Northern Miscellaneous

[ncr]

Why does Lampang Railway Station have this special title, Nakhon Lampang? There are many other cities in Thailand which can call themselves nakhon (e.g. Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen), but none of them carry this in the name of their railway station.

What's the reason?

[Wisarut]

Thbe former name fo Lampang is "Khelang Nakhon". Furthermore, lampang used to be very important sicne many timber companies such as Borneo, Bombay Burma or os has opened the office here ... even Bank of Thailand has set up the office at Lampang before opening up Chiangmai Office!
Even the Military base during WWII was at Lampang (Now Fort Surasakmontri).

Furthrmore, the Na Chiangmai familiy was ruling Lampang before ruling Chiangmai.... and the City Chief also are those blood line of na Chaing Mai whcih was branched off to be Na Lampang.

Therefore, it is NOT a surprise as all for local people to ask SRT
to ADD the prefix "Nakhon" (City) for Lampang. Even the Loco Shed along with the Norhtenr Depot and maintianace Center is at Nakhon Lampang.

[Wisarut]

After SRT has refurbished the 2nd hand Blue Train seating and sleeping cars received from JR West, They are goign to make the first use on the Special Train 963/964 (New Year Train) as follows:

Special 963: BKK - Chiang Mai

Departure from BKK at 5:45 PM (Dec 30, 2004)
Departure from Samsen at 6:00 PM
Departure from Bangsue 1 at 6:10 PM
Departure from Donmuang at 6:34 PM
Departure from Lampang at 4:53 AM (Dec 31, 2004)
Arrival to Chiang Mai at 7:05 AM


Special 964: Chaing Mai - BKK

Departure from Chiang Mai at 6:30 PM (Jan 2, 2005)
Departure from Lampang at 8:44 PM
Departure from Donmuang at 6:53 AM (Jan 3, 2005)
Departure from Bangsue 1 at 7:19 AM
Departure from Samsen at 7:30 AM
Arrival to Bangkok at 7:50 AM

Ticket for 2nd class seating car (Blue Train): 600 Baht
Ticket for 2nd class Sleeping car (Blue Train): 1000 Baht

There will be 8 Bogies of Seating Car and 3 Bogies of
Sleeping car ... NO Food for thsoe who buy tickets for
seating cars (Bring your own Sanwitches and Noodle!)
while those who buy the sleeping car tickets
will receive food ....

The new Blue Train Sleeping car is HERE
http://www.rotfaithai.com/images/train_ban/train_ban_35.jpg

[gerf4501]

On the website of the SRT http://www.railway.co.th/English/Car_ARS.asp a photo of an “Air conditioned Reserved Saloon” is displayed. Apparently it has an observation platform, an observation lounge, and sleeping accommodation for twenty persons.

Depending upon its configuration and facilities, might it be worthwhile to hire this coach and couple it to the rear (for the outbound train at least) of a steam excursion to Ayuthaya or Kanchanaburi? Does anyone have any knowledge of this coach? Is the interior arranged as the first class sleeping cars? As the second class?

It might make an interesting trip for a group of railfans or friends. Surely others have thought of this, but I can find no reference to it on this board.

[qualtrough]

I have always thought it would be a neat idea to get a group of railfans together and hire a coach like this. The steam idea sounds good. Another itinerary would be to travel up to Khun Tal tunnel, park overnight at the station which is situated in a national park right by the tunnel mouth, and then return the next day. The day could be spent hiking, picnicing, and watching trains enterl/leave the tunnel etc. If anyone decides to do something like this please PM me.

[gerf4501]

A trip to the Khuntan station, the highest point on the Chiang Mai line, offers many possibilities in addition to those already mentioned.

One can board trains for short trips to view the mountains up and down the line .

Local people are happy to take you exploring the Khuntan National Park by motorbike -- even on trails!

A night in the saloon car going up, a day exploring, and a night returning to Bangkok?

Or…

It might be possible to set the car out at Khuntan and take advantage of its sleeping accommodation. The electrical power is likely self contained. The car could probably be watered at the station. Grey water (from showers ) should be able to go onto the ground. However, black water (from toilets) would be a problem.
Cabins are available in the park although booking them can be difficult.

I have posted some photos of the station/tunnel/park at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/551709365ooTuPH

[qualtrough]

Khuntan would be interesting. The station is in a nice setting, and it is only a short walk up some steps to the park. There are the two bridges as well.

I took an overnight train there last year and arrived about 11 o'clock. I walked up to the park and hiked to a waterfall. When I returned I ate some dinner at a small restaurant at the station. The young station master was very friendly and let me take a shower in some facilities in an old outbuilding. What I found very nice about the setting is that there is basically no traffic to the station, so it is a very peaceful. It would be ideal if they could park there overnight for sleeping, with the day spent exploring and watching trains.

[von Hirschhorn]

…. It would be ideal if they could park there overnight for sleeping, with the day spent exploring and watching trains …. (not so many unfortunate)

In principle this must be possible, there is a small side track rolling slightly uphill where the main track start descending towards the concrete bridge short before Tha Chomphu Station at Km.692.
Once we – the mechanical staff of Chiang Mai and your humble writer, coupled a former brake van in use as calamity support on a local goods and went of to Khun Tan with the same idea; to put the thing at the side track and back with the next goods to Chiang Mai.
However, this couldn't been done and the 'Van' went on alone and returned later in Chiang Mai. We had our (railway staff) party with a lot of drinks (Maekong) and small snacks and returned by ordinary train.
Although meanwhile some asphalt reached Khun Tan, the station itself is free from motorised traffic other than rail.
The best hike I ever did – together with a Dutch journalist / writer – walking over the tunnel to the other side for a marvellous view of landscape with rail and back through the tunnel – a dark experience – after visiting the first steel bridge spanning a gap further down the line.
Being there it would be nice if we pay some respect to Emile Eisenhofer, a German engineer and a pioneer in Thai Railways, who build the construction and died on August 8, 1962 aged 83. His ashes are entombed in a little more or less neglected monument erect for the occasion short for the Northern tunnel entrance.

[von Hirschhorn]

For a start a few reply clips from another thread: Northern Branches.
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?p=12314#post Therein I wrote:

...So, if any one comes near the vicinity of Chiang Mai, give a call and we can have a chat on the turntable in the yard...

...The eagle has landed and will have his first date with the turntable on Monday November 6th in the morning...

...For the other part: is there any body out there wish to come to Chiang Mai, tell me, the turntable is still fine...

"As the world turns on."
We make it a Sunday delight - a sunny day experience - meeting at the turntable and full report afterwards even if nobody shows up exept the scribent. There are more things between heaven and earth, it's not the railway only, many ways.
Anyone who's understanding poetry can see the meaning of this gathering.
For the benefit of doubt, just being there, nothing else.

It's for fun, like a lot of things on the web are for pleasure only but with a serious background.
The web is an anonymous playground for the freak and futurist alike.
It would be nice to see each other once in a while or once only, if after all the 'silence' of the web is more preferable.

The Turntable tales
A different story with a touch.
From station to station on the railway line between Chiang Mai and Nakhon Lampang in the North of Thailand.
A tale between two turntables and happily go around.

Chiang Mai - January 2007
After almost two months of running the gag, I like to add a few clarifying words.
What seemed to become a few words about Chiang Mai in connection with the rail, turns to be a sort of column now.
Unfortunately Chiang Mai and the rail only are not interesting enough for that, so I decided to go down the line as you can see in the parts starting from number 6. First of all from station to station till Lampang. There there's another turntable (the first one) and this means going back in concern of her tales. Afterwards I like to do only some main stations and certainly not any longer on a weekly base, therefore the time fails me and in a lesser degree money. A poor writer is a joy for the art.

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday November 19th

The ‘table’ lays idle under the setting sun. Two plaques on the side. One reeds: 132, the other: Joseph Mangele / Mannheim 1922 / 90 t Tragkraft / D.R.P.u. Auslandpatente.
It survives wonderfully the 'old days' though these days hardly in use. Next month, after Xmas, it may turn the ‘Observer Car’ (Parlor) of the Eastern Oriental Express. All done by hand power with a lever and chain mechanism. Wholes in the edge of a concrete basin, reveals some traces of a former track lay-out at the yard. The construction itself moves on a single track (loop) on the bottom of the basin littered with dust and debris.
Four old flat cars (2 axles) are parked on both two tracks on the outer end.
In my back the silhouette of the station tower reflects its tallness against a quickly darkening sky. Behind the fence (don’t fence me in) there’s a gap, a dearly missing narrow gauge (60 cm) steamer, No 31, almost a toy and brutally removed from his plinth for a reviving duty at a garden project initiated by the queen somewhere near Bangkok. Unfortunate this project for one reason or another doesn’t seems to come off the ground. In a heap of rust on a flat car at the Makkasan shop in Bangkok, one can recognizes with some imagination the former 31. It’s a pity that obviously there’s no right feeling for ‘old things’. Just refurbish and put it back on plinth. Two lorries for maintenance or track inspection purpose still waiting for the return and will happily make place.
Meanwhile a sole steamer keeps reminding the heyday – ex Swiss ‘Rhätische Bahn’ nº 118 / SRT nº 340 - and slowly falling apart. Rust takes its toll. A bleak reminder of a long forgotten era waits another night at Chiang Mai, the railhead of the North.

A few pictures of the 340:
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4982/4230062xl3.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6880/4230063qk7.jpg
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5122/vervalloc340bc2.jpg

[ncr]

...a fairly unique genre, it seems. :)

Two plaques on the side. One reeds: 132, the other: Joseph Mangele / Mannheim 1922 / 90 t Tragkraft / D.R.P. u. Auslandpatente.And (if you didn't already know) - Tragkraft means load capacity, while D.R.P. must surely signify Deutsches Reichs-Patent; therefore: German (Reich) and foreign patents pending, or something similar.

[von Hirschhorn]

Thanks, always nice when some ‘real Germans’ ( I am only export) gives some inside info. That D.R.P. I had not figured out that way.
This saga will continue in time, next Sunday for sure I’ll find another observation. :D

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday November 26th

A heap of sleepers needy piled up, just were the track to the 'maintenance spot' - a real depot is a big word for the Chiang Mai situation - mingled with the yard. It is certainly not what people can expect around other cities; an endless row of tracks and small locomotives busy shunting the cars. The sound of metal against metal floating in the air. As a little boy I was dedicated to such scenes. Riding on a small bike to the station on a Sundays morning. When I was young, we still had 'steam' in the Netherlands. The hissing of resting 'black horses' halfway the shed and turntable in anticipation of what's next. Haul a train with an unknown destination. "Oh boy," had that kid a dream.
It must be a while ago since Chiang Mai saw the last steam engine running and the German build 'apparatus' joyful did the job. Turning the engines so their noses pointed in the right direction. 1922, I wonder how 'the thing' was shipped, I guess in parts, and were there still any German engineers around to put the pieces together? In 1917 Thailand declared war on Germany - even a battalion was send to the battle fields - and all workers with that nationality building the Northern line were arrested and could no longer proceeds with their jobs. There's a remarkable story about one of them and certainly will be told later. Emile Eisenhofer, his ashes are entombed on a special spot near the entrance of the "khun Tan' tunnel not far from here.
The yard is silent, nothing moves. When I close my eyes I can see a total dilapidated crane on wheels loading logs on a flat car.
The jungle deprived of precious trees and we have to face the consequences. Mother Nature knows what to grow though we turn a blind eye for the better. Anyway, there's no more transshipment of wood any longer, smuggled from Burma as the speculation and rumors went.
The yard is almost silent. A diesel electric locomotive blows the horn and slowly pulls the train away from the platform. Beyond the road crossing at the end of the yard, it starts to move faster. A roaring engine fills the air with desire; a train is on its way.

