Taiwan National Railway Museum to open after nine years of restoration work

Taipei, July 30 (CNA) Following nearly nine years of restoration work at the former Taipei Railway Workshop, the site will partially open on Thursday as the National Railway Museum (NRM), reviving a historic location where trains still run and memories ride with them.

Built in 1935, the site was once the island's main hub for train maintenance and assembly.

The location was designated a national historic site in 2015, with a project to transform it into a museum through three stages launched the following year.

The first stage of the preservation and restoration efforts, which covers one-third of the 17-hectare site, is completed and will be open to the public starting Thursday.

A total of five exhibitions will be held across the Diesel-Electric Locomotive Workshop -- which served as the main site for disassembling and reassembling trains and currently stores 24 retired locomotives on display -- as well as a bathhouse and the main office building.

According to the Ministry of Culture, a major highlight at the museum is the weekend short ride on a restored blue diesel train, which offers not only a sense of nostalgia but also a rare opportunity to experience Taiwan's railway heritage firsthand.

Cheng Ming-chang (鄭銘彰), head of the National Railway Museum preparatory office, told CNA that one of the main challenges behind the nine-year effort was integrating exhibits tailored to different audiences into a protected historic site.

"It wasn't just restoration," he said. "We had to plan exhibits, preserve history and race against time to save old trains," he said of the retired locomotives and train carriages acquired from the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA).

Cheng noted that the restoration of the remaining areas is ongoing.

At an opening ceremony at the museum on Wednesday, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) reflected on his family's connection to the railways, noting that both his grandfather and father once worked for the TRA.

Meanwhile, Culture Minister Li Yuan (李遠) recalled growing up next to a railway track, calling the smell of engine oil "the scent of memory."

Li described railways as a cultural thread that connect generations.