National Taiwan Museum - Railway Department Park

The National Historic Site of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office Railway Department is located between Zhongxiao West Road, Tacheng Street, Zhengzhou Road, and Yanping North Road, and is under the jurisdiction of the state-owned Taiwan Railways Corporation, Ltd. In 1885, Taiwan Governor Liu Ming-chuan hired British and German consultants to establish the Machinery Bureau at the Tamsui River pier, assembling firearms and ammunition, and minting currency, including a foundry and forging workshop. In 1895, the Japanese military took over the Machinery Bureau, renaming it the Taipei Ordnance Repair Shop. It manufactured and repaired weapons for the army, capable of producing bullets, fuses, small arms cartridges, powder cases, ships, and railway bridges. It was later renamed the Taiwan Artillery Arsenal. In 1900, it was transferred from the Ministry of War to the Railway Department and, in the same year, renamed the Taipei Workshop. In 1908, with the opening of Taiwan's Western Trunk Line, railway traffic volume and demand for vehicle maintenance significantly increased. In 1909, the Taipei Workshop expanded eastward, constructing new vehicle repair and paint shops. From 1915, existing buildings on the southern side of the site were dismantled. In 1918, a new Railway Department office building was constructed, coexisting with the Taipei Workshop, forming a configuration of a southern office building and a northern factory. This arrangement lasted until 1934, when the Taipei Workshop relocated to Songshan (now the National Historic Site, Taipei Railway Workshop). Originally, there were nearly forty buildings within the block. After the construction of the MRT in 2005 and the demolition of non-preserved structures during the historic site restoration in 2013, ten buildings remain. These include eight legally designated cultural assets: the Railway Department, the Canteen, the Octagonal Male Restroom, the Power Room, the Engineering Office, the Wartime Command Center, the remains of the Qing Dynasty Machinery Bureau, and the Taipei Workshop (not within the Railway Department Park area). After the war, the Railway Department was reorganized as the Taiwan Railway Administration. Due to urban planning, Tacheng Street was opened in 1967, severing the connection with the railway department's official residences to the west, thus forming the present-day block. In 1992, the Taipei City Government designated the Railway Department office building as a Grade 3 historic site. In 1993, the TRA Headquarters relocated to a new building at Taipei Main Station. In 2005, the Council for Cultural Affairs commissioned Tunghai University and Chung Yuan Christian University to conduct research on the historic site and plan for its reuse. In 2006, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Taiwan Railway Administration, along with the Council for Cultural Affairs and the National Taiwan Museum, signed an agreement for the Taiwan Museum System Alliance. The restoration and reuse work for the Railway Department historic site officially began, based on the concept of the “Railway Department Museum Park,” with the goal of establishing a multi-functional park featuring modern exhibition themes and integrating the surrounding urban and historical context. In 2007, the Council for Cultural Affairs designated it as a national historic site, incorporating the Octagonal Building, Canteen, Power Room, Engineering Office, and Wartime Command Center into the scope of the historic site. The Taipei Workshop and the remains of the Qing Dynasty Machinery Bureau were designated as municipal historic sites by Taipei City in 2008 and 2010, respectively. Since 2009, the National Taiwan Museum has been entrusted with the management of the land and buildings in this area. The planned exhibition themes for the Railway Museum will primarily be structured around issues related to the historic site and its grounds, railway culture, and modernity. Future plans will also involve integrating the E1E2 block within the original Machinery Bureau factory area to the west. (Source: National Taiwan Museum)