Shake, Rattle & Roll! Alishan Forest Railway Shay SL31 pushing the Cherry Blossom Heritage Train

Описание: On the morning of March 23rd, Alishan Forest Railway's ninety nine year old Shay Locomotive #31 made three special 'photo runs' to celebrate Taiwan's Cherry Blossom Festival up at 2300m on Mt Ali.

For this Festival, we were given special permission to attach one of our miniature, remote controlled video cameras and stereo microphones to the front chassis of Shay #31. This view looks back over the front geared bogie and along the train so here's my 'quick-n-dirty', unedited video showing three cylinder, Shay steam locomotive pushing the Heritage Train and assisted by Alishan's DL50 up the steep 1:18 gradient from Alishan main Station to the former log sorting yard at Zhaoping.

Immediately after leaving Alishan Station platform, notice how steeply the branch line drops away toward the switchbacks and down to Fenqihu and the famous DuliShan spiral.

I'm guiding a series of small group, special interest narrow gauge railway tours to Taiwan and Japan and highlights of my Taiwanese tour is a visit to the spectacular Alishan Forest Railway which climbs from sea level to 2.200m in just 75 kilometers! On special occasions, the scenic 2'6" former logging railway still operates two Shay geared locomotives: #31 based at Alishan and #25 housed in the depot at Chiayi.

Shay #31 will be 100 next year so who's coming along for the Celebrations? Check out our Facebook link of OzSteam.com for more information as well as departure tour dates.