A turntable is well known anyway here she is:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/2255/4230004fh4.jpg

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9930/4230005du9.jpg

[Wisarut]

In such a case, a temporary triangle track will be installed at Chiang Mai station until the turntable has been shipped and assembled ...

Chaing Mai station was opened in Jan 1, 1922 though ....

[Wisarut]

You should neter forget that After sendding Prussian Railway Engineers back home in 1917, RSR General Manager (Prince Purachat) had relied upong his Army Engineers whom he had trained for several years before to construct Khun Tan tunnel, build Tha Chomphoo concrete bridge against all odd and lay the track from Lampang to Chiang mai ...

There is a story of a Bureaucrat who had take a ride with his family from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in 1920 even though he needs to ask for special permission from the Head of Railway Engineers at construction site to go alogn the unfinished track from Lampang (pang Hua Phong) to Chiang Mai .... passign through Khun Tan tunnel ... It took 5 days to reachi Chaing Mai though. After reachign Chiang Mai, he and his family look for resting house arranged by the Commissionor General of Phayap circle .... before take a mule rides to Mae Hong Son since he was assigned to work as governor of mae hogn Son

BTW, the old Railway Hotel in Chiang Mai was build in 1919 ... it was demolished in 1965 to make a way for the New Railway Hotel in Chaing Mai ... however, the new rrailway Hotel went out of business .... so it is now become public park. If this good old Railway Ho9tel of Chiang mai was preserved the the similar as Hua Hin Hotel, we would see that hotel again even at distorted shape due to pooreer craftmanship .... :eek:

[Wisarut]

Don't forget that the old Chaing Mai terminal has been Bombed away at 1530 of December 21, 1943 .... What you have seen is the new one .... built in 1950 designed by Momchao Wothayakorn Worawan (RSR Archetech for Thonburi terminal) :)

[Wisarut]

For the case of German turntable, it was built after it has been delayed by the Great War .... so it was tagged as 1922 ....

[von Hirschhorn]

...so it is now become public park...
Well Wisarut that is wishful thinking, plans only I suppose and plans it will be.
Now its a parking lot where the BMTA free shuttle service departs.
The rest is sand, a dusty reminder of the hotel heyday.

[von Hirschhorn]

A little correction on what I proofed above.
Yesterday I passed the former Railway Hotel premisses and indeed there are sings of landscape construction and stone entrance in an unforgiven and unforgettabel Chinees style. On one side quite hollow (dull if you want) on the other full of promises. Boeddha, Confucius or Laotze are always nearer than you thought. :D

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday December 3rd

Today no turntable tale but instead Bangkok the Best. http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?p=12544#post12544

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday December 10th

Arrival in Chiang Mai at the station, is anything except entering a big city despite the dream of being it. Stepping out of the main hall an atmosphere village like falls upon you of course after first being heartily greeted by the always eager custom hunting 'tuk-tuk' and 'song taew' drivers. They are timetable proof. Ignore them for once, find your own way, stay a while at the station foreground and sniff the forgotten air of yesteryears arrival when it was by all means a real journey that ended in the silence of an almost remote area.
Chiang Mai itself, by that time within a fortification, was a 'stiff' walk away. An oxcart waiting for you, public transportation in pace of time. In that respect 'the city' comes along. Looking at the shit dropped in front of your eyes or inhaling the fumes of motorized traffic, live always have been a bit stinky.
In front of the Hua Lamphong station one can find the so called 'zero marker'. Well, Chiang Mai could not stay behind, so a plinthed elevated elephant with his trunk pointed in town direction, flanked with SRT logos, marked km 751 + 420 and a few more meters were never any rail was laid.
The architecture of the building - a well thought design - is in Lanna style with some what seems to be 'fachwerk' details. A perfect reminder of the Germans who never made it till this point.
One level only, with black tiles from hall till the end of two platform islands. (one small, one big and four tracks)
The big platform is complete under a roof with near the end a tropical garden sphere. A lovely spot for a sunday gathering of 'train lovers' but also today I was the lonely one.
The whole structure is in line; even the designed booths on the isle are orderly numbered. (6x) There are worse situations in Railway land. No... on the contrary, the station layout is superb only one thing is missing: train movements! Look at the timetable published elsewhere and see how meager the service is. The station waits in anticipation. Wouldn't it be a sort of joke if you go to the window and order your ticket in fluent Thai and full of lenght?
"Sawasdee khrap, tua khon deo chang song, na khrap, pai: Krungthepmahanakhon Amornrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharat Ratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmasatharn Amornphiman Awatansathit Sakkathatiya Witsanukamprasit." And then be surprised as the railway clerk behind the glass even blinks an eye, give you the wanted and wish you a pleasant journey in fluent English. :D

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday December 17th

Today we stay - like last week - a while longer on the station foreground and have a look at the catering. This service 'on board' went down rapidly since the privatization of that business and the entrepreneurs want to make the most of it in terms of money but not quality. Anyway, who wants his soup coming in small waves just within or over the edge of the bowl while riding on the train?
Men's love always goes through the mouth.
On the road - Thanon Rot Fai - parallel to the station, one can find some convenient stores, the 7 eleven's who changed the economy to a 24 hour one, although during the deep dark hours on this spot, they won't have many traveling costumers. At night the station sleeps, the tracks idle, only a stray dog finds his way. No trains on the yard either, so for a chance 'he', fully aware being a male dog, could not find himself a nice seat, second class near the open window and barking loud if someone try to chase him away. A fair chance this would not happen at all.
A walk towards Saraphi, the first station on a long way to Bangkok, along the track near the road mentioned before. At the end - or so you wish: the beginning - there's a solid concrete ramp. Anyone familiar with the Dutch meaning of this word - disaster - would understand this is not the case, however...
For unloading military vehicles only as once have seen. Tanks rolling to the boarder - piggyback on big lorries - near Mae Sai when skirmishes brake out [like recently] between the regular Burmese army and the so called Shan State militias who strive for independency or other kind of freedom.
Further down the track are the warehouses, remarkably quiet on a Sunday, just the way I like it, although the vividness on a workday is more what they are for. The commodities of live, the hard stuff, like bags of cement, pipes and planks. I even spotted goods cars brimful with coconuts and unloaded with the hand by throwing them one by one in the open end of a pick-up truck. Overloaded, so when leaving the scene almost scratching with the downwards bending car body on the pavement.
TIT - this is Thailand - one can always enjoy it.
Where the tracks of the yard come together and form the mainline, on the corner of the San Na Luang Road, there's a busy crossing, moreover since a new road to Lamphun was opened. A road also parallel on the railway but on the left side in Bangkok direction.
The other outer track is an 'oily' one and leads to a depot [PTT = Petroleum Thai]. Once I encountered the scene of bewildered poor, who rushed to a pull out empty train and collecting in small buckets the few drops fuel still leaking from the valves.
A big tree - holy and home of the spirits - stands tall beside the track short before the fenced entrance of the depot itself.
On her roots a grave yard grows for broken or abandoned 'spirit houses' and things alike. What look likes a heap of rubble, is foremost sacralised and obviously could not carried away to a real garbage dump.
It makes the spirit swing, a joy for this belief, the ultimate proof that Buddha's thoughts go hand in hand with animism.

(will be continued next week)

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday December 24th

Lubricated and refreshed from seeing the site of ‘broken spirits’, the other side of the crossing reveals another phenomenon popping up in the City of the North: flee markets. Second hand stuff, some streets on Sunday looks like a big ‘garage sale’. This smaller one even on a weekday tries to get rid of things nobody really needs. The endless patience of the traders, how desperate you have to be, the merchandise spread on a plaid on a hardly used track and wait, wait until someone buys a rusty screw. Economy is a strange thing but obviously it’s working otherwise no one would sit here with his junk on the yard and looking at trains only.
The fact of Sunday street markets is anyway part of Chiang Mai. Started on the busy Thapae Road towards the gate with the same name, soon it proofs to be a real hurdle for the traffic situation in that respect already plagued city. So it moves to a few streets within the ‘old square’ where people cannot come forward along an endless row of fancy things on its worst in most cases called ‘kitsch’.
Back near the always busy crossing with a special type of gates, on certain days there’s also a gathering of people who admire the feathered friends. Man showing their ‘cocks’, fighting roosters this time although a gender connotation is there. What’s the game to see the beasts slaughter each other others than gamble and feel ‘a man’ indeed?
Pity on them, for sure this is not my world. One step away; the track going out of town. As a real - what the Germans named - ‘Streckenlaufer’, I like to inspect the rail till where it disappears beyond the horizon. ‘Schwellengänger’ is another word – him with the hammer of control walking from sleeper to sleeper. It sounds like an easy (sleepy) job but be not mistaken, wind and weather pays the toll.
The mainline on this side of the crossing is still accompanied by a few other tracks. The most far stretching one leads to another oil depot – Caltex this time – but it seems if the merchandise moved from rail to road or that they have stock enough to supply the ‘pumps’ in the North. Long time no train seen on this transshipment track and that’s exactly what the rail shows; a thin layer of rust whereas it should shine metal white.
Near the km 750 marker stands the only ‘semaphore’ left. The arms mechanically moved, but instead like in the past with iron wires, nowadays with electric power. This signal only for incoming trains as for whatever reason the platform tracks are not ready to receive a fresh load.
It is a classic railway scene; the only wires left are those between the telegraph poles. In the far distance looms the station and foremost her tower. The only city skyline seen from this point of view and exactly underlining what I wrote before; this is a city but still village alike.

(next week to Saraphi)

[von Hirschhorn]

December 31st

Before leaving Chiang Mai, going underneath the two overpasses of the ring roads and feel free from city structures, I like to return for a while to the turntable.
Last Thursday – December 28th – in the end it shows the function: turning the half-open parlor car of the Eastern and Oriental Express. The ultimate luxurious train for the rich to see the poor as decadence rolls by.
By all means it is not cheap to enjoy a three-day tour between Chiang Mai and Singapore with a side trip to the ‘Burma Railway’ as well. For one journey with this train you can do almost fifty trips by ordinary one. No complain; the wealthy have their toy, the poor a dream only.
All railway workers seem to be gathered around the turntable while a few of them handle the rusty lever and chain mechanism in order to turn. It’s quite an event seeing ‘the car’ slowly going around, so on the way back to Bangkok at the end of the train the passengers can enjoy in the open a disappearing rail from underneath till the horizon while they sip a soda mixed with something strong.
If they stay some longer instead of changing clothes in the cabin and going to the ‘diner’ for anything except a simple lunch, well… they can see it in glimpse while passing by.

Saraphi – km. 742 + 790 meters, 8.635.00 from Chiang Mai - three tracks, one sidetrack with a 'push block'. This track - shortened by a newly build road –once led to a company of agricultural products, behind the gate one can see the traces of former rail shipment.
Two signals on both ends but the only thing changed is the semaphore itself, replaced by a pole with lamp. The iron wires are still there and connected with a switch. Instead of pushing a button, the stationmaster or his aid still have to move the heavy working lever. This is railway on its best, a living museum for the benefit of keeping the mechanical working things from the past alive.
That’s anyway what the station staff made of the appearance; a fancy style with bright colors and a lot of greenery. At least they make an effort to give things a nicer look.
In that respect most stations have their own character. Someone within the State Rail of Thailand with sense of competition should organize a sort of ‘beauty contest’ and proclaim a winner. The real ‘miss’ among stations.
Saraphi if chosen for sure wouldn’t any longer be the same as it is even without winning. A small village in the dust of Chiang Mai.
Maybe the inhabitants are the same, their lives still following the path of centuries, a peaceful coexistence with nature and the things that try to disturb that peace.
For long the old nice and winding ‘Chiang Mai – Lamphun Road’ surrounded by big trees, was the only ‘blood vessel’ for traffic.
Beside that road one still can see a lovely sign pointing into a ‘soi’ where in the backwaters a train should halt. Be surprised; twice a day, ordinary 408 / 407 the local from Chiang Mai to Nakhon Sawan vice versa. All in all not much of a need to take a train from here.
After opening the new road to Lamphun beside the line, a second one is build.
Where once the train was riding alone through a swamp like open field, two roads now flank it, straight on!
Develop real estate around it and Chiang Mai will have his long wanted extension and be freed from a constipated inner city. Plus that there will be sufficient public transportation if the rail line is doubled as well.
For a while the station itself will breathe a sphere of locality while the foreground drastically changed. Tarmac and speeding traffic makes the picture complete. Saraphi founds the connection with the rest of the world. Happy New Year!

