Alishan Forest Railway Garage Park Introduction
Chiayi Train Depot Park, formerly known as "Beimen Repair Shop" during the Japanese colonial period, was originally located at the Beimen railway depot when the Pingdi section opened in October 1910. With the ongoing construction of the railway, it was officially put into operation in the first year of the Taisho era (1912). Its main work involved building and repairing various types of locomotives, passenger cars, and freight cars for the Alishan Railway, boasting over a hundred years of history. Since the opening of the Alishan Railway, the repair shop has been a maintenance base. Although the trains were purchased from the United States, the Beimen Repair Shop employed about one to two hundred people who had strong skills in maintenance, modification, and manufacturing. Damaged parts were handcrafted, and they even produced external boilers and steam engines. The Alishan cypress coaches were one of the shop's classic masterpieces, and many precious retired Alishan trains are currently preserved at the Beimen Repair Shop. On August 23, 1993, a fire at the Beimen Repair Shop destroyed wooden buildings, with some old trains also lost to the flames. Today, some of the repair shop buildings have been updated, while a few more valuable vehicles are stored in the depot for preservation. To allow the public to visit this historically significant site, it was renamed Chiayi Train Depot Park in 2005. The Chiayi Train Depot Park serves as the base for the Alishan Forest Railway trains and is a large train-themed ecological park where train enthusiasts can closely observe various retired steam trains, diesel locomotives, powered passenger cars, freight cars, and the cypress coach used by the Japanese Crown Prince during the Japanese era, offering a glimpse into a century of Alishan Railway history.
