The Railway Magazine – July 2019

98 •The Railway Magazine• July 2019

Wickham-built DMU No. 3102 at the southern end of the JKNS

network at Tenom on March 12.BOTH IMAGES: DR IAIN C SCOTCHMAN

Left: Vulcan Foundry 2-6-2 No. 6-016 with the North Borneo Railway

tourist train atTanjung Aru on March 13.The Wickham-built DMU

vehicle behind the loco has been converted into a kitchen car.

British-built traction remains active in Borneo on tourist trains

TWO of the last steam locos built

by Vulcan Foundry (Newton-

le-Willows) are used in the

Malaysian state of Sabah to

operate regular tourist trains.

The train between Tanjung Aru

(Kota Kinabalu) and Papar runs

normally on Wednesday and

Saturday, and is a joint venture

between the Sutera Harbour

Resort, near Kota Kinabalu,

and the Sabah State Railway

(Jabatan Keretapi Negeri Sabah

• JKNS).
  Three metre-gauge 2-6-2s
  were built for the north Borneo
  Railway in 1955 (works numbers
  6274-6276), numbered 6-014
  to 6-016. Currently only 6-016 is
  in service. The other two locos
  remain in Sabah, although 6-014
  is now derelict at the JKNS depot
  at Papar.
  The JKNS network dates from
  the late-1890s when tobacco
  growers sought transport for
  their product to the coast.

By 1907 the North Borneo

Railway network had grown to

193km, but some sections closed

from the 1960s onwards.

Currently, 134km of single

track from Secretariat, Tanjung

Aru, on the outskirts of Kota

Kinabalu (formerly Jesselton), to

the town of Tenom are open. The

section south of Kota Kinabalu

to Beaufort was closed for

complete reconstruction in 2006

with Chinese financial assistance,

reopening in early 2011.

New turntables have been

installed at Tanjung Aru and

Papar to turn the steam locos.

The section of line south-east

from Beaufort is in poor

condition, with derailments not

uncommon.

Trains are DMU-operated,

some of them built by

D Wickham & Co Ltd in Ware,

Hertfordshire.

■Our thanks to Dr Iain C

Scotchman for some of the

information in this item.

Above: Plinthed at the station in the country’s

new capital Naypyidaw is what is probably the

oldest loco in the country – Glasgow-built Dübs

2-4-0T A01 (Dübs 612/1873). Naypyidaw was

built by the former military government

between 2002 and 2006, replacingYangon as the

capital.The new city is located on theYangon to

Mandalay main line.

World Track Record

FOCUS ON SOUTH EAST ASIA

Trains old and new in Myanmar

THE railways in Myanmar

(formerly Burma) are being

slowly modernised with

assistance from Japan, in

particular.

The state railway retains a

handful of operational steam

locos, although many more are

plinthed or stored at depots.

Some of the older and once

common place Alsthom-built

diesel locos have been replaced

in regular service by 48 second-

hand DMUs of various types,

supplied by the Japanese

government since 2015.

Much of the basic

infrastructure dates from

colonial days (when Burma

was administered as a province

of British India, until 1937),

with British made semaphore

signalling equipment.

However, this too is beginning

to change as main lines such

as the Yangon to Mandalay line

are being modernised with

substantial Japanese assistance,

and new colour light signals are

replacing mechanical signaling.

When complete in the

mid-2020s journey times

between Yangon and Mandalay

will be reduced to around

8 hours from 15 hours today.

■Our thanks to Kevin Hoggett

for some of the information in

this report.

Above: 2-8-2 YD No. 967, Vulcan Foundry UK (5732/

1949), passes Bago North signalbox on February 5

with a charter operated for British firm RTC. The

semaphores here will be removed as part of the

modernisation for the Yangon to Mandalay line. The

loco is one of the three operational metre-gauge

steam locos remaining in Myanmar. No. 967 is one of

20 Indian standard YD Class locos ordered for Burma

in 1948.ALL IMAGES: RIKA LAPORTE

Left: Former Japanese (JR Central)‘KiHa 11’single-

unit railcar RBE25108 exiting a tunnel after just

passing over the famous Goteik Viaduct (visible on

right) on the Mandalay to Lashio line on February 12.

These DMUs, dating from 1989-99, were obtained

second-hand from Japan in 2015 and re-gauged

from 1,067mm to metre gauge.