An office building-turned-museum is preserving Taiwan’s railway culture.
Two decades since closing its doors for the last time, the old headquarters of Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) in Taipei City reopened to the public in July as National Taiwan Museum’s (NTM) Railway Department Park.
Originally home to a firearms factory, the site was repurposed by the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945) government, which built the current structure in 1918 to serve as the Railway Department Office responsible for managing Taiwan’s growing rail network. The space became the home of TRA after World War II until the administration moved its headquarters to Taipei Main Station in 1990.
Both the exterior and interior of the building, including the brick walls and ornate ceiling, are restored to their original designs.
After standing empty for a couple of years, the building was designated a city-level historic relic before receiving national designation in 2007. NTM subsequently proposed repurposing the site into a museum celebrating the birth of the country’s railway system. Renovation began in earnest in 2014 after eight years of meticulous planning and research on the architectural styles and techniques used in its original construction.
The newly opened Railway Department Park maintains the site’s architectural elegance while preserving an important chapter in Taiwan’s transportation history.
—by Jim Hwang
Scale models and old trains introduce a new generation to the development of Taiwan’s railways.
The original power control room is now a restaurant.
A Japanese colonial era map pinpoints the location of the Railway Department Office.
Exhibits show how the railway signaling and ticketing systems developed.
A scale model of a steam locomotive such as those formerly used on Taiwan’s railways