(Next week further on to Pa Sao)

[Wisarut]

Khun Bob,

For the case of Km 0.000 at the fountain in front of BKk Station at Hua Lamphong as well as km 751 + 420.00 at the elephant statue, ther sued to be a cargo track which goes that far ... For the case of BKK station, on the left near the Bo tree ... and for Chiang Mai station, also on the left of the station .... :rolleyes:

For the case of Saraphee, many old people of Chaing Mai stil called this station as "Pa Yang Loeng" (the old name of Saraphee district since there were lot of Yang tree there) ...

For pa Sao, it used to the place to carry Fluorite from the mines around Pa sao and nearby ... now the Fluorite mines are out of business ... :(

[Wisarut]

Khun Bob, Thaksin made a wish that he would get his pet project of Chaign Mai - Chaing Rai as well as doubel tracking of Chaing Mai - Lamphun to please the local vested interest even though it is goign AGAINST the will of both SRT officers and other notehrners who wants Denchai - Chaing Rai to become a reality ....

Nopw, the divine punishment have been inflicted to both Ai Maew as well as the Chiang Mai vested interests ... next on the lien would be Divine Wrath to thsoe People of Chaing Mai who sell themselves to Ai maew :eek:

[von Hirschhorn]

for the case of Km 0.000 at the fountain in front of BKk Station at Hua Lamphong as well as km 751 + 420.00 at the elephant statue, ther sued to be a cargo track which goes that far
khun Wisarut, at least the Chiang Mai gargo track is the one I mentioned with the ramp and even this doesn't go as far as some of the platform tracks.
On the left side the tracks of the yard goes far beyond the town pointed trunk. So here we have an elephant standing on its own forlorn midst a nice surrounding but nothing to do with measurements.
The plus 420.00 I guess is exact where the tracks meat a buffer decorate with plants - a real railway flower pot :D - and not the sign itself, half-way the platform. So also the yard tracks towards the turntable and even a little further, are no part of the 420 meter.
After all I found out that in the middle of the platform sign and name board there's an arrow pointing downwards.
This should mean the exact location. In the case of Chiang Mai O.K. there's only one platform sign and name board.
However, on all other stations there are two with the same figures; km followed with the meters and in some cases even centimeters. Only one question left; wich arrow on wich board points to the exact measure point?

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday January 7th

A nice walk along the line and hidden treasures beside it. Tar of the new road looks like a still unused blackboard and leaves Saraphi behind. The schoolmaster writes his name with a stick of chalk. ‘Teacher leaves us kids alone’. No idea why ‘Pink Floyd’ should sing the song here. Maybe the countryside, so different from Chiang Mai, more Thai, although it’s difficult to give an exact definition of that feeling. The peasants slowly riding their almost obsolete motorbikes to where they sow the seeds and reap. The harvest of a good season, the prosperity of their land, the perfect balance between to give an effort and unbend.
The road ends near a railway crossing at km 740. Further down the track, still on the right side, work is in progress. A crossing with all sorts of ornaments; gates lowered by wire between two poles, small gates on wheels stored in a concrete gutter, bells and flashing lights, even a loudspeaker. Things to prevent people from crossing when a train is approaching. Fast it goes on this stretch, 105 km per hour is allowed for the diesel railcar. The staff – lonely but not alone – decorated the whole with plants, so this could count for the contest as well. (see part VI)
Looking back: the skyline of Saraphi. No, this is not a joke. Beyond the entry signal a more or less factory high-rise gives the picture something urban. However, the crossing at a corner of the country together with a restaurant beside it and a few other buildings, functions like an oases in the dessert. ‘Here’s where it takes place.’

Pa Sao – km 734 + 645 meter, 8.143.40 from Saraphi – also three tracks and one sidetrack. No electric signals but the good old semaphore include the wires. A perfect classic layout. The own styling of the station the staff painted with light blue. There’s another sidetrack, a short ‘dead end’ piece of rail with a half demolished buffer. Out of service. Rusty rail overgrown with weeds, rotten sleepers and a lock that never will release the track again from obstruction. Glory in decay! So are the buildings with a loading platform, the Thai tobacco leaf development Co. Ltd. Founded in 1955 says a sign at the front, anno 2007 it all went up in smoke.
An open shed – drive through – hides a weighing device, reminder of the days things were shipped from here. A brilliant example of local facility after the shifting from rail to road. By the time the rail came here hardly anybody ever seen a car. There were no paved roads, only dusty sand tracks with peaceful moving oxcarts. In the rainy season mud everywhere. Old women walked bare feet and looked worried or shy if they would have meet a stranger beside the rail making notes for a story. Like today, only the lady rides a worn-out bike and smiles when I say: “Sawasdee khrap” to here.

(next week to Lamphun)

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday 14th January 2007

How you can enjoy the railway on a poetic manner without loosing the reality?
Being a ‘buff’ is one thing, spotting locomotives and making notes another. Actually for kids only with awakening passion, later they know what’s running but above all where!
Between Pa Sao and the next station not much ad midday. In the distance shivering air makes the single track a bit blur if it’s dancing in whirling wind. The sun is merciless and gives the rail a warm feeling. Out of the mist of heat Mr. Taksin’s thoughts to double the track for local transport purpose appear like a dream and will so for a while moreover since the dreamer stays abroad and counts his sins. No hopes for the few who scattered near the line. The bulldozers only moves to pave a road. Not any longer wild romances, the tranquility and the rhythm of the oxcarts, an era wherein coming forwards was a matter of patience, is long forgotten. The rail has seen it all, long live the rail.

Lamphun – km 729 + 213 meter and 20 centimeters, 5.432.40 from Pa Sao – four tracks and several sidetracks. One divided in another one and in use for transshipment of cement. No sign of a semaphore, all electric devices.
The personal style of the staff is bright yellow and blue almost fluorescent, not exactly a treat for the eyes by the way.
Somewhat aside on the maintenance depot, the staff recalls the days they went inspect the track by lorry. The old fashion one with pump mechanism. Two men pushing up en down while on the front seat ‘Mr. Inspector’ gets dressed in a spotless uniform surveyed the rail.
The first platform is under a roof; all trains do stop here, so one expects some elegance on arriving. Leaving on the other hand unfortunate takes place in the open. A weighing machine with platform scale reminds on the German influences on this part of the network. ‘Schember waage’, C. Schember & Sohne A.G. Wien – Atzgersdorf.
The shape and size of the station proofs that there must be more behind the rural sphere of here foreground. As it happens elsewhere the building is tuck away in what seems to be an inner part of the village. Walking towards the heart of the matter, it shows here fierce vibration. The centre of Lamphun is a bustling come together of people from around. A vivid market for all purposes of live. Here’s everything you need; from staple food till the more complicated things for cultivating the land, after all it’s Farmers County.
Real city live always have been a privilege for ‘Bangkokians’ though the ‘Bang’ in ‘kok’ points to the old name; a similarity with ‘ban’ – small village – ‘Bang Makorg’. So who knows what Lamphun will look like a hundred years from now, the high-rise and the outskirts almost touching the once of her sister city Chiang Mai? Thailand on the turn of the next century, another generation will celebrate!

(next week to Sala Maetha)

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday January 21st 2007

Not far from the Lamphun station a big bridge arise above muddy waters. Three frames, a majestic view in the countryside. Before any road was built, a narrow faulty footpath even used by motorcyclist, formed the only connection. Worn-out sleepers as pavement with gaps in between where Mother Nature let the wood fall apart. An extra ordinary event to come across let alone by motorbike. Down there’s a promenade along the waterside, rambler’s path, and needy in line seats with a triangle shaped roof. A kitschy design for the ones who fall in love and feel cozy after dark, because in their cramped homes they hardly have any room for privacy.
Birds of one kind ‘live’ together side by side, if the money fails to build a bigger nest.
Where the line almost crosses an intersection with highway 11, the railway biggest competitor in terms of transportation, goods and persons alike, a huge agricultural complex – big silos – gives it all an urban sphere though Lamphun itself is not near. Enough open space in between to for fill the dream as dreamed before.
Near by, years in a row I spotted the remains of a platform; an unknown station disappeared in history or was it just a simple unpaved rise for what purpose ever? Anyway, a diesel railcar passes with the throttle full open and full of speed, just for a few more minutes. Although the choke is still open, speed reduces; the first hills are there! From hereon mile after mile the train will climb and descend, it’s not before Sila At - exempt a few miles before and after Nakhon Lampang – everything is flat again.

Nong Lom – km 713 + 18 meter and 6 centimeters, 16.195 from Lamphun – two tracks and semaphore. This is a station hard to find others than by train. Somewhere hidden behind a temple and almost nothing else, so the only passengers might be monks. A doubtful question, the station is there for safety reasons, the old block and token system still in use.
The stationmaster is a friendly old man with a lot of stars on his uniform. It must be the job of a life time stationed here. What else you can do than wash the car and wait, wait until another train goes by.
The next halt is Sala Maetha – km 700 + 665 meter and 40 centimeters, 12.331 from Non Lom – three tracks, classic signals. The only thing particular is another weighing machine but this time made in the Netherlands: Jan Molenschot & zoon Breda – Holland. Dutch glory and going Dutch, I think they paid for it themselves. Anyway, one can wonder how a device like this came here in the first place. It is a nice souvenir in Railway wonderland.
I should have stepped on it to see if I had gained some weight. A Dutch treat on a Thai station, also one in what seems to be a hidden corner of the North.
The only other source of entertainment is highway 11 where car, bus and trucks running off and on. Here road and rail will cross each other unleveled and becomes the alignment complete different. A steep slope though not the same, awaits both of them.

