The Hambuk Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the
Korean State Railway
The Korean State Railway (), commonly called the State Rail () is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea and has its headquarters at Pyongyang, P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun Song.
History
...
in
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
, running from
Ch'ŏngjin) on the
P'yŏngra Line to
Rajin, likewise on the P'yŏngra line.
[Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), ]
The Hambuk line connects to the
Hongŭi Line at
Hongŭi, which is North Korea's only rail connection to
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, and at
Namyang to the
Namyang Border Line, which leads to
Tumen,
China, via the bridge over the
Tumen River
The Tumen River, also known as the Tuman River or Duman River (), is a long river that serves as part of the boundary between China, North Korea and Russia, rising on the slopes of Mount Paektu and flowing into the Sea of Japan. The river ha ...
.
Although located entirely inside North Hamgyŏng Province, this line is one of the DPRK's main trunk railways. The line's total length is ; in terms of length, it is the second-longest rail line in the country after the P'yŏngra Line, accounting for 7.7% of the national total of railway lines.
[The traffic and geography in North Korea]
Hambuk Line
(in Korean)
Over ten rail lines - secondary mainlines and branchlines - connect to the Hambuk Line, including the
Musan Line, the
Hoeryŏng Colliery Line, the
Kogŏnwŏn Line, the
Hoeam Line, and the Hongŭi Line, along with numerous branchlines. The Hambuk Line connects three cities and four counties -
Ch'ŏngjin City,
Puryŏng County,
Hoeryŏng City,
Onsŏng County,
Kyŏngwŏn County,
Kyŏnghŭng County, and the
Rason Special City.
In terms of regional characteristics, the Hambuk Line passes through two largely distinct areas. It runs inland in mountainous terrain between Panjuk to Hoeryŏng, then along the Tumen River and the northern border of the country all the way to Rajin. The steepest part of the line is between
Puryŏng and
Ch'angp'yŏng, where the ruling gradient is over 20‰. Conversely, the route on the Tumen River's bank along the national border is comparatively flat.
There is double track from
Susŏng, where the line connects to the
Kangdŏk line, to
Komusan, where the
Musan line begins; the dual-gauge section (standard and Russian gauges) from Hongŭi to Rajin is also double-tracked.
There are service facilities for locomotives in
Hoeryŏng and
Sambong and for rolling stock in Namyang.
History
The Hambuk Line was created by the combination of a number of lines that were originally built by several different railway companies.
The Ch'ŏngjin–Hoeryŏng section was originally part of the
Hamgyŏng Line of the
Chosen Government Railway
Chosen or The Chosen may refer to:
The chosen ones
*Chosen people, people who believe they have been chosen by a higher power to do a certain thing including
** Jews as the chosen people
Books
* ''The Chosen'' (Potok novel), a 1967 novel by Chaim ...
(''Sentetsu''), completed in three stages between November 1916 and November 1917.
Japanese Government Railways
The Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was the national railway system directly operated by the Japanese Ministry of Railways ( ja, 鉄道省, Tetsudō-shō, ) until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Ra ...
, 鉄道停車場一覧 昭和12年10月1日現在(The List of the Stations as of 1 October 1937), Kawaguchi Printing Company, Tokyo, 1937, pp 498–501, 504–505 (Japanese)
The section from Hoeryŏng to
Tonggwan (now called Kangalli) line was built by the privately owned
Tomun Railway between 1920 and 1924, and in 1929 was nationalised by Sentetsu, which named it the West Tomun Line.
[朝鮮総督府官報 (The Public Journal of the Governor-General of Korea), Shōwa No. 669, 28 March 1929 (in Japanese)] The East Tomun Line, from Tonggwan to
Unggi (now Sŏnbong), was built by Sentetsu between 1929 and 1933; after completion of the East Tomun Line, it was merged with the West Tomun Line to create the Tomun Line.
[朝鮮総督府官報 (The Public Journal of the Governor-General of Korea), Shōwa No. 1963, 26 July 1933 (in Japanese)]
In October 1933, management of the entire line from Ch'ŏngjin to Unggi was transferred to the
South Manchuria Railway
The South Manchuria Railway ( ja, 南満州鉄道, translit=Minamimanshū Tetsudō; ), officially , Mantetsu ( ja, 満鉄, translit=Mantetsu) or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operatio ...
(''Mantetsu'');
[朝鮮総督府官報 (The Public Journal of the Governor-General of Korea), 1 October 1933 (in Japanese)] at that time, the Ch'ŏngjin–Sambong section was added to the existing (
Wŏnsan–Ch'ŏngjin) Hamgyŏng Line, whilst the Sambong–Unggi section became Mantetsu's
North Chosen Line.
Mantetsu connected this line to the port at
Rajin by opening the
Ungna Line from Unggi to Rajin on 1 November 1935.
