Saturday, November 11, 2017

Railroad Museum in Uiwang

When we went to the Railroad Museum in Uiwang a few years ago. My favorite there was this ALCO DL-532, Korail 3102. This locomotive is in the older "tiger stripe" colors, but they have faded over the years. 49 of these were delivered to Korea from the United States government, and 43 of them were eventually converted to GM-EMD 8-645E under the hood to make it easier to get parts after ALCO went bankrupt, and renumbered 3200. This is the only remaining locomotive from the 49. I recall three steam locomotives (11-13 narrow gauge, Pacific 5-23, Mika 3-161) at the museum, too, but there may be more.

V-Train Trip

We finally took the O- and V-Train trip to Cheoram. We saw so many small Korean train stations, most abandoned. The V-Train uses an EMD GT 18B-M painted in white tiger stripes. Along the journey I was surprised to find Korail 901 on display at Punggi Station. This steam locomotive was imported from China in 1994 to use as an excursion locomotive on weekends and special occasions at Children's Grand Park in Seoul. During the IMF crisis, maintenance became too expensive and it was retired in 2000. For several years it was on display at Cheomchon Station near Mungyeong, where I had seen it was supposed to be on English listings of steam in Korea. In 2012, it was moved to Punggi. Fun find!