A Small Intertown Railroad from the 1950s 1

Before the 1960s, Taiwan’s mountain forests, mines, factories, and intertown railways used handcars as the primarily means of transportation. Handcars were also known as velocipedes—four-wheeled, wooden cars propelled by the rider along a small railroad track. They could transport goods and people. At the time, those transporting people had three different classes: first class cars had a canopy and seats; second class had seats but no canopy; and third class had neither of the two.
These two pictures show handcars used in mines. In the early days, the handcar tracks were designed and build around the slope of the land. Uphill was for empty cars, making it easy for the operators. Downhill was for transporting goods, so that gravity would do most of the work and the carmen could use the brakes to control the speed.