(next week to Tha Chom Phu)

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday January 28th 2007

For a train after going under the overpass, it’s more or less the same till the next station. However, the trucks will soon crawling slowly to the summit where a circus of devotion will take place. Blow the horn and making a ‘wai’ for the local ghost who resides at the highest point. While the greeting is done the steering wheel for a few seconds is without hands. It’s a matter of luck or something ‘the ghost’ prevents that there hardly occur any accidents.
Superstition is Thai’s next pride, the realm of animism. One can wonder if such isn’t more important than the imported thoughts of the Buddha himself.
Belief; to accept as real. Real knowledge on the other hand, believe it or not, makes that there’s no need to have faith in anymore only the world would be deprived of a certain charm.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8968/4230059jh2.jpg

Tha Chom Phu – km 691 + 866 meter, 8.799 from Sala Maetha – three tracks, semaphore, a repeating story on another lost place. The more than secondary main road has a yet paved diversion and leads to the station plus a few buildings around. For a real city dweller it almost must be a horror to live here, literally a nightclub but in distress. All ladies dressed in pajamas, after the sun is set everything falls asleep.
It’s all about km 690. A two frame bridge made of reinforced cement includes the girders, forms the ultimate landmark in a tropical surrounding. It could have been the scene for a fairy tale. Beyond the bridge; ‘big monster’ slowly climbing a steep hill, hissing, puffing, belch black smoke and spitting fire.
When the line was opened, somewhere during the second decade of the last century, this must be what the poor peasants have seen.
The landscape far more jungle like than nowadays and the ones who settled themselves in order to cultivate, far off from a civilized world. ‘Far off’; it still seems to be that way when a farmer and his cows passing by while looking at the bridge from aside. A big smile and later a loud laughter. “Farang… here, and he speaks some Thai as well” But best of all the farmer speaks English, not fluent but who cares in this situation. Letting the cows graze and once in a while to Belgium where his sister lives. The world is getting smaller by the day. Anyway, my given name provoked the laughter while one of his cows had the same. Yes, we were introduced but the beast did not look at the beauty let alone talk like Mr. Ed. The only one talking and give some explanation on the same station long ago, was me.
The early afternoon express to Bangkok stranded due to a defunct locomotive. Passengers flocked the platform – for years it did not see so many of them – without any notion why the train stood still and foremost so long. The cultural and character line carefully draws.
The Thai who seems to take the things for granted while ‘Mr. Farang’ wants to know. For him an unexpected ending on what should have been a ride like in a fairy tale. Indeed, a ‘monster’ in need rolling down the hill after waiting, waiting and dusk suddenly fall. Saved by the bell, something smaller stations do not have

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday February 4th 2007

Imagine you have taken the train, local 408 – a three-unit diesel railcar – and slowly finding the way uphill to the highest point of the Northern rail line. What you don’t know but the driver already does, is the fact that one of the engines almost running without supplying enough power. The safety procedure on stations says: two crossing trains may not enter on the same time. One have to wait in front of the entry signal while the other slowly passing the points. Unfortunate 408 is the looser; once the signal is cleared anything moves except the train itself, too steep for a weak engine or the other ones left alone to do the heavy work by themselves.
The next thing you await is a gentle voice: “Ladies and Gentlemen, would you be so kind to leave the train and push!” How else you can reach the top?
The anticipation of a driver who ordered a locomotive to haul the thing.
A spare one from Lampang and sent already to assist the crossing train in going up from the other side. The State Railway of Thailand faces a severe problem if the means for proper maintenance are absent and the staff is on their own to find solutions. Improvisation; for the buff a joy, for a traveler disastrous.

Khun Tan - km 683 + 140 meter, 8.726 from Tha Chom Phu, altitude 578 meter above see level – old signals, three tracks and one side track slightly going up where the main track starts descending towards Chiang Mai. On the other side there’s also still some climbing to be done, the watershed is somewhere inside a tunnel.
The tunnel - 1352.10 meter long - a masterpiece of engineering from the beginning of the last century. Hard labor for Chinese workers addicted to opium.
It must have been a hell of a job to blast solid rock and create a corridor in an inhospitable terrain. A lot of headache for Emile Eisenhofer, a civil German railway engineer with passion for his profession and the country. History prevents him to see the job till the end but later he returned and lived happily many years in Bangkok. After he passed away his ashes where entombed on a special spot not far from the tunnel entrance, and next where the ‘tunnel ghost’ is honoured. So if you pass by make a ‘wai’*, he deserves it. The tomb is a fine memory in time to keep the interest in history alive. Dust we were and dust we shall become but in the meantime let the monument shine and not only to remind us that we are mortal. A man and his wife, two farang, lay peaceful in a total Thai surrounding. ‘Emile’ was born in München 1879 and worked for the Royal State Railway of Siam from 1903 till 1917, the year wherein Siam declared war on Germany and all workers with that nationality were detained. He supervised the tunnel construction from 1914 till 1917. 'Irmgard’ was born in Berlin 1895 and also died in Bangkok, long after her husband was gone, in 1982.
For a railway man it must be a joy to find his last place beside the track and reunite with his beloved. A serene spot far from all sorts of traffic exempt the train. The tranquil pace of a mountain village though a road came near. By all means of disturbance only a minor one. It’s not long ago that at the end of the day the station assistant pulled out a hand made lorry and peddled himself with a pole to the signals in order to illuminate these with a petroleum lamp. Yes, the railway can be fairy-like not only a bridge in a surrealistic landscape. The staff did not much to the things to make it happier than the reality is. A few orderly placed blue painted stones, a few pictures from the past, a pond. The reality must be happy here deprived from all sorts of noise. One can easily speak with each other even on a certain distance without screaming. First when a locomotive enters the scene you hear how noisy these machines actually are.
Khun Tan is also the name of a national park, somewhere in the hills the Railway has several bungalows for rent.
On the station another ‘Molenschot’ also found his final destination. Dutch and Thai together. Chavanich Co. Ltd. Bangkok Type FM 1960 No 18 112 What’s in a name and what reveals a number? The railway captured in facts and figures, there are more miles to go before Lampang will reached.

* The ‘wai’ is a typical Thai way of greeting, all fingers put together in front of the face.

The men with the lamps on his lorry seen here
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/691/4230070mp9.jpg

[Wisarut]

Chavanich Co. Ltd. -> a local trading firm who supplied that Molenschot

Yah, if engines have all workign traction Motor, it woudl climb the mountains ...

Bad thign is that Lampang Depot/Sila At depot are lack of spare parts ... Worse stioll thsoe loc driver are not so competnet as the old loco drivers who have been proparly trained by SRT technocal school (Now cloased until they got approval from the cabinate ot reopen again .... suicne they cabinate want to layoff state enterprise workers as many as possible to sove the budget constrains withotu taking the proper training fo the new workers into skilled labers into account .... :eek: ) ... They keep pushign engines without taking Traction Motors into accoutn so it SHORTEN the lifespan fo traction motors ....

[von Hirschhorn]

Traction Motors...??
The DMU is diesel mechanical driven, that means the engine direct supply the power by means of chain or cardan shaft. (DMU's the latter)
Appearently running with two instead all three enigines is possible as shows a week later on another trip. The problems started already by leaving, that's to say when 408 should had leave it still stood in the yard and the staff tried to do the outmost to get the middle engine running.
And so all the engines did after a while for a few stations but then the front one stops and I expected the same problem on the steep climb from Tha Chom Phu to Khun Tan. However, this time the signal was safe and safe we reached Khun Tan. The problem lays in the fact that leaving from zero on a steep climb is to much for a single or even two engines.
Well, if this is known, why they let 'the poor' stop in front of the entry signal, he should have come in first. After Khun there wouldn't be any problems.
The locomotive that hauled us was uncoupled anyway in Lampang and the train continued the trip with still one engine not functional.

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday February 11th 2007

It is pitch-dark. Years ago, together with a Dutch journalist; I decided to walk back to the station through the tunnel after we ploughed ourselves over the top and finding a way without any already existing path. Adventures things one can do if age is not counting.
The only orientation is a dim light in the distance. Once the breaking point is passed the light becomes bright and brighter.
Complete silence, only the hollow sound of dripping water from the ceiling and the question if I was sure that there won’t be any train entering now. As far as we could feel there’s not much space between the tunnel wall and track. Just after we left the entrance on the station side, a train did as well. Timing is a must in railway land. We even had to run to catch ‘the beggar’ in order to reach Chiang Mai.
408 go the opposite direction. After leaving with roaring engines soon the choke can close, it’s rolling down, down and breaking almost till the next station. Steel bridges, three in a row, showing the difference. While the rail deck is without girders or railing, hanging out the window gives the sight a magnificent feeling. Fear of height would punish itself by not looking in another direction.
The mountainous ‘jungle’ conquered by train, the quest for a suitable terrain for an alignment without to have using a rack.
That’s why the railway line makes a big detour compared with the much later build highway and in the last decade extended to four lanes. Rail can only think about it, there’s hardly enough space for a single track or the whole area should be passed underneath in a substantial tunnel. Something ‘planners’ always dream about, a fruitful event passing of the night but in most cases only that.

Mae Tan Noi – km 671 + 808 meter and 65 centimeters, 11.125 from Khun Tan though there it says: 11.341 – Two tracks situated in a long corner, old signals and a two storey building, it looks like a little church. More fun for a fan: ‘religious rail’. (Reli rail)
Actually it’s a split level house; down the station with a classic interior, upstairs four people living less organized, railway men I presume. They couldn’t have chosen a more remote place to settle themselves. Serene tranquility; not much happens here. Once a day the 408 and on the other track the 51 if the latter runs on time. While making notes for this part surprisingly it did, so for a moment the railway men are occupied.
Hardly anybody noticed a farang disembarking together with his bicycle. Long not seen here or even maybe never before. Fortunate you can’t sneak away without satisfying the curiosity of the staff. To reach the road one has to climb over both tracks, this station is not accessible on another way.
One last feature caught my eye; a small closed wooden shed with again a weighing machine inside. Bascule Automatique Vivax Paris / Engineering supply Ltd. Pty. Bangkok. Weathered letters for whom who likes statistics and proof that he really got off here!

Khun Tan seen from the tunnel mouth:
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4968/4230053xc6.jpg

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday, February 18th 2007

Huai Rian – km 665 – a simple ‘stop’ along the track, sign nor signals only a smart wooden waiting room in case of one of the few who lives here decides to take the train in the rainy season. For the story of these stations I am riding my bike but the road is uphill so I safe myself going down and the climb again in order to reach the next station.
I leave the glimpse of this one as seen before; from the train.
Pang Muang – km 660 + 998 meter and 50 centimeters, 10.824 from Mae Tan Noi – two tracks, semaphore and also a two storey building, same style.
‘Am Arsch der Welt’ as the Germans says, it’s too impolite for a correct translation. Let say it was a muddy experience to reach the building amidst nothing and nowhere. Desperately on the look for ‘the inn’ were the innkeeper would serve a drink for a thirsty heart. A simple road stall all there is and the water even free. For years to come there’s something to talk about after refreshing and I left for the next station.
Hang Chat – km 654 + 895 meter and 30 centimeters, 6.125 from Pang Muang – three tracks, wires and moving arms, another two storey building but different in style.
On the wall the most particular sign: 316 meter above see level. Like the station master explains; no worry for a tsunami! Next door a road maintenance depot. It’s a lust for the eye seeing the men coming by on motorized lorries with a specific sound. A rough ride anyway on wheels without suspension. The last surprise is no amazement any longer. A weighing device hidden in the barn. The staff persists to step on it, almost in the end I’ve got a Dutch treat. My weight…? Well, the etiquette prescribes it’s better to be silent about.

(next week the last strech to Lampang)

[dick]

I thought that Hang Chat is Km. 654.85 and not 645.85

[von Hirschhorn]

Khawp khun krap Dick, a typo, I wrote it right in the first place. What would it be without a close reader.

