Danpung Railway
| Danpung Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Native name |
단풍철도주식회사 (Danpung Cheoldo Jusikhoesa) 端豊鉄道株式会社 (Tanfū Tetsudō Kabushiki Kaisha) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Danpung Railway (Japanese: 端豊鉄道株式会社, Tanfū Tetsudō Kabushiki Kaisha; Korean: 단풍철도주식회사, Danpung Cheoldo Jusikhoesa), was a privately owned railway company in Japanese-occupied Korea.
History
The name of the railway was formed from the first characters of the names of the starting point, Dancheon on the Hamgyeong Line of the Chosen Government Railway, and Pungsan, the county seat of Pungsan County. The initial section of the mainline, 80.3 km (49.9 mi) from Dancheon to Honggun, was opened on 26 August 1939.[1] A 10.3 km (6.4 mi) branchline from Goseong (now called Heocheon) to Mandeok was also opened, but the planned continuation from Honggun to Pungsan was not completed before the fall of Japan at the end of the Pacific War.
Following the partition of Korea, the entirety of the Danpung Railway's network was located in the Soviet zone of occupation. The Provisional People’s Committee for North Korea nationalised all railways in the northern half of the country on 10 August 1946, and following the establishment of North Korea, the Korean State Railway was created, which renamed the line Hŏch'ŏn Line.[2] Damage sustained by the line during the Korean War was repaired, but the extension to Pungsan (renamed Kimhyonggwonin 1990) was never built.
Rolling Stock
One Class 4110 steam locomotive was sent from the Japanese Government Railway to the Danpung Railway after conversion to standard gauge.[3]