Taiwanese push car railways
Called A hand -operated tram, train or even coolie Trollybahn, represented a special form of the tram from the 19th and 20th centuries, were in the cars of people pulled or pushed. Basic requirement was the presence of cheap labor.
- 5.1 Europe
- 5.2 Africa
- 5.3 Asia 5.3.1 Japan, Taiwan
- 5.3.2 Chosen
Overview
The most they were common in the Japanese sphere of influence this time. In the present states of Japan, North Korea, the Republic of China and South Korea, there were more than 80 enterprises of this kind, 60 alone on Taiwan. A further 18 were in the European colonies in Africa, mostly in Mozambique. Despite this drive they reached, as the web between Odawara and Atami, link lengths of up to 30 kilometers.
Up to operation were all set by the end of the Second World War. Only the Shenten tram on Taiwan survived until the late 1990s as a tourist attraction. She drove from Wulai, a village south of Taipei at the Wulai Falls, a popular tourist destination in Taiwan. While the web itself still exists today, had in 2000, but for safety reasons ( too dangerous for the driver of the car, frequent accidents ) are converted to diesel operation
The Japanese car for these trams were almost all lightweight construction in order to use them as efficiently as possible can. Were pulled over the car handles on the front pages. For the trip down there was footboards. Braking they were using hand brakes. The track width of these vehicles was 610 mm in general. The last two vehicles received this type of tram can be seen in a small transport museum in the city of Matsuyama in Miyagi Prefecture and in the Transport Museum Tokyo. A second carriage in Matsuyama is a replica and is even presented in the Cosmos Festival at a park in operation. The original was used from 1922 to 1928 in Matsuyama -Machi on the route between point and train station.
History
The history of the hand-operated railways began in France. Paul decauville founded the company decauville in 1875. His idea was to create a narrow-gauge system with 400 to 600 mm gauge and prefabricated, easily transportable rail elements was. The French Army used these tracks to bring the supplies by the driving force of soldiers and horses to the front. It was only from about 1888 steam locomotives were then used to drive.
In Japan, Emperor Meiji began at the same time to lead his country out of the feudal system into the industrial age. For this purpose, foreign consultants were hired, which should assist the country to modernize. With the French advisers for the army and the portable rails ( track width 500 mm) and the small hand- pushed carriage of decauville came into the country.
During the Japanese wars and occupations of this rail system was used by the army in many other Asian countries. The two Japanese colonies Chosen (now North and South Korea) and Taiwan have been upgraded as infrastructure.