Railway characteristics of Alishan Railway

Mountaineering Railway: The Sheng Xing section of the Taiwan Railway Administration's Taiwan Central Line (now jiusan Line) was once the highest point of the railway trunk line in Taiwan Province Province (about 400 meters above sea level), but it was far less than the height of Alishan Lintie Railway, which was more than 2000 meters above sea level. There are three forest forms along the railway, ranging from tropical forests below 800 meters, subtropical forests between 800- 1600 meters, and temperate forests above 1600 meters. The maximum slope of the railway is 6.62% and the minimum curve radius is 40m.

Circling around Independence Mountain: Because Independence Mountain can't go straight, the train turns right, and finally turns left in figure 8 at the top of the mountain and leaves Independence Mountain. * * * Turn around Independence Mountain three times for about 5km, cross the 10 tunnel and gradually climb 200m. In the process of climbing the mountain, you will see Zhangliao Station of different sizes many times.

Alishan hits the wall: Starting from the first lane, it zigzags forward and then backward, changing the driving direction back and forth and running up the mountain for three times.

Downhill direction of locomotive head: Due to the steep slope of Alishan Forest Railway, in order to avoid overloading and breaking of couplers when going uphill and weakening of braking force when going downhill, unlike ordinary railways, locomotives are connected in the downhill direction and run uphill by pushing. There is a window in front of the bus for the driver to watch the road conditions and contact the driver by radio. The newly introduced even-controlled locomotive allows the driver to directly control the locomotive on the downhill side on the uphill side without looking out. In the past, the locomotive was pulled from the front in the plane section, and the locomotive was transferred to the back in the uphill section (Zhuqi Station), but now it has been cancelled.

Shenmu Group in Alishan: There is a huge red cypress group next to the forest iron in Alishan, which is called the Shenmu Group in Alishan. It is lucky to avoid being cut down. Among them, there is a thousand-year-old cypress tree next to Shenmu Station. It was originally developed into a landscape area, known as Alishan Shenmu. This Shenmu caught fire on the evening of June 7th, 1956, and burned the inside of the trunk. Later, a box was erected at the top of the tree to plant seedlings of Castanopsis kawakamii to keep it full of green appearance. In July 1997, one third of the trunk collapsed due to wind and rain. On June 29th 1998, the remaining trunk was tilted, which affected the safety, so it was put down by the Chiayi Forest Management Office next to the railway for people to see.

Zhushan Line with Shortest Operating Time: Alishan Lintie Railway Zhushan Line is the shortest operating time railway in Taiwan Province Province. On non-holidays, only tourists who watch the sunrise are taken down the mountain before and after sunrise, and the rest of the time is closed. However, there are still special overtime buses to transport passengers to climb mountains on holidays.