Singapore Tanjong Pagar Station

I have good memories of this station, taking overnight trains to KL.


it was a peculiar set up... All trains arrived on one platform were domestic...
but all trains departed the other platform were international..


you cleared Malay immigration on a hut located on the platform before boarding the train, but at Woodlands you had to fully disembark.. Luggage ET al, go through Singapore customs before reboarding the train... Taking about an hour... Only 20 minutes after departing. For that 20 mins you were technically in two countries at the same time..as you had entered Malaysia but not exited Singapore.


The reverse direction was similar, you disembarked at woodlands ( we're most people were picked up by family, taxi etc any way), disembarked, cleared immigration for Singapore then those left reboarded and continued to Singapore station..and left as any domestic train passenger would.


great fun, interesting station, will be missed, but woodlands does make sense..Singapore's not that big a place and is well connected to the city motorway network.

 

I'm going there next month. If my wife will tolerate it, I'll have a look round and report back.

 

About 10 minutes up the road from TP station is the shed, it still has an intact turntable.
a bit of imagination that could be a nice preserved line as there is a loop about 10 minutes up the line.

there's no steam in Sinagpore though.

 

Yes land value is a premium. Every year i goto Singapore something new has been built somewhere.. The latest being the swamp that was in front of the merlion becoming the Marina Bay, and of course how Sentosa has changed is amazing... But Fort Siloso is a must see.
very little railway history, but other transport there's the odd North Counties bodies Leyland Olympian about on Sentosa (roofless). The MRT is second to none, and Ken Kivingston openly admitted the design of the 378 units on London Overground was inspired by his visit in July 2005 for the Olympic vote.

Has the "Singapura" station sign gone from the platform ? ( I saw from one your pictures you went up the road to the side if the station platform ?)

i'll dig out some pictures I took only a couple of years ago when I get my wifi up at home again.. Stuck on iPad 3G at the minute dah!!! BT and lazy engineers!

 

Is this right? There is the Kitson 4-6-2 next to the River Kwae, anything else ex-Malaysia? There is a recent list of preserved Thai steam on Dicko's site - Preserved / Extant Steam Locos and Steam Cranes in Thailand. I thought the NBL 4-6-0s which are plinthed at a number of stations and at Makkasan were all Thai ab initio? May be wrong as I don't have my books with me. Some sister locos were sold to Cambodai in the 70s.

 

There's a bunch of locos at Thonburi Shed in Bangkok, but I thought they were Japanese built ?

 

Yup, all Japanese (4-6-2, 2-8-2, 2-6-0), which are the only post-war Thai steam loco classes, other than the MacArthurs which were all scrapped (as were the Malaysian MacArthurs).

 

As promised a couple of pictures of Singapore railway station in happier days..
(note the Malaysia Immigration desk on the platform in the 2nd picture..)