The Gaecheon Light Railway (, ''Gaecheon Gyeongbyeon Cheoldo'';

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 价川軽便鉄道, ''Kaisen Keibentetsudō'') was a privately owned

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

company in Japanese-occupied Korea. On 13 May 1916 the Mitsui Mining Railway (; 三井鉱山専用鉄道, ''Mitsui Kōzan Sen'yō Tetsudō'') opened its first railway line, a

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

line from Gaecheon to

Sinanju Sinanju is a region (신안주) in Anju city, South Pyongan Province, North Korea. The name literally means "Comfortable New Village." When Anju County was raised to the status of a city in August 1987, Sinanju Workers' District was divided int ...

, where it connected with the

Chosen Government Railway Chosen or The Chosen may refer to: Books * ''The Chosen'' (Potok novel), a 1967 novel by Chaim Potok * ''The Chosen'', a 1997 novel by L. J. Smith * ''The Chosen'' (Pinto novel), a 1999 novel by Ricardo Pinto * ''The Chosen'' (Karabel book), a b ...

's (''Sentetsu'')

Gyeongseong Seoul, the capital of South Korea, has been called by a number of formal and informal names over time. The word ''seoul'' was originally a common noun that simply meant "capital city", and was used colloquially to refer to the capital throughout ...

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Sinuiju Sinŭiju (; ) is a city in North Korea which faces Dandong, Liaoning, China, across the international border of the Yalu River. It is the capital of North Pyongan Province, North P'yŏngan province. Part of the city is included in the Sinuiju Spe ...

mainline, the

Gyeongui Line The Gyeongui Line is a railway line between Seoul Station and Dorasan Station in Paju. Korail operates the Seoul Metropolitan Subway service between Seoul Station and Dorasan Station. History ''For the original line's history and other in ...

. The Mitsui Railway subsequently extended its line with a section from Gaecheon to Cheondong, which was opened on 1 December 1918. Passenger service was relatively frequent, with four daily return trips in 1920 between Sinanju and Jeondong; a fifth daily train ran between Sinanju and Gaecheon. In 1927 the company was reformed, becoming the Gaecheon Light Railway. Sentetsu leased the new extension on 1 November 1932, in order to incorporate it into the

Suncheon Suncheon (; ) is the largest city in South Jeolla Province, South Korea, with a population of 280,719 as of 2022. It is located in the southeast of the province and is a scenic agricultural and industrial city, known for tourist attractions, suc ...

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Manpo Manpo () is a city of northwestern Chagang Province, North Korea. As of 2008, it had an estimated population of 116,760. It looks across the border to the city of Ji'an, Jilin province, China. History Manp'o was incorporated as a city in Octob ...

Manpo Line The Manp'o Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the North Korean State Railway running from Sunch'ŏn on the P'yŏngra Line to Manp'o on the Pukpu Line. The line continues on from Manp'o to Ji'an, China.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍� ...

then under construction; Sentetsu opened the first section, from Suncheon to Cheondong, on that same day. Sentetsu immediately began converting the Gaecheon–Cheondong section to standard gauge, completing this work on 15 July 1933,朝鮮総督府官報 (The Public Journal of the Governor-General of Korea), Shōwa No. 1947, 7 July 1933 (in Japanese) and incorporating it into the Manpo Line, whose second section from Gaecheon to Gujang was completed three months later, on 15 October 1933. On 1 September 1933, Sentetsu bought the Gaecheon Light Railway out outright, and the remainder of the line was absorbed officially into the Sentetsu system, with the Gaecheon–Cheondong section becoming part of the

Manp'o Line The Manp'o Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the North Korean State Railway running from Sunch'ŏn on the P'yŏngra Line to Manp'o on the Pukpu Line. The line continues on from Manp'o to Ji'an, China.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍� ...

. The Sinanju−Gaecheon section, named the Gaecheon Line, however, remained a narrow-gauge line; it was only after the

partition of Korea The division of Korea began at the end of World War II on 2 September 1945, with the establishment of a Soviet occupation zone and a US occupation zone. These zones developed into separate governments, named the Democratic People's Republic of ...

and the subsequent nationalisation of the railways 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 Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

that it was converted to standard gauge. The

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea (), commonly called the State Rail () and has its headquarters at Pyongyang, P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun-song. History 19 ...

began the regauging work in March 1949, completing it in eight months.North Korea Geographic Information: Transportation Geography - Kaech'ŏn Line (in Korean)
/ref>

Services

In the November 1942 timetable, the last issued prior to the start of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

, Sentetsu - which by then had absorbed the Gaecheon Light Railway - was running six round trip passenger trains, third-class only, between Sinanju and Gaecheon daily; the trip was scheduled to take one hour and twenty-five minutes, and a ticket for the entire distance cost 60 sen.Tōa Travel Co. (東亜旅行社), Ministry of Railways Combined Timetable 1 November 1942 (鐵道省編纂時刻表昭和17年11月1日)

Rolling Stock

Little information is available about the specifics of the locomotives and rolling stock used by the Gaecheon Light Railway. However, steam locomotive No. 1 and a wooden passenger car are preserved at the Pyongyang Railway Museum.鉄道省革命事績館
/ref> Locomotive No. 1 was originally built by the

Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railway locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, Eddystone in the early 20th century. The com ...

of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for the

South Manchuria Railway The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from ...

, which used it on the Anpo Line prior to its conversion to standard gauge; after the regauging of the line was complete, the engine was transferred to the Gaecheon Light Railway.

Route

References

{{reflist Rail transport in North Korea Railway companies of Korea under Japanese rule