The Alishan Forest Railway ( 阿里山森林鐵路) is an 86 km network of 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow-gauge railways running up to and throughout the popular mountain resort of Alishan in Chiayi County (嘉義縣), Taiwan (台灣). The railway, originally constructed for logging, is itself a tourist attraction with unique Z-shaped switchbacks, 50 tunnels, and over 77 wooden bridges.
 |
| TW-1268259 from Lillian and TW-15555326 from Brad |
 |
| TW-1365999 (23 September 2014) from Emily Feng |
 |
| TW-1074980 Lima Shay #26 |
This is one of my all-time favourite postcards. It shows the Alishan Forest Railway train passing cherry blossom trees. I sat on this train (pulled by a diesel not a steam loco) when I was inTaiwan some years ago.
.jpg) |
| TW-1500549 (10 February 2015) from Nibb |
The narrow-gauge lines were originally constructed by the Japanese Colonial Government in 1912 to facilitate the logging of cypress and Taiwania wood, however today the line caters mostly to tourists. Passenger carriages were first added to the trains in 1918. The first motive power was a Shay locomotive purchased second hand from the Kiso Forest Railway in Japan. Eventually the railway acquired 20 Shay locomotives.
Eventually, diesel railcars supplemented the steam engines on the passenger services. In the 1980s, 10 Hitachi-built diesel-hydraulic locomotives were delivered and replaced the railcars and remaining steam engines.
The railway system was closed due to damage from rains associated with 2009 Typhoon Morakot. After 4 years of restoration, it was reported that the line was now partially operational (Jan 2014). By 2015, the Alishan Forest Railway would be fully re-opened.
.jpg)
