The evocative photographs appear in Fell’s latest book, The Twilight Years of Taiwan’s Sugar Railways, which offers a fascinating glimpse into a vanished past and rural Taiwan in the 1990s. “Taiwan in Time” ran a two-part series in 2024 about the rise and fall of Taiwan’s sugar railways, (“The sugar express,” Sept. 8, 2024 and “The sugar rail reaches its peak and goes downhill,” Sept. 15, 2024). ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ RAILWAYEstablished in 1907 during the Japanese colonial era, the majority of Taiwan’s sugar railways ran on a narrow 762mm-gauge railroad. A Diema locomotive prepares to depart Xinying Sugar Factory with a train of sugar sack vans during the 1994-1995 sugarcane season. At its peak, the sugar railway surpassed the reach of the TRA — boasting a larger fleet and more daily train movements during sugar season, Fell writes.

Source: Taipei Times January 03, 2026 17:12 UTC