1272i

INTERNATIONAL SUPPLEMENT TO BLN 1272 7 JANUARY 2017

BRANCH LINE NEWS
INTERNATIONAL

This newsletter covers the World outside the British Isles from information
supplied by members.

Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Compilers or of the Society.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS TEAM:-
International Editor (to whom all email and postal contributions should be sent):
Paul Griffin, 7 School Bell Mews, Church Lane, Stoneleigh, COVENTRY, CV8 3ZZ
Email: [email protected]
Deputy International Editor: Derek Woodward, 68 Church Street, Matlock, DERBY, DE4 3BY

___________________________________________________

The International News Team wish a Happy New Year to all our members and hope that they had a
most enjoyable Christmas. Your International Editor particularly wishes to thank his deputy for
producing the last three BLNI whilst he was in foreign parts, then struggling with a major breakdown
of his desktop. It seems appropriate to start 2017 with an appeal for members to send in material,
especially trip reports. Also front page pictures are required, with extended captions since they need
not relate to any items in the remainder of the text.

Naypyidaw is a city custom built as the new capital of Myanmar, and the Yangon to Mandalay railway which passes nearby had a
new station built to serve it. Construction began on 8 December 2006 and the station was opened on 5 July 2009, even though
the overpass, locomotive shed, station access road, parking area, passenger lounge and platform were not completed. The
station area and grounds cover 324 hectares, so there is plenty of room for plinthed steam locomotive YB 534 outside. The huge
station building is seen in the background of the picture and has another, smaller, plinthed steam locomotive inside, and well as
the centre of the countries railway administration.

EUROPE

[001] Albania – Railways shut down
Reports at the end of October announced that the Director of Albanian Railways had resigned
following the decision of the Oil Company (owed £15M for fuel) to ask the court to freeze all railway
bank accounts. No trains have run since early October and 1300 railway staff have not had their social
security payments made for over 5 months. In early November a new Administrator was appointed
and immediately signed an order for the sale of 2000 tonnes of scrap iron as well as starting talks with
the banks to unfreeze the bank accounts. Meanwhile staff are standing guard over the railways assets
to avoid theft.

[002] Austria – Line reopens to passenger for summer period
Wampersdorf - Gramatneusiedl (table 511) would appear to have booked services during the period 3
July 2017 to 1 September 2017.

[003] Austria/Slovenia - Graz to Maribor to be redoubled
An agreement was signed on 20 October for modernisation and re-doubling of the Graz – Maribor line.
This will increase line capacity from 63 to 84 trains a day and dramatically reduce the journey time.
The entire Slovenian section (15.6km) is currently single track. The Austrian section is 49.5km long and
20.5km is single track. The line is electrified at 15kV Graz to Spielfeld-Straß and at 3 kV DC to Maribor.

[004] Bosnia-Hercegovina/Croatia - Sarajevo to Zagreb train ends
Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine (railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) have
discontinued passenger trains 396 and 397 between Sarajevo and Zagreb from 11 December. The
company did not explain the reasons for the decision, but it is known that it faces big financial
problems. The train had run since 2002.

[005] Czech Republic – On-line map
A series of on-line maps giving considerable detail of the railway network can be found at:
http://www.zelpage.cz/atlas.php. To view them it is necessary to download Autodesk, but the website
prompts you and installation is easy.

[006] Czech Republic – More observations on the new timetable
JR080 / 086 There is a summer weekend train from Doksy (JR080) to Liberec and Dresden running via
the Česká Lípa avoiding line with a Landerbahn DMU.
JR096 Račiněves station is renamed Bříza obec.
JR121 Hostivice to Středokluky gains a weekday service. In fact this started sometime during the
previous timetable. A new station opens at Dobroviz-Amazon to serve the nearby warehouse.
JR122 Praha-Smíchov Na Knížecí closes and trains are diverted to Praha hlavni. This is due to imminent
redevelopment of the vast area of semi-vacant land north of Smichov for residential/retail use. The
weekend only Masarykovo to Slaný/ Zlonice train starts from Praha hlavni and runs via Rudna.
JR140 A new summer weekends bike train (Sp1670/1) runs from Cheb to Karlovy Vary and return. It
doesn’t call at Chodov in either direction, so should run via the short Chodov avoiding line (circa
1.5km).

