Talking about the Present and Past of Yuanlin Railway with Chief He
Text/Teacher Hsiang-ting 2014.12.19 After ending the visit to Director Chang of Yuanlin Station yesterday, today, we invited Chief He who is responsible for the viaduct engineering of Yuanlin Railway for community, and the participants included President Lu of National Yuanlin Senior High School, President Huang of Jingsiou Elementary School and the highest-quality village history expert Teacher Mei-tu. |
Reflection |
Jingsiou Elementary School became independent in 1953, in the past, passengers getting on and off the train on Yuanlin Train Station platform could be seen directly from the classroom, and it is the common memory of each old Jinxiu people that the steam train whistled and Jinxiu level crossing bonged. Pitifully, since the opening of Yuanlin Post Office in 1905 till now, the story of Yuanlin Railway for 110 years has become history quietly with the development of viaduct and the demolition of old station and railway. Today, there is a headmaster dormitory of red bricks and grey tiles and old toilet for 40 years left unused in the southeast corner of Jinxiu Campus. It is one of the objectives of Jingsiou Vanguard Team to transform this area into Yuanlin Railway Jingxiu Education Station or a story museum.
On November 2, 2014, after the opening of Yuanlin Elevated Railway, the appearance of street in Yuanlin also changed, the old station and railway were demolished rapidly, but there was no planning on the preservation and maintenance of cultural relics of Yuanlin Railway, making people anxious and doubtful. We all know today will become the history of tomorrow, only by properly preserving the cultural assets can the history of Yuanlin be detected by memory. It is believed that the campaign of “love to Yuanlin Railway” of Jingsiou Vanguard Team is of historical significance.
Current status of Yuanlin Elevated Railway
Chief He expressed that the bulk assets like rail and sleeper demolished from the old railway are managed by Taiwan Railways Administration, they are all transported to Shetou Station yard and then transferred to Jiayi. However, he also suggested that based on the actual education demand, it is possible to seek for support from relevant units. The Central Region Engineering Office established recent year is responsible for the elevated railway engineering in the central area, and at present, there are six sections, the director of the first section is responsible for Yuanlin Train Station railway modification plan, the second section to the fifth section are Taichung Train Station, the sixth section is Tainan Train Station. There is 1 station modified in Yuanlin Section, with a total length of 4km, while there are 10 stations in Taichung Section, with a total length of 40km.
It is curious that “why does Yuanlin Train Station in the central Taiwan achieve elevated construction first?” Chief He said that it is urgent to modify Yuanlin Railway, the difficulty in the modification is that the railways is adjacent to Tao Yuan Ming Community and Yuanlin Silo (Taiwan Railway Barn) in the west. With a height of 35m and having 18 large cylinders, Yuanlin Silo is a well-known landmark in Yuanlin, and it was once activated as an artistic display and music art place. In order to preserve the railway silo, Central Region Engineering Office requires the railway to turn here! But this also influences the access of people in the residence community, so a shortcut has to be rented. However, the senior residences are adjacent to the railway modification project, with disturbances of noise, vibration and house price, and the residents make some protests. However, as the project has been suspended for 4 years, the square of the railway silo has become a recreation site of wild dogs.
Winning two great awards
The elevated Yuanlin Train Station brings a new artistic atmosphere, themed by the preserves in Yuanlin, a public artistic space of love to station is decorated, and the overall project is implemented by Central Region Engineering Office. However, after traffic opening, the project is operated by Taiwan Railways Administration, and the planning of excessive space under the viaduct has been in the process of bidding. The Yuanlin Elevated Railway project implemented by Chief He was completed smoothly and in advance, and was affirmed by Public Construction Gold Award and Golden Safety Award. In order to give a more convenient traffic route to the people in Yuanlin Town, Central Region Engineering Office undertook the work of level crossing demolition and underpass backfilling in Yuanlin to save huge amount for Yuanlin Township Office.
Giving a home to old cultural relics of Yuanlin Railway
Railway does not play an important role of economic transportation and national defense in Taiwan, but is also closely associated with the common people’s life, but the ignorance of Yuanlin Railway cultural relics is almost beyond my imagination. In front of Chief He, an expert of “railway demolition and modification”, our purpose is to educate the children in the railway residence community to understand the history of the hometown. Will the idea of “giving a home to old cultural relics of Yuanlin Railway” will conflict with the professional engineering of Chief He? He smiled that they are experts of “rail playing”, the education of teachers is very important, they teach life and the love to land, and this is similar to the spiritual indicator of the railway modification engineering personnel!
After ending this happy communication, on the internet, I saw Teacher Mei-tu in the get-together on the internet in my Facebook in the evening, we became good friends in the Facebook and timely discussed the past, present and future of Yuanlin Railway.