South of Mawlamyine, Burma

Sunday, 9th September 2012

I had a decent breakfast before being picked up by Min and the driver in the ‘HiAce’. We were to head south on the main road. Even though parts of the route were toll roads, both directions of traffic shared a single carriageway and, despite passing a few ‘patching teams’ repairing potholes (on the Sabbath) the ride was quite hard (‘though nowhere near as bad as the previous day’s rail trip).

Our first stop was the ‘World’s Largest Reclining Buddha’ built a few years ago. In a pretty valley with a stream cascading through it, a huge Buddha in the reclining position has been created on one side of the valley. To support this massive monument, the statue is built on a huge reinforced concrete structure. We entered, to see a labyrinth of bare rooms on different levels interconnected by concrete stairs. I haven’t got the statistics but there are over 500 rooms within the supporting structure! No attempt has been made to finish inside which remains bare concrete. Water has penetrated the structure so parts of the inside are wet or moss-covered already. This has been the project of a single, now-elderly monk. Amazingly, on the opposite side of the valley, a second reclining Buddha is being built. Builders were busy forming ‘rebar’ (reinforcing bars) into the necessary shape ready for concrete to be poured into shuttering. At this stage, the work in progress on the second Buddha looked as if it might be a new tourist hotel taking shape.

This view of the robes and feet of the Reclining Buddha being examined by a coachload of tourists gives an idea of the scale of the construction.

We continued south through the large town of Mudon, eventually reaching the small town of Thanbyuzayat, named after the ‘tin shelter’ forming its town centre ‘feature’. Most towns have a ‘feature’ – clocktower, decorative pillar or, in the case of Thanbyuzayat, what looks like a Victorian bandstand with a distinctive roof. The town was at the Burmese end of the Burma – Siam ‘Death Railway’ built by prisoners of the Japanese during the second World War. Near the town centre, the first locomotive to run on that tragic line has been plinthed – a Japanese-built 2-6-0. Not far away is Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery with 3,771 graves of Allied prisoners of war. It’s a thought-provoking place, particularly since the 3,771 graves represent only a fraction of the overall death toll. Up to 100,000 conscripted labourers from various Asian countries may have perished during the project.

A drive of about 9 km took us to Khaikhami Yele Paya, an important Buddhist Shrine built over the sea. The original wooden bridge leading from the shore has now been supplemented by a covered, concrete structure, incomplete but already in use. The elaborate decorative metalwork which adorns the roofs of Burmese shrines was in course of erection. Being the Sabbath, the place was quite busy with Myanmar people, either worshipping or having a day out (or both). At one spot, numerous silver-coloured Carp had gathered as visitors threw coloured treats to them.

Khaikhami Yele Paya, looking back towards the land, showing the new, covered concrete bridge. The original, wooden bridge is just visible to the left of the concrete bridge.

At last I’d seen the Andaman Sea from the shore, rather than from an aircraft! We stopped for lunch at a local café just outside the Buddhist Shrine before back-tracking towards Thanbyuzayat. Before we reached the town, we turned off a drove to Setse which has a long, sandy beach with lots of local-area visitors. There was plenty of room for everyone, so I joined the paddlers. The beach area was served by a clutch of snack bars and shops.

We drove back to Thanbyuzayat and (surprise, surprise) I had a quick look at the small station. There were lots of people waiting so, presumably, a train was due.

We then made the long journey on the indifferent roads back to Mawlamyine. On the way, I saw many memorable images you can't capture with a camera. Some of these I'll remember and many I’ll just forget. One sight I did photograph was working elephants being transported with their handlers, each on the back of an open lorry. We saw seven such lorries all told. They were from an elephant sanctuary, Min said, and were presumably off on a working contract.

We saw a group of seven working elephants being moved south.

Before dropping me at my hotel, we drove to a view point overlooking the city and the water before climbing a little higher to a monastery complex offering both views of the city side and the land side.

Viewed from the hills to the east of the town, the new rail and road bridge across the Thanlwin River drastically improved communication to the north.

Photographs:

The World's Largest Reclining Buddha.
Thanbyuzayat Area.
Khaikhami Yele Paya.
Mawlamyine.

[Revised 27-Sep-2012}

Yangon to Kyaikto by Train

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.

DF.1631 ready to depart for Mawlamyine with the 7.15 a.m. train.

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!

Bago Station. Four-wheel coaches in the central siding, freight vehicles in the background.

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]