Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. The toughest Burmese bandit can never understand it. In Rangoon the heat of noon is just what the natives shun. They put their scotch or rye down, and lie down. In the jungle town where the sun beats down, to the rage of man or beast, The English garb of the English sahib merely gets a bit more creased. In Bangkok, at twelve o'clock, they foam at the mouth and run, But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.(composed by Noel Coward) A strange introduction perhaps but quite apt for a ramble I recently took around the vast Bang Sue railway complex in north Bangkok, Thailand. The quest was to explore the Bang Sue diesel maintenance depot I had visited before with My freind Akii who works for the State Railway of Thailand. Sadly on that occasion my then camera, an EOS 10, that had come down with the infamous sticky shutter problem lost me a load of the pictures I had taken.Heading north from Bang Sue station the depot is easy to find just past the carraige sidings used to hold the commuter trains during the day when they are not needed. The time was late morning and the sun was starting to beat down hence the introductory song! The depot is quite busy and is also a store for some of S.R.Ts more poorly locomotives pending repair and I spent a pleasant hour recordingthe scene General Electric GEA 4537 rests at the rear of the shed(above)General Electric GEK 4018 awaits attention(below)A real find, and one of the things I hoped to find was one of the surviving Henschel Diesel hydraulics. In need of some T.L.C this examplewas on what we in England would call the 'cripple road' The Henschels were supplied in 1963-4 and were rated at 1200HP and were very popular and versatile capable of handling 400-500 ton trains over some of the more difficult lines
watch your feet! A real hark back to the past for me are the pools of water contamiated with oil, diesel and coolant lying around. Don't step in them, particularly if your'e wearing decent shoes! This view of the front of the shed shows what I mean The inside of the shed would be recognisable to any diesel fitter from around the world. Two Alsthom Co-Cos are being serviced A link with the past is this plinthed Krauss 2-4-0T formerly of the Meaklong Railway just in front of the depot. Another loco that is not going to be moving for a while is this pranged General Electric GEA #4526 has obviously hit something hard!
The Yard By now it was getting hot but undetered I headed east from the shed and walked back through the adjacent hump yard and sidings whilst most of the wagons in the yard are the usual common types there are many fascinating survivors and oddballs dotted around First up was a B.A.V which I believe is a Bogie Accident van in use as an office. still fitted with chopper couplings and carrying RSR (Royal State Railway) numberplates it must be pre second world war in origin. I would love this in my back garden as a shed! another rarity is one of the earliest BHW bogie hopper wagons
By now I was staring to wish I had invested in a battery grip for my EOS as the power level was getting alarmingly low. This B.O.T oil tanker has a fairly self explanatory fault with it As does this first class coach I had previously found a load of these ex Japanese Dmus out at Ban Plu Ta Luang and there were more in Bang Sue yard awaiting conversion to ordinary coaching stock lurking under the trees were two GEK Co-Cos #4011 awaits its next turn(above)
There arer a lot of B.C.F container wagons around. This one is carrying a container with Hazchem symbols on. Back at the sidings across from the station it was getting busy again. A GEA arrives light engine from bangkok #4544 is heading for the depot for fuelling and a crew change As the afternoon draws on an Alsthom heads back to Hua Lamphong with empty stock to make up the Bangkok-Kantang train The bridge in the backgound is one of the few places I know to do high level shots and gives a good panorama of Bang Sue. This metre gauge Plasser and Theurer track machine had been busy all afternoon
I like the little steamer. One buffer in the middle. Never seen that setup before. And the coupler on the B.A.V looks like some I have on some old Japanese brass coaches.
track machines As I said the track gang had been busy tamping and lining bang Sue stations no 1 and 2 all day here is some video footage of them in action [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BBGlzB0Xt0"]YouTube - Track maintenance machines at Bang Sue[/ame] Main line train use both the old and new station depending on destination and origin here we see departing and arriving Alsthom hauled workings [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGnHXCWVRk0"]YouTube - Bang Sue 19 01 2009[/ame] the commuter empty stock activity is quite good to photograph and video from the bridge which also provides some welcome shade [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkKOcPJxnC0"]YouTube - Bang Sue 19 01 2009 part 2[/ame] hope you found this interesting. When the EOS battery eventually died I had to revert to one of my EOS film bodies so I still have the pleasure of seeing what is one th rolls of Fuji when I get it back! Anything ineresting I will add to this thread
couplings The chopper couplings are properly known as MCA type which stands for Mitchell-Cossey automatic couplings these were replaced by the buckeye type so familiar now The Krauss uses the german idea of a centre buffer and a screw coupling which was replaced on the Maeklong line with the ABC coupler in the fifties
Was there a poem by Rudyard Kipling that began with a similar line, or has my aging memory wrongly attributed Coward's masterful piece to Kipling? BTW, thanks for your marvelous photos.
Maybe you read this comic? Harry not Rudyard. Mad Gods and Englishmen is a 2006 comic strip by Simon Spurrier and Boo Cook, for the character Harry Kipling. Back to the topic at hand. Railfans will risk all kinds of weather to photograph trains. No mater what part of the globe. Always good to get views of railroads wherever they happen to be.
Kevin, the GEA no. 4526 was involved in a grade crossing incident with a 10 wheel truck in Ratchaburi province several years ago. :tb-frown: BTW, Kevin, are there any motorists/pedestrian who disregard X-ing signals in UK?
level crossing acccidents Yes in answer to your question we do have collisions on level crossing in the U.K. Only a fortnight ago a woman was killed when she slid on ice, collided with a van coming the other way and finished up with one wheel in the 'four foot' as the barriers were coming down. She was still trying to drive the car off, instead of getting the hell out, when the train struck and she was killed instantly. Netwrok rail are having a big campaign about people running crossings at the moment because we still have a lot of unbarriered crosings in England.
That is a wonderful set of pics i really must one day do Bangsue again. This time be more daring in the hot sun to visit the workshop and the cargo sidings. You have some impressive camera equipment as well. I bet your shots are magazine quality. But ill have to wait until I can get another camera to photograph bang sue area again properly as i broke it on my last trip.
Amazing photographs and video! What a wonderful variety - something we have little of here in the UK now. Thailand is a place I really should visit.
Alan. Think of British Railways 40 years ago you get an idea of what the Thai railway system is like. dual braked stock ,loose shunting, mixed freights, long loco hauled passenger trains that are full, mechanical signalling and most of all dedicated freindly staff who don't mind photographers wandering around. A far cry from England today. If you get the chance I would highly recomend a trip to Thailand. I am getting asked by some of the lads to organise some sort of trip next year possibly hiring the Air Conditioned Reserved Saloon. If anybody is interested let me know.
Thanks Kev, it sounds wonderful. And yes, in complete contrast to the UK now! Which is why I love going to Slovenia, as there I can wander around and photograph anything I like, even across tracks to get to a good location. Last visit my wife and I had a tour of the Central Workshops in Ljubljana, shown around by a Slovenian friend who knows the management well. No way that would be allowed here. Thailand sounds wonderful, long may the situation last.
