Many of you will be aware of the huge upheaval that has been going on in Thailand over the recent months. The tourist paradise has been racked with political strife again and the centre of Bangkok saw a stalemate with protestors which disrupted large areas of the capital including the BTS Sky train. I am sure that when the situation has calmed down it will be the place to go again but as an example of the rural peace and quiet I love here are three new videos I have put up The first two are of the venerable Hitachi RHN railcars in action in Issan, The rural province in North east Thailand. These old buckets clock up thousands of miles in secondary service and many of them bear the scars of collisions with large animals, Water buffalos,cows even elephants! They do make a fantastic noise when they are being worked hard and have only rudimentary ventilation. This footage was shot in January 2009 at various points on the North eastern Line http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qhRDHOB7Y I used the regional city of Khon Kaen as a base and hired a big Isuzu 4x4 pickup to explore the highways and byways of the system http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iR7EIlEJzE Back in 2005 I made my first visit to Bang Sue junction in the northern part of Bangkok. On this occassion I did not find the diesel depot and big marshalling yard round the back but hae since explored the fantsastic railway scene here. The video shows one of the 1960's built General Electric GEK Co-Cos that still do sterling service on S.R.T as well as one of the numerous Alsthon Co-Cos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVFrWe5RdDU KEV
