Status Operational Owner Korean State Railway Stations 51 | Line length 325.1 km (202.0 mi) Operator Korean State Railway | |
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Type Heavy rail, Regional rail Opened Stages between 1916-1935 Number of tracks Double track (Susŏng - Komusan)
Double track (Hongŭi-Rajin)
Single track Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄2 in) standard gauge
partly with 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ⁄32 in)
(Dual Gauge, Hongŭi-Rajin) Depots Hoeryong Chongnyon Station, Sambong Station Terminis Rajin Station, Chongjin Chongnyon Station Locale North Hamgyong Province, Rason | ||
The Hambuk Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the North Korean State Railway running from Panjuk Station (just north of Ch'ŏngjin) on the P'yŏngra Line to Rajin, likewise on the P'yŏngra line.
Contents
- History
- Freight
- Passenger
- Route
- Sechn Branch
- Tongpo Branch
- Sngpyng Branch
- Chundu Branch
- Sngri Branch
- References
The Hambuk line connects to the Hongŭi Line at Hongŭi, which is North Korea's only rail connection to Russia, and at Namyang to the Namyanggukkyŏng Line, which leads to Tumen, China, via the bridge over the Tumen River.
Although located entirely inside North Hamgyŏng Province, this line is one of the DPRK's main trunk railways. The line's total length is 325.1 km (202.0 mi); in terms of length, it is the second-longest rail line in the country after the P'yŏngra Line, accounting for 7.7% of the national total of railway lines.
Over ten rail lines - secondary mainlines and branchlines - connect to the Hambuk Line, including the Musan Line, the Hoeryŏng Colliery Line, the Kogŏnwŏn Line, the Hoeam Line, and the Hongŭi Line, along with numerous branchlines. The Hambuk Line connects three cities and four counties - Ch'ŏngjin City, Puryŏng County, Hoeryŏng City, Onsŏng County, Kyŏngwŏn County, Kyŏnghŭng County, and the Rason Special City.
In terms of regional characteristics, the Hambuk Line passes through two largely distinct areas. It runs inland in mountainous terrain between Panjuk to Hoeryŏng, then along the Tumen River and the northern border of the country all the way to Rajin. The steepest part of the line is between Puryŏng and Ch'angp'yŏng, where the ruling gradient is over 20‰. Conversely, the route on the Tumen River's bank along the national border is comparatively flat.
There is double track from Susŏng, where the line connects to the Kangdŏk line, to Komusan, where the Musan line begins; the dual-gauge section (standard and Russian gauges) from Hongŭi to Rajin is also double-tracked.
There are service facilities for locomotives in Hoeryŏng and Sambong and for rolling stock in Namyang.
History
The Hambuk Line was created by the combination of a number of lines that were originally built by several different railway companies.
The Ch'ŏngjin-Hoeryŏng section was originally part of the Hamgyŏng Line of the Chosen Government Railway (Sentetsu); this section was completed in three stages: Ch'ŏngjin-Ch'angp'yŏng (55.7 km) was completed on 5 November 1916, the Ch'angp'yŏng-P'ungsan section (13.4 km) on 16 September 1917, and the P'ungsan-Hoeryŏng section (24.7 km) on 25 November 1917.
The Hoeryŏng-Tonggwanjin (now called Kangal-li) line was built by the privately owned Domun Railway, and was opened in three stages: the Hoeryŏng-Sangsambong (now called Sambong) section (40.4 km) was completed on 5 January 1920, the Sangsambong-Chongsŏn section (9.1 km) on 1 December 1922, and the Chongsŏn-Tonggwanjin section (8.2 km) on 1 November 1924. This line was nationalised on 1 April 1929, becoming the West Tomun Line of the Chosen Government Railway.
In order to create the shortest possible route from Japan to eastern Manchuria, Sentetsu began construction of a line from Unggi (now Sŏnbong) to Tonggwanjin; the first section, from Unggi to Sinasan, was completed on 16 November 1929. The line was subsequently extended towards Tonggwanjin in several stages: Sinasan to Hunyung was completed on 1 October 1930, from Hunyung to Unsŏng on 20 October 1931, from Unsŏng to P'ungri on 1 November 1932, from P'ungri to Namyang on 1 December 1932, and the final gap from Namyang to Tonggwanjin was finished on 1 August 1933, completing the Tomun Line from Hoeryŏng to Unggi, and at the same time, Tonggwanjin Station was renamed to Tonggwan Station.
In 1933, the Manchukuo National Railway ("MNR") completed its Jingtu Line line from Xinjing (now Changchun), the capital of Manchukuo, to Tumen opposite Namyang, connecting it to the West Tomun Line and completing the connection from Unggi on the East Sea to Xinjing.
