Solo jaunt.
This isn't really exploring, more just a leisure jaunt and indulging in dereliction; a side mission, maybe. Basically as you will know, across Taiwan were or are many many sugar factories, a very small handful of which are abandoned, whereas others are derelict but open to the public as culture parks. Surprisingly, not many are actually demolished, certainly not entirely and much of the railway infrastructure remains. As for the railways themselves, many of them have been preserved as short heritage railways, similar to what you would see in Europe. The only difference is that these lines operate on narrow gauge at 2ft6in, narrower than the standard railways, and go at far slower speeds. Like, cyclist-slow.
To give you an idea of history since you're probably unfamiliar with Taiwan's sugar industry, it's basically run by Taisugar, a state-owned sugar company created under Japanese rule and operates until this day. It operated into the 1990s, and had 3000km of track at its peak, but by 2004 this dropped to 240km. Going beyond sugar, it even operated passenger trains for schoolkids and local people, but this stopped in 1982 with more people moving to cities. Today the main line of operation is in Huwei, which still uses the Diema locos which you can see here. Few if any of these locos have been scrapped, and to my knowledge they were only scrapped because of fire damage for example. So as things are, most of these locos aren't actually in operation anymore, and are just painted and plinthed for people to view and explore; many of them as you can see act as spares donors to keep the remaining fleet in operation.
烏樹林糖廠/Wushulin Sugar Factory
So on this day, I wasn't really prepared to go exploring (although the second site needs a revisit), rather just a peaceful, relaxed day out. First port of call was this place, which apart from a large domestic tour group that came and went was deserted. But it was definitely worth visiting, because whilst there were no derelict buildings to explore, the number of derelict trains left to rot was an absolute joy. Sure, you don't get the variety of locos that you'd get in Europe, but when you've got them in abundance it's not something you'd complain about. Most of them are German-built Diemas, but then you've got some built by Hitachi in Japan and others by Skagit in Washington, USA.
On the left here is a German-built Diema. Behind is a passenger DMU, which was used for schoolkids and workers in local communities. On the right is one of the American-built locos. This part of the shed is used to repair and maintain operational locos.
To the right was the stripping shed, as I'll refer to it for ease of reference. Here were two German-built Diemas undercover, which according to one of the fitters were presently used as spares donors for the active locos that run on the site today. One as you can see is already heavily stripped, but it's likely to be be left to rot just like the others.
Outside again were two spares donors, long since left to rot. The one closest to the camera is American, as indicated by the exhaust at the front, and a Japanese loco behind.
Leaving the shed after being given total freedom, I went back to the other locos which are on display. These aren't operational, but have to an extent been kept in reasonably good external condition. This one below you can see is one of the Japanese built ones.
Just as I was walking out, I noticed something I missed. Behind the shed were five locos tucked away out of sight, and I had no idea they were there before, because nobody had actually taken pictures of them. These were in an even worse state than the others, so no wonder they'd been left here. Back in I went.
Having ticked off everything possible, it was time to head back to Jiayi then onto the next sugar factory.
蒜頭糖廠/Suantou Sugar Factory
This one is a place I will return to, because there is actually a derelict factory that needs to be looked into. Dotted around the site but not pictured are a series of Japanese colonial dormitories and offices, all of which are derelict. There are no photos from these however, for three reasons: 1. They are normally covered by CCTV, and 2. The floors are paper thin and rotted to hell, making them impossible to enter without putting your foot through the floor. 3. They were just empty, dusty shells with any remnants of previous occupants removed. On the whole, it's pretty polished for this website, but because there are still derelict locos parked around which will likely never run again, it's worth including to supplement other pictures.
These are Belgian-built steam locos, built in 1948-49 and withdrawn by the late 70s.
These are local passenger trains, absolutely tiny when you look at them up close. Now cosmetically restored and plinthed, but still derelict inside.
So there it is. Not exploring per-se, but dereliction is still enjoyable, and so I feel it's still worthy of its own report. Once again, thanks for reading, and I shall endeavour to post more when CNY swings around and I'll do what I can to have a look at other places. I've actually compiled a map of stuff that I still haven't done, with about 25-30 sites in total; some have been done before, others not. Expect mostly schools and universities, with some cinemas and sugar factories. You'll get a hospital eventually, but that's still a long-term plan.
More photos at www.flickr.com/truebritishmetal.
