Taiwan Sugar Corporation

Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) had an extensive network of 30'' gauge lines totalling 2294.8 kms according to Charles S Small, taken over from eight private companies. 232 steam locos worked these lines in 1941 when the island was under Japanese rule. As well as sugar cane trains and associated workings, the TSC ran public passenger services which in the 1970s were operated by railcars or diesel locos.

I contacted the TSC when on the island to try and get a permit for mill visits. This was politely refused but I was invited to visit the HQ in Taipei to look at loco diagrams etc which I duly did.

When the TSC was formed – on mainland China – in 1946 it inheirited three steam types on 3'6'' gauge and twelve on the 2'6 lines. Around 30 new steam arrived from Belgium in 1948.

The TSC had 26 factories with 2670 kms of track, including 243 kms used by passenger services.A small amount was 3'6'' (11kms) and mixed gauge (83kms). The 1977/78 cane cutting season ran from October/November to April. That season there were no less than 206 diesels,with 32 steam locos operating at just five mills. This compared with 129 steam and 145 diesels in the previous season, so the rate of steam replacement was very rapid! 66 diesel hydraulics had arrived from Germany in the previous couple of years, costing US$ 60,000 each. As far as I know, these new locos were from Diema.

My understanding was that 30 of the 32 operating steam in 1977 were 1948 Belgian built locos. They were to be phased out over two years.

On 3 December 1977 on a trip from Chia I to Tainan I noted a lineup of nine steam locos outside the TSC workshops at Hsin Ying. I would guess they were all out of use.

Whilst I saw TSC steamers on my travels, unfortunately I never managed to get a picture. In early 1978 two of us travelled on a TSC passenger train from Chia I to the sugar factory at Pei Kang which had six working steam. The train was four coaches and four vans hauled by a Diema 6-wheel diesel. Having got there we asked permission to visit the factory. Whilst waiting for a response an 0-6-0T came out which could have been photographed from the public highway! We were granted entry, but NO photos. We did at least get to see the locos, all 0-6-0T: 317, 326,368 and 374 in steam; 328 and 329 dead; 366 out of use. 366 was Tubize 2346/1948 and 368 Tubize 2346/1948. By the time we left, the loco we saw go out had returned inside the factory gates....

Notwithstanding, the TSC were kind enough to send a crate of items from their steam locos to the UK for me - two loco numberplates and two big headlamps which now adorn an ex-South African sugar cane loco.

Fifty ex-TSC steam locos have been preserved, including those I saw at Pei Kang (except 328) with eight going to Japan. One factory still (2020) transported sugar cane by railway, whilst a small number operate tourist lines. Some diesels are also preserved including a Diema imported in recent years to the UK for the Welshpool & Llanfair Railway.