Gaecheon Light Railway

Gaecheon Light Railway
Overview
Native name	개천 경변철도 (Gaecheon Gyeongbyeon Cheoldo) 价川軽便鉄道 (Kaisen Keibentetsudō)
Route map to Sentetsu Gaecheon Line 1 September 1933 to Sentetsu Manpo Line 1 November 1932 Sentetsu Manpo Line Sentetsu Gyeongui Line Sentetsu Gyeongui Line 0.0 Sinanju Sentetsu Gyeongui Line 6.4 Anju 11.1 Puksongri 16.3 Yeonpung 21.3 Unheungri 29.5 GaecheonSentetsu Gaecheon−Gujang (Manpo Line 2nd section open 15 Oct 1933) 35.8 Cheondong Sentetsu Suncheon−Gaechon (Manpo Line 1st section)

The Gaecheon Light Railway (Korean: 개천 경변철도, Gaecheon Gyeongbyeon Cheoldo; Japanese: 价川軽便鉄道, Kaisen Keibentetsudō) was a privately owned railway company in Japanese-occupied Korea.

On 13 May 1916 the Mitsui Mining Railway (미츠이 광산 전용 철도, Mich'ŭi Kwangsan Chŏn'yong Ch'ŏldo; 三井鉱山専用鉄道, Mitsui Kōzan Sen'yō Tetsudō) opened its first railway line, a 29.5 km (18.3 mi) 762 mm (2 ft 6.0 in) narrow-gauge line from Gaecheon to Sinanju, where it connected with the Chosen Government Railway's (Sentetsu) Gyeongseong−Sinuiju mainline, the Gyeongui Line. The Mitsui Railway subsequently extended its line with a 6.3 km (3.9 mi) section from Gaecheon to Jeondong, 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.^[1] In 1927 the company was reformed, becoming the Gaecheon Light Railway.

Sentetsu leased the new extension on 1 November 1932,^[2] in order to incorporate it into the Suncheon−Manpo Manpo Line then under construction; Sentetsu opened the first section, from Suncheon to Jeondong, on that same day. Sentetsu immediately began converting the Gaecheon–Jeondong section to standard gauge, completing this work on 15 July 1933,^[3] 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 Sinanju−Gaecheon section, named the Gaecheon Line, however, remained a narrow-gauge line; it was only after the partition of Korea and the subsequent nationalisation of the railways in North Korea that it was converted to standard gauge.^[4] The Korean State Railway began the regauging work in March 1949, completing it in eight months.^[5]

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.^[6] Locomotive No. 1 was originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of the United States for the South Manchuria Railway, 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.^[6]

References