Old Taipei Railway Workshop

Old Taipei Railway Workshop was a railway vehicle assembly and maintenance factory affiliated with the Taiwan Governor-General Office Bureau of Transportation Railway Department in Japanese colonial period. After moving to Taipei Railway Workshop in Songshan in 1934, the original premises were gradually modified to offices of other units of the Ministry of Railways, or gradually modified to the employee dormitories of the Ministry of Railways. The original buildings have been nearly completely demolished and no longer exist. The Old Taipei Railway Workshop today is the "Vehicle Maintenance Workshop" built during the eastward expansion of the Taipei Workshop in 1909. After World War II, it was mainly used as the auditorium of the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) and was designated as a historic site at the Taipei Municipality Level in 2005.

The "Dadaocheng Taipei Station" warehouse in Dadaocheng was used for a short time and later part of the "Taipei Weaponry Repair Center" building was also borrowed for railway vehicle assembly and maintenance in the early days of the Japanese colonial rule. In 1899, the "Taipei Weaponry Repair Center" was renamed the "Taipei Artillery Factory", and in 1900 the following year, the "Taipei Artillery Factory" was handed over to the Ministry of Railways, Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan for use as a railway workshop.

In terms of the establishment of a railway workshop, Taipei was organized as the "Taipei Workshop", followed by the establishment of the "Takow Workshop" in 1901, and the establishment of Hualien Port Workshop in 1918. In December 1924, the Transportation Bureau was established above the Ministry of Railways to support the administrative restructuring of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan while the Taipei, Takow, and Hualien Port Workshops were directly under the management of the Transportation Bureau. In 1926, they were changed to Taipei Railway Workshop, Kaohsiung Railway Workshop, and Hualien Port Railway Workshop. In 1927, the Hualien Port Railway Workshop was merged into the Hualien Branch Office, which was called the Repair Workshop. By the end of the Japanese colonial rule, the railway workshops in Taipei and Kaohsiung were directly affiliated with the Transportation Bureau.

Before the creation of the "Taipei Railway Workshop", the workshop to the north of the "Taipei Artillery Factory", received from the Taipei Machinery Bureau in the Qing Dynasty, was used for railway vehicle assembly and maintenance work. In 1900, the Ministry of Railways took over the "Taipei Artillery Factory" and established the "Taipei Railway Workshop" by using the factory buildings on the north side. There were mainly 7 buildings in the premises. Later, about 5 large and small factory buildings were successively built on the vacant plots of the premises. By 1908, there were mainly 13 buildings on the premises.

In 1908, the Trunk Line, was opened to traffic, and the vehicle maintenance business increased. It was planned to expand the workshop building on the east side of the existing premises. The expansion project was completed in 1909, and the new "Vehicle Maintenance Workshop", "Coating Workshop", and Vehicle Relocation Platform were built. Among them, the "Vehicle Repair Workshop" is today's designated historic site "Taipei Workshop" at the Taipei Municipality Level. With the development of the railway industry over the years, more buildings were built on the premises to meet the requirements of business expansion. However, no plots were available in the surrounding area for further expansion. So it was relocated to the Taipei New Railway Workshop in Songshan in 1934 due to the restrictions of the existing premises.

After moving to the existing workshop building, the premises were expanded eastward in 1909. The south side of the premises was used as the Railway Department Office starting from 1918, and the workshop buildings in this area were used as the office of the related units of the Ministry of Railways. On the west side of the premises, the surrounding area was successively removed and modified as employee dormitories of the Ministry of Railways to assist with the existing dormitory complex of the Ministry of Railways. After World War II, the office building and dormitory area of the Ministry of Railways were taken over by the TRA, and basically the existing functions were retained.

Historic site architectural features and construction history

The "Old Taipei Railway Workshop", the so-called designated historical site of the Taipei Municipality Level, was a "vehicle maintenance workshop" within the Taipei Workshop during the Japanese colonial period. The construction started on May 22, 1909 and was completed on October 31, 1909. An English-style brickwork structure was used for the building, with a width of about 25.77 meters and a depth of about 35 meters. There are large semicircular gable facades on the south and north sides, arched corridors on the east and west sides, and the main working space of the workshop building is as wide as 17.42 meters in the center. The roof is equipped with high ventilation windows, which was a common lighting and ventilation design for factory buildings at that time. The iron truss roof is also an important feature. Rail structures were used. The structural form is similar to the structure of the Dadaocheng Taipei Station from the Qing Dynasty. It is speculated that large-scale factory roof trusses in the late Qing Dynasty were used.

After the workshop was moved to Songshan in 1934, the "Vehicle Maintenance Workshop" was modified to the Office of the Supervision Division and the Transportation Division of the Ministry of Railways. After World War II, it was mainly used as the auditorium of the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA). It was officially used in June 1949. During this period, a podium and related space repair projects were added due to the change of use functions. An entrance foyer was added on the south side between circa 1950 and 1952, with a height of about 2 stories.

Before the restoration of the historic site in 2020, the ventilation windows on the roof had been removed, and the semicircular gable wall on the south side has also been demolished and another building is built. There are 6 groups of arch circles on the east and west sides. Combined with the deployment function of the car moving platform, it can be used as a factory for 6 vehicles to enter and exit. In the early 1980s, two groups of arches on the north side were demolished during the construction of Civic Boulevard, and it attained its current appearance.

Historic site designation and relocation project

In 2005, the "Old Taipei Railway Workshop" was designated and added to the Historic Sites of the Taipei Municipality Level, and listed in the historic sites of the "Railway Department, Transportation Bureau, Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan". In 2007, the Cultural Development Committee of the Executive Yuan announced it as a national monument, and later in 2010, the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Taipei City Government revised the name of the historical site of the Taipei Railway Workshop to the "Railways Department, Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan (Taipei Railway Workshop)".

Taipei Railway Workshop was moved 30 meters to the southeast in 2007 to assist with the construction of the Airport MRT and Taipei Metro Songshan Line Beimen Station. And it was moved back to the current location in 2012, and a protective steel shed was installed for protection. Anyway, there are some differences between the current and original sites. In 2020, the Department of Rapid Transit Systems, Taipei City Government sponsored and launched the historic site restoration project, which was designed and supervised by Hsu Yu-Chien & Associates, Architects, and Songken Construction Engineering Co., Ltd., was awarded the project.