JR160 and 124. Plzeň to Most R trains operated by GW Train Regio. As far as our informant is aware
non-GWTR tickets are not valid. Until 31 May 2017 trains do not stop at Zatec, running via the Zatec
avoiding line. This information is not in the timetable, but is on the CD engineering page.
JR270 There will also be a seasonal daytime Praha to Kraków service.
Ex115 10:22 Praha hlavni to Bohumin extended to Kraków 17:21 from 13/4 to 30/9
Ex114 14:08 Bohumin to Praha hlavni starts from Kraków at 10:42 from 14/4 to 1/10
There is still one train pair (Ostrava to Warsawa) via the Bohumin avoiding line.
As always full details of obscure routes will appear in EGTRE (http://egtre.info/wiki/Main_Page)

[007] France - Surprise in Saône-et-Loire
With only 3 days notice, the train services between Autun and Etang-sur-Arroux were
suspended indefinitely on 20 November 2016. Replacement buses are provided. There were about 8
return services by diesel railcar on weekdays along this short 15 km branch line. SNCF Réseau indicated
that incidents with the signalling system during the summer had been followed up with an
investigation which concluded that there were security issues that required services to be suspended.
The signalling system is reported to be Block Manuel à Voie Unique. In addition, SNCF indicated that
the track needed to be replaced and notably the rails, with no further details. The Bourgogne Franche-
Comté vice president for transport stated that everything would done to modernise the line and re-
open it by the beginning of 2018. However we anticipate, at best, a closure of at least 2 years based on
experience elsewhere. Courtesy of the SNCF Society

[008] France – Changes with the new timetable
BLNI 1269.458 reported expected resumption of the weekdays only train pair between Thionville and
Bouzonville. However a new fiche has been issued dated 30 November and the service will continue to
be bus substituted.
The curve allowing Metz to Longuyon trains to avoid Thionville has lost its service. It was previously 1
pair SSuX, 2 pairs SO and 1 pair SuO. The replacement is either Metz to Longwy buses with no calls, or
to reach the intermediate stations there is a more frequent train service via Thionville.

[009] Germany – Schönbuchbahn electrification works start
Mid-November saw the start of electrification works for the line from Böblingen to Dettenhausen. Two
single track sections between Böblingen and Holzgerlingen are to be doubled to increase capacity on
the line. These works are expected to be complete by December 2018.

[010] Germany – Part of line 6542 for sale
1km of the Bad Belzig – Niemegk line (km 11,025 - km 12,018) has been put up for sale or closure by
DRE. The section contains Niemegk station and is the present end of the line. There is no traffic, so it is
unlikely anyone will buy it. Strecke 6542 used to connect Treuenbrietzen and Brandenburg.

[011] Germany – Stolberg station visited and revisited
The final section of the Herzogenrath to Stolberg line, from Eschweiler-St Jöris to Stolberg, reopened in
June 2016 and was visited in November. The service pattern is generally that, every 30 minutes, 2
Euregiobahn units run from Stolberg Gleis 44, a west facing bay platform, and travel in a loop via
Alsdorf, Herzogenrath and Aachen Hbf, before returning to Stolberg Gleis 43, a through line between

Gleis 44 and the main line platforms (Gleis 1 and 2). Here the units split, with the lead set going to
Langerwehe (and hourly to Düren) via Eschweiler Talbahnhof, and the rear set going into the yard to
reverse before running onto the Stolberg Alstadt branch. On the return journey the two sets join in the
yard and use the main line connection east of the station to run into Gleis 1. An interesting feature of
this service is that the Altstadt portion stops at Stolberg Hbf twice, the second time being in Gleis 27,
which is on the Altstadt branch. The station departure board only shows the later departures in each
direction (I.e. Gleis 27 to Stolberg Altstadt and Gleis 1 to Aachen).

[012] Germany – More on Gaschwitz to Böhlen
Further to BLNI1269.460 new details and a map (e-BLNI only) add clarification.
The line from Leipzig to Altenburg is being refurbished in stages. At the moment work is progressing on
the section from (Markkleeberg) Gaschwitz to Böhlen. This is expected to take about 2 years. Trains
between these points are using a temporary alignment which is on the site of yard lines in the vicinity
of Gaschwitz and on the alignment of former goods lines south of there. Between a point north of
Gaschwitz and a point just south of Großdeuben the former passenger lines have been completely
lifted and a number of underbridges removed. S Bahn trains terminating at Gaschwitz now use one of
the platforms formerly used by the S Bahn service from Gaschwitz to Plagwitz. This has been turned
into a dead-end platform. Trains heading south towards Neukieritzsch use temporary platforms at
Gaschwitz and Großdeuben. A large number of derelict tracks at Gaschwitz have been lifted or
disconnected.

