Diesel alert in Myanmar! In the next two years the use of steam is going to fade away. In about three years they want to finish with the use of steam! Last call!
After the recent riots and demonstrations in Myanmar that have been reported intensively in the western press and media everyone should know by now where this country is. What most of the people who have never visited the country don’t know is how safe travelling in Myanmar is, how warm and welcoming the local people are, how politely foreigners are treated by officials and last, but not least,– what you’ll miss if you don’t go there.
Recently several larger tour operators cancelled Myanmar trips that resulted in a sharp decline in tourism in the country. Thousands of people who are depending on tourism have almost no income any more. These people, far away from the government, are in danger as they have no other chance to earn an income. Tourism had grown in the last decade, and now they find that everything supporting their existence is gone. On the other hand the government and their relatives have easy access to the resources of the country. They can sell teak wood or oil on the world market to maintain their high living standards. Those people who have to make a living from 40 Dollars a month will be hit hard dramatically by any kind of embargo, but the government probably not at all.
What have all the decades of embargos against Cuba done? What about those against North Korea? Why should this dumb weapon show the results that outsiders want to see in Myanmar? Think twice about the overall picture before you support embargo politics.
Beside the political tensions there are some remarkable developments in the railway sector. In Cuba many railway enthusiasts thought that there wouldn’t be a serious change on the rails as long as the political system did not change. Many might be tempted to think the same about Burma. However, it is time to wake up: the state railway, Myanma Railways (without an “r” at the end of the word Myanma), got a new general manager who sees no future for steam locomotives. The first new rule was to stop all overhauls for steam locomotives. The managers in the workshop in Yangon-Insein told us that if a major repair is needed, it is the end for a steam locomotive. The monthly mileage for steam locomotives has already sunk below 600 Miles. The handful of steamers survives for only one reason: the state railway has not sufficient diesel locomotives to meet the requirements of the almost constantly growing traffic. But here again the new GM: he was able to raise foreign currency funds for the largest re-powering program the state railway has ever seen. They bought a number of brand new Caterpillar engines to replace the old and maintenance-hungry Chinese diesel engines in their DF locos. The large depot of Yangon Mahlwagon has only one diesel locomotive with an original Chinese engine left. It’s will be replaced by a western engine soon. The new engines reduce the requirements for maintenance immensely and lower the fuel consumption. The monthly mileage of these locomotives is about 30 % higher than before. So the steam locos are going to be replaced either by the higher availability of diesels or retired because of the need for heavy repairs which will not be done for steam.
Fortunately, there are some considerations weighing against the quick replacement of steam as well. They shouldn’t be overestimated, but they are the only hope for seeing regular steam hauled trains in the next few months. One is the increasing traffic. The population is growing, so the traffic requirements are growing too. Although economic development is decades behind other Asian countries, it is growing as well, although not as fast nor as continuously as neighbouring countries’ economies. But there is a development, even if this cannot be found in the western news and reports very often.
One of the recently finished large infrastructure projects is the huge bridge between Mottama and Moulmein. As this was built as a road and a railway bridge, the new connections brought one more pair of passenger trains on the Bago – Mottama – Moulmein – Ye line. Two more diesel locos are required for this service. The line is still equipped with the old signalling system, which produces slow travel speeds because of the long time allowed for train crossings on the single tracked line. The condition of the tracks and bridges is unchanged as well. Many of the freight trains (including all steam hauled stone trains) are operated without train brakes – which limits the speed of these trains to 20 miles an hour. Therefore the line is operated at the limit and delays happen quite often.
This line will see even more traffic soon. The government in the new capital near Pyinmna wished to have a direct connection between the capital and Ye – over the new bridge. In a few months a new link line between the double tracked main line Mandalay – Pyinmana – Taungoo – Pyintaza – Bago – Yangon and Bago – Mottama – Moulmein – Ye will be finished. Then the railway wants to introduce a new passenger service over the new line. They built a new station between Abya and the Sittaung-bridge (station name Satthwagone) on the Ye line as well as a station at the main line where the link is branching off.
