National Taiwan Park – Railway Department Park

The Ministry of Railways of the Governor’s Office in Taiwan used to be the location of Qing Dynasty Machinery Department in Taiwan, and it’s also the first modern train repairmen industry park, and eventually became the management center of all railways in Taiwan. 1989 A.D., the New Taipei Main Station was established and the headquarter of TRA moved away and the space was left vacant. The National Taiwan Museum and the Taiwan Railways Administration, MOTC started to work together, pursuing the goal of turning the Ministry of Railways into a Musuem.

Inside of the park, there’re the lobby, the canteen, the octagon tower, the power control room, the office and the command center. All six buildings are national heritages built during the Japanese colonial. The main building, the lobby was built in 1920 A.D., using lots of Taiwan Cypress from Alishan on the top half , and bricks on the lower half of it. The style of the building is the Queen Anne Revival historic style with red bricks and white stones and marbles. It’s one of the masterpieces from the then technician of the Taiwan Government Development Department, Moriyama Matsunosuke.

The exhibition of the national heritages has four main exhibition hall, six digital tour guides and twenty virtual presentations, showing the history and the specialties of the buildings. With the point of view from the restoration, it takes people back to the scene of repairmen, and people get a chance to see the technicians , the skills and the considerations throughout the process.