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday, February 25th

It is an almost flat stretch – only 45 meter difference in highness between the two stations – a train is speeding to the final destination of this part of the tales. At km 645 + 125 meter once there was another station: Ban Haeo, the signs are still there.
A magnificent steel bridge means town is near. The sound of steel on steel as the wheels slowly rolling towards the station.
A warm welcome is given by the staff with a green flag; every time a train arrives it seems to be a joyful event.
Nakhon Lampang – km 642 + 293 meter [269 above see level] and 33 centimeters, 12.670 from Hang Chat – classic layout and a nice designed building with a lot of wood carved decorations. Six tracks and a rusty seventh one behind the signal box.
Many sidetracks, a yard with character.
The outer platform is a bonsai design mixed with artifacts. A mechanically moved front seated inspection lorry and almost on real size a horse and carriage, Lampang’s trademark. Further several miniatures featuring the ‘highlights’ from the surrounding like the Khun Tan tunnel include a piece of wobbling miniature rail as well.
Most of all there’s the turntable. Nr.280 Joseph Vögele Mannheim 1928. The whole story seems to be between Joseph and Joseph, a German coincidence I guess. This ‘table’ is electric driven, no longer blood sweat and tears for the staff while turning. It’s situated in front of a roundhouse with nine places. The taste of steam is still in the air. Once it must have been a busy scene, the engines full of live waiting in anticipation for the next job. The elegancy of seeing them turning around in a whirling stream of escaping steam. If one wasn’t romantic already, he or she will be on the spot only by thinking of it. Unfortunate the glance is gone, the place forlorn, even the kettle of crane 25 did not feel fire for a long time though it survived all the ‘ordinary’ steam engines.
I can recall the day it was still operating something not to say of the others. Thomas Smith & Sons (Rodley) Ltd. Leeds England
Factory number 11208 / 11211. The latter a two axle flat car for supporting the crane’s slewing arm when lowered. Two separated vehicles, together a brilliant combination, an engineering relict in time. It’s plinthed in a more or less dilapidated condition outside the former workshop where inside yet unconnected rail remember the days whereon engines were take apart and overhauled.
Sitting on the yard becomes a sentimental journey and hopeful dream alike. This is an excellent spot for a ‘living’ museum and once in a while with ‘steam’ to Khun Tan or even as far as Chiang Mai. It’s a matter of organization and pure interest others than personal gain in terms of money. However, this is Thailand and the latter more culture than exception.
The sun will set over rail many times, the points are in a right direction, in dreams only the train goes by.

Steam crane 25 in her better days seen here
http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/5899/stoomkraan25zo4.jpg


(next week Lampang the last one)

[von Hirschhorn]

Sunday, March 4th 2007

The last tale begins on the scale, another ‘Dutch machine’ but here fully in operation, a lot of parcels leaving Lampang by train.

Jan Molenschot & Zn. Breda – Holland
Capacity 500 kg
Type FM 1955 No 18 408

At least now we know the man’s surname. It’s nice to notice that none of these machines are equal to another in the way the names are written. Anyway, this piece of Dutch engineering is functional already for fifty two years, so never say the ‘Dutch’ weighing less.
On the station foreground the 728 rest majestically on a plinth and this time shines. A good example how to preserve the past, probably under the care of the municipality and not the railways where a lot of things these days are battered. The beautification of the city.
This steam engine belongs to the Japanese C56 class. Many of these wood burners where shipped to Thailand and did their tour of duty. Quit a number survived the slaughter; even two still run able as far as it goes on worn out sleepers.
Others are plinthed or lost out of sight after being removed for whatever reason. Hidden somewhere on the dark side of the Thai Railways and maybe after all became a prey of the cutter’s torch. Old ‘steam horses’, when the gallop is gone they have to die. The man with the mallet is merciless.
Talking about horses; Lampang is the place to be. The city still sticks to the old mode of transportation: horse and carriage although more over as a Thai touristy venture.
The capital of the province with the same name is not the most visit place by foreigners but lately put on the map of some tour operators. However, it’s worth to go and see.
Frankly spoken there’s not much to stroll but if you look around after a pleasant ride in one of the carriages you see what Thailand can be others than busy city live.
Down the river ‘Wang’ it bears the best of yesteryears living in well preserved old houses.
It’s a misconception that only the highlights, promoted in glossy brochures, are the only interesting things. We are spoiled or even brain washed by certain media with the idea that one must have seen ‘this’ and ‘that’ otherwise… A willing sheep following the herd.
Break ground, do something different! ‘Le tour d’Lampang’ will certainly end at the station. Here’s your chance.
Take the 408, get off at the first more important halt, stay a night and continue this next day. For sure you’ll see this land from another angle.
Back to the yard, back to the turntable where it can starts all over again. Turn around or stop the ‘table’ at any direction, as long as there’s rail feel free to go.

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/125/4230012sp2.jpg

[von Hirschhorn]

For the moment this will be the end of the Turntable tales, A follow up will come later but not any longer on a weekly base and also not from station to station, only the more important ones and beginning in Lampang.
The title of the new series: The tales of train 408 :)

[Thaipepper]

Dear Mr. Von Hirschhorn:

While researching my paternal grandfather's Hakka Chinese, Dutch citizenship and life/work history in the early 1900's with Mr. Eisenhofer on the internet I came upon your postings #22 & 24 with special interest.

I tried responding to your wondering about the Jan Mlenschot soon Breda Hollen weigh machine while connecting through Narita Airport from S Francisco to Bangkok yesterday through the United Airlines Lounge internet and wasn't sure if it ever reached you? I'm heading up to Chiangmai this Saturday March 17 afternoon and wondering if you maybe around to chat over possible explanations for origins/sourcing of your keen observation of the unexpected equipments. My cell 081-701-6793. Would be great to meet you in person.....where is your Turntable meeting spot?

[von Hirschhorn]

Thank you for the reply, by all means I went to a Internet shop to check my mail because a defunct modem at home prevent me from the web for several days in a row now. (will be repaired soon)
It's almost noon and I do not expect that you see this mail on time.
I have nothing on hand and although it is a Saturday we can meet on the table at the station, or the station as such. I'll give a few calls, after all Chiang Mai is not that big.

[von Hirschhorn]

The tales of train 408 will start somewhere in July.
In between the writer is in Holland, another place, another railway but far beyond the scope of this website.

[von Hirschhorn]

Haze hangs over rail; a misty semaphore has lifted the arm, all safe. A three-unit diesel railcar slowly passes the points; train 408 arrives at Nakhon Lampang.
On the platform a handful passengers prepare themselves for boarding, I am wondering how far they will go, this is the only daily ‘local’ between Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan with stops on almost every station in between. This is the perfect way to see some of the country side and railway infrastructure from another perspective although a time consuming momentum. I am on board already and whom who are wondering about the stops between Chiang Mai and Lampang, read the ‘turntable tales’ or old friends meet again. (see above) First some omitted information from that series for the alert reader. The station of Chiang Mai also has a rusty looking weighing device, made in France. B-Trayvou Usines de la Mulatiere – Lyon How lovely it would have been if Jan Molenschot & Zn. had supplied ‘the thing’, Chiang Mai easily could turn into a Dutch settlement – in certain Soi’s already she is - for the writer and his scales. Obviously the railway management by the time was keen enough to divide the purchases amongst the suppliers to avoid favoritism.
The platform remains in part IX once had a name: ‘Doi Ti’, km 724.
And now a new series and a new look at the particular things frozen in time. That’s exactly what the Thai stations and railways are; frozen in time. The sphere of yesteryear travel perfect preserved in today’s hectic world. No more complaints about the deterioration of trains, staff and service alike but an enjoyable ride. Past and present united in a certain charm for unbiased eyes.
After a while 408 will ‘hit the road’ again, the railroad of course and in all here simplicity still going strong. Nothing to shame about or you must only think in terms of the train goes ‘grande vitesse’. Quick, fast, faster… high-speed.
What one really need is not always be in a hurry, slowdown, in a lifetime it does not matter if you reach a destination a few minutes earlier or later.

Here train 408 seen at Lamphun Station
http://i11.tinypic.com/6cwxwti.jpg

[von Hirschhorn]

It looks like an old engine and indeed it is, probably the last still running survivor of a series successful diesel locomotives from America; ‘Davenport’. The ones with one cab, coupled heck to heck and by the time build – in the fifties of the last century – a modern concept.
This is how ‘old horses’ ended up before the men with the hammer get hold of them; shunting coaches. Nakhon Lampang is not any longer a remote village, so it deserves her own destination boards. The growth of the city goes hand in hand with the preservation of an old machine. Keep him running; it’s not only a lust for the eye but an ear as well. The sound like an old coffee-grinder, the ones our grandmothers used a long time ago. Most of the day the engine stays idle near the turntable but be there if it’s show time. A joyful reflection from behind the windows of train 408 bound to leave the premises. A yard with character and by all means more vivid than the one of Chiang Mai, despite of being my hometown. Railheads could be dull, especially when they start loosing hair. It is like a vain full of fresh blood at the beginning, the heart – Hua Lamphong – but less fresh on the end.
The sound of a bell, three firm strokes, and the more or less amateurish build miniatures on the middle platform disappear slowly in the wake of a train. The switchman in the signal box looks content; the game of lever and chain again shows bright results. However, only for a while, as soon as 408 passed a busy crossing there will be no further movements for a few hours. A name board – cast cement same style as the ones at the station but a size bigger – on arrival must proof a big city is near. 408 goes in opposite direction with the throttle full open and takes advantage of the flat stretch for a few more miles, on the horizon dooms a new mountain range. Not much later the engines are still roaring but the train seems to be in tow uphill.
The stations in between are a repeating story. Nong Wua Thao - km 637.41 - two tracks and semaphore. Mae Tha - km 628.45 - with a lot of spare rail beside even a bending machine; they come in straight pieces from the factory but after all there’re curves. Sala Pha Lat - km 622.20 - for a change three tracks and an upcoming oil train waiting in patience till 408 has passed. Huai Rak Mai - km 614.15 - a simple stop with a shed along the main track. Not manned and not beloved, well, only for a lost local who takes the train and cannot return on the same day. Mae Mo - km 609.16 - three tracks, classic equipment and of course a ‘Molen’, one of the ways the company advertise themselves on their scales. This is number 18136, build in 1964.
The rusty remains of a water tower still stand tall between the tracks. It must be a while ago since it has taste water and feel the heat of steam. A nice shaped canopy, same size as the building, gives the impression if you just arrived at a more sophisticated place.
Deception, the station stands on its own. The area is famous for lignite mines something now unnoticed on the yard since rail transportation of the stuff is a passed station. The rails are overgrown, a garden of joy for an archaeologist always wondering about the traces of the past. Brown coal, it always reminds me on the former DDR, a winter day in East Berlin and the pregnant smell and inhalation of the unhealthy smoke escaped from the chimneys. The only art of activity for the rail these days is a side spur full of cement bogies.

Mae Mo, I have seen it all. A few dwellings and a local we sell everything shop. Not exactly a location for holiday makers. However, if you like to refresh your city energy, there’s a big power plant but take a tent or so, I did not spotted any hotel.
While 408 and 407 – according the timetable - cross each other at this station, an insider tip if by all means you want to linger a little longer. Down the road, left side, there’s a minibus station, line 2390. After a pleasant ride for forty baht you’ll find yourself back in Lampang, a city with everything on hand for a traveller with sense.

Here loco 530 in possition along Lampang middle platform
http://i16.tinypic.com/4vi8o09.jpg

[von Hirschhorn]

Ban Pin - km 663 + 860 meter. If a Thai architect came up with this brilliant idea, he had a provoking mood, or was it Louis Weiler and his co-workers who left the mark by the time of constructing the railway for the locals to be wondered. The building is anything except Thai design. Style wood be a big word for the general situation. Beside temples, spirit houses and crematoria, one hardly can call the construction of buildings in Thailand a manner or ‘I do as I want’ must be considered as such. I disagree on that view. A style represents thinking and forms even with differences a harmonious entity and that’s more than a building only fit for the purpose. No complaints, every country deserves the way they build.
But when you live here sometimes there’s a sense of seeing something different – Sehnsucht – the lovely build inner parts of particular old small cities in Germany or Holland; ‘Oudewater’ and ‘Bautzen’ will do, just a random choice.
Today I’ll be satisfied, in the midst of nothing a beautiful station building, enough to enjoy the time between two trains in the same direction and have a closer look at the details. Indeed a very fine piece of German construction work, only the colours are not the same any longer as seen on an old picture. Bluish-grey and this resemblance even more a long forgotten German atmosphere. A rural station with all the ins and outs that comes along, foremost tranquillity and the staff who by all means is proud to serve the place and try to keep it adorable. For the rest there’s not much.
A living quarter on wheels; two old covered goods put on a piece of rail connected by a balcony in between, makes a nice home for whom who doesn’t care about the ultimate luxury, or just a simple shelter for ‘a buff’ with more than a dream about trains only. Five sets are places beside the end of the platform. The other feature is an abandoned signal box on stilts, it still stands there deprived from the wires once came out of her belly. It is a nice balance for the architecture as a whole, a momentum in time.