[013] Italy – Works on the Ferrovie della Calabria
The 100km long line from Cosenza to Catanzaro Lido follows a convoluted course southwards through
southern Italy. At the northern end work has started on electrifying Cosenza to Rogliano. Future works
will reopen the Marzi to Soveria Mannelli section just south of Marzi, closed after two landslides
between Carpanzano and Scigliano-Pedivigliano several years ago.

[014] Italy - Brescia to Treviglio high speed line opens
Having been inaugurated the previous day the 39.6km Brescia to Treviglio high speed line opened with
the timetable change on 11 December. Inter-city services have been using the 27 km cut-off between
the eastern edge of Milano and Treviglio since 2007. Once complete, the remodelling of Brescia
Centrale will further reduce journey times. Principal structures on the new line include two viaducts,
one of 1287 metres over the River Oglio, and another of 957 metres over the Serio river, plus a
525 metre cut-and-cover tunnel to carry the line beneath an existing junction west of Brescia. No less
than 11.7 km of connecting lines have been built to link the route to the existing main line, which is
being progressively quadrupled to handle more freight and regional passenger traffic. Construction is
expected to begin in the second half of 2017 on the next section of the Milano – Venezia corridor
between Brescia and Verona, while initial works are also expected to start next year between Verona
and Vicenza, the first phase of the last section of dedicated AV-AC infrastructure on the route.

[015] Italy – Milan Malpensa Terminal 2 railway opens
The new Milan Malpensa Terminal 2 railway station was officially inaugurated on 6 December by
Governmental and Airport Authorities, SEA, Ferrovie Nord, Trenord, and EasyJet. The new railway line

connects Milan Malpensa Terminal 1, serving international and domestic flights, and Terminal 2 which
is entirely dedicated to EasyJet. Services started on 11 December.

[016] Italy – Bad news for the Ceva – Ormea railway
BLNI 1264.351 reported that the first heritage trains were expected to run on this re-opened branch in
Autumn 2016, and this timescale was met. Unfortunately recent heavy rains have seriously damaged
the tracks and the formation.

[017] Romania - Ţăndărei to Slobozia Veche reinstated, but closure of part of timetable 700
The online timetable shows the line from Ţăndărei to Slobozia Veche has been reinstated again from
the new timetable with four return journeys from Slobozia.
Urziceni - Făurei has closed to passenger services with București to Galați trains diverted via Ploiești
Sud and Buzău. This allows electric traction to be used throughout and closes the least profitable part
of the original route. București to Urziceni retains a regular local service.

[018] Slovakia – notes from a recent trip (part 3)
The following day, without the need to walk back to the main station, your reporter had a lie in and
then carried on from Zvolen Mesto to Banská Bystrica, and from there to Brezno. The next journey was
to be one of the highlights of the week, although not just in the way that had been expected. The line
from here to Tisovec is famous for its rack sections over the Zbojská saddle, which were installed
primarily to assist the heavy freights that used to run over the line. They fell out of use in the early
sixties after the ironworks at Tisovec closed. The equipment was never removed and has been
renovated in the past few years. Two suitably equipped Romanian locos have been purchased and,
since 2014, have operated on a number of days each year. It now claims to be the only standard gauge
steam operated rack line in Europe.
Your reporter's train was a humble railcar but the experience was still enjoyable and turned out to be
unforgettable. The first rack section starts south of Pohronská Polhora station and raises the line to the
summit at Zbojská, and the second section then drops the line back down to Tisovec – Bánovo. The
climb was uneventful, but slow, and the descent was taken even more cautiously, which turned out to
be a good thing as, on one of the steepest sections the train braked gently to a halt. The reason was
immediately apparent as the train was on a curve and it could be seen that a substantial tree had
fallen across the line. It was clearly too big to be moved by the crew, so it looked as though your
reporter's journey had come to a premature end.
After around 15 minutes the driver changed ends and it was assumed that the train would reverse
back to the previous station, but in fact it only went around 800 metres to where a couple of orange
jacketed men (who looked like managers as they had clipboards!) were standing by the track. Phone
calls were made and then, surprisingly after a further pause, the train slowly made its way back down
to the offending tree. After sitting there for no more than 10 minutes, a permanent way rail vehicle,
with a gang of men, came around the curve in front of the train and stopped at the other side of the
tree. One of them had a chain saw, and a combination of this and brute force cleared the obstruction
in around 10 minutes. It only remained for one of the crew to check that the track was still the correct
gauge and the train was waved through.

