History of Railways around Kuala Lumpur

or

History of Railways in Selangor

The Selangor Government Railway opened its first line from Bukit Kuda, near Klang, to Kuala Lumpur on 15th September 1886. The intention was to complete the line to Klang but it was another four years to the day before the Connaught bridge over the Klang river was opened. The first locomotive was an ex-Indian Railways 0-4-4T which came via Johore, where it is believed to have been used on the Johore Wooden Railway. It was named LADY CLARKE and later became FMSR 2, surviving until December 1912. The next three locomotives were 4-4-0Ts from Hunslet in 1885 and they were numbered 1, 2 & 3, one of the first two being named LADY WELD and No. 3 LADY CLEMENTI. The same year an 0-6-0ST named LILY arrived from a contractor. In 1888 an 0-4-0ST named LEILA and another 4-4-0T from Neilson arrived. Hudswell Clarke supplied a 4-4-0T to a slightly different design in 1890, this was named LADY MAXWELL, and in 1893 an 0-4-2T named SISYPHUS came from Dick Kerr. It is thought that the 4-4-0Ts were used for service trains and the other small tanks for construction duties.

The line was extended from Kuala Lumpur to Batu Junction and Rawang in 1892. As it was not feasible to make an end-on connection this line would branch off from the line to Klang just to the south of the Kuala Lumpur station and goods yard. To avoid the necessity of trains having to reverse into the station a new station was planned about half a mile further south. It is not clear whether this new station opened when the extension opened or a little while later. Photograph 7 below was taken in 1893 but I have no date for photograph 8.

The next line to open was from the north end of the Kuala Lumpur (1892) station across the Klang River, along Foch Avenue and through Sultan Street station to Pudu, on 1st June 1893. At the same time work was continuing northwards from Rawang and it opened to Serendah on 10th July 1893 and finally Kuala Kubu on 6th October 1894. By the 1st March 1895 the line from Pudu had been extended to Sungei Besi and it reached Kajang on 14th August 1897. The Klang Valley line was extended from Klang to Port Swettenham on 1st January 1899 and the Selangor Government Railway system was completed when the northward line from Kuala Kubu reached Kalumpang on 1st August 1900 and finally Tanjong Malim on 1st November 1900.

With the extension of all these lines newer and larger locomotives were needed and between 1894 and 1901 three new classes appeared. The 4 D class 4-6-0 tender locomotives came from Kitson in 1894 and Dubs in 1895 and were followed by two F class 4-4-0 tender locomotives in 1897. 4 G class 4-6-0 tender locomotives came from Kitson in 1898 followed by a further 2 in 1901 and another 2 in 1902, by which time the Selangor Government Railway had been merged with the Perak Government Railway to form the Federated Malay States Railway, although it was to be 1903 before the two systems were physically connected

Sometime between 1922 and 1929 a deviation line was built from just north of Kuala Lumpur station (by the old junction for Sultan Street) to a point across the Gombak River from Campbell Road (now Jalan Dang Wangi I think) to the north of Bank Negara. This was a double track line and ran through a tunnel a little way to the west of the old Residency station. The old alignment is now buried beneath Jalan Kuching / Jalan Hishamuddin. The old line is shown well on a 1908 KL map, the proposed deviation is shown on a poor 1922 map and the new line is shown well on a 1929 map.

Here are some links to the maps in question, courtesy of Dataxbox. You may need to paste them into your address bar to get them to work, I will correct this later.

Below: Two A class locomotives at the Kuala Lumpur end of the line, probably around the time of its completion in 1886. The one on the left is on the platform road while the other is facing the goods yard. Compare this picture to the fourth one, taken from almost the same spot less than 4 years later.

1.c1886

2.1886

Above: The opening ceremony at Bukit Kuda station on 15th September 1886. It was reported that the first train was hauled by the locomotive "Lady Clarke", an ex-Indian Railways B class but the locomotive in the picture appears to be an A class.

3.c1889

Above: Not sure what the occasion is, the bridge is not yet complete (see picture below) but Lady Clarke appears to be heading a construction train full of passengers on the new line to Batu Junction. The line in the foreground leads into the station and yard (right background) while to the left is the future site of the 1892 station.

Below: The same location seen from the top left corner of the above picture showing the station and yard and with the bridge now appearing to be complete and this picture is dated 1890. Compare it to the first picture above.

4.1890

5.1889

Above: A section of a hand drawn map dated 1889 showing the proposed new station (bottom left) and the proposed alignment for the extension to Batu Junction and Rawang (top left). The blank area of the map where it says "Railway Workshops" is where the first locomotive depot and works was built. It also shows the original layout of the first station and goods yard, and interestingly shows two bows in the river coming up to the railway, the one further north not being shown on later maps. Photographs 1 & 4 were taken from the side of Gombak Road opposite the English Church. The junction for Sultan Street and Pudu branch was near the small river crossing between the Railway Workshops and the proposed new station opposite the government offices. Residency station was near the top left corner of the map off the left hand end of Market Street.

