Taipei Railway Depot Staff Dormitories

Date Captured

October 31st, 2016 at 09:03 UTC

Camera

SM-G9208

Lens

Samsung Galaxy S6 Rear Camera

Aperture

ƒ / 1.9

Shutter Speed

1/60 sec

Focal Length

4.3 mm

ISO

160

Exposure Value

7.8 EV

Download

3600 × 2400

A cluster of wooden dormitories built in the Japanese colonial era for the rank-and-file staff of the railway’s rolling stock branch. The units follow the period’s graded junior-official residence types and are arranged in paired rows separated by fire lanes, a layout that conveys the close-knit working community that once lived here. Originally the nearby Huashan Railway Station (華山貨運站) was where workers commuted to, but freight marshalling operations steadily migrated to Nangang in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Subsequent decades brought numerous other changes, from the Taipei Railway Underground Project (臺北鐵路地下化專案) to further relocations of railway facilities to the outer suburbs of Taipei, negating the need for these increasingly dilapidated residences. Nearly all occupants moved out long ago and while the entire complex earned heritage status in 2007 hardly anything has been done to preserve it. Part of the complex was de-listed in 2021 and as of the mid-2020s the entire neighbourhood remains semi-abandoned and largely inaccessible.