First view of the fallen tree. Timed at 11:34
Not long after arrival of permanent way train and crew. Timed at 12:19
Shows root being pushed out of the way and trunk being cut up. Timed at 12:22

Final clearance with the driver (the man in the blue shirt) making sure that the
trunk is clear of the track. Also note the man checking the track is no out of gauge.

Timed at 12:26

Shows the track clear and final checks before being allowed through. Timed at 12:27

It was necessary to wait a further 15 minutes or so for the vehicle to clear the section to Tisovec and
then our member was on his way, arriving at his destination a mere 70 minutes late. It was a quite
remarkable response to this event which clearly surprised both train staff and passengers alike.
Fortunately the driver was happy for your reporter to view all this from the cab. As it happened,
because of a booked 90 minute layover, your reporter was able to cover everything he'd planned for
the rest of the day and arrive for his overnight in Košice on time.
The final leg of his journey started at the unsociable hour of 05:00 with a nearly 2 hour long journey to
Čierna nad Tisou, in the far south east of the country and close to both Hungary and Ukraine. The
reason for this early start was to catch the first of the twice daily cross border services to Chop in
Ukraine, which left at 07:00. The service consisted of an electric loco hauling a single declassified first
class coach, the probable reason for which soon became apparent.
The interior of the coach had open framed seats, so there were few places to hide, because along with
the other cross border line from Chop, into Hungary, the route is notorious for smuggling cigarettes

and alcohol. The service left with two other passengers, obviously local, and no guard, which was
rather ironic as your reporter had gone to a lot of trouble to buy a return ticket earlier in the week at
Bratislava.

07:00 Chop service at Cierna nad Tisou

The Slovakian passport and customs check takes place right at the border, which explains the extended
journey time of around 40 minutes for only 10 kilometres. The journey turned out to be quite eventful,
both on the outward and return legs. On the outward journey the female border guard took your
reporter's passport off the train and then a few minutes later she was driven away by a colleague.
After five or so minutes your reporter was beginning to become concerned, as the train could depart
at any time, so was very relieved when a different member of staff got on the train and returned his
passport to him. After another 10 minutes or so the train restarted and arrived at Chop pretty much
on time.

Interlaced broad and standard gauge tracks at Chop

Here the arrangements were as your reporter remembered them from the time he came in from
Hungary. Passengers get off the train and there are military style personnel who effectively cordon off
the platform and vaguely direct passengers where to go. Your reporter followed the two women, who
obviously knew what they were doing, through an unmarked door and into the customs hall.
Eventually, with a stamped passport and brief questioning by customs, your reporter was free to go.
He only had an hour until the return journey, but thought that it might be useful to have some local
currency. He therefore went to the bank across the road, but neither of the two cash machines
worked! Having a return ticket therefore turned out to be very useful.
Here the west to east journey ended, but there was a postscript, as the return journey back into
Slovakia nearly didn't happen at all! The last time your reporter was here, there were a lot of people
going into Hungary so they opened the door to the customs hall around 15 minutes before the booked
departure time. This time he was the only passenger around and nothing happened. With ten minutes
to go he managed to get the attention of the booking office person, who went into the hall and,
eventually, with about five minutes to go, they let him in. They clearly weren't expecting anyone!
Passport control then seemed to take an age, possibly because your reporter had not long arrived into
the country. Whatever it was, it required three members of staff to deal with it. Anyway eventually he
was escorted to the train with a minute to spare, although the train then left 5 late because of a late
running arrival from Hungary.

View from rear of train leaving Chop through the glass door at the back of the coach. The train is on the standard gauge
line, and the track crossing over is broad gauge

After all that the Slovakian border seemed like a formality, although an English speaking border guard
did ask your reporter if he'd been refused entry into Ukraine as he'd seen him on the way in! With only

one person to deal with, the return journey, booked to take 64 minutes, only took half this time and
Čierna nad Tisou was reached 30 minutes early.

[019] Spain – EuskoTren open short branch
Basque metre-gauge operator EuskoTren opened a 1km branch of the Metro Donostialdea suburban
network in San Sebastián on 12 September, with the launch of the branch from Herrera to Altza. The
one-station branch brings a further 5500 residents within a five-minute walk of a station. An extension
is planned which will continue the branch beyond Altza to rejoin the Amara - Hendaia line at Pasaia.

