between Chiayi and
Tainan (marked as 新營鐵道文化園區 on Google Maps). Come out of
the station, turn left and walk parallel to the railway. Follow the road
as it curves right and turn left at the TSC petrol station. The road leads
to what is left of the mill complex.
- Xihu is some 5km west of Freeway 1 between Changhua and Chiayi from
where it is signposted (211km junction). The mill is about 1km south of
the town on route 19. The nearest TRA station would be Yuanlin 10km east
of the Freeway junction. It's not impossible that there are buses the 15km
west to Xihu....
- Suantou is 15km west of Chiayi (marked as Suantou Zhecheng Cultural Park
on Google Maps). Take route 168 west to Taibou (New Town), there are
apparently buses. The mill is 2km north, you'd probably need to find a
taxi.
- Wushulin is about 5km north-east of Sinying (see above), south of route
172 (marked as 烏樹林休閒園區 on Google Maps). You'd most likely
need need a taxi from the station.
Most surviving steam locomotives are 0-6-0T of a similar design. All shown
here are 762mm (2' '6")
gauge, other wheel arrangements are noted under individual entries. There are
a couple of 1067mm gauge locomotives also preserved. Apart from
the two mills with the active locomotives, we found that the sugar mills /
institute were not really bothered about their steam locomotives. At Qiaotou,
it took some lengthy questioning to discover where the indoor exhibit was and
no one seemed to know how close 355 was! The security guards
at the Institute in Tainan initially denied the locomotives were still present and it
took some persistence from Yuehong to gain entry. What is shown below is a representative
selection based on what was accessible rather than what might have been
desirable.
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326 was built by Nishia, Japan in 1940 is displayed at Xihu sugar mill. |
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331 was built by Nishia, Japan in 1935 and is displayed at the
Railway Park in Miaoli. |
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345 was built by AFB, Belgium in 1948 and is displayed at
Ershui station (James Waite picture) |
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346 was built by AFB, Belgium in 1948 and is kept in
working order at Xihu sugar mill. We were informed it could be chartered
for up 2 hours for NTD 20,000 (about GBP 430) although there is no
rolling stock other than the tourist coaches available. Otherwise, in
2015, it was running on Sundays. |
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350 was built by AFB, Belgium in 1948 and is displayed at
Sinying sugar mill. |
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353 was built by Tubize, Belgium in 1948 and is displayed
at Qiaotou sugar mill, this is the official Taiwan Sugar Museum. |
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361 was built by Tubize, Belgium in 1948 and is displayed
(indoors) at Qiaotou sugar mill, this is the official Taiwan Sugar Museum. |
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368 was built by Tubize, Belgium in 1948 and is displayed
at
Suantou sugar mill. |
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370 was built by Tubize, Belgium in 1948 and is kept at
Wushulin sugar mill. It is in working order but not used regularly,
previous to our visit it had reportedly been steamed over Chinese New
Year 2015. We were told it could be chartered for NTD 10,000 (ca GBP
215) |
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364 was built by Tubize, Belgium in 1948 and is displayed
at Xihu sugar mill. |
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382 was built Taiwan Machine Co. in 1958 and is displayed at Sinying sugar mill. |
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0-6-2T 538 was built by Nishia, Japan in 1938 and is displayed at
the Sugar Institute of TSC in Tainan |
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604 was built by Amamya, Japan in 1920 and is displayed at Xihu sugar mill. |
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0-8-0T 724 was built by Kawasaki, Japan in 1925 and is displayed
at
the Sugar Institute of TSC in Tainan |
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