The end of the Line.

After more than 50 years, the Malaysian KTM railway line and the land it sits on were finally surrendered back to Singapore on 1st July 2011. The railway tracks will soon be dismantled while the government ponders over the fate of the strip of land that runs from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands.

With the exception of the Tanjong Pagar Station, which is now gazetted as a national monument, the rest of the infrastructure will disappear by the end of this month. These include the bottleneck bridges at Hillview, Hindhede and Sunset Way which I previously wrote about.  (click here for that blog)

Today I visited the truss bridge at Upper Bukit Timah and wandered along the tracks up to Hillview for a last look. Not surprisingly, so many others were also there to capture that last piece of memorabilia before it's all gone.

That bridge near the Rail Mall holds a bit more memories for me than any other part of the railway line. For about 10 years between the 70s & 80s, I  lived at Fuyong Estate which is located just beside that bridge. (Rail Mall is part of Fuyong Estate, here in this blog).

The truss bridge over Upper Bukit Timah Road.
Fuyong Estate is located just on the left of the photo.

The railway line is open to visitors till the end of July.

More pictures of the railway can be found on my photo blog here.

Postscript (9 July 2011)

Access to the tracks from Chia Eng Say Road (top photo) was a bit bit treacherous on the day I visited, but within the week, someone had graciously carved out a temporary flight of steps (above). 

So now it'll be easier for anyone who want to look at the railway one last time.
After July, it will be out-of-bounds to the public.

Bukit Batok Nature Park Prequel

Sep 25, 2009

Having mentioned in my last post about visiting the Bukit Batok Nature Park prior to it becoming a park, I remembered and dug out the few old photos I had stashed away somewhere.
I know my siblings are going to have a field day laughing at the pictures below. These were taken 30 years ago when I was just out from the army and was working as a quality inspector for Mercedes Benz. They show me 30 years younger and maybe also 20 kilos lighter.

My job as a final line quality inspector required that I took the newly assembled cars for a test run, road test we called it. Along the test route, we drove to the abandoned Poh Kim Granite Quarry, where the rough track road served as an excellent place to check for rattles from the various car assemblies. Then it was up the slope to Bukit Batok summit where we tested steering alignment by simply rolling down the slope in free gear.

The photos shows Bukit Batok Nature Park and Bukit Batok hill prior to the re-planting frenzy that NParks Singapore did after they took over. Bukit Batok for years was quite bare and the tower and summit could be seen from afar. Today, it's much better, looking like a forest reserve with all its greenery.

Click on the photo for a larger image

At the abandoned Poh Kim quarry, long before the revamp.

The pond had already started to fill with rainwater and natural runoff.
I reckoned the pond to be about 20-30ft deep.

In the background - Bukit Timah shopping malls and view towards the obscured city.
Forestation was then what we called bulukar secondary forest.

At the bare summit of Bukit Batok with Bukit Timah Hill in the background.
The cliff face in the background was the then active  Singapore Granite Quarry.
Upper Bukit Timah Road in the valley divides Bukit Batok from Bukit Timah.

In front of the WWII Japanese Army-built steps. The then RTS (Radio and Television Singapore, now Mediacorp) Tower was the original. This was replaced with a newer tower in the 90s.
To know more about the history of these steps, please watch the video from the previous blog entry.

About the Cycle& Carriage Car Assembly Plant at Hillview Ave

Bukit Batok Nature Park, Singapore

Tues, Sep 22, 2009

For someone who considers taking a shower exercise, going to the nature park two days in a row must surely be a record of sorts. Walked about 5km in my sandals on Sunday along the Dairy Farm Trail (click here for that blog) and yesterday trekked the Bukit Batok Nature Park in my flip-flop slippers.

Had purposely worn my sandals and slippers, because in these footgear you are forced to walk slowly. In turn, this will give you more time to really appreciate the surroundings. Even made it all the way up to the top of Bukit Batok. Ha ha, had wanted to say 'summit' but it being only 120 metres high, summit sounds so exaggerated.

Bukit Batok Nature Park is just a stone's throw from my home, and yet it would have been the 2nd or 3rd time only that I've been there. The last time I went, my son Jason was about 3 or 4 years old. He's now in his early twenties. Talk about time flying by!

The park was reclaimed and revamped from a dis-used granite quarry by NParks Singapore around 1988 onwards. They've done a magnificent job!

It might interest you to know that I had actually been to the quarry just after it had ceased operations sometime in the early 1980s. I had a job testing new Mercedes cars and one of the test routes took us to the abandoned quarry to test the car for rattle.

Of course, we made plenty of stops at the quarry pond for breaks. The bare granite cliff face was already an awesome sight at that time. Today, vegetation is starting to cover the magnificent cliff.

This is a video I made on my walk yesterday of the Bukit Batok Nature Park. Hope you like it.