Below: Residency station was built on the line to Batu Junction where it passed through the grounds of the British Residency and was for private use. The curvature of the track suggests this is the view looking southwards with the tunnel behind the photographer. Some maps show the tunnel, some don't, and most show varying alignments for the track. I have found a 1920 map which shows residency station still extant. A 1922 map shows dotted lines, one on the alignment of the old track and one on the alignment of the current track. A 1929 map shows only the new alignment through a tunnel and no stations.

6.1891

7.1893

Above & below: Two views of the second Selangor Government Railway station in Kuala Lumpur, 1892-1909. The map above suggests that it was planned to be built on the east side of the line, if that is the case, was it incorporated into the east side of the present Kuala Lumpur (KLO) station and if so is there anything left of it now.

8.1892-1909

The information in the table below was sourced from the FMSR Annual Report of 1939. The distances quoted may have been interpolated from the then current Working Timetable as they agree with my copy of the 1958 Working Timetable. The figure I have highlighted in red has to be treated as possibly incorrect. My own estimations are in the three notes below.

1. The distance quoted for Kuala Lumpur (KLO) to Klang in the 1958 Working timetable is 21 miles 37 chains. I would estimate that it was about 2 miles 20 chains from Klang to Bukit Kuda and perhaps 40 chains from KLO to the original SGR terminus near Market Street. This would give a figure of 19 miles 57 chains from Bukit Kuda to the station near Market Street which is close to the original 1886 figure of  "about 20 miles".

2. Batu Junction was not opened until 1905 so the original line from Kuala Lumpur to Rawang would have been 19-57 which agrees with the 1958 KLO to Rawang figure. It is possible that the new (1892) station opened at the same time as the extension to Rawang but I have not found confirmation of this.

3. The distance from Kuala Lumpur (1892) to Sultan Street station was 57 chains. Kuala Lumpur to Pudu 1-76, Pudu to Sultan Street 1-19 in the 1958 Working Timetable.

A search of newspapers of the day for the first half of November 1892 may well produce something, I know Singapore Library has copies of them on microfiche available for public viewing without charge (there is a small charge for photocopies), I used this to find my information on Singapore during my last visit.

9.1894 or later

Above: one of the named A class 4-4-0T locomotives with a single 4-wheeled coach at Kuala Kubu station, reached in 1894.

23.1895-1917

22.1899

Above: This picture of LADY WELD was taken "up-country" after the 1899 conversion to oil-burning, adopting the principle developed by the Great Eastern Railway at Stratford, UK.

16.1895-1905

Above: The old river course has been filled in to allow more tracks between the locomotive sheds/workshops and the goods yard and the attap cabin has been replaced by a slightly newer design! An 1895 map suggests the river had been "straightened" by then but the tower in the background looks like the one behind the 1895 FMSR HQ building (picture 24).

24.1901 or later.

Above: View from Damansara Road bridge looking north. Residency station was on the extreme left of the picture but out of sight in the distance. The coaches in front of the FMSR HQ appear to be of the bogie type introduced from 1901 and the road traffic suggests not too much later but the HQ building already has its second storey and towers. Note the tower behind and left appears to be the one in picture 16.

Below: a view of the goods yard at Kuala Lumpur in later years, bogie coaches were only introduced in 1901, steel covered vans in the 1920s. The original 1886-1892 station was on the left side of the picture. Note the original building of 1895 (Railway Head Office until 1917) has had another storey and some towers added.

10.1921 or later

15.1901-1908

Above: The locomotive appears to be a G class but the 1898 batch had only two square windows at the cab front, the elongated windows and circular windows only appearing later, so this would date the picture after 1901. Tim has seen this picture with a 1908 postmark.

11.1910 or later

Above: The new 1910 station at Kuala Lumpur as first built before the ornamental archways were built over the tracks.

12.1922

13.1960 or later

Above: The new (1910) station at Kuala Lumpur from the south end.

Below: a map showing the full extent of the lines in Selangor in 1918. By this time the short link between Kuala Lumpur and Sultan Street had been severed. Passenger services operated between Sultan Street and Ampang whilst all freight was routed via Salak South Junction.

14.1918

17.1910 - 1917

Sometime between 1922 and 1929 a deviation line was built from just north of Kuala Lumpur station (by the old junction for Sultan Street) to a point across the Gombak River from Campbell Road (now Jalan Dang Wangi I think) to the north of Bank Negara. This was a double track line and ran through a tunnel a little way to the west of the old Residency station. The old alignment is now buried beneath Jalan Kuching / Jalan Hishamuddin. The old line is shown well on a 1908 KL map, the proposed deviation is shown on a poor 1922 map and the new line is shown well on a 1929 map.

18.1899 or later

19.1899 or later

20.c1950

Two similar pictures taken at Sultan Street station in the 1950s, the steam railcar in the upper one having a black roof while 252.03 below has a white roof. It is interesting to note that whereas nowadays all classes are denoted by the first two digits, as they were officially in the 1958 Working Timetable, in early post-war days they were referred to with 3 digits by many photographers. As a footnote the FMSR lettering of classes was introduced after the 1901 formation.

21.4/1955

This page created on 27th February 2009.

Updated 29th July 2010.

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