The Tanpō Railway (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 端豊鉄道株式会社, ''Tanpō Tetsudō Kabushiki Kaisha''; , ''Danpung Cheoldo Jusikhoesa''), was a privately owned

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

company in Japanese-occupied

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

History

The name of the railway was formed from the first characters of the names of the starting point,

Tansen Tansen ( – 26 April 1589), also referred to and commonly known as Sangeet Samrat () , was a Hindustani classical musician. Born in a Hindu Gaur Brahmin family, he learnt and perfected his art in the northwest region of modern Madhya Pr ...

on the Kankyō Line of the Chōsen Government Railway, and Hōzan, the county seat of Hōzan County. The initial section of the mainline, from Tansen to Kōkun, was opened on 26 August 1939.朝鮮總督府官報 (The Public Journal of the Governor-General of Korea), Shōwa No. 3788, 4 September 1939 (in Japanese) A branchline from Kojō (now called Heocheon) to Mantoku was also opened, but the planned continuation from Kōkun to Hōzan was not completed before the fall of Japan at the end of the Pacific War. Following the partition of Korea, the entirety of the Danpung Railway's network was located in the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

zone of occupation. The

Provisional People’s Committee for North Korea The People's Committee of North Korea (Chosŏn'gŭl: 북조선인민위원회) was a provisional government governing the Northern portion of the Korean Peninsula from 1947 until 1948. Established on 21 February 1947 as the successor of the ...

nationalised all railways in the northern half of the country on 10 August 1946, and following the establishment of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

, the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway (), commonly called the State Rail () is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea and has its headquarters at Pyongyang, P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun Song. History ...

was created, which renamed the line Hŏch'ŏn Line.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), p. 131, Damage sustained by the line during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

was repaired, but the extension to Pungsan (renamed Kimhyonggwonin 1990) was never built.

Services

In the November 1942 timetable, the last issued prior to the start of the Pacific War, the Tanpō Railway was running three trains each day from Tansen to Kōkun, and four each day on the return trip.Tōa Travel Co. (東亜旅行社), Ministry of Railways Combined Timetable 1 November 1942 (鐵道省編纂時刻表昭和１７年１１月１日)

Rolling Stock

One Class 4110 steam locomotive was sent from the

Japanese Government Railway The Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was the national railway system directly operated by the Japanese Ministry of Railways ( ja, 鉄道省, Tetsudō-shō, ) until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Rai ...

to the Danpung Railway after conversion to standard gauge.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), p. 66

Network

References

{{reflist Rail transport in North Korea Railway companies of Korea under Japanese rule Defunct railway companies of Japan Defunct railway companies of Korea 1946 disestablishments in Korea