Hand operated train

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hand-operated train in Taiwan when it was a colony of the Japanese Empire

A hand-operated train , also known as a coolie train or trolly train , was a special type of rail-bound train from the 19th and 20th centuries, in which the wagons were pulled or pushed by people. The basic requirement was the availability of cheap labor. Hand -powered vehicles in the form of hand- drawn trolleys were also developed and used for use on normal railways .

overview

They were most widespread in the Japanese area of ​​influence at the time. In today's states of Japan , North Korea , the island of Taiwan and South Korea, there were more than 80 companies of this type, 60 in Taiwan alone. There were another 18 in the European colonies in Africa , most of them in Mozambique . Despite this drive, they, like the Atami Railway between Odawara and Atami , reached distances of more than 25 kilometers.

All but one company were closed until the end of the Second World War . Only the plant in Shenten in Taiwan survived as a tourist attraction until the end of the 1990s. She drove from Wulai , a village south of Taipei, to the Wulai Waterfalls, a popular destination. The railway called Wulai Taiche still exists today, but had to be switched to diesel operation in 2000 for safety reasons (too dangerous for the drivers of the cars, frequent accidents).

Taiwanese lorry with grab bars and rope loops, 1936

The Japanese wagons for these railways were almost all made of lightweight construction so that they could be used as efficiently as possible. They were pushed over vertically attached handle bars or pulled over rope loops or handles on the front sides. There were running boards for the trip downhill. They were braked by hand brakes. The track width of these vehicles was generally 610 millimeters. The last two surviving vehicles of this type of train can be seen in a small transportation museum in Matsuyama City in Miyagi Prefecture and in the Tokyo Transportation Museum. A second car in Matsuyama is a replica and is demonstrated in operation in a park once a year at the Cosmos Festival. The original was used from 1922 to 1928 in Matsuyama-Machi on the route between town and train station.

history

The history of the hand-operated railways began in France. Paul Decauville founded the Decauville company in 1875. His idea was to create a narrow-gauge system with 400 to 600 mm gauge and prefabricated, easily transportable rail elements. The French army used these railways to bring supplies to the front using the power of soldiers or horses . It was not until around 1888 that steam locomotives were also used for propulsion.

In Japan, at the same time, Emperor Meiji began to lead his country from feudal rule into the industrial age. To this end, foreign consultants were hired to help the country modernize. With the French advisers for the army, the transportable rails (gauge 500 mm) and the small hand-pushed wagons from Decauville also came into the country.

During the Japanese wars and occupations, the army used this railway system in many other Asian countries. The two Japanese colonies of Chōsen (today North and South Korea) and Taiwan were upgraded in terms of infrastructure.

List of manually operated railways

Europe

country City / route Gauge length promotion Years of operation
France Mont des Cats monastery 600 mm ? earth around 1898
Brewery in Issy-les-Moulineaux 600 mm 8 kilometers beer around 1930
Austria Vienna - Lainz
( Feldbahn Geriatriezentrum Am Wienerwald )		 500 mm 4.0 km goods 1904-1925

Africa

Governor and General Secretary of the Caminho da Repartição in Beira
Rufisque , 1912
country City / route Gauge length promotion Years of operation
Ivory Coast Grand Bassam 600 mm ? Wood and goods around 1906
Gambia Bathurst 600 mm 1.9 km goods 1907-1956
Guinea Conakry (light rail) ? ? Goods / people 1904/1905
Cameroon Ebony transport 600 mm ? Wood around 1905
Kenya Mombasa 600 mm approx. 7 km Goods / people 1910/1914
Congo Vivi 500 m approx. 0.8 km goods 1884
Libya Leptis Magna 600 mm approx. 50 m Excavation 1960
Madagascar Fidirana – Tompoko ? ? Goods / people ?
Mandrapihaona ? ? ? ?
Mozambique Angoche ? ? ? ?
Beira 600 mm approx. 10 km People / goods 1925/1927/1930
Chinde ? ? ? ?
Inhambane ? ? ? ?
Quelimane
Companhia da Zambézia 		? ? ? ?
Tete ? ? ? ?
Vila de João Belo ? ? ? ?
Zambia Livingstone ? approx. 7 km ? ?
Senegal Rufisque ? ? goods 1885
Zimbabwe Victoria Falls 600 mm approx. 4 km Goods / people 1920-1957
Tanzania Muansa ? ? goods ?
tanga 600 mm ? people 1909/1911
Togo Lomé 1000 mm approx. 2 km people 1910

America

country City / route Gauge length promotion Years of operation
Brazil Construction of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway 600 mm ? Excavation around 1907
Companhia Agricola Bom Retiro 600 mm ? Bananas around 1931
Panama 1. Attempt to build a canal 600 mm ? Excavation 1881-1889

