서울역사박물관 소장 전차 ‘381호’ 제작 연대 및 제작지 검토

Abstract

The present study examines the age of Tram No. 381 at the Seoul Museum of History. There are two major areas of examination: the relationship between car type and numbering system, and documents and newspaper articles produced at the time. Through examination of the same, it was determined that Tram No. 381, instead of being produced in the 1930s as previously thought, was actually produced between 1944 and 1945. One of the features which allow for the earliest possible year of production for Tram No. 381 to be pinpointed is that No. 381 is a semi-steel bogie car. Semi-steel bogie cars were introduced to Gyeongseong no earlier than 1929, the year of the Joseon Exposition. The semi-steel bogie cars had been imported to transport visitors to the Expo, as they were larger than the two-axle cars. Cars brought in at the time were assigned numbers between 186 and 187, and from 200 onwards. Import of cars assigned numbers 300 and above began in 1937. Meanwhile, records from 1939 kept by the Gyeongseong Electric Company allow the production age of Tram No. 381 to be narrowed down to the 1940s. According to these records, No. 335, also a semi-steel bogie car, was the latest car acquired by the company. The cars operated by the company had been numbered according to type. That is, cars were classified as two-axle, wooden bogie, and semi-steel bogie cars, then further classified by size and manufacturer, and finally assigned numbers in the order they were acquired. As such, it can be inferred that No. 381, of the same type as that of No. 335, is a more recent car. The last grounds by which the present article determines that No. 381 was produced in the 1940s is a document produced in August 1944. The document states that as of August 1944, Gyeongseong Electric Company operates a total of 250 vehicles, with 30 further bogie cars to be acquired by the end of 1944.