Holiday Journal

• Start
•  
• Snow Festival
•  
• Coal Museum
•  
• Hill of Wind
•  
• Yongyeon Cave
•  
• Chujeon Station
•  
• Hwangji Pond
•  
• V-Train
•  
• Buncheon Station
•  
• Coal Mine History Town
•  
• Paleozoic Museum
•  
• Gumunso
•  
• Finish

Trip Searching for Analog Sensibility! Baekdudaegan Valley Train 'V-Train'

We travel Korea in different ways. Among them, train is a very good way to travel at a proper speed not too fast or too slow. Especially, train brings out analog sensibility that makes small temporary stations look cosy and countryside views look lovely. Today, I'm going to take the V-train that runs through winding Baekdudaegan railway that was used to deliver coals departing from Cheoram to Santa Village in Buncheon. I took my car but I just parked there and had a chance to get away from daily life.

I guess there are more than a dozen tour trains for tour offered by KORAIL and among them, V-train and O-train are the most popular ones. These trains are always crowded with tourists in four seasons so even during the week, you won't get a ticket unless you buy it a few days earlier. On weekends, as soon as they start ticketing, the remained seats would be down to zero in a second.

V-train (V refers to Valley) is called Baekdudaegan Valley Train. It runs from Cheoram Station in Taebaek, Gangwon-do, to Buncheon Station in Bonghwa, Gyeongsanbuk-do, twice a day and it could be quite unique trip to enjoy thrilling nature along the trail on the cliff of Baekdudaegan.

There are a few active mines near Cheoram Station so the trains delivering coals were seen quite often. That building that smoke comes out of is a coal preparation plant that delivers coals. The time when the coal used to being constantly delivered has gone now and this city became a quiet place where the tourists visit once in a while.

V-train is nothing like Saemaeul Train but it's decorated for tour so it has more space. One line of seats is facing forward and the other line is facing the windows but you can turn the chair to face each other.

The reason I brought up analog sensibility is not only because the train itself makes us feel sensible but also because there's no air conditioner or electric heater system on the train. Instead, it has a fan and a stove burning charcoals, which reminded me of Dove Line in old times. You can buy snacks Jjondeugi at cafeteria, heat them up on the stove and eat them.

Inside one car, there's a cafeteria selling food that used to be popular in old times. You could buy Jjondeugi or squid to heat it up on a stove.

Another thing that stimulates my analog sensibility is the fact that I could open the window while the train was running so I could breathe in clean air in the valley. Plus, there's no toilet in the train but it stops at Seungbu Station and Yangwon Station, both temporary stations, for 5-10 minutes so you can finish your business.

I like the view from the back of the train so I bought tickets of back seats and this is what I got. Amazing, isn't it? FYI, it's 30A and 30B seats in car No.3 departing from Cheoram heading to Buncheon. But I think seats wouldn't make any difference because you can see that view from any other seat.

After all, you're on the train so you gotta have this view, right? Amazing view out the window, huh?

You should feel this joy when the train runs through the valley and you can breathe fresh air on a train that used to deliver coals, cements and woods.

You have no idea how happy you would feel to enjoy the view with windows open. It blows my mind literally. This is how you feel when you come to a place where it's not accessed by people. I felt like I was running through some countryside in Europe.

Since the train runs through deep valley, it often passes through tunnel.

In dark tunnels, the luminescent stickers on the ceiling glow, so pretty.

After 25 minutes, the train stopped at a temporary station called Seungbu Station for five minutes.

You could buy a fish cake for 500 won and pig skin with a bowl of magolli for 1,000 won at this station. They were SO popular among tourists probably because they're cheap. I finished two fish cakes in an instant.

You could eat snacks you bought earlier or at a temporary station on the train while you watch outside. There's a hole on the ceiling so I feld wind coming through it.

10 more minutes from Seungbu Station…

As it arrived at Yangwon Station, it was announced that the train would stop for 10 minutes.

At Yangwon Station, there's a small building that is as big as a room, which was built by the local people from Wongok town to make the trains stop because the train is the only means to get out of this town. It's because this town is isolated with no road connecting to other regions so this station is the first private station building(驛舍) as well as the smallest in Korea.

There's a temporary toilet next to the temporary station. It doesn't have a door now so there would be no one who uses the toilet but everybody in the town used it in the 1980s.

So their request to make the train stop at their station was accepted after they built one, so now Mugunghwa, V-train and O-train stops at this station. Thanks to that, local people could take part in the economy seeling rice cakes, magnolia and pig skin for 1,000 won to tourists, which was a big help for them.

On that day, SBS Morning Wide team was there to film it. It was taking a few shots of me but I didn't have chance to ask when it's going to be aired on TV. My gosh…

When the train was about to arrive at Buncheon Station, our destination, the employee announced through speakers that we should search for Santa Claus and Rudolph-shaped stickers and take them to the employees. They must've hidden them while the tourists were out at Yangwon Station, so I found a Santa sticker and took it to the employees and then they gave me a heater pack(handwarmer). So I could keep my hands warm!

The train finally arrived at the northernmost place in Bonghwa-gun, the northernmost city in Gyeongsangbuk-do, at 13:10. It departed from Cheoram Station at 12:10 so it took exactly an hour. Buncheon Station was a Korean temporary station but the building looked like one in Switzerland. It was built exactly same as Zermatt Station with woods and a clock that were brought from Switzerland to commemorate 50th year of diplomatic relations with Switzerland.

In order to get back to Cheoram Station, it's fastest and cheapest to take the Mugunghwa Line Train which comes in about an hour, so you could take a look around the town until it comes. Near the Buncheon station, there's a small and pretty town called Santa Village so I'm going to tell you about the village and the station building another time.

+ Address of Starting Point (Cheoram Station) : 389, Dongtaebaek-ro, Taebaek-si, Gangwon-do
+ Mobile Ticketing : 1544-7788
+ Online Ticketing : click
+ V-train Fees (One-way between Cheoram↔Buncheon) : Adult: 8,400 won, Child: 6,000 won (1 hr and 10 mins)
+ Mugunghwa Line Fees (One-way between Cheoram↔Buncheon) : Adult: 2,600 won, Child: 1,300 won (36 mins)
+ Departure Time at Cheoram Station : 12:10, 15:50, (Night train at 19:45 added on Fri./Sat.)
+ Departure Time at Buncheon Station : 10:20, 14:00, (Night train at 18:00 added on Fri./Sat.)