Sabah State Railway in 1996

Written and all photographs by Peter Crush
Additional Information from Mr. Peter Crush;(5, Feb, 2000)
The Sabah Railway has started special tourist trips on the railway using steam locomotives. They started in January using British-built Vulcan No.15. During the test run the Sabah Railways Manager admitted that there was a problem with track maintenance and this would have to be improved. When I was last in Sabah I could see that many of the wooden track sleepers were rotten and the railway had frequent derailments. I hope they have replaced all these poor sleepers. The tourist scheme is run by a new company called "North Borneo Railway" which is a joint operation between Sabah Railways and a Japanese hotel & resort company (Pan Pacific Sutera). The company will run lunch trips from Tanjung Aru to Papar on Wednesdays and Saturdays and will also be available for chartered trips all the way to Tenom. The railway also plans to use what is described as an "antique" Hunslet locomotive for a Family Joy Ride on Sundays to Putatan. This must be the locomotive which I photographed at the Sabah Museum. I am really surprised to learn that they are planning to use an ex-museum locomotive which has stood unused for about 30 years. They also mention that Vulcan locomotives No14 & 16 may be renovated. When I saw these they were in very poor condition.

About Sabah Railway
When the British North Borneo Company administered what is now the state of Sabah in East Malaysia, the company built a 1000mm gauge railway line from Tanjung Aru in Kota Kinabalu. The 134 km. single track runs parallel to a coastal road between Tanjung Aru to Papar then on to Beaufort from where the line continues inland along the banks of the River Padas through jungle scenery to the terminus at Tenom. The line was originally steam operated but is now totally diesel. The building of the road to Beaufort has taken away much of the passenger traffic because minibuses are able to make the journey so much faster than the train which crawls along taking about 4 hours to Beaufort and a further 3 hours to Tenom.

The trains are usually operated as a mixed passenger and freight combination, and often the freight component includes lumber wagons used for bringing felled trees from jungle logging operations. The line is a state of decline and the standard of track maintenance poor. On my last visit in 1996 we experienced a derailment of a timber wagon in the middle of jungle and had to wait three hours for a relief train from Beaufort to rescue us......not much fun when you have not brought food or enough drink with you.