Taiwan Railway DR2700 series

Taiwan Railway DR2700 series
Although this preserved unit was being operated much later, it is quite a faithful recreation of what the "White Steel Train" would have looked like in years past, during the 1970s.
In service	1966–2014
Manufacturer	Tokyu Car Corporation
Refurbishment	1983–1990
Number built	31 vehicles
Number preserved	4 vehicles (as of April 2017)
Number scrapped	27 vehicles
Operator(s)	Taiwan Railways Administration
Specifications
Prime mover(s)	Cummins NHHRTO-6-B1 (original) Cummins NT855-R4 (modification)
Transmission	Niigata Tekkō DBSFG-100
Train heating	Forced-air ventilation
Bogies	TS-122
Braking system(s)	SMEE electromagnetic air and hand brake
Safety system(s)	ATS-SN, ATS-P, ATP
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)

The DR2700 series, also locally affectionately known as the "White Steel Train", is a series of diesel multiple unit trains used by the Taiwan Railways Administration. They were originally built by Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan in 1966, in response to an order by the Taiwan Railways Administration, because of the need to renew the rolling stock on the by then 10-year-old Flying Formosan Express service.

The DR2700 started public service on October 31, 1966, under the name of The Glory of China Express, and with its light body and a blazing 69 mph design speed, it still holds the pre-electrification record for the fastest time for traversing Taiwan's Western Line in its entirety, in a time of just four hours and 40 minutes, beating the previous Flying Formosan record by 20 minutes. It was way more comfortable and much quicker than the steam services, which were the best available a mere decade ago in 1956. The total number of power cars built was 25, along with 6 trailers, and they usually worked in a formation of 2 power cars, or two power cars with one trailer in the middle, since the power cars were the only ones equipped with driving cabs, and given the modest output of the engine, it was not possible for just the one power car to haul another trailer alone. The DR2700 series bodywork was based on the Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC), since Tokyu Car Corporation at that time had a license from the Budd Company to incorporate its stainless steel train body and bogie technology from the latter, which it also did for the TRA DR2800 series built in the early-1980s.

The innovations introduced on this service included complementary refreshments and boxed lunches on the train, included free with the rail ticket. The service proved very popular with the rail users of the time, and indeed started a 'travelling by rail' culture in the Taiwan which lingers on today.

Perhaps rather bizarrely, this batch of train were bought by the government at a time when national resources were being stretched to the limit as the Taiwan recover from the Civil War following the end to the World War. The reason behind the order may have been as part of the publicity stunt for the 80th birthday celebration of Chiang Kai-shek, a leading Chinese military leader, and eventually the president of the Mandarin government in the Formosa. The shining silver carriages were built with stainless steel, giving the nickname 'Baitee-ah', meaning "White Steel Train" in the local language, and until today they are still known by that name to some of the most senior employees of the Taiwan Railway Administration. However, as it turned out, even after consideration of the gross national product of the time, they were still very much a worthwhile investment for the railway infrastructure. By 1996, the DR2700 had given the locals 30 years of impeccable service, a length of time only exceeded by few DMUs, and was still going strong in 1997, relatively speaking, when compared to the availability of the other fleets of a similar age in the Formosa. As a result, it acquired another nickname ~ 'The forever white steel train'.