A look at Ban Pin beyond the station foreground makes clear why it never will be put on the tourist map though it has more to offer than Mae Mo. I think still not enough.

A clean swept street along a row houses with shop and the certainty that nothing will disturb the peace. Well; a few youngsters on a motorbike always are willing not to obey. “He you!” Remarkable words so often heard once the paved tourist way left behind. The rest they shout is presumably not a treat for the ear, fortunate mine is deaf for local talk.

The station building alone is not worth to make a detour from the so called ‘highlights’ of this country. The Tourist Authority of Thailand definitely likes to promote other things and that’s a pity, after all this is real Thailand and the way it develops these days, totally devoted to the ‘Coca Cola culture’. In case this should fail people are still capable to make an almost seamless switch to their own roots although I know a Thai who at first would have great difficulties with that. The urban Thai, a man from Bangkok, so much longer deprived from his rural background, or as I see it; a lifetime with the spirits.
Not an animist out of proof but convinced by the superstitious talk that goes from mouth to mouth and generation on generation. Something in the city now has waned but in the province one still sings the song out of a full heart.
Hopefully they do not consider me as a spirit, a German ghost on the brink to be human for a while, who walks around the building and praise the existence. Sometimes things are too good to be true.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6924/banpinspoorwoningot9.jpg

Old picture of Ban Pin
http://i17.tinypic.com/54b0u0y.jpg

[von Hirschhorn]

Den Chai – km 533 plus 947 meter and 20 centimeter – two roofed platforms, four tracks and more behind the signal box. It still remains a question where exact the 7.87 inches spot could be located on the station ground. Both name boards, normally near both ends of the first platform, shows an arrow pointing downwards but since the same date is written on it, the arrow points only for the show. Statistics, is there really any traveller who reeds this with sincerity?
The station is situated just outside the village almost in the bottom of the province Phrae and let itself appear as important, in many ways distinguished from the rural approach. An old building like a warehouse on the other side of the forecourt gives a rough idea about the business long-ago. In the hardly motorized days rail was the only life line and Den Chai a turning point for people even as far as from Nan. This turned bleak these days and the railway became a relict or a living museum from the past.
No objections what so ever, this is the way a museum should be; a vivid artefact, not on display behind glass but weathered and proud to serve the one who brings a visit and like to take a ride. A bit rust here and there, the signs of a working live but above all that live is not always shining and free of dust. A system like this doesn’t need a modern manager with more attention for the figures than the facts let alone the question if he (or she in the wake of modern times) ever experienced a train from the inside. This system needs an impassioned historian or dedicated engineer who energetic with the things available will reach a maximum result. Lets be honest; bringing the State Railways of Thailand as it is today to a modern standard would cost a fortune and could be paid only if quite a lot of other things in this country should not be done. I am afraid the train remains the black sheep of the family.
Anyway, also here an old Davenport still for fill the duty of shunting, number 535 and painted in bright colours.
For my collection of scales the building houses a ‘Schember Waage’ and on the yard a dismantled turntable with the question did it ever been in place? Far more important are the views from platform number two; a row classic signals and from certain angle all arms visible in full length.
What will happen with this authentic scene and serene tranquillity if the Trans Asia Railway – TAR; and so far only on the drawing board – will transform this yard into a huge junction. How the gauge will look like, be it standard or still meter? The former means transhipment, a waist of time and energy. Much of this proposed line between Singapore and the Chinese province Yunnan is still uncertain. There are different route options. One is a branch to Chiang Rai and beyond, starting here. One thing is clear; China already started to build a new link in standard to Hekou on the Vietnamese boarder as a replacement for the existing line on 1000 mm and build by the French in the beginning of the last century. Someone has to start somewhere and the Chinese are railway builders ‘par excellence’, fast and reliable, so may be they can do the job as a whole.
It brings us back to the days of Emile Eisenhofer and his tunnel at Khun Tan, who did that job with opium addicted Chinese workers. Other times, different approach, this times no more heroism for the man who’ll do it.

A living museum and ready to move
http://i13.tinypic.com/6f9orqx.jpg

[Wisarut]

What will happen with this authentic scene and serene tranquillity if the Trans Asia Railway – TAR; and so far only on the drawing board – will transform this yard into a huge junction. How the gauge will look like, be it standard or still meter? The former means transhipment, a waist of time and energy. Much of this proposed line between Singapore and the Chinese province Yunnan is still uncertain. There are different route options. One is a branch to Chiang Rai and beyond, starting here. One thing is clear; China already started to build a new link in standard to Hekou on the Vietnamese boarder as a replacement for the existing line on 1000 mm and build by the French in the beginning of the last century. Someone has to start somewhere and the Chinese are railway builders ‘par excellence’, fast and reliable, so may be they can do the job as a whole.
It brings us back to the days of Emile Eisenhofer and his tunnel at Khun Tan, who did that job with opium addicted Chinese workers. Other times, different approach, this times no more heroism for the man who’ll do it.

(Next episode between Den Chai and Sila At)


Thai governemnt has to borrow either goo old JBIC or CITIC to build the rialway route to Chiang Rai along with massive rehab & realign the track from Ban dan to Denchai ....

Either way, the creditors may have to pack up local contractors with connection with the creditor country to work on such a project .... Either ITD to CKC ....

[von Hirschhorn]

Either this, either that … not the Railways only, the country as a whole has to act in a more adult way and this means foremost leaders who’ll put interest and well fare for the nation above that of themselves. The Thai Railways now looks alike what we call in Holland ‘een onderschoven kind’. The literal translation is not important it also means the business is neglected.

[von Hirschhorn]

Sorry Guys,

It seems to turn around. At the beginning of these tales of train 408 I wrote:
No more complaints about the deterioration of trains, staff and service alike but an enjoyable ride. Past and present united in a certain charm for unbiased eyes.
Unfortunate my eyes are not unbiased any longer and by closing them you can’t see anything at all. So once in a while the poetry have to make place for the daily facts and the way we handle them or in certain cases handle them not at all. The phrase it’s all up to you is a killer for sure. It’s all up to us as long as there are still some senses left.

[von Hirschhorn]

‘House for sale’ - Mae Phuak, km 528 + 220 meter - at a simple stop only but once a station with now barricaded windows and door.
Forlorn or waiting for a new inhabitant who like to spent his days in perfectly silence with once in a while a train passing by, unfortunate also in the late and earlier hours. The only ‘stoppers’ are 407 and 408, hardly any demand because taking the train for some shopping in town is out of the question since there’s no same day return.
Do not blame it on the train, living far from the so-called civilization takes a toll.
On this stretch of the Northern line one is able to see some of the pristine woods still there. Admire Mother Nature in her finest beauty.
You city dwellers cut off from all sorts of scenery, take a close look, take a breath in both ways and be aware of the potation but moreover potency. This is what we still have and yet not lost by the game of gain; human interest!
It is less than hundred years ago that the North was almost one big greenery and our granddads started to reap the forests from their most precious things; ‘teak’ in this matter.We were stupid or at least short sighted and hardly anything learned since. Do not bother the railway, it winds itself peacefully and perfectly through what’s left.
By far more enough, one easily could think sitting at the open window and let what seems an endless waving green goes by.
There will be never enough, enough, most is undergrowth - yes green - but a lot of precious trees are gone.
This stretch also shelter two tunnels. One is situated near Khao Phlung – km 516 – and 362 meter plus 44 centimeter long. The other one as well the last one of the line is ‘Phang Tub Kop’ – km 513 – and only 120 meter and nine centimeter in length. The centimetres makes the difference but hardly noticed especially when you sit in the front of a diesel rail car and see how 408 is swallowed into the tunnel mouth and undigested come out again. Railway and poetry, are there happier ways to travel?
Two kilometres before Sila At – the descending done and running flat again on full speed – there’s another stop; Tha Sao with the signs that a built-up area is near. Also here once a complete station and everything it brings along. I can remember a time consuming manoeuvre for an unscheduled crossing of two trains while the second track was occupied with a sole covered goods. It’s all tear down only the main track remains and even the change of token became a task for the next station.

Sila At – km 487 + 520 meter – two station tracks and a huge yard at least for Thai meanings. It’s almost a known and trustworthy sight to see a Davenport again, number 527, for a duty of shunting. Three pieces so far survived the slaughter and wonderfully are fitting within the museum concept as written about in the story of Den Chai. This also concerns the plinthed past. Steam engine 274, a 2-4-6 and build by Hanomag in 1928 with the factory number: 10614
The funny thing about steamers put on a plinth is the fact that one has to travel a lot to see all the artefacts displayed. There was one in Chiang Mai and Nakhon Lampang; the next will be Phitsanulok.
Another ‘Schember Waage’, together with the steamer, makes my German day or more precise; the scale is Austrian.
Just a name, language the same.
Behind the signal box there’s a single side spur with a dangerous diagonal open road crossing and hence a separate smaller yard. The outer track is completely filled with all sorts of goods cars, out of service of no longer any service for. Rail away and dream about the day business was still flourishing.
If the scrap metal prize would rise further due to demand – especially while China is booming in building and thus need steel – it seems to be worth to sell them piece by piece and make money out of them again though in this case only once more. On one hand it would deprive Rot Fai Thai from a certain charm, on the other it looks cleaned and clear, only nothing left to dream about.

Here 274 seen on plinth
http://i10.tinypic.com/6gswje0.jpg

[Wisarut]

Khun Bob,

I've watch a cinma produced by SRT in the Year 1965-1966 and see Mixed train carrying tangerine from Denchai to Bangkok ... The tangerine in several boxex originaly came from the orchards in Nan though ... This movie is now at National Film Archieves

[GWR]

In Memory of the Eisenhofers

German Ambassador remembers

Reinhard Hohler
Photos by Michael Vogt

In the early hours of June 14, German Ambassador H.E. Andreas von Stechow led a delegation to the northern end of the ‘Khun Tan Railway Tunnel’ in Lamphun Province, to honour the lives of a German couple in Thailand - the Eisenhofers.

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/pictures/f2-1-088.jpg

[The train which finally made it through the tunnel.]

German honorary consul, Hagen Dirksen and the German ambassador gave a brief overview of the life and work of German railway engineer, Emil Eisenhofer, who was born in 1879 in Munich and who died in 1962 in Bangkok.

Emil was responsible for the digging of the ‘Khun Tan’ tunnel during 1914-1917 in the service of the Royal State Railways and after a break of more than 12 years happily lived in Thailand thereafter with his wife Irmgard (see Chiang Mai Mail Vol. III, No. 17, page 7).

Having been informed by Chiang Mai old-hand Major Roy Hudson (UK) some years ago of the state of the memorial to Emil and Irmgard, (who died at the age of 87 some 20 years after the death of her husband in Bangkok), the German embassy in Bangkok raised the funds needed to renovate it.

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/pictures/f2-2-088.jpg

[This photo is almost surreal and could have been taken 50 years ago. A beautiful Thai Lady with flowers in her hair at the Khun Tan Railway Station with the old locomotive arriving behind.]

