Extracts from R. Mag

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Burma Railways
including the Burma State Railways and the Mu Valley State Railway

Brief extracts from the Railway Magazine & M.N.A. & Employment Records

Main Rangoon Station, Phayre St.
With seven platforms and over 150 trains arriving or departing were dealt with daily.
No. 1 platform was used by main line trains only and the other platforms were long enough to accommodate two local trains at a time.

Burma Railways Battalion, B.A.F

The following extract from a file held at the M.N.A. tells us that:-
" It is to be noted that the conditions of service in the Burma Railways Battalion B.A.F. are unlike any other unit of the Burma Auxiliary Force in that all the sub-ordinate staff of the Burma Railways sign in their agreement a "service clause" to the effect that they will serve in the Burma Railways Battalion, B.A.F."

Mu Valley Railway
In 1890 the construction of the Mu Valley railway was begun running north towards Myitkyina. The line starts from Sagaing on the right side of the Irrawaddy twelve miles to the south of Mandalay and the distance from there to Myitkyina is 335 miles.

The section from Sagaing to Shwebo was opened to traffic on the 1st July 1891 and it was pushed on to Wuntho in 1893. By Oct. the same year the line was completed as far as Mohnyin as well as the branch line from Naba to Katha which stands on the banks of the Irrawaddy and has a regular ferry boat service to Bhamo.

The section to Mogaung was opened in 1897 and two years later the last thirty six miles from Mogaung to Myitkyina were opened to traffic in Feb. 1899.

Burma Railways During The Invasion July - Aug. 1944 1/4

"In our issue of November-December 1943 we published an article sent us by a correspondent who though not a railwayman. had served during the Japanese attack on Burma as a driver or fireman. That article, entitled "Lines Behind the Lines in Burma" gave a good general idea of conditions on the Burma Railways during the withdrawal of troops and civilians to the extreme north of Burma before the advancing enemy, and was, therefore, published at its face value, the war making it impossible to check the accuracy of its details.

Two correspondents, now in India, write to point out that some of these details were inaccurate, particularly as to the locomotive classes mentioned in the article. To place on record what they now state to be correct descriptions of the classes, we give them as received from these correspondents, who also gave a quantity of other interesting information about the Burma Railways.

The classes were:-
Class "V" and "As." 4-6-4T: for local services; a tank engine version of the B.E.S.A. 4-6-0 with 4' 0 " wheels. The "s" indicates super-heated.

Class "B" 2-8-0 + 0-8-2 Garratts with 3' 3" wheels, four high pressure 15 1/2" x 20" cyls. and 200lb. boiler pressure (except "B" 208, which was a compound with 17 1/2 " x 20" h.p. and 26 1/2 " x 20" l.p. cyls.)

Class "Cs" 4-4-4T: old tank engines with 4' 5" wheels converted to super-heaters.

Class "E" 2-6-4T: the latest type of shunting engine with 3' 7" wheels.

Class "Fs" 0-6-0; old outside-framed goods engines, 3' 7" wheels, converted to super-heaters; remarkable engines, stills going strong after 40 or more years service.

Class "Js" and "J" 4-6-0; B.E.S.A. type passenger engines with 4' 9" wheels.

Class "Ks" and "K" 4-6-0; B.E.S.A. type goods engines with 4' wheels.

Burma Railways During The Invasion July - Aug. 1944 2/4

Class "M" 2-6-2T; shunting engine 3' 7" wheels. (The forerunner of the "E" Class,) and with smaller bunker capacity.

Class "Ns" 0-6-6-0; Mallet articulated compounds, 3' 3" wheels. (The first four had slide valves to h.p. and l.p. cyls. the remaining IS had piston valves to h.p. only.)

Class "YC" 4-6-2; express engines (I.R.S.design) 4' 9" wheels.
Class "YD" 2-8-2; goods engines (J.R.S. design) 4' 0" wheels.

The total stock was just over 400 locomotives and with the exception of shunting engines all were super-heated.

