The Railway Roundhouse
The Railway Hotel—Railway Round house
Walking out of the train station, turning left towards Sanmin Road, and turning another left after reaching Sanmin Road, or alternatively by moped or car turning left at the first traffic light after exiting the Minshen underpass, one can arrive at the entrance to the roundhouse (see map 
). Or, also, going through the Minshen underpass by foot via the pedestrian walkway and turning left after exiting, one can arrive at the entrance to The roundhouse.
The roundhouse was built in 1922, is a an important asset of Taiwan’s railway cultural heritage. Because of the shape of its appearance, in Chinese the roundhouse is called a “fan garage.” Whenever train engines are in need of maintenance or storage, they pass through the turntable and enter the roundhouse, hence also its nickname “The Railway Hotel.” The roundhouse in Changhua is one of ten extant roundhouses in the world, and in addition to the usual locomotive engines, steam engines are also stored there, making it all the more valuable as a cultural artifact.
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| CK101 engin | An engine on the turntable |
In the early days roundhouses also existed in Taipei, Hsinchu, and Kaohsiung, but with gradual discarding of old locomotive engines due to railway electrification, most of the roundhouses were no longer needed and most were torn down.
The entire roundhouse consists of twelve tracks, each accommodating one engine, and at the center is a fully rotatable turntable. When engines need to enter the roundhouse, they first board the turntable to switch tracks, and then enter their garage spaces. The garage is built with chimneys on top so as to discharge smoke during steam engine maintenance sessions.
In the roundhouse we could still see the old CK101 steam engine, manufactured in 1917 and now almost a century old.