Why do I mention this all? Because slow lines require more locomotives than fast lines to shift the same tonnage of goods and move the same number of passengers. And this is good for steam although it can not, and will not, extend their lives very long.
Most of the express and long distance trains have been overnight trains for a long time. Under the new GM this have been changed and most of the passenger trains, if not all, are daylight trains now. This is not necessarily an improvement for the passengers because they need to stand the heat of the day in the non-air-conditioned coaches now. But it is better for safety as the local people continue to use the railway lines as public paths despite police and army posts that have been established in some places along the line. However, between Pyuntaza and Yangon we could not see that any of the lines had been fenced, as some reports stated, (maybe these reports forgot to mention that the fences and armed guards will be lowered into the ground before foreigners come and only pop up after trains with foreigners aboard have passed ...). Only around some stations there are fences to keep trespassers out. In addition there is a latent fear of further terrorist attacks to railway stations.
Although the end of steam overhauls was marked by the last outshopped YD in June 2006 another steam loco is in the workshop for overhaul. After both serviceable ST tank locos were donated to China, they want to have one for tourist trains in Yangon. So ST 772 was under overhaul when we visited.
Despite there being more diesel locomotives available, the number of serviceable steam locos is almost unchanged from our visit in 2006. Within seven days we noted five pairs of steam hauled trains alone on the Bago – Mottama line. On the other hand you can be there for more than three weeks without seeing a single steam hauled train. This is the reason why the last state railway in the world (tourist or heritage operations like Wolsztyn don’t count here) that uses steam, not just for shunting, will not become a star destination for railway enthusiasts. If there were regular trains, Burma could be the top destination for rail enthusiasts: things are almost unchanged after five decades, with beautiful Pacifics in use and countless photographic opportunities. The traditional Asian style of life has not been replaced by the turbo modernisation many other Asian countries see, the people are unbelievable friendly and welcoming, and the weather is mostly sunny during the dry season. But if you haven’t endless time to wait for the next heating oil delivery you may be very unhappy with the results. So the only way for rail enthusiasts with limited holidays to get results for sure is to charter steam locomotives for the regular service trains.
The steam locos from Mottama and Mokepalin (Mokpalin) are mainly used on the Bago – Zingyaik line, the locomotives from Bago work on this line as well plus on the main line between Pyinmana and Yangon. The locomotives from Pyuntaza can be found in front of freight trains on the main line section between Pyinmana and Yangon, while the two steam locomotives from Pyinmana are almost exclusively used for sugar cane trains around their home depot.
The following locomotives are serviceable:
Mottama
Mokepalin
Bago
Pyuntaza
Pyinmana
Of the 13 locomotives on the list 11 have recently been serviceable. YD 973 only needs a new lead plug in the firebox to be returned to life. The chances for YB 508 to be steamed up again are very slim. It would take several small repairs before it could be used again. Because they do not want to use the class YB for regular trains any more, no one will care for this loco. They say the class YB are too weak to haul stone trains. Doubtless, the light YB as well as the heavier Pacific class YC are not made for freight trains, and a YD is better, but in 1999 they used YBs frequently for just those stone trains without any hassle. With 50 of this class the YB was once the dominant type in Burma for passenger services.
The fuel consumption of a YD is 3.6 gallons per mile, seriously higher than the fuel consumption of a diesel locomotive. Because oil can be exported for real money, but when sold inside Burma it earns only local Kyats, the high fuel consumption is one very important, if not the main factor, why they want to get rid of their seam locomotives.
Well, again there is another factor that helps extend the life of steam for a while. These are the workers, foremen and engineers in the steam depots. The Depot in Mottama, for instance, owns only two steam and two diesel locomotives plus a railcar. Since the bridge to Moulmein opened for rail service the importance of the depot in Mottama has declined to almost zero. The state railway could give up this depot easily. Everyone there knows this. There they do everything they can to keep their locomotives serviceable and to use them. Even tighter is the situation in Mokepalin. Beside railcars (among them the “tank railcars”) they only have two steam locomotives and the last serviceable turntable between Taungoo, Yangon and Mottama. Once their steam locos are no longer serviceable, the whole depot will be closed. A filling station for the railcars may remain, but that’s all. A similar situation can be found in Pyuntaza, and even Bago depends on their steam locos. All these depots are redundant to the state railway. This is the reason why they’ll do everything to keep the steam locos serviceable. This is their licence to stay alive!