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/pictures/f2-3-088.jpg

[A vehicle suddenly appeared from the tunnel. The noise was enough to have been mistaken for a train.]

Roy Hudson who came to Chiang Mai in 1957 was able to provide some more intriguing details about the German couple, mentioning that Emil Eisenhofer had built a teak bungalow, two and a half km up the hill in Doi Khun Tan National Park which is still in use as a government rest house.

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/pictures/f2-4-088.jpg

[The picturesque Khun Tan Railway Station is part of the Doi Khun Tan National Park.]

When Thailand declared war on Germany in 1917, Emil and his colleagues were interned, spending six months in Thailand and two years in Ahmednagar in India. Emil Eisenhofer returned to Germany and then accepted a job in Turkey, shortly before meeting Irmgard.

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/pictures/f2-5-088.jpg

[Dr. Hans Penth, HE Andreas von Stechow, Hagen Dirksen and Volker Fischer walking through the old station and exploring the old fashioned equipment.]

After being in Turkey for three years, out of the blue Emil received a draft for 14 months pay from the Royal Railway Department as reparation for the loss of his job and personal belongings. He was so delighted that he left Turkey and returned to Germany to find a way back to Thailand. Major Hudson even had the pleasure of meeting Irmgard Eisenhofer, when she invited him to the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. Being British, he asked for tea, but she was drinking beer as she never forgot her old home and the German custom.

After the hour long memorial ceremony and a short stop at the Khun Tan Viewpoint Restaurant along National Road 11 to view old reproduction photographs of the railway construction, H.E. Andreas von Stechow thanked the party for joining him on this extraordinary excursion. May Emil and Irmgard Eisenhofer rest in peace!

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/pictures/f2-6-088.jpg

[The official inauguration, done by H.E. the German ambassador to Thailand, Andreas von Stechow and honorary German consul, Hagen Dirksen.]

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/pictures/f2-7-088.jpg

[In memorial of Emil and Irmgard Eisenhofer (from left) Monika Fischer, Dr. Hans Penth, Dr. Naengnoi Penth, Khun Vitchien, inspector of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT); Major Roy Hudson, Chumpol Sucharoen, superintending engineer of SRT; HE Andreas von Stechow, Volker Fischer, Wanphen Sakdatorn, Hagen Dirksen, Narit and Siarun Jivasantikarn, president of Lampang Technical College, Kritsanant Palarit, executive deputy managing director CTI Holding BKK and his wife Khun Bua plus some flower maidens kneeling in front.]

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[The first view of the memorial with the ‘Khun Tan Tunnel’ in the background.]

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/pictures/f2-9-088.jpg

[Honorary German consul, Hagen Dirksen, during his memorial address.]

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/088/features.shtml#hd2

Some further Eisenhofer history from the same publication:

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/079/tours.shtml

[von Hirschhorn]

Thanks GWR for posting this article.
This I read and saw before but good to have it here now, where it belongs, it’s certain one of the many miscellaneous things the Northern line do have. (And not to be overseen)
Recently I visited the scene guiding a small Thai group conducted by a Thai lady in search for links related to her grandfather who turned out to be one of the suppliers of railway hardware to Mr. Eisenhofer.
Three years are gone since the German Embassy gave effort to keep the past alive, three years wherein wind and weather did their job. It would be nice if after a while they – ore someone else - show the same interest and keep the monument in a pristine condition.
A small light at the end of the tunnel; on our way to the site we picked up a local authority, to her I explained the problem of neglecting; she took note of that.

[von Hirschhorn]

Uttaradit – km 485 + 333 meter – two tracks, a fence and many tracks behind. By far the most ugly building ever seen, it resemblance a factory – here we produce travellers – with a roofed platform that looks like a football field, in length anyway. The stationmaster easily could use a bicycle or put roller skates on. How nice it would be; the man loud shouting or blowing a whistle: “Make place, make place,”
while waving with the green flag or red in case of any danger.
This without any doubt would give some entertainment and extra charm on today’s rail travel, like the dancing traffic ‘coppers’ in Bangkok.
At the end there they stand; a small one and a tall one, ‘Laurel’ and ‘Hardy’ amongst the signals. Classic semaphores connected by wire with ‘the box’ on stilts at the other end of the platform in front of the old station building, well preserved and a joy for the eye.
When king Rama V visited the place in 1891, it was only a small port of trade on the river ‘Nan’ and called: ‘Bang Pho Tha It’, a sub district – tambon – under the rule of Phichai, a town nearby. The child outgrown the mother but to say it becomes an adorable adult is something open for a few questions. Started as a trading place it still plays the game, a bit dull for sure after dark or there must be hidden places. Where to go for information?
Second hand use of old flanged wheeled vehicles long out of service, seems to be an illuminated idea and serves two ways. First; there’s cheap space and second; a certain historical aspect is preserved. Three in old colours painted coaches – the ones with an open platform on the end – as advertised ‘Tourist Information Centre’, standing on an unconnected piece of rail not far from the former station building.
One of them is a ‘Cravens’ from England and build in 1922 but on borrowed trucks from ‘Utosonomiya’ Japan 1954. The two others are ex BTV’s (luggage van) Nr. 17 and unknown, no visible sign left. There’s a fourth coach placed in a ninety degree angle on again a separate unconnected track. I presume a ‘Cravens’ too, this one a bottom and roof only, a nice open car and always willing to receive the local brass band for a concert at dawn with military tunes.
All doors closed, completely deserted, and the question arises if they only show interest in tourism on certain days, if the office will be open at all. Like so much in this country new initiatives turn into an amateurish entrepreneurship. Full of enthusiasm one started but after completion it slowly fade away from all strengths of live. However, it’s part of a small recreation area along the main line, so sit down and enjoy the sight of man made scenery and three old coaches plus a handicapped.
The ones with trains in mind only for sure would like to go behind the fence and have a look. The depot, or as I see it; the yard a bric-a-brac with things once proud rolled on rail.
Glory in decay, stored away in wind and weather, in anticipation for better days. Nothing changed, my first visit here in 1985 showed on the tracks an endless row dismantled steam engines, the last survivors of the kind, or more precise; only the frames, wheels and rods ready for cutting to pieces and put into a melting pot. One should not have any remorse; after all it was immaterial although some soft minded rail fans do think different about that.
There’s a turntable – Fuji car Japan 1959 – so that tale runs parallel with train 408 who just left the station exact one hour behind schedule. Running on time seems to be asked to much these days and for sure you cannot blame all delays to the single track only.
There is something wrong with our care, attitude, and the way we let it slip away. Me and Buddha for all, no wonder why things sometimes have a sloppy shape! In his days one sets himself under a tree and first did the thinking. No, you do not have to become enlightened or searching for a holy grail, just a small but certain input can give a great result.

Here the signals are seen
http://i12.tinypic.com/4vqrnh5.jpg

[von Hirschhorn]

Imagine a well filled ‘local’ and you the only ‘farang’ on board – it so easy to escape your country men after all this is not the tourist way - line; yes, local; no! The look of peaceful peasants, beyond expectation, bewitches or admired, whatever.
The farang goes off at a remote station, more questions.
Wang Khapi – km 476 + 820 meter. Even the stationmaster has a second thought in let the train depart in case the foreigner might wake up and knows he made a mistake. Non what so ever, I have been here before keen in industrial archaeology. The signs were still there; a cut-off branch but clearly visible. That at first inspection is completely gone. History destroys her own appearance in the course of time.
With a smile his ‘masters’ voice says that there‘ll be no more trains today. “Mai mee panha” (no problem at all), the perfect Thai phrase you should know if you like to travel and not be afraid of unexpected things.
Beside the pair 407/408 another one stops, so this Uttaradit hinterland is more or less good be served. Contrary to the train I just left, my going is run on schedule, no unforeseen delays. No other traces either on my pleasant walk towards a sugar factory outside the village self. From this industrial unit once a 750 mm network connected the cane fields. Cane fields forever, the endless waving in the wind like grain.
The SRT connection was in meter gauge and had a special engine. The sweet remembrances of steam preserved on plinth near the entrance of the still operating plant. During my first visit – March 1988 – they were there in the same position and condition, in that perspective nothing changed.
Only one thing; a half mile or so beyond the works and on the main road [1040] towards Uttaradit, there was a level crossing with some rail still in the pavement. The best proof a historian can get. It doesn’t need any further explanation; meanwhile this is neat repaired.
The two steamers are all that remained. The 750 mm locomotive carries Nº 1, a 0-4-2T and build by Baguley in 1921with the works number: 2009. This engine once runs at Ko Kha with the Thai Industry Promotion Co. Ltd. under the number 8 and probably is an ex of the Bang Bua Thong line (Thonburi – Wat Rahaeng) near Bangkok. The other engine is Nº 10, 1000 mm, a 2-4-0T by Krauss – Germany from 1908 with works number: 5987. This is the ex Paknam Railway locomotive Nº 4 ‘Samrong’. The boiler however, is from O & K 12607 build in 1935 and once belongs to the Ko Kha engine Nº 5. Facts and figures; it let you look different at the artefacts displayed. One has to dive deep into the archives to retrieve the truth about the operation, maybe in the albums of long forgotten fans there even might turned up a nice picture.
Here standing at the gate and looking to an industrial landscape without running rail, it’s only recollection, knowing that once a tiny locomotive with all her power blew the horn and brought in a long row tiny lorries as well filled to the brim with sugar cane.
On the road again, the next destination always lays in front of us.

Both engines are seen here:
http://i4.tinypic.com/4469ngn.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/6c620kg.jpg

[von Hirschhorn]

Someone said: ‘forget Phichai, it is very small and has no guesthouse let alone a decent hotel’. Station exploration is one thing but a bed and a bit of comfort another. The fancy Dan who first count the stars before at the counter waving with his credit card, better skip the place. One can travel or travel, the word is almost the same only the meaning a world of differences. Curiosity has to wait a while, first there’s another station. Ban Dara Junction – km 458 + 310 meter.
Train 408 dropped me in the knowledge that the coming hours will be filled with almost nothing. Thailand on the move obviously gets rid of the spirit here. Indeed nothing moves, time for reflection. The function of a junction seems to be waiting for a train running on the branch, in this case to Sawan Khalok, only once a day to and from.
Years ago I did the same but by that time it was a hauled mixed local from Phitsanulok running at a more convenient time. This – and that here – gave the spectacle of reversing the locomotive while the branch fork-off in Bangkok direction. ‘Ban Dara’ on the move!
Today only ‘the sprinter’ makes his appearance and the driver almost unnoticed changes from cab. Off it went.
Surprisingly I am not the only passenger on the platform but the lonely one who choose to take the train to the end of the line.
Exceptional by all means, even the conductor shows no temptation to pinch a hole in a rather expensive ticket. 50 baht for 29 kilometres.
On an ‘ordinary’ elsewhere one could ride for many miles more. No wonder why this kind of service is out of service for ordinary Thai people, for them this short ride costs a fortune. Almost a third of the daily income, if there’s work at all, for just a glimpse at a more sophisticated place? No, if by accident you jumped off the rail and have to live in Ban Dara, just stay there and feel happy. This is exact what the settlement looks like. A simple stroll reveals the answers one probably could ask, an innocent time passing after sitting for a while on a hard platform seat. No, not the stone age but a stone ass! (excusé le mot)
There are five stations in between on this for whatever reason build 29 km long branch line, only Khlong Maphlap – km 470 + 270 meter – is still been served and once a day a joyful meeting point for relatives arriving by train and long not seen. If the kiss and ride is the same I did not could observe. The others are ‘stops’ only and now without any stop.

