There’s a new(ish) website about Taiwan’s railway system, past and present. It’s written by a Pommie railway engineer and he knows what he is talking about. His detailed maps of the old narrow gauge lines are bloody fantastic. Retracing the old mountain routes could make for some fun hikes. I love websites like this; interesting and passionate, so different from the usual shallow, self-absorbed drivel of blogs, and the sterile blandness of government sites.
http://www.taiwanrailways.com/
great site. what was that bit about him not being able to join the local railway society all about. seems particularly stupid.
I work with a few people like him. Absolutely obssessed with railways…I bet if anyone has old maps, its the Japanese which of course probably were never given to local authorities due to the fact that its ‘war sensitive’ material.
I had seen that site before. That bit about not being allowed to join seems rather weird to me. I have never tried to join that society but I have had some contact with some people from it. Always quite welcoming, and they did print a write up about a (Chinese language) book that I wrote in their magazine. Maybe they don’t dare to do anything against me as they probably know I am friends with quite a few important people in that scene, or maybe it is OK if you are a foreigner so long as you can understand Chinese. I am not sure, but either way it still seems strange to me. Especially given that virtually all of Taiwan’s train engines are imported, so a foreign everything hating train fan would have a big problem. Hmmm, then again recently we did have Taiwanese students trying to start a Taiwan Nazi party so why should I expect things to make sense along those lines…
[quote=“almas john”]There’s a new(ish) website about Taiwan’s railway system, past and present. It’s written by a Pommie railway engineer and he knows what he is talking about. His detailed maps of the old narrow gauge lines are bloody fantastic. Retracing the old mountain routes could make for some fun hikes. I love websites like this; interesting and passionate, so different from the usual shallow, self-absorbed drivel of blogs, and the sterile blandness of government sites.
http://www.taiwanrailways.com/[/quote]
Looks good but I wouldn’t go tracing railways. Most of the lines will be broken up and since they frequently cross ravines and rivers and streams you risk falling to your death or simply being forced to climb up and down steep ravines all the time. A couple cyclists did a cross island trip a few years back and tried following the old lines. Nearly killed them.
That scary bike ride you are referring to, MM, is the Dan Ta Forestry road coming up from Nantou County near Shuili and goes up to ChiSai Hu (Seven Color Lake) on the Central Mountain range at about 2,800 meters in altitude. While that part shouldn’t present any problems to a properly equipped cyclist, the rest of that route going down to Hualien is quite steep and the stretch of logging railway has a few gullies and streams to manoeuvre around where the logging line has fallen to bits. That section is about two or three kms. After that, there is another extremely steep section dropping down several hundred meters in altitude to the Forestry Road leading down to Shunrong another 47 kms away.
That used to be a passable road about ten years ago when the pylons were being put in, and jeep clubs used to go there. Now, although it’s still a hiking route and maintenance guys go up there to check on the power line, I sure wouldn’t like to be dragging a bike around. But as a hike that’s one of the few areas where you can hike on an old logging line so high in the montains.
I think there’s a link to that story on the Formosan Fat Tyre web-site.
That’s the tale, yes,
So it’s possible to hike the whole route down? Cool. You are a font of hiking knowledge. 
I drove up to the start of the Danda road a few months ago but the bridge is wiped out.
That road, the Dan Ta Forestry road has some super steep parts, but since they have personnel working on an experimental farm the Forestry Dept keep it open. You need a permit to get in, so they’ll certainly let people know of any problems on the road. I started from the Hualian side at Shunrong (a favorite place) and it took six days.
For people interested in railway walks a good first place might be the San Diao Ling to Shi Fen Liao on the Pingxi (Pingsi/Pinghsi) line, as I’m sure other people have mentioned before.