The "B" Garratts and "N" Mallets were normally used only on the Lashio and Southern Shan States branches, with their 12 and 16 mile lengths of continuous 1 in 25 and also long 1 in 40 grades spread over many miles of these branches.

During the emergency period covered by the article, all classes were worked everywhere, promiscuously, which led to complications, as Garratts and Mallets were worked on the main lines where they could hardly go from one watering station to another; there were, as the article states, cases of desperate filling of buckets. Actually, pumping at all the watering stations on the Myitkyina and Ye-U sections was by hot-air pumps, which were some 50 years old and notoriously unreliable; at Wuntho there were two of these pumps.

During peacetime all sections were coal-fired except the isolated Moulmein-Ye section where wood was burnt, but after the war broke out, a number of other engines were converted to wood-fuel burning, as all coal previously had to be imported from India and due to the lack of tonnage during the war it ceased to be available from that source.

The writer of the article suggests that all staff remained at their posts. This is far from the truth and is hardly fair on those in authority, who spent many sleepless nights endeavoring to find and persuade staff to work a train, "just for once." All praise is certainly due to those who did remain.

On Ye-U section, mentioned in the article, the last train from Monywa to Ye-U ran on the night of April 30th. At Alon the ancient

Burma Railways During The Invasion July - Aug. 1944 3/4

hot-air pump was out of order and filling had to be done by hand pump and buckets. Finally, it may be recorded that, although many engines went without repairs and washouts for some two months, it is believed there was no case of an engine failing from mechanical cause.

Mandalay station, one of the correspondents points out, has five platform lines and a bay, and not three only, as stated in the article.

With regard to block-working, this correspondent states that the short section from Mandalay to Myohaung junction was double
line, fully interlocked and worked on the Sykes lock and block system. The main line south of Myohaung, and the Lashio and Mu Valley (Myitkyina) branches from that junction were worked with Tyers No. 7 tablet instruments, the Lashio branch throughout and the Mu Valley line as far as Says, the first Station north of Ywataung junction.

All the Rangoon-Mandalay mail and express coaching rakes were painted brown below the waist rail and cream above it. They each ran over 140,000 miles a year. The remaining ordinary coaching stock livery was red oxide.

Only a few old vehicles weighed under 14 tons, but there were large numbers, 45' long, weighing 15 to 18 tons. The 47' 6" stock weighed 18 to 23 tons and the few 50' coaches weighed up to 26 tons 12 cwt. The last ordinary four-wheel carriage stock was broken up in 1936.

Goods stock was painted red oxide except the latest steel-bodied wagons, which had galvanised side sheeting welded to angle-iron body frame members and a corrugated galvanised roof. All their roof fastenings were outside the body, which was, therefore, absolutely water-tight. The tare weight was 5 tons 10 cwt. and the load 15 tons. All the open wagons were of 15 tons capacity, and of the total of nearly 10,000 wagons, less than 5,000 of 111 tons capacity.

There were eight steam 30 ton breakdown cranes and two 20 ton hand breakdown cranes. Traffic hand cranes had 5- and 10- capacities.
On the Lashio branch the Zibingyi ghat section has a continuous - but for stations and short lengths of level - 1 in 25 gradient some

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12 miles in length, extending to a point between Zibingyi and Thondaung Stations.

The Garratt articulated (2-8-0+0-8-2) locomotives hauled maximum loads of 230 tons from Sedaw - at the foot of the 1 in 25 section - up to Thondaung, and 385 tons on the ruling grades of 1 in 40 beyond. The solitary compound Garrett, however, was capable only of 220 and 360 tons respectively. The Garratts worked in the main up to Maymyo and the Mallets beyond that station, though "YD" class 2-8-2s were also brought up to reinforce the Mallets in coping with the wartime traffic for China.

Further details of the Lashio branch and of the future Burma-China railway were published in The Railway Magazine of March 1941.

Obituaries from the Railway Magazine - Edward Stanley Willix Alfred Edward Dunning