Thanon Jaroat Witee Tong – yes, so the spelled it – the main street of town. A ribbon development on rail side with shops as far as one can see. I am always bewildered about local economies and the way apparently it works. Do all these shop owners really make an income? Somewhere in the middle, lonely but not forlorn, there stands a station building old style. Here you can shop for your ticket, the special diesel railcar to Bangkok.
The special looks a bit battered by what seems to be a lack of interest or substantial funds to keep maintain the things in a proper shape. Hopefully on the mechanical part the railways did not forget to give a certain effort otherwise there’ll be a lot of unforeseen stops along the route. Extra unnecessary halts because delays there will be anyway.
In that respect the Thai Railways follows the example of many railway systems abroad.
For a change of scene I take the rubber road after a sound sleep in one of many nights free of temptation in Sawan Khalok.

Here seen train Mix 317 at Ban Dara on 25/02/1987
http://i1.tinypic.com/4qeht9x.jpg

The station of Sawan Khalok amidst other buildings
http://i16.tinypic.com/61j8r48.jpg

[von Hirschhorn]

Phichai – km 447 + 550 meter – 3 tracks, classic signals and the way how to operate them: by lever and iron wire.
This is how ‘mother’ appears in her older days, a charming small village around the station. (See tale Uttaradit for the meaning of mother) The station square is superb; in the middle they erected a huge temple like shrine, after all this is Buddhist county and spirits alike.
The strength of mind of yesteryears ruling still hangs in the air although hardly anything real old to be seen. The weather and other tropical conditions give it a sight of a bit worn out. The station is rural style; a simple wooden building with an open waiting room annex ticket counter – a tiny hole in the wall closed with a hinged cover and open short before a train arrives. A few sheds are around as well. The best of all is the canopy bigger than the building itself. A deliberate design, not only for keeping peasant out of rain while waiting for the train but moreover as a status; ‘You just arrived at a more important place’. The smallest shed houses a scale hidden under a layer of old dust. Bascule Automatique Vivax – Paris. Provide by engineering supply Ltd. Bangkok, it shows the lines of trade of the past but nowadays obviously no more parcel service, at least here.
The decline of railways as the sole life line started already a few decades ago though in Thailand this happened later. I can recall the day going to the station and posted a letter at the special mail van. A small extra fee but the guarantee the next day your message was delivered in Bangkok.
However, the most charming thing – in retro perspective anyway – was the booking of long distances in the pre computer era, Chiang Mai – Butterworth e.g. How often I have heard the phrase: “Sorry sir bad telephone connection, come back tomorrow and we’ll see what we can do for you.” That’s exactly what the locality still breath today; patience in anticipation for the next train. After all there’s hotel – even two – well let’s say a lodge with simplicities for the night. A tourist venture no but if you are fond of localities jump off that train.

Phrom Phiram – km 414 + 500 meter – three tracks equipped in old style. Maybe for the name only that you like to descend here, it sounds profound if a poet created these words. ‘The forbidden dreams of Phrom Phiram’, it could have been a novel as well. However, the station foreground is a muddy affair situated on the main road towards Phitsanulok.
Presumably this piece of land the only plot available by the time the railway was ready to build a station. Outside town, as many towns worldwide in those days did not want to have that kind of business within the premises. Short sighted out of fear for the unknown phenomenon; a hissing monster belching black smoke!
Another observable fact, although not direct, is what I called the ‘frequency’ of an area and that on itself is unique. The frequency is what it makes that it is. The appearance, the character, the charisma though the latter is not always there.
By entering a new country, city, town, village, settlement or even smaller place, the first impression never lies. And so does Phrom Phiram after a short walk by entering a solid build settlement on the river Nan, the heart of the matter.
Beside an old suspension bridge for pedestrians a new wider bridge gives easy access to the other side. Beyond people are living, friendly people without any doubt, but beyond.
The more you stroll and try to see the things from both sides, the more you know there’s not much. ‘Niente’, ‘nada’, ‘nichts’… nothing.
This is Thailand in the core; no sensation only the passion of daily life and feeling that it slowly fades away.

The station foreground of Phichai seen here:
http://i20.tinypic.com/2mqsx1y.jpg

Just a name:
http://i22.tinypic.com/250mogw.jpg

[Wisarut]

Phrom Phiram – km 414 + 500 meter – three tracks equipped in old style. Maybe for the name only that you like to descend here, it sounds profound if a poet created these words. ‘The forbidden dreams of Phrom Phiram’, it could have been a novel as well. However, the station foreground is a muddy affair situated on the main road towards Phitsanulok.
Presumably this piece of land the only plot available by the time the railway was ready to build a station. Outside town, as many towns worldwide in those days did not want to have that kind of business within the premises. Short sighted out of fear for the unknown phenomenon; a hissing monster belching black smoke!
Another observable fact, although not direct, is what I called the ‘frequency’ of an area and that on itself is unique. The frequency is what it makes that it is. The appearance, the character, the charisma though the latter is not always there.
By entering a new country, city, town, village, settlement or even smaller place, the first impression never lies. And so does Phrom Phiram after a short walk by entering a solid build settlement on the river Nan, the heart of the matter.
Beside an old suspension bridge for pedestrians a new wider bridge gives easy access to the other side. Beyond people are living, friendly people without any doubt, but beyond.



Phrom Phiram-> the place where the incident of gang raping of a mad woman by males from the whole village before throwing that mad woman to be crushed by the cargo trains at night in 1977 (30 years ago) ... the premise for the Cinema -> "the Macabre Case of Phrom Phiram (2003)"

http://www.pantip.com/cafe/chalermthai/newmovie/prompiram/ppr.html

[von Hirschhorn]

So far, so good, this goes beyond the imagination of a writer. My story by all means would have been less bloody, no without! It's a well known fact among authors that the reality sometimes cannot be invent, no matter how twisted a mind good be. However, I am wonder if this information is a surplus for Phrom Phiram as a whole though it makes a clear distinction.

[Wisarut]

So far, so good, this goes beyond the imagination of a writer. My story by all means would have been less bloody, no without! It's a well known fact among authors that the reality sometimes cannot be invented, no matter how twisted a mind good be. However, I am wonder if this information is a surplus for Phrom Phiram as a whole though it makes a clear distinction.

Ahh, The information about the Macabre at Phrom Phiram is the addendum reality worthy to mention ... because this macabre had been known nationwide ....

Look at the Headlines of Thairath in the year 1977 and you'll see:
http://movie.sanook.com/behind/behind_07353.php

[GWR]

This was a truly infamous crime. In the last few years there have been articles in English language papers about Phrom Piram trying to rid itself of its dubious reputation. I suspect that the town center square shrine is very much an integral part of the town's ongoing attempt to make amends for its past, and attempt to move on after 30 years. And, of course, the movie helped to bring back the 'ghosts' again a few year's ago. Modern exorcism by media perhaps!?

[von Hirschhorn]

GWR,
The town centre annex station square shrine is located in Phichai not Phrom Phiram. Without any doubt they do have one, I did not spot it. Hopefully it can wash the sin.
About reputation the village itself has not much to loose, on the contrary I would say. Disaster tourism, the search for grue-some facts though I did not noticed any of that.
Maybe one must stay longer than just a brief visit to encounter the hidden treasures, the dark side of the local moon.

[von Hirschhorn]

Phitsanulok – km 389 + 280 meter – eight tracks and two dead end ones on both sides with rusty rail, a train called desire long did not use it. No worry you got wet, platform number one and two are completely under a roof. The first one is a galley like cement structure which does not cover the full length.
There’s more on the sleeve. An old goods shed preserved in a pristine condition. Two water towers side by side but idle, the brotherhood of a forgotten era. Last but not least a more than visible signal box and beside it a foot-bridge across the yard – not for the view alone.
A miscellaneous of infrastructure halfway the Northern Line. Of course there’s a scale ‘Schember Waage’ Nº 22636/55 approval nº 324 maximum weight 1000 kg, not all parcels are as heavy as that. Away from the machine they are lined up, here a package no matter how small still means business.
On the other side of the tracks the cabin of former locomotive 370, and part of her tender, are placed in a Disney like decoration.
Together with a water column it’s a joyful reminder on the heyday of steam. It’s also meant as greenery though the railway men use the cab for relaxation while Buddha keeps a watchful eye one, a rather big statue is placed inside. Sit down for a while and linger in the sphere of old days and all that it brought along. Don’t be afraid, Buddha won’t bite.
People hang around; waiting in anticipation but not everyone seems to be in the mood for travelling. The place is anything except an entity on its own.
Saturday afternoon and sitting on the platform with no intention to go anywhere, it’s a most pleasant moment for a time-out.
The observation and the sheer amusement of local life. Stalking the station, it seems to be an extension of the city as a whole.
There’s a market of Buddhist paraphernalia collected by the hundreds and some pieces worth a fortune. In concern the railway there’s nothing to collect, even a postcard, something dearly missed.
While entering town, the first sight is stolen by an old locomotive plinthed in front of the building and since long there.

Nº 181, a 4-6-0 built in 1919 by North British with works number 21762.
The latter seems to be a better proof of identity than a painted number. It’s said that this engine is the former 173. Railway rolling stock logistic, a science on itself.

On the left side on can find a simple lodge, Chinese hotel, within the room during the night whistling locomotives and their sound when they continue the journey.
Up north, down south, a lot of trains pass in the dark hours.
The only and lonely local made attraction ‘Flying vegetables’ is still flying although moved down the river Nan since also here the commercial flee market called ‘Night bazaar’ dominates the quay.

Flying vegetables: imagine a dilapidated delivery truck with on top a stage and cook nº 2 in anticipation of cook nº 1 down to earth who airborne the fresh fried greens. There will be hilarity on all sides if the uninitiated one may try by himself and waste his meal by missing the catch.

A venture pure for inhabitants, ‘Phitsanulok - the tourist destination’ will remain an unfulfilled wish for local leaders but I must admit in the course of time they did a lot to give the city an appropriate appearance. Somewhere during the eighties, on one of my first visits, this city was another city in the backwater of modern life, where six o’clock sharp in the evening the national anthem was played and everything came to a halt. An old rite of respect disappeared in the restlessness of today. One came along and embraced modern times.
However, the question remains for the better or for the worse?

The station platforms seen here
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/3328/dsc00048xt1.jpg

The Disney display seen here
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1707/dsc00053ch4.jpg

[Wisarut]

Now, I just took a trip to Pak Nam Pho station on Saturday 20 October 2007 which can be seen here:

http://portal.rotfaithai.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1897

[von Hirschhorn]

Lovely Wisarut, you ahead of me. Not that I have never been there, on the contrary; many times, but yet for the series Northern Miscellaneous I have to go again and see the sight from another perspective.To bad TinyPic cancelled their services for Thailand, it seems that we (Thailand) have violated their terms of use.
I have a very nice pic. of Pak Nam Pho with a majestic row classic signals (semaphores) and a smoke belching diesel.
Steam unfortunate is before my times in Thailand.

[von Hirschhorn]

Phichit – km 346 + 790 meter – three tracks and one side spur leading to an obsolete yard completely overgrown. Electric signals and of course there‘s a weighing scale until now of an unknown fabrication. ‘Pooley’, made in England; number: 1-10843.
On rail side the Central Plains treat the eyes with an open view, water and rice, as the train did before arrival.
The muddy marshlands were a farmer ploughs himself through a humble life.
The station foreground is mere a footpath closed in by a small market towards the river ‘Nan’. Town and station are geographically divided by a lot of water. A pedestrian size suspension bridge saves the trouble of taking a boat though an elegant way to enter the premises. Especially for my arrival as it seems decorated with yellow banners and red Chinese lanterns, a royal worthy welcome.
Howev