In October 1933, management of the entire line from Ch'ŏngjin to Unggi was transferred to Mantetsu; at that time, the Hoeryŏng-Sangsambong section was added to the existing (Wŏnsan-Ch'ŏngjin) Hamgyŏng Line, the Sambong-Namyang section was renamed the North Chosen Western Line (Puksŏn-sŏbusŏn, 북선서부선), and the Namyang-Unggi section was renamed North Chosen East Line (Puksŏn-tongbusŏn, 북선동부선).
In March 1934, the MNR completed its Chaokai Line from Chaoyangchuan to Kaishantun, where there was a bridge across the Tumen River to connect Mantetsu's new line to Sentetsu's West Tomun Line at Sambong; this completed a direct line from Ch'ŏngjin to Harbin.
In 1935, the port at Rajin was opened as an alternative to Unggi; at the same time, on 1 November 1935 Mantetsu opened the Ungri Line to connect Unggi to Rajin. An express train named "Asahi" from Xinjing, Manchukuo to Rajin was put into service in 1936 to connect to the ferry to Japan.
In 1940, the Ch'ŏngjin-Sangsambong line was transferred back to the Chosen Government Railway, and was made part of the Hamgyŏng Line running from Wŏnsan to Sangsambong. An express train from Seoul to Mudanjiang via this line was inaugurated at this time.
The East Manchuria Railway completed its line to Hunyung from Panshi in Manchukuo in October 1940; at Panshi, the East Manchuria Railway connected to the MNR's Fenghai Line (沈吉铁路 (zh)) from Fenghai to Jilin. The East Manchuria Railway thus established an important connection between northeastern Korea and one of Manchuria's major trunk lines.
Service on the line was suspended after the Soviet invasion at the end of the Second World War. The damage sustained by the line during the war - including the destruction of the Tumen River bridges at both Hunyung and Sambong - was slow to be repaired due to strained relations between the Soviets and the Korean People's Committees; those two bridges have not been repaired to the present day. However, after the outbreak of the Korean War, the Soviets built a branchline from Baranovsky on the Vladivostok branch of the Soviet Far Eastern Railway to Khasan. The station at Khasan was opened on 28 September 1951, and in 1952 a wooden railway bridge was built across the Tumen River to Tumangang in North Korea, connecting to the newly built Hongŭi Line from Tumangang to Hongŭi on the Hambuk Line.
Following the end of the Korean War, the Hambuk Line - as the Ch'ŏngjin-Namyang-Rajin line had been renamed - was rebuilt with Soviet and Chinese assistance. The Korean-Russian Friendship Bridge across the Tumen River was commissioned on 9 August 1959, replacing the temporary wooden bridge, which had grown to be insufficient for the traffic crossing the river, and in 1965 the P'yŏngra Line was completed to Rajin, meeting up with the terminus of the Hambuk Line.
In 2008 work was begun to convert the line from the DPRK-Russia border to the port at Rajin to dual (standard and Russian) gauge, including the entirety of the Hongŭi Line and the Hongŭi-Rajin section of the Hambuk Line.
Freight
Much of the on-line freight traffic involves the transport of magnetite and ironstone from the Musan Mining Complex and other mines on the Musan Line and coal from mines on the Hoeryŏng Colliery Line and the Kogŏnwŏn Line, to the Kim Chaek Iron & Steel Complex at Kimchaek and the Ch'ŏngjin Steel Works in Ch'ŏngjin, and import-export traffic to and from Russia via the Hongŭi Line and to and from China via Namyanggukkyŏng Line ; the primary exports shipped through Namyang to China are magnetite, talc and steel, and the main import is coke.
Passenger
Three pairs of passenger express trains are known to operate on this line:
There are also long-distance trains between Kalma on the Pyongra Line and Rajin via Ch'ŏngjin and Hoeryŏng; between Ch'ŏngjin and Rajin via Hoeryŏng; between Haeju on the Hwanghae Ch'ŏngnyŏn Line and Onsŏng via Ch'ŏngjin and Hoeryŏng; and between Tanch'ŏn on the P'yŏngra Line and Tumangang via Ch'ŏngjin and Hoeryŏng.
There are also various commuter trains that serve the main industrial zones along the line, including trains 623/624 operating between Rajin and Sŏnbong; between Kogŏnwŏn on the Kogŏnwŏn Line and Hunyung via Singŏn; between Hoeryŏng and Ch'ŏn'gŏ-ri; between Ch'angp'yŏng and Sŏkpong; between Namyang and Hunyung; and between Hoeryŏng and Sech'ŏn via Sinhakp'o.
Route
A yellow background in the "Distance" box indicates that section of the line is not electrified.
Sech'ŏn Branch
Electrified.
Tongp'o Branch
Not electrified.
Sŏngp'yŏng Branch
Not electrified.
Ch'undu Branch
Not electrified.
Sŭngri Branch
Not electrified.