[020] Switzerland – Snippets
Eigerwand Halt at km 4.339 on the Jungfraubahn closed after traffic on 10 December 2016.
The Bern avoiding line has a regular passenger train Monday to Friday in the new timetable. It is train
15020 which is the 06:43 Wiler-Ostermundigen.
Capolago Lago — Generoso Vetta (table 636). This line has booked services in 2017, including one
summer dated daily train from Capolago Lago, after an extended period of closure.
On the Regionalverkehr Bern-Solothurn (RBS) line between Bern and Worb, Deisswil station (km 9.21)
closed after traffic on the 29 September 2016. During a period of bus substitution the line in the area
was moved over about 5 metres and a new Deisswil station completed at km 9.04. This has resulted in
approximately 160 metres of new formation but it has not caused distances to change. The new
formation and station opened at start of traffic on the 6 October 2016.
The Lehen Viaduct in Zürich officially opened on Sunday 11 December though the first train was
probably the day after as very little freight moves in Switzerland on Sundays.
Construction has started on a new low level part of Bern station. This will replace platforms 21-24 (RBS
narrow gauge lines) and due to the amount of tunnelling required will not be ready until 2025 but RBS
have published a diagram with distances. Felsenau station 31.320, deviation point 32.700, current
Bern RBS 33.620, deviation point 32.700, new platforms (2) 33.900, new platforms (1) 33.923.
Platform numbers are not confirmed, the diagram shows two islands 2 and 1, total 4 platforms).

REST OF THE WORLD

[021] Canada - News from British Columbia
BCSkytrain: Following a period of ghost running from 22 October, the 11km “Evergreen Extension”
from Lougheed Town Centre to Lafarge Lake-Douglas opened to public service at noon on Friday 2
December. Intermediate stations are Burquitlam, Moody Centre, Inlet Centre, Coquitlam Central, and
Lincoln. Some 6km of the extension is elevated, 3km at ground level, and 2km in tunnel. In a change of
nomenclature, the Expo Line title now applies to trains between Waterfront and Columbia with one in
three continuing to Production Way-University and the other two to King George, whilst the
Millennium Line title applies VCC-Clark to Lafarge Lake-Douglas. Expo Line trains comprise either six-
car Mark 1 or four-car Mark 2 or 3 formations, whilst Millennium Line services are two-car Mark 2s.
The 28 new Bombardier Mark 3 cars run as seven permanently-coupled four-car sets, with a
continuous walk-through layout, and the first went into service on 18 August. Including the
technologically-different Canada Line, Greater Vancouver now claims the world’s largest network of
automated driverless trains, at 79.5km.

West Coast Express: In consequence of the above, the off-peak “TrainBus” WCE service (operated by
CanTrail Coach Lines) is to be withdrawn after 30 December, with passengers for stations east of
Coquitlam Central diverted to local bus services. Port Moody WCE station has been renamed Moody
Centre, to match the adjacent Skytrain station.
[022] India – Metre gauge lines closed to be re-gauged
Mahesana to Taranga Hill closed for gauge conversion on 22 December. Ahmedabad – Khed Brahma,
Khandwa – Sanawad, Udaipur - Himatnagar and Akola to Akot closed on 1 January 2017.
[023] Myanmar - A journey in South East Burma (Part 2)
With a mornings sightseeing behind him, including the Pagoda which famously inspired the opening
lines to Kipling’s poem ‘Mandalay’, there was time for our member to visit more of the railway history
of Mawlamyine. Since the original station for Ye and Dawei was in the south of the city, a ticket office
(referred to as the North station, even though it was several kilometres away from any rails) was
provided near the ferry terminal. This was located on Strand Road by the ferry terminal and proved
difficult to identify as used tyres were piled up outside and the former ticket windows were decaying
and abandoned.

The former ‘North station’ in Mawlamyine was actually only a ticket office adjacent to the ferry terminal where
passengers from the north arrived and departed from Mottama. Today it is disused and in a sorry state.

A drive south eventually found the old South Station, the former start of the railway to Ye and Dawei.
This was, as expected, derelict, but the rails were shiny and obviously in use. Beyond the station the
line used to curve round to a stone loading terminal on the river, but this was heavily overgrown.
Abandoned wagons were present in a number of sidings and whilst inspecting some of these a
locomotive was observed approaching. This proved to be DD914 and it reversed in the old station and
set off south towards the junction with the new line. Further investigation revealed the presence of
the motive power depot two kilometres down the line – so that was where the loco had come from.

