During my trip to Burma in 2012 (described in a series of posts here), I travelled by train from Yangon via Bago to Kyaikto. This post describes the journey from Yangon to Bago with a bit more technical detail. The second part of the journey, from Bago to Kyaikto, is described here. For this description, I've assumed the 'Down' direction is away from Yangon (although I've found one source which contradicts that). I've called the two signal boxes at Bago 'South' and 'North', based on the geography, but I don't know their official designation.
Journey made on Saturday, 8th September 2012
This post describes the first half of an uncomfortable (but interesting) journey from Yangon to Kyaikto.
I’d been to Yangon Central Railway Station before, on my first visit to Burma, when I took a clockwise Circle Line train (see The Circle Line, Yangon). This time, we were at the Main Line side and a footbridge took us to our waiting train on Platform 3 for the Mawlamyine line. We were to take the train to Kyaikto and then continue by car. As far as Yangon Central Railway Station is concerned, ‘Eastbound’ departures are for Mawlamyine, Mandalay or Circle Line anti-clockwise.
There was plenty of time before our 7.15 a.m. departure, so I busied myself taking photographs at the platform end. There was quite a bit of activity. DF.1631 was at the head of our train in a light brown/dark brown livery and the rolling stock featured a variety of liveries, although the ‘light brown and blue’ predominated. I was surprised to find the coach painting specification signwritten on the end of some vehicles. The ‘F’ in the locomotive number indicates six axles. On this design, they’re distributed over three two-axle bogies. I think the transmission is diesel-hydraulic (but I’m not sure). ‘Chopper’ couplings are used. Vacuum brakes were connected through (Circle Line trains still appear to trundle around without benefit of continuous brakes).
On the adjacent platform face, DF.1352 arrived travelling in the opposite direction to us with a passenger train. This locomotive has the ‘high nose switcher’ outline carried on two six-wheel bogies. Livery is dark brown and cream and I assume it’s diesel-electric.
Two trains were standing on the Circle Line platforms. First to go, Eastbound on the Circle Line road (there are four tracks paired by use to the east of the station) was DD.1145, an ‘end cab switcher’ painted blue with a white waist line. The first coach was off a diesel railcar and had a driving cab, the second looked fairly normal but the third and last bogie coach seemed shorter and lightweight – I don’t know where they found it. At least all three coaches were in matching ‘light brown and cream’ livery. The other locomotive in the Circle Line platform was DF.1202 painted light brown with a white waist line – a ‘low nose switcher’ mounted on three 4-wheel bogies.
The next movement was on the line next to my train – DD.517, a ‘low nose, low hood switcher’ carried on two 4-wheel bogies and painted dark blue/light blue with a white waist line. This was pulling a non-vacuum fitted flatcar and a rake of coaches. I assumed that this was the ‘station pilot’ removing the stock from an earlier arrival (I’d seen a flatcar in use as a “shunter’s truck” at Mandalay on a previous visit). DF.1352 then re-appeared light engine heading east on the Circle Line platform, having left its train at the adjacent platform face to us.
A long blast from our locomotive’s horn indicated that we were about to move away, so that ended my period of observation at Yangon. We started very slowly, accompanied by a loud crashing and banging from the chopper couplers and tremendous buffeting. We were only moving very slowly and eventually things settled down a bit. The driver then ‘opened up’ and accelerated out of the station. We were only travelling at 20 – 25 miles per hour but even that seemed excessive because the train was riding rough. Partly due to the poor track and perhaps partly due to the vehicles themselves, the coach would periodically lift up violently then crash down again with spine-jarring force. After a while, the repeated up and down motion would subside, to recur after a brief respite. In addition, the coach would suddenly start yawing to left and right in an alarming manner. Eventually, this motion would die down, to restart all too soon. It was all I could do to hold on and I failed to make any of the photographs I’d intended of the 4-track approaches to Yangon from the East. We had a brief respite when we stopped at Mahlwagon station. DD.1145 pulled in on an adjacent line with the three coaches I’d seen him leave Yangon with just 45 minutes earlier so he can’t have gone far before running round for the return.
Shortly after leaving Mahlwagon, the two roads of the Circle Line (now on our left) curved away to run a little west of north serving the eastern side of Yangon. Our double track headed approximately north-east towards Bago. We had been running under elderly 3-aspect colour light signals from Yangon. We were now on ‘plain line’ with no complications. Colour lights still marked our progress but they now became ‘dark’ with an ‘out of use’ marker in the conventional form of two crossed sticks forming an ‘X’. I couldn’t resist the thought that problems with track circuits in this more remote area had probably resulted in the solution of simply taking the signals out of service.
