Click on any picture below for an uncropped image.
Although I’d slept a fair bit of the way back from Mawlamyine, the coach seats were really designed for a smaller, oriental frame. This, combined with a fairly intensive few days meant that I was not at my best when we disembarked in Yangon in the early morning.
Once back at Doctor Hla Tun's house, I managed a couple more hours sleep in the guest room before the Doctor took me to Yangon Central station. The Doctor knew of my interest in Myanmar Railways and he had kindly arranged for me to visit Yangon Central Signal Box to confirm what I'd previously written (Railway Signalling in Burma - Part 6: Signal Boxes with Electrical Interlocking). I spent a happy hour or so watching the complex moves around the station.
One of the young signalmen pauses by the power frame at Yangon Central Signal Box.
I could have easily spent longer here but the Station Master then casually offered a trip around the Circle Line, either on the train or in the locomotive cab. Perhaps you can guess my choice. I was invited to wait in the stationmaster's office whilst arrangements were made. I was to ride in the cab of the 13:00 clockwise Circle Line train, scheduled to complete the 32-mile round trip in 3 hours! I was conducted across to the waiting train and introduced to the friendly driver and his secondman. The locomotive was DF.1263, one of the Alstom Bo-Bo-Bo diesel electrics.
The friendly driver of DF.1263
It had been my first trip on Yangon's Circle Line back in 2008 which got me interested in Burma's railways, so I welcomed the opportunity to repeat the trip from the vantage point of the locomotive cab.
My Pictures
Yangon Central Power Signal Box.
Cab Ride on the Circle Line, Yangon.
More
Next Post describing this trip.
Yangon Central Power Signal Box.
All my posts on Burma's Railways.
[Revised 17-May-2014]
