Woosung railway
| Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locale | Shanghai, China | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dates of operation | 1876–1877 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Songhu railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 9+1⁄4 mi (14.9 km) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Woosung railway (simplified Chinese: 吴淞铁路; traditional Chinese: 吳淞鐵路; pinyin: Wúsōng Tiělù) was a 19th-century, 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow-gauge passenger railway in Shanghai, China, between the outskirts of the American Concession in the modern city's Zhabei District and Wusong in Baoshan District. Surreptitiously conceived and constructed, it ran for less than a year before it was purchased and dismantled by the Qing viceroy Shen Baozhen. The line would not be rebuilt for twenty years. This fate was a commonly invoked symbol of the Qing dynasty's backwardness and insularity, despite the road's admitted illegality and numerous legitimate objections voiced by the Chinese during its construction and operation.
Its route – still primarily rural as late as the turn of the century – now forms part of the Shanghai Metro's elevated Line 3.