Railfanning Xizhi, Riding Line 1

Today was probably the best day of our entire trip! I got the opportunity to watch trains at Xizhi Station, in New Taipei. Even though it was not even close to rush hour time, we still caught a lot of trains, even with a couple extras.

Anyway, this is our EMU 700 that we rode from Songshan Station up to Xizhi.

This is another EMU 700.

EMU 800s are generally found along the Western Coast of the Island, but they venture up to Keelung sometimes, and even go as far down as Kaohsiung! (Amazingly, the journey takes only 7 hours.) These trains are local trains that stop at every single station.

This is an EMU 500 (or 600, no way to tell.)

While waiting for another train, this oddity showed up. I saw it once before, in February, and I mistakenly identified it as the Fuxing Hao. Eh...he...he...

Anyway, I cannot really tell what it is, but it appears to be a train with motorbikes in the coaches, and some old luggage vans. No idea!

Incidentally, another curiosity showed itself. THE EM80 TRACK EVALUATION VEHICLE! It is a work train that cruises all around the island, and on July 4, it happened to be examining the lines around Xizhi. Also, it came on the rarely used Platform 1, adding to the surprise.

Cool shades.

See? EM80...

...TRA TRACK EVALUATION CAR.

This is the front.

And this is the front again.

I was able to record the train leaving the station. Guess it didn't want to overstay its welcome!

This is E409 on a Chu-Kuang Hao service towards Keelung.

Now, that was only a small snippet of what is in the video. The video recorded all the trains that we saw, and there were a lot of them! Almost 20 in an hour!

Trains in order of appearance:
TEMU 2000 Puyuma
EMU 500 Local Train
EMU 700 Local Train
EMU 700 Local Train (There was an error)
E1000 PP Tze-Chiang Hao
E1000 PP Tze-Chiang Hao
EMU 800 Local Train
TEMU 2000 Puyuma
TEMU 2000 Puyuma (Horn blowing)
EMU 700 Local Train
EMU 500 Local Train
E300 Motorbike Train
EM80 Track Evaluation Car (RARE)
DR3000 Tze-Chiang Hao (From Pingtung or Taitung)
EMU 800 for Miaoli
EMU 800 Local Train
E409 Chu-Kuang Hao
E1000 Tze-Chiang Hao
EMU 700 Local Train

Originally our plan was to take the train back to Songshan and play MRT Tetris by having to switch to multiple lines, but we decided that we wanted to ride the Brown Line, aka Wenhu Line, aka Muzha Line, aka Neihu Line, and aka Line 1. So we got off at Nangang, transferred to Line 5, or the Bannan, or the Blue Line. 

This is the builders plate for our MATRA VAL that we rode back to Zhongshan Junior High School.

We got the front view!

As I said in the Hiraizumi post, I started a new series, and this is Passing Trains on the Brown Line!

What the heck is that thing?!

Next post will be departure.