Author: Ivo Spanjersberg

The original Suwon to Inchon line (수인선 협궤열차) ran all the way from Inchon harbour to Suwon (수원) station, but by the end of the existence of the line this was no longer the case. But like other parts of the line which were still there long after the railway had been closed the part […]

After a visit to the Korean topographical services in Suwon I ended up with a lot of maps (both 1:25.000 and 1:50.000) of the whole length of the Suwon to Inchon narrow gauge railway. The office had created 3 map sets for me: 1975, 1987 and 1996, or effectively the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Besides […]

The line from Suwon to Omokcheon is mainly through build-up area, but after Omokcheon the country really opens up. The dominating feature here is the KTX viaduct built to allow the high speed railway run without interruption from Seoul to Busan. This area is now relatively busy, there are now quite a few people living […]

A walk on the former narrow gauge line (“수인선”) from Suwon (수원) to Ansan (안산) (in parts). This line was last used on the last day of 1995, but most of the track can still be seen in the country side. However, part of the line is now used to build the new subway line from Suwon […]

A major part of the narrow gauge line from Suwon to Inchon ran through Ansan and surrounding area. This area was until 25 years ago country side: none of the buildings in these pictures existed at the time! Even by the end of the existence of the line, in 1995, most of this area was […]

Near the present day  Soraepogu Station (소래포구) on the current Suin (commuter) line from Oido to Songdo a long bridge of the former narrow gauge Suin line can still be found. This bridge is simply named “Sorae Railway Bridge” (소래철교)  and as such can be found on the online Naver, Daum and Google maps. The […]

The shortest individual stretch on the SuIn line which can still be found is the short part of the line within Suwon city between the main railway line and the Deogyeongdaero (덕영대로). This part of the line was the connection between the line running through Suwon to the station and the country side. The bridge over […]

While reading an excellent book about the situation in Korea between 1945 and 1950 (“The War for Korea, 1945-1950: A House Burning” by Allan Millett”) I noticed on one of the maps that there were at that time in Korea several narrow gauge railway lines. On the Ongjin peninsula, to the west of Haeju, there […]