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Less known than Ali Shan was the 30'' gauge Lotung Forestry Railway, adjacent to the TRA's I-Lan line at Lotung, and around 36 kms in length to Tuchang. It had a fleet of 0-6-0T built in Japan and Taiwan which worked log trains and some mixed trains, there were also railcars for passenger services. Up in the mountains the logging areas were served by lightly laid lines, worked by internal combustion locos, connected with aerial ropeways. It would have been nice to see though I believe foreigners needed a permit to go into those areas.
I paid three visits to Lotung in 1977 and 1978 – on two occasions the weather was gloomy and trains were running; the other time saw blue skies and sunshine but no trains!
The railway closed in 1979 after a typhoon caused extensive damage. The locos were preserved. At the Tuchang end is the Taiping Mountain Forest Railway set up in more recent years and offering passenger train rides hauled by modern diesel locos.
The Lotung Forestry Railway's 15 in March 1977 adorned with assorted oil cans. On my three visits I saw seven intact steam locos and one dismantled. At various times nos. 1, 5 and 15 were in steam.
15 doing some shunting, The line's locos were similar to those used by Taiwan Sugar Corporation.
15 at Jhulin station, Lotung, ready to depart mid afternoon on its mixed train. According to Michael Reilly (see Footnotes), there were three mixed trains daily.
Portrait of one of the railway's carriages on a bright sunny day, when, to my regret, there were no trains.... This carriage looks ex-works compared with the ones I saw on trains.
Some of the wagons, including bolsters used for carrying logs. In the background are log storage ponds.
In April 1978 5 was at work, towing a diesel to get it started. I don't recall seeing another diesel loco on my visits, this one was presumably part of the fleet used on logging lines beyond Tuchang. In which case it was probably built by Kato in Japan.
5 receives some servicing before departing up the line. One crew member oils round, with two others cleaning soot and cinders from the tubes.
5 with its train awaiting departure while the diesel appears to be on shunting duty. The log processing factory is in the background.
5 is away up the line, there may even be a passenger aboard.
Footnotes:
A history of the Lotung Forestry Railway is here https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Luodong_Forest_Railway
Pictures and a map of the Luodong (Lotung) Forest Railway are at https://www.kurogane-rail.jp/kurogane-doc/rato/erato-idx.html
Information about the Taiping Mountain Forest Railway is here https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Taiping_Mountain_Forest_Railway
There is a six minute long British Pathe newsreel film dating from 1958 - FILM ID 2916:14 - which shows the logging operation including cutting down trees at Taiping shan, aerial ropeways plus diesel and steam haulage on the Lotung Forestry Railway.
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