Train Wrecks & More (Part 2)
- art58koen
- Aug 28, 2022
- 2 min read
And here is the last part of the train station tour!
As written in Part 1, we were entering a building with lots of historical, interesting items, which we were not allowed to touch under any circumstances...
The ground floor looked pretty gloomy, to be honest.
One of the side rooms on the 2nd floor contained lots of tools/equipment.
And the main room turned out to be a kind of showroom!
Showcasing lots of stuff covered in dust and dirt, this place really made me feel depressed, and certainly didn't want me to touch anything!
Among loads of train ruins, junk, and abandoned pieces there were a few places where actual train repair work was done!
Even so, it made me wonder how they could move the renovated carriages out of the jungle...
Nice contrast!
The Kiha 183...
The sign on the right says 'Don't Litter, nice if staff would actually acknowledge it...
Not sure if 'had' was intended or not, but to me, the message read: "We had plans for our future (but realized that they were beyond our reach and therefore abandoned them...)"
Despite that, there certainly is plenty of activity going on.
Group members wandering around.
Some more murals and the Baiyoke Tower in the background.
Stripped inside of a carriage.
Obviously, these 2 diesel locs haven't been used for quite some time!
Ouch!
Detail of the damaged train.
The last part of the tour consisted of visiting this showcase area with several steam locomotives, very attractive, but again raises the question of why here as it is not open to the public!
As well as equipment.
Some of the locs were brightly painted which probably was not original, but it certainly looked nice.
A Dutch connection!
And that concluded the tour!
Perhaps some of you might find my impressions negative but the overall tour was definitely worthwhile despite it leaving us with mixed feelings. Perhaps this illustrates it best, one of the tour staff at Makkasan asked Tim: "Do you have fun?"...
Fun was the last word that I would like to use for visiting Makkasan!
Of course,of I'm aware that Makkasan has lost a lot of staff, but why not try to clean up the main areas, take some of the historical valuable stuff from that doom and gloom building, clean it up, and proudly display it among the steam locomotives?
This tour is organized by รัตนโกสิเนหา Rattanakosineha, an architectural tour agency.
Or just scan the QR code!
Train Links:
Thanks Koen. A prime example of Western culture/technology meets Thai attitudes. Normally,I like aspects of both, but they produce bizzare manifestations when mixed.
I fell Sad about this situation, KK. There are lots of possibiities, but a Plan and Funding for execution seem distant.