User:Yugystudios/Sandbox

Cleanup proj.

Cleanup project for History of rail transport in Thailand. I do not think this is ready for the actual articlespace yet, I haven't bought the relevant books for the subject yet. Yugystudios (talk) 02:33, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

State Railways of Thailand (SRT)/Royal State Railways of Siam/Thailand (RSR(S/T)) class E/156 locomotive no. 182 plinthed outside Chachoengsao Junction railway station. This locomotive class was derived from the British Indian BESA class M meter gauge 4-6-0s used on the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway (MSMR).

The history of rail transport in Thailand began with the opening of the Paknam Railway on 11 April 1893. Various projects for railways in Thailand had been proposed prior to the Paknam Railway's opening, but were never realized.

There had been various proposals for railways in the Kingdom of Siam (present-day Thailand) in the mid-1800s: a project dating back to the 1840s with several iterations planned up to the 1880s aimed at connecting British Burma (present-day Myanmar) to the Chinese market was to be run through the navigable terrain of Northern Siam; these projects were never realized. Another proposal for a Siamese railway was to be run through the Isthmus of Kra, the narrowest point of the Malay Peninsula because the Kra Canal was unnavigable. Even though the Siamese government agreed with this project in 1859, the British abandoned it, considering Singapore's strategic value. The King of Siam was gifted a model railway in 1856 by Queen Victoria, now displayed at the Bangkok National Museum. Rama V, king of Siam since 1868, traveled by rail, such as on his state visits to Java and British India.

Northeastern Railway

The Nakhon Ratchasima Railway Company was established in 1891, by law. The company planned a standard gauge (1435 mm) line from Bangkok to Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima). Pressure from the British led to work being transferred to English firm Murray Campbell; this ran contrary to Bethge's plans, and construction was taken over by George Murray Campbell. After two years of preparations, King Chulalongkorn commenced construction of the Northeastern Railway on 9 March 1892. The tools used at the groundbreaking ceremony—an intricately decorated spade and wheelbarrow—are now exhibited at the Bangkok National Museum.

On September 1, 1896, the Royal Railway Department cancelled its contract with Muray Campbell as the firm did not carry out construction in a manner compliant with the contract. At the same time the Nakhon Ratchasima Railway Company was nationalized, and work was transferred to the RRD; the completed route was 135 kilometers long at this time. On 22 December 1896, King Chulalongkorn travelled by train to inspect construction works on the line. Continuing by foot past Ban Hinlap—then the furthest extent of the line—to a rock overhang at a spot where the railway was being laid, he carved his royal cypher along with the Queen's royal cyhper, naming the rock overhang Pha Sadet Pak; the heavily weathered carving is still visible today. On 26 March 1897, the first section from Bangkok to Ayutthaya was opened; this date is currently the "official birthday" of the State Railway of Thailand. Before the Northeastern Railway opened, a trip between Bangkok and Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima) took five days, by train it was reduced to six hours. The line was officially opened on December 21, 1900 by King Chulalongkorn.

All couplers in Thailand at that point were A.B.C. couplers, introduced in 1903 to comply with the same system in Malaya. The A.B.C. couplers had various flaws: connecting and separating wagons require manpower to perform the task manually, and its maximum load is only 10 tons, restricting transport capacity in mountainous areas.

All rolling stock couplers in Thailand at that point were Automatic Buffing Contact (ABC) couplers, implemented in 1903 to be interchangeable with Federated Malay States Railway (FMSR) rolling stock. The ABC couplers had various disadvantages: manually coupling and uncoupling wagons was difficult since the process was bulky and tedious, and its maximum load capacity is only 10 tons, restricting train weights in mountainous areas.

The SRT decided to introduce new automatic couplers, in order to reduce time spent coupling and uncoupling wagons and increase train weights. As Japan was able to quickly implement automatic couplers on its rolling stock back in 1925, engineers were sent to Japan to study that process. It was decided that the coupler conversion process in Thailand was to be done gradually, starting from the Northern Line, to the Northeastern Line, and the Southern Line, with the three-year proccess commencing in late 1957 and culminating in 1960.

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