Japan

prefecture city route Gauge length promotion Years of operation
Akita Futatsui Nakanishi line 610 mm 0.78 km goods 1922-1936
Chiba Ichikawa Tōkatsu train 610 mm 12.3 km Goods / people 1909-1918
Isumi Isumi train 610 mm 15.5 km Goods / people 1912-1927
Noda Noda Railway 762 mm 3.5 km goods 1900-1926
Fukui Takasaki Hongo Railway ? ? ? ?
Gunma Takasaki Taishaku train 762 mm 3.12 km goods 1921-1932
Hokkaidō Ebetsu Urban tram Ebetsu ? ? ? ?
Ibaraki Kasama Kasama Railway 610 mm 1.4 km people 1915-1930
Sakuragawa Kabaho-Kogyō Railway 609 mm 3.7 km goods 1900-1916
Iwate Kitakami Waga train 762 mm 20.1 km Goods / people 1907-1922
Kanagawa Yokohama Drinking water supply 600 mm Excavation and pipes 1886-1887
Miyagi Matsuyama Matsuyama Railway 610 mm 2.5 km Goods / people 1922-1928
Shizuoka Atami - Odawara Atami Railway 610 mm 25.3 km people 1895-1907
Iwata Nakaizumi Railway 762 mm 5.78 mm Goods / people 1909-1932
Shimada Shimada Railway 610 mm 2.94 km goods 1898-1959
Yaizu Fujieda-Yaizukan Railway 610 mm 4.5 km Goods / people 1891-1900
Tochigi Iwafune Iwafune Railway 635 mm 4.3 km goods 1900-1916
Ōtawara Nasu Railway 762 mm 5.2 km Goods / people 1908-1925
Oyama Otome track 610 mm 1.6 km goods 1899-1917
Sakura Kitsuregawa Railway 610 mm 8.2 km Goods / people 1902-1918
Tochigi Nabeyama Railway 610 mm 15.9 km Goods / people 1900-1933
Utsunomiya Utsunomiya quarry railway 610 mm 29.5 km Goods / people 1897-1928
Tokyo Katsushika Tashaku train 610 mm 1.5 km people 1899-1912
Yamagata Akayu Akayu tram 610 mm 1.9 km people 1919-1926

Other Asian countries

Hand-operated railroad in Taiwan at the time when it to the Japanese Empire was one
country City / route Gauge length promotion Years of operation
Hong Kong Praya East Reclamation 600 mm approx. 1 km sand 1922
Indonesia Trinil expedition 600 mm approx. 100 m Excavation 1907-1908
Korea ( Chosen ) Heijō 610 mm 1.93 km people 1914
Chinampo – Pyongyang
( Nampo - Pyongyang ) 		533 mm 88 km Goods / people 1895
Wakan – Rakutoko
(Wäkan – Naktongkang) 		610 mm 1.12 km people 1914
Hoangkang
( Keifu Line Station ) 		? approx. 22 km goods 1914
Taiwan Ro Liao-Yu Na-Wu Tu
(between Taipei and Keelung ) 		500 mm approx. 6 km Goods / people 1895-1988
Wulai / New Taipei
( Wulai Taiche )		 545 mm 1.6 km Goods / people 1928-1974
Shui Nan Tung
(south of Keelung ) 		? 10 km goods until 1973
Shen Ao Li
(south of Keelung ) 		500 mm ? goods until 1974
Gwaishatei-Fumpo-Dairin-Horisha
(near the Sun-Moon-Lake ) 		? ? Goods / people until 1926
Horisha ? 8 kilometers Goods / people until 1926
Vietnam Halong bay 1000 mm 3 km coal 1899-1930

literature

Austria

  • Andreas Mausolf: The narrow-gauge railway of the Lainz geriatric center. In: Railway courier. Issue 10. EK-Verlag, 2011, pp. 72–73.

Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Togo

  • Martin Pabst: Tram & Trolley in Africa. Röhr, Krefeld 1983, ISBN 3-88490-152-4 (German / English).

Japan, Taiwan

  • Charles S. Small: Rails to the Mines, Taiwan's Forgotten Railways. Railroad Monographs. Greenwich CT 1980 (English).
  • Richard Goldschmidt : New Japan. Travel pictures from Formosa, the Ryukyu Islands, Bonin Islands, Korea and the southern Manchurian lease area. Springer, Berlin 1927.

Chosen

  • Preyer-Elberfeld: The railways in Korea. In: Archives for railways. Springer, Berlin 1914, pp. 402-418, 720-743.
  • Norbert Weber : In the land of the morning calm. Travel memories of Korea. Seidel, Munich 1915.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles S. Small: Rails to the Mines. P. 1, foreword
  2. ^ Preyer-Elberfeld: The railways in Korea. 1914, p. 738
  3. ↑ Norbert Weber : In the land of the morning calm. archive.org: p. 387 : Picture from 1911 showing a hand-operated rail car for four people.
  4. ↑ List regardless of nationality
  5. ^ Charles S. Small: Rails to the Mines. P. 14
  6. ^ Charles S. Small: Rails to the Mines. P. 45
  7. ^ A b Charles S. Small: Rails to the Mines. P. 51
  8. ^ Richard Goldschmidt : New Japan. Starting on page 59, the author reports on the approximately four-hour journey on this route between Gwaishatei and Fumpo. He uses the Japanese names customary at the time. From the Fumpo stop, he goes on a hike to the Sun and Moon Lake
  9. ^ Richard Goldschmidt: New Japan. From page 47 the author reports on a trip on this route (with Japanese names). The route is at the end of the previous line