2013年6月29日 星期六

Fan-Shaped Train Garage, Changhua Station

          Built in 1922, the Fan-Shaped Train Garage is still in service and is the witness of the development of Taiwan
A overlook of Fan-Shaped Train Garage, Changhua.

Functions
        Most of train garages in the world are rectangle. Fan-shaped train garage (or called roundhouse) spreads out like a fan. All tracks of each locomotive room extend to the center of the circle and there is a rotatable wheel with a short track on it. 
        Fan-Shaped Train Garage is built to repair and park steam locomotives within limited space. Because steam locomotives could only go forward, the rotatable wheel is designed to change the direction the steam locomotive. All steam locomotives face out when parked.
The exit of the Fan-Shaped Train Garage
        Since there are fewer and fewer steam locomotives, most fan-shaped train garage has dismantled or became museums. The Fan-Shaped Train Garage of Changhua Station, which is still in service now, was built in 1922 when Taiwan was colonized by Japanese Japanese built 5 fan-shaped train garages, but only the one in Changhua Railway Station is reserved. 

Features
        There are some features that you will never miss:

  • Robot

One of the robots in the garage
      At the corner of the garage, you will find 2 unique robots. Their components are come from a scrapped diesel locomotive. That's the works of the engineers who take use of material available in their factory.

  • Pipes
      If you observe carefully,  there is another pipe at the rear of each locomotive room. The designed was to improve the air circulation in time when there were steam locomotives only. Therefore, there are 24 pipes in total.

  • Repair Platforms
      There are 12 repairment platforms but they are not all the same since the platforms
have been modified for new locomotives. Room No 1 and Room No 2 are 3 floors and its ground floor is half under the ground. Room No 3~No 7 are  2 floors. And there is only one ground floor in Room No 8~12.


  • Steam Locomotives
       There are 3 steam locomotives in service now in Taiwan and they are parked in Room NO 10~No 12. CK10, CK124 and DT668, the series number of the steam locomotives, are repaired after they had been scrapped for decades.
Steam Locomotives in the garage
Open Hours :
    The Fan-Shaped Train Garage opens from 8:00am to 17:00pm, 7 days a week. 

Direction
      The Fan-Shaped Train Garage is next to Changhua Train Station. It takes about 15 minutes from Changhua Railway Station to the Fan-Shaped Train Garage. Please walk north about 5 minutes and you will find tracks by your left-hand  side. Turn left and walk along the track until you find an underpass. The Fan-Shaped Train Garage is located at the other side of the underpass. You can ask for help from the Station staff before visiting. 


View Fan-Shaped Train Station in a larger map

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