The appearance of a lattice post semaphore distant signal indicated that we’d left the Yangon signalling area and were now under different rules. The semaphore arm was steel with two corrugations for strength and appeared slightly wider at the end than at the spectacle, which had three apertures. The design appeared similar to the North American 3-aspect semaphore where the the indications are:- Arm horizontal, Arm raised 45 degrees, Arm raised 90 degrees. You would expect the three apertures to carry three different coloured filter glasses but all the semaphore signals I've seen in Burma have no glass. I couldn't see a sign of a lamp either, but there did appear to be an electric motor for raising the arm and on subsequent, similar signals there appeared to be an electric cable running from the top of the post and disappearing into the ground. I'm afraid the erratic motion of the train makes all this rather conjectural. The arm extended to the left of the post, was yellow with a 'V' cutout at the left end and black chevron a few inches in from the end, all as British practice. But there was also one white disc of colour to the left of the chevron and a second to the right. Each coloured disc appeared to carry a black marking, but I couldn't make it out. The back of the arm appeared to be black with a white chevron. The signal ladder with guard loop at the top was similar to British practice. Of course, you would expect a cast iron finial at the top of a signal post but I saw very few signals with finials. Those that did carry them had an attractive, old-fashioned design terminating in a long spike.
Soon after passing the distant signal, a siding commenced on the left. It was concrete-sleepered, parallel to the running line and very inadequately ballasted.
Then we came to a lattice-post signal with a square ended-arm, generally similar to the distant but the arm was raised 45 degrees so I was not surprised when the driver kept going. The front of the arm was red with a white bar and, again, there were two white discs with unreadable markings. The back of the arm was black with a white bar.
Shortly after the stop signal, the siding joined the main line by a crossover and there were the remains of a point indicator at the siding trap points. A single-lever ground frame operated the crossover and a 'pointsman' was in attendance, displaying a green flag.
In the absence of any visible evidence for loading and unloading wagons on the siding, my provisional conclusion was that the siding had been designed for 'recessing' freight trains by drawing them forward clear of the siding points, reversing the points and setting the train back into the siding. This rather cumbersome arrangement was widespread on British railways in the past.
The railway frequently has to cross watercourses. If they are streams, no attempt appears to be made for the passage of boats. The sleepered track is carried on two deep 'I'-section beams seated on fairly substantial abutments. We crossed a wide stream requiring three sets of 'I' beams and two intermediate piers.
Shortly after this bridge, we came to another distant signal in the horizontal position, similar to the first, except that the post appeared to be an 'I'-section rolled steel joist. Again, there was a 'recess' siding with concrete sleepered track, but it appeared to have been simply laid on the trackbed with no attempt at ballasting. In addition, the sleepers were irregularly spaced and generally further apart than you'd expect. The anticipated stop signal was similar to the one described above except that, like the preceding distant, the signal post was an RSJ. The signal arm was raised 45 degrees and we kept going. The siding joined the main line at a crossover as described above. The 'pointsman' displayed a green flag and, at the station immediately following, what I presumed to be the stationmaster also displayed a green flag.
We were approaching Bago, although I didn't realise this until we came to the subsequent signals. I presume there was a distant signal but I didn't see it. Remember, I was still being buffeted intermittently in a most painful way. The stop signal I did see had a lattice post and the arm was raised 45 degrees for 'off'. Although the colour scheme and marking of the front of the arm was as described above, the arm was parallel sided rather than tapering and the spectacle was 2-aspect. The rear of the arm was white with a black bar and, apart from the peculiarities of the marking on the front of the arm, it looked like a British Railways standard upper quadrant. This signal was mechanically operated over a signal wire and the balance weight and bar was mounted near the top of the signal post. Finally, a triangular notice was attached to the front of the signal post bearing two Burmese characters. Beyond this signal, a number of lengths of rail were lying beside the track and the ballast had been dug out, Soon after, we came to another stop signal and I realised that the first signal was an outer home and the second an inner home. When I first spotted the inner home, I thought it was an offset bracket with a single doll, because the front part of the train obscured my view. As we passed I realised that it was a rather grand gantry signal spanning the two running lines made from channel section with five dolls each carrying the 'modified British Railways' upper quadrant stop signal. The rightmost signal arm was off.
We were arriving at Bago!
If anyone can offer any clarification of Myanmar Railways practices, it would be welcome.
I’ll stop there for now, just commenting that this journey was awarded the accolade of the roughest rail journey I’ve had anywhere and I got off at Kyaikto exhausted with being thrown about.
Train Timing and Photograph Locations
As yet, most of the stations are unidentified. There's a table below showing approximate journey time from leaving Yangon (hours:minutes), photo reference (prefixed 'DSCF') and brief description. There are links to the Sets containing these pictures in 'Photographs' below.
| Elapsed Time | Photo Ref | Description |
| 0:12 | 5980 | River Bridge |
| 0:17 | 5985 | Mahlwagon Station |
| 1:18 | 5993 | Down Motor Distant |
| 1:19 | 5998 | Down Motor Home |
| 1:27 | 5999 | Down Distant |
| 1:28 | 6002 | Down Home |
| 1:54 | 6009 | Bago South Down Outer Home |
| 1:55 | 6011 | Bago South Down Home Gantry |
| 1:57 | 6019 | Bago Station |
Photographs:
Yangon to Bago by Train.
Bago Station.
[Revised 11-Sep-2012, 26-Sep-2012, 3-Oct-2012, 20-Dec-2012]