Love and best wishes as always,
TBM x
This isn't really exploring, more just a leisure jaunt and indulging in dereliction; a side mission, maybe. Basically as you will know, across Taiwan were or are many many sugar factories, a very small handful of which are abandoned, whereas others are derelict but open to the public as culture parks. Surprisingly, not many are actually demolished, certainly not entirely and much of the railway infrastructure remains. As for the railways themselves, many of them have been preserved as short heritage railways, similar to what you would see in Europe. The only difference is that these lines operate on narrow gauge at 2ft6in, narrower than the standard railways, and go at far slower speeds. Like, cyclist-slow.
To give you an idea of history since you're probably unfamiliar with Taiwan's sugar industry, it's basically run by Taisugar, a state-owned sugar company created under Japanese rule and operates until this day. It operated into the 1990s, and had 3000km of track at its peak, but by 2004 this dropped to 240km. Going beyond sugar, it even operated passenger trains for schoolkids and local people, but this stopped in 1982 with more people moving to cities. Today the main line of operation is in Huwei, which still uses the Diema locos which you can see here. Few if any of these locos have been scrapped, and to my knowledge they were only scrapped because of fire damage for example. So as things are, most of these locos aren't actually in operation anymore, and are just painted and plinthed for people to view and explore; many of them as you can see act as spares donors to keep the remaining fleet in operation.
烏樹林糖廠/Wushulin Sugar Factory
So on this day, I wasn't really prepared to go exploring (although the second site needs a revisit), rather just a peaceful, relaxed day out. First port of call was this place, which apart from a large domestic tour group that came and went was deserted. But it was definitely worth visiting, because whilst there were no derelict buildings to explore, the number of derelict trains left to rot was an absolute joy. Sure, you don't get the variety of locos that you'd get in Europe, but when you've got them in abundance it's not something you'd complain about. Most of them are German-built Diemas, but then you've got some built by Hitachi in Japan and others by Skagit in Washington, USA.
On the left here is a German-built Diema. Behind is a passenger DMU, which was used for schoolkids and workers in local communities. On the right is one of the American-built locos. This part of the shed is used to repair and maintain operational locos.
To the right was the stripping shed, as I'll refer to it for ease of reference. Here were two German-built Diemas undercover, which according to one of the fitters were presently used as spares donors for the active locos that run on the site today. One as you can see is already heavily stripped, but it's likely to be be left to rot just like the others.
Outside again were two spares donors, long since left to rot. The one closest to the camera is American, as indicated by the exhaust at the front, and a Japanese loco behind.
Leaving the shed after being given total freedom, I went back to the other locos which are on display. These aren't operational, but have to an extent been kept in reasonably good external condition. This one below you can see is one of the Japanese built ones.
Just as I was walking out, I noticed something I missed. Behind the shed were five locos tucked away out of sight, and I had no idea they were there before, because nobody had actually taken pictures of them. These were in an even worse state than the others, so no wonder they'd been left here. Back in I went.
Having ticked off everything possible, it was time to head back to Jiayi then onto the next sugar factory.
蒜頭糖廠/Suantou Sugar Factory
This one is a place I will return to, because there is actually a derelict factory that needs to be looked into. Dotted around the site but not pictured are a series of Japanese colonial dormitories and offices, all of which are derelict. There are no photos from these however, for three reasons: 1. They are normally covered by CCTV, and 2. The floors are paper thin and rotted to hell, making them impossible to enter without putting your foot through the floor. 3. They were just empty, dusty shells with any remnants of previous occupants removed. On the whole, it's pretty polished for this website, but because there are still derelict locos parked around which will likely never run again, it's worth including to supplement other pictures.
These are Belgian-built steam locos, built in 1948-49 and withdrawn by the late 70s.
These are local passenger trains, absolutely tiny when you look at them up close. Now cosmetically restored and plinthed, but still derelict inside.
So there it is. Not exploring per-se, but dereliction is still enjoyable, and so I feel it's still worthy of its own report. Once again, thanks for reading, and I shall endeavour to post more when CNY swings around and I'll do what I can to have a look at other places. I've actually compiled a map of stuff that I still haven't done, with about 25-30 sites in total; some have been done before, others not. Expect mostly schools and universities, with some cinemas and sugar factories. You'll get a hospital eventually, but that's still a long-term plan.
More photos at www.flickr.com/truebritishmetal.
Love and best wishes as always,
TBM x
