Sabah State Railway in 2012

This is one of three steam locomotives built in 1955 by the Vulcan Foundry in the UK for the North Borneo Railway at the time. The Vulcan Foundry, located in Lancashire, England, is also known for building Japan's No. 1 steam locomotive (now preserved at the Railway Museum in Omiya). The company produced steam locomotives until 1956 and then switched to diesel locomotives. It was later acquired by English Electric in 1962 and the factory was closed in 2002.

The tourist train consists of a luggage car, presumably used for loading meals and other items (manufacturer unknown), followed by five passenger coaches manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries in 1975. These coaches were likely used in regular services in the past, but have been refurbished with luxurious wooden interiors for tourism purposes.

As of 2012, the tourist train operated twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The ticket gate for the tourist train was separated from that of regular trains. Regular trains used the left platform, and this station marked the terminus. Behind the station were the coach and locomotive sheds, but entry was prohibited and not open for public viewing.

The fuel used was firewood instead of coal. For this reason, a Belpaire-type large firebox was adopted. According to documents from the Vulcan Foundry, this type of locomotive was available in both wood-burning and heavy-oil-burning specifications.

Although there are abundant forest resources nearby, firewood produces less heat than coal. Therefore, the fireman must frequently feed wood into the 2.43-square-meter firebox.

The driver's seat was on the right-hand side. It is unclear why the driving position is on the right even though the region was formerly under British rule. There was no seat for the driver, so they had to stand throughout the operation.

In regular service, the tender’s fuel load is generally sufficient. However, for trips involving frequent stops and starts, extra firewood was loaded onto a freight car directly behind the locomotive.

The distance between Tanjung Aru and Papar is about 35 km. The train departs at 10:00 and arrives at Papar at 11:45, taking 1 hour and 45 minutes. As a tourist train, it stops for 20 minutes at Kinarut Station to allow passengers to visit a Chinese temple and local shops.

Two round-trip regular trains run daily between Tanjung Aru and Papar. Pictured here is an SDD12 diesel locomotive built in 2009 by CSR Ziyang Locomotive Co., Ltd. of China, along with coaches manufactured by CRRC Guangzhou Rolling Stock Co., Ltd. These modern vehicles are equipped with air conditioning. The use of a push-pull formation with only three coaches may have been overpowered, so in 2015, two 8500-series DMUs from Aizu Railway (formerly Meitetsu 8500 series) were introduced as substitutes.

The railway mostly runs parallel to the road, but not entirely. This tunnel is located a short distance away from the road. As the tourist train is not air-conditioned, the windows remain open throughout the trip, and sometimes bats from inside the tunnel fly into the coaches.

The train arrives at Papar Station at 11:45 and waits until the return departure at 12:30, turning around using the turntable. The railway line continues approximately 52 km further to Beaufort, with a branch extending another 49 km to Tenom. The operation is divided into two segments: Tanjung Aru–Beaufort and Beaufort–Tenom. These segments are completely independent. The section south of Beaufort has poor track conditions, steep gradients, and tight curves, so older rolling stock is still used.

Since the road runs nearly parallel to the railway, we were able to chase and photograph the tourist train using a microbus. In addition to the tourist train, there were three round-trip regular trains operating daily.

The photos were taken over two days. On the second day, a special chartered "photo run" train departed earlier than the usual tourist train, allowing us to photograph five locations on the outbound trip. However, a minor incident occurred on the return journey.

Since the locomotive was wood-fired, it usually produced little visible smoke. However, on this occasion, it emitted a large amount of white vapor. This was not smoke from combustion, but steam caused by water leaking from the smoke tubes.

Meal service was included on the tourist train. Passengers also received a commemorative passport, which could be stamped at various stations along the route as a souvenir.

A severe leak from the smoke tubes caused a significant drop in the locomotive’s pressure. As a result, no photo stops were made on the return trip. The engineer opened the smokebox door to explain the situation to us.

The train managed to reach Putatan Station, but by then the steam was completely depleted, making further operation impossible. A diesel locomotive was dispatched to rescue and tow the train back to Tanjung Aru Station. Despite the trouble, it became a unique and memorable experience.