Malaysia Train History In A Doldrum

With a puff and huff, Engine No. 6051 of the North Borneo Railway and the 5 tourist coaches begin its scenic ride from Tanjung Aru to Papar in Sabah. The Vulcan steam locomotive brought in by the British has since 2002 begun its bi-weekly run on the 40 km stretch on North Borneo westen coast.

For train bluffs, the ultimate experience from the ride is the opportunity to have their face caressed by the wood burned smoke, sitting inside the swaying coaches and finally making the stop at Papar. Here at the heartland of Sabah rice bowl, the State railway department has invested in a roundtable in 2005 and it is an opportunity to see how the steam locomotive makes a 360 degree turn for the one hour return journey to Kota Kinabalu.

However that is the closest one gets to be nostalgic about railway heritage in Malaysia, a country known for its overzealous race to modernize. Over in Peninsula, despite the ERL, LRT and what have you, train history is pathetic to say the least. Preservation and conservation of rolling stock apparently are not in the vocabulary of the KTM management.

Across the Johore causeway, the KTM legacy is somewhat appreciated more. Visit the elegant Raffles Hotel museum and you will find that the cash registers are ringing constantly with the sale of duplicate copies of Old Keretapi Tanah Melayu travel posters.

Over here in Kuala Lumpur, we are still debating if we should have a Railway museum. If there is ever a consensus, then the old Moorish designed KL Railway Station is likely to be the preferred choice. The decision should win hands down because of its sentimental value although questions remain where are you going to put the locomotives.

Even as the debate rages on, all over Malaysia, precious and valuable Railway remnants and artifacts are at perils from scrap theft and victims of harsh tropical weather.

At Gemas, next to the wooden train station built by the British is the old 'Temerloh' steam locomotive. This mammoth piece of iron workhorse is rusting away with nothing to shed its metal dignity from the elements. It stood there like an eye sore and there is no mention of the great sacrifices 'Temerloh' made during its lifetime.

To the north, the significance of Malaya's first Railway route between Port Weld-Taiping appear only in school books because the track has long disappeared and the Port Weld Station is now a kopi stand with its historical marker stone lies broken and hidden behind some bushes.

Kuala Lumpur is no exception. At the northern end of the capital city used to be KTM's biggest depots for its rolling stocks. When the redevelopment plan in the 80s called Sentul Raya took off, it gave a hint of hope that finally railway heritage has a place to call home.

Unfortunately the developer, Taiping Consolidated flopped and YTL Land took over the Sentul project, Lot 10 etc. The red colored brick train shed with its many round gates was initially marked to be the new train museum. But fate decides otherwise. With a stroke of pen and no thanks to YTL's Francis Yeoh, the venue is now Kuala Lumpur Performaning Art Center (KLPAC).

The only venue now available to see steam loco engines in the city is Muzium Negara (3 units). They are placed on both sides of the rear entrance of the Museum. One is next to the car park lot.

The Selangor Museum in Shah Alam boosts a diesel loco on permanent display. It was a present for Sultan Abdul Aziz by KTM. The late Sultan apparently was into trains too, and not just your typical Mekkel train set but real ones too. At his Royal town just outside the Klang Commuter Station, an old caboose used by KTM now housed a florist shop. It is probably the only rolling stock of this type currently in existence in this country.

One enterprising food operator decided to be creative and called his western restaurant chain Victoria Station, after the famous train stop in England. Visit the outlets in USJ Subang and Ampang and you have the options to dine and wine in a KTM diesel loco where train engineers spent countless days and nights working in the sweaty and loud chambers. I particularly like the one in USJ, and the whole restaurant has a museum feel to it. Inside the Diesel head comes with sleepers and train apparatus i.e. lamps, signals etc.

Unfortunately that is the sad state of our train heritage in this country.

Nevertheless, there are a lot of little train treasures around to discover if you try hard enough.

The popular resort town of Port Dickson has one thing two for train bluffs. At the Armed Forces Museum in Port Dickson, an armored Wickham Trolley used to fight communist terrorist who were getting better at exploding rail tracks. It looks like a tank with rail wheels. Head to Port Dickson town center and you will see a lone train crossing gate with manual signal guarding over an abandoned track. It stops at the nearby godowns where the British had hauled tin ore mined from Sungai Ujung (now Seremban) and brought it here on the trains to export.

Yet, one can still have the ultimate train spotting experience in Port Dickson. Only Goods trains ply the Seremban- Port Dickson route today and to get the best view of the working train one needs to go to the roads to the Shell and ExxonMobil refineries. The train leaves PD and head off inland. In Siliau- a small town about half hour away, you can get a good view of the Goods train passing above the bridge.