page_title: Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Rail in DPR Korea.
context_page_description: The Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works in P'yŏngyang is North Korea's largest manufacturer of railway equipment. Established in November 1945 in Sŏsŏng-guyŏk, P'yŏngyang near the P'yŏngyang Railway University and the Korean State Railway's West P'yŏngyang Station, the factory manufactures and overhauls electric and diesel locomotives, passenger cars, streetcars and subway trainsets. It is subordinate to the North Korean Ministry of Railways.
context_section_description: Initially established as a repair facility for rolling stock during the Japanese occupation of Korea, becoming the state-owned West P'yŏngyang Railway Factory on 10 November 1945. In 1960, the facility repaired 210 steam locomotives, 1,800 freight cars and 120 passenger cars. It was expanded with Polish assistance in the late 1950s to manufacture electric locomotives as well, with work on the manufacturing facility completed on 29 August 1959. In 1961 it was renamed P'yŏngyang Electric Locomotive Works, and the first electric locomotive manufactured in North Korea was built at this factory in 1961, and the plant was awarded a medal following a visit by Kim Il-sung. Kim Il-sung paid another visit to the factory on 27 September 1987, to inspect the first completed production unit of the Red Flag 6-class articulated 8-axle electric locomotive.
  Following the execution of South Korean revolutionary activist Kim Chong-t'ae, a member of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification, the factory was renamed in his honour in 1969.
caption: A Red Flag 1-class locomotive: North Korea's first domestically-built locomotive.
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