The locomotives are driven only very gently. You’ll probably not hear hard exhaust in Myanmar. If you touch the regulator yourself, you’ll realise what power the engine has. But the crew will see that you don’t unleash their loco, and let it really run. Gently, gently, and slowly, a speed of 20 miles per hour, the speed limit for un-braked trains, is reached anyhow. Life-extending driving … And it saves fuel too, but isn’t as much fun.
Some trains obviously are so unimportant for the state railway that you may wonder that there are still any passengers on it. The passenger train pair, 85/86, is such a case. If the train is hauled by a diesel locomotive, delays of several hours are normal. If both diesels from Mottama need repair, a steam loco will be used for this train. If this happens, then train 85/86 is lower rated than the steam hauled stone trains! We have just experienced this on our tour: we waited at the bridge in Kyaikhto. First appeared an express train, diesel hauled of course. This train overtook train 85 in the station before. Now the line was clear and we assumed that 85 would follow the express train. But not so in Myanmar: they let a steam hauled stone train from Kyaikhto through before passenger train no. 85 – in the opposite direction! Then, after 40 minutes, another passenger train followed the stone train! It was not until after the sun had changed to the other side of the bridge that our train passed over it. The start from Bago was already heavily delayed. The new departure time from Bago is 04.05 hrs in the morning. According to the train schedule, sunrise should greet the train somewhere beyond Abya. But don’t count on a Burmese schedule, on just the first few miles of its travels the train managed to collect more than an hour’s delay. Closer to the evening, running more than six hours after its scheduled time, most of the passengers had changed to other trains which had overtaken the 85. Only the freight cars, which are always attached to the 85 were well booked: pigs on their travel of their lifetime - probably their last ride.
If you want to stop a steam hauled train for a picture – this is possible with regular trains as well – you need to announce your wish far in advance. Steam trains are running without train bake, in case of a Pacific class YB or YC, only the six driving wheels are braked. On a Mikado you have eight braked wheels, but usually a heavier load behind you. So if you want to stop the train, the loco driver will switch on the vacuum. Then it takes at least half a minute before it builds up some vacuum, and now the loco driver can use the locomotive brake to slow down and stop his train. Even with the low speed it can take you a mile before you are finally stopped. Once we wanted to stop at a bridge. Before we could stop the train we passed a farmer who just ploughed his field with an oxen. Instead of the bridge picture we made a nice farmer shot …
All trains we photographed were regular trains. Trains included cars and coaches you’ll never ever see on a preserved line, not even as a typical charter train someone might assemble in Burma. Riveted four-axle freight cars with old friction bearings (not roller bearings) and no brakes, well used passenger coaches with no windows, no lights, but hundreds of passengers aboard. Loco crew service coaches made from boxcars with traditional beds, bamboo seats, kitchen and a shrine, illuminated by candles. Experiencing all this – in 2008 – is really amazing, and really, a soon-to-be-impossible experience! Once it is gone, there is no turning back the clock, no matter how much you might wish.
All fears about the safety, the freedom of travel or taking pictures and videos, which may have occurred after watching the recent news reports, are without foundation.
Myanma Railways offer fantastic opportunities for taking pictures from an era that has gone by in almost all other countries of the world. To miss these last months of steam trains would be a big mistake. That’s why we’ve announced an additional Burma trip, even if we have to cancel a planned trip to China and postpone a visit to Eritrea. Myanmar’s steam is by far too good to give it a miss. One of the participants who has travelled quite often to China asked me why I do not offer Burma more frequently. He’s right, Burma is definitely a more lovely destination for steam.
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