In 1940, the Ch'ŏngjin–Sambong line was transferred back to the Chosen Government Railway, and was made part of the Hamgyŏng Line running from Wŏnsan to Sambong. An express train from
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
to
Mudanjiang
Mudanjiang (; Manchu: ''Mudan bira''), alternately romanized as Mutankiang, is a prefecture-level city in the southeast part of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China. It was called ''Botankou'' under Japanese occupation. It serves as ...
via this line was inaugurated at this time. Until the end of the
Pacific War, the Ch'ŏngjin–Sambong section remained part of Sentetsu's Hamgyŏng Line, the Sangsambong–Unggi section and the adjoining branch lines remained part of Mantetsu's North Chosen Line, and the Ungna Line remained part of Mantetsu's network, as well.
Service on the line was suspended after the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
invasion at the end of the Pacific War. The damage sustained by the line during the war - including the destruction of the Tumen River bridges at both Hunyung and Sambong - was slow to be repaired due to strained relations between the Soviets and the Korean People's Committees; those two bridges have not been repaired to the present day. However, after the outbreak of the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, the Soviets built a branchline from
Baranovsky on the Vladivostok branch of the Soviet
Far Eastern Railway
Far Eastern Railway (russian: Дальневосточная железная дорога) is a railway in Russia that crosses Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai, Amur Oblast, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and Yakutia.
Information
The railway adminis ...
to
Khasan. The station at Khasan was opened on 28 September 1951, and in 1952 a wooden railway bridge was built across the
Tumen River
The Tumen River, also known as the Tuman River or Duman River (), is a long river that serves as part of the boundary between China, North Korea and Russia, rising on the slopes of Mount Paektu and flowing into the Sea of Japan. The river ha ...
to
Tumangang in North Korea, connecting to the newly built
Hongŭi Line from Tumangang to
Hongŭi on the North Chosen Line.
Following the end of the Korean War, the Ch'ŏngjin–Sambong section of the Hamgyŏng Line, the Sambong–Unggi (renamed Sŏnbong) section of the North Chosen Line, and the Ungna Line from Sambŏng to Rajin were merged to create the Hambuk Line; this line, having been damaged during the war, was rebuilt with Soviet and Chinese assistance. The
Korean-Russian Friendship Bridge across the Tumen River was commissioned on 9 August 1959, replacing the temporary wooden bridge, which had grown to be insufficient for the traffic crossing the river, and in 1965 the
P'yŏngra Line was completed to Rajin, meeting up with the terminus of the Hambuk Line.
In 2008 work was begun to convert the line from the DPRK–Russia border to the port at Rajin to dual (standard and Russian) gauge, including the entirety of the Hongŭi Line and the Hongŭi-Rajin section of the Hambuk Line.
Construction of a branch from
Nongp'o to a new industrial facility was begun in 2018.
Services
Freight
Much of the on-line freight traffic involves the transport of
magnetite
Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With th ...
and
ironstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...
from the Musan Mining Complex and other mines on the Musan Line and coal from mines on the Hoeryŏng Colliery Line and the Kogŏnwŏn Line, to the
Kim Chaek Iron & Steel Complex at
Kimchaek and the
Ch'ŏngjin Steel Works in
Ch'ŏngjin, and import-export traffic to and from Russia via the Hongŭi Line and to and from China via Namyanggukkyŏng Line ; the primary exports shipped through Namyang to China are magnetite, talc and steel, and the main import is
coke.
Passenger
Three pairs of passenger express trains are known to operate on this line:
* Express trains 7/8, operating between
P'yŏngyang and
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
via
Tumangang, run on this line between
Rajin and
Hongŭi;
* Express trains 9/10, operating between P'yŏngyang and
Musan, run on this line between Chŏngjin and Komusan;
* Semi-express trains 113/114, operating between
West P'yŏngyang and
Onsŏng, run on this line between Ch'ŏngjin and Unsŏng;
There are also long-distance trains between
Kalma on the
Pyongra Line and Rajin via Ch'ŏngjin and Hoeryŏng; between Ch'ŏngjin and Rajin via Hoeryŏng; between
Haeju
Haeju () is a city located in South Hwanghae Province near Haeju Bay in North Korea. It is the administrative centre of South Hwanghae Province. As of 2008, the population of the city is estimated to be 273,300. At the beginning of the 20th century ...
on the
Hwanghae Ch'ŏngnyŏn Line
The Hwanghae Ch'ŏngnyŏn Line is an electrified standard-gauge secondary line of the Korean State Railway in the North and South Hwanghae provinces of North Korea, running from Sariwŏn to Haeju.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama ...
and Onsŏng via Ch'ŏngjin and Hoeryŏng; and between
Tanch'ŏn on the P'yŏngra Line and Tumangang via Ch'ŏngjin and Hoeryŏng.
There are also various commuter trains that serve the main industrial zones along the line, including trains 623/624 operating between Rajin and
Sŏnbong;
between
Kogŏnwŏn on the
Kogŏnwŏn Line and
Hunyung via
Singŏn; between Hoeryŏng and
Ch'ŏn'gŏ-ri; between
Ch'angp'yŏng and
Sŏkpong; between Namyang and Hunyung; and between Hoeryŏng and
Sech'ŏn via
Sinhakp'o.
Route
A yellow background in the "Distance" box indicates that section of the line is not electrified.
References
{{Hambuk Line
Railway lines in North Korea
Standard gauge railways in North Korea