Before the Thanlwin bridge opened in 2005 all trains to Ye and Dawei departed from Mawlamyine’s South station. The station
building is now disused by Myanmar Railways and is derelict.

A plume of polluting diesel fumes emerges from Alsthom built DD914 as it departs the former South station to work a passenger
service from the new Main Station. The cab door of this class of loco is normally left open to provide a cooling draught. An
overturned wagon is just visible on the left of the picture.

Where it was going was answered when our member arrived at the grand new station at Mawlamyine
to find it on the front of the 14:30 Mawlamyine to Ye – one of only two southbound trains each day
over the line (which continues to Dawei) – the other being the Yangon to Dawei overnight, which
leaves at 04:30 in the morning and does not convey sleeping cars, so a long hard journey.

DD914 waits to depart from Mawlamyine station with the 14:30 local to Ye. The Ordinary class coach behind the loco has non-
reservable seats and is very basic (see below picture). The other two Ordinary class coaches have better seating and are
reservable. A goods van and brake van complete the consist

Reserving a seat was no simple task – it took our members local guide three attempts to find the right
ticket window and fifteen minutes to accomplish the transaction.
There is a long single track carriage shed opposite the platforms and a
number of items of stock scattered around. A reversing triangle is
present at the south end of the station. The train departed three
minutes early and fifteen minutes later the line from the South station
trailed in right at the little station of Ta Yat Gon. A long journey for
locos from the main station requiring fueling and maintenance. The
railway runs through largely flat terrain – forest interspersing with rice
paddies and tribal villages. The train made a stop to pick up over 20
people in the middle of nowhere – there was no station of any sort.
After two hours Hmeinganein was reached where a load of sugar cane
was awaiting loading into the goods van. This took almost ten
minutes. The village is remote from the main road, and the cost of
conveyance by train is apparently very cheap. After the large town of

Mudon a man boarded at Kamawet and promptly set up a portable music station in our member’s
carriage.

The train guard watches as several men load stems of sugar cane into the goods van. Station buildings rarely carry names in
English, but bi-lingual signs are usually present at the ends of the platform

To the sound of loud local music he started shouting into a megaphone. Apparently he was a fan of a
certain style of music and wished everyone else to have a listen. Our member’s local guide found this
rather amusing – our member less so. The train arrived at another large station –Thanbyuzayat – some
twenty minutes early and our member alighted with the purpose of visiting the nearby Death Railway
museum. Though by the side of the railway, a short drive is needed to reach it. Thanbyuzayat was the
western end of the infamous railway built by the Japanese to connect Thailand with Burma in WW2
whose best known parts are the Bridge over the River Kwai and Hellfire Pass.

The main building and the plinthed steam loco at the Death Railway museum just outside Thanbyuzayat

The museum has a collection of photographs from this period as well as a steam locomotive plinthed
on a short section of railway which goes through a gate into the undergrowth. The locomotive was
extremely attractive to a visiting coach party, who all wanted their pictures taken in front of it – or
preferably on the front of it. Dusk was setting in before they finally went away and allowed our
member an unobstructed set of pictures. There has long been talk of reopening the line through to
Thailand. Hostility from the local tribes to the idea has diminished, but a recent cost benefit analysis
was reported to have been unfavourable and the project has been quietly dropped. This is in similar
vein to the proposed extension of the southern line from Dawei to Myeik. The stationmaster at
Mawlamyine claimed a little work had been done, but this had stopped due to lack of finance.

Map of the western section of the ‘Death Railway’ as built. The present terminus in Thailand is at the waterfall beyond Nam
Tok, which is west of Kanchanaburi, but this town is not shown as such. Apart from a few isolated sections of rail there is no
longer any track between Nam Tok and Thanbyuzayat

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RAILTOURS AND DIVERSIONS OVER NON-PASSENGER LINES

This is provided as a service to members and details must be checked with the organisers.

Germany - Straßenbahnsystem München
Gisbert Siede is now taking bookings for his comprehensive two day tram tour of München on 1 and 2
April 2017. Tour runs subject to minimum numbers being reached by 5 February 2017. Prices: 1 April
€45, 2 April €35, both days €75. Partial refund on the day if numbers exceed the minimum. To register
contact [email protected] with full postal and email addresses plus names of participants. Payment by
bank transfer by 20 March 2017. Account Holder Gisbert Siede Institut: PSD-Bank München eG, Sitz
Augsburg IBAN: DE57 7209 0900 8660 8406 03 BIC: GENODEF1P14. Include reason for transfer: name
of the passenger, trip München