Industrial Railways in Singapore

In addition to the Singapore Tramways, Singapore Government Railway (later the Federated Malay States Railway) and the Military Railways there were also several industrial concerns who operated their own systems over the years. Perhaps the earliest was the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, who in 1894 acquired the steam trams from the failed Singapore Tramway venture. There were also contractors, such as John Aird & Co., Topham, Jones & Railton and Sir John Jackson who had contracts to build harbours, airfields, the causeway, etc. Then there were smaller concerns who operated quarries, factory sidings etc. It should come as no surprise therefore that there may have been upwards of a hundred steam locomotives operating in Singapore during the first half of the 20th century. Click here for my current listing. Following is a list of the various concerns which will be followed by any data which I have on them.

The Tanjong Pagar Dock Company was formed in 1865. An 1870 photograph shows what appear to be railway tracks but the earliest record I have is of the Singapore Tramway having a branch into the docks in 1885. As mentioned above, in 1894 they acquired the locomotives and rolling stock from the tramway at auction. John Aird & Co. supplied them with at least 7 saddle tank locomotives of 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 wheel arrangement from Manning Wardle. They also had at least 5 0-4-0STs built by R Stephenson between 1904 and 1909. Four were delivered new in 1908/9 while the others were second-hand from UK contracts, having been converted to metre gauge by about 1921/2. In 1933 they took ownership of two Hawthorn Leslie locomotives which were working in Mandai quarry and supplying granite to the Harbour. In September 1946 they purchased 3 Hunslet A class 0-6-0Ts from FMSR, who had acquired them from the Sembawang Naval Base in November 1941. In 1947 an 0-6-0ST numbered 3 was seen there, at first thought to be Peckett but now Avonside as it was transferred from the Naval Base by Topham, Jones & Railton. This would make it the same class as SL7 & SL8 in the military section. Click here for my current listing. By the time of my visits there in the 1970s only diesels could be seen.

SL7, an Avonside 0-6-0ST similar to No 3 of the SHB, at the Military complex. © Brian Raybould

This had a standard gauge line with two Barclay locomotives named Princess May and Burntisland which were later shipped to Canada (by 15th February 1914).

The only information I have on this is that it received its granite from Mandai Quarry (see below).

This was a large user of rail traffic on both metre and standard gauges. It is not clear whether the metre gauge line was connected to the FMSR line during construction. To obtain sufficient concrete, a new granite quarry was opened at Bukit Lunchu (or Lunchoo), on the Johore side of Old Strait, opposite the dockyard site. A total of 1,600,000 tons of granite stone was brought down to the Straits by a special railway constructed for this purpose, and shipped across to the dockyard on barges. I have yet to establish the gauge of this railway.

There were 24 metre gauge locomotives, 13 0-6-0Ts with outside cylinders from Hunslet (3 of which became FMSR A class and passed on to the Singapore Harbour Board) and 11 0-6-0STs from Avonside (two, SL2 & SL3, went to Burma; two, SL7 & SL8, to the Military and at least one to the SHB). One of the standard gauge locomotives was Hawthorn Leslie 3865/1936 which is still extant today - see the Military page. The build date suggests it was not used for the construction.

Above: SL26, Hunslet 1632/1928, one of the locomotives supplied to Sir John Jackson for the Naval Base contract, and the same class as those sold on to the FMSR and Singapore Harbour Board.

This was a 3' gauge line using Hudswell Clarke 1625 of 1928 and 13 Peckett 0-6-0STs (1841-51/1932 and 1865/6). By the time of the Japanese occupation at least one if not both Manning Wardle locomotives (1895 & 1986) were working on this line. The fate of this line and the stock is not recorded but it is possible that it was all moved to Changi for constructing the airfield there during the Japanese occupation.

Public Works Department Straits Settlements No 1 (Peckett 1841/1928) left and No 6 (Peckett 1846/1928) right.

This was jointly owned by the Singapore Municipal Council and the Singapore Harbour Board. The land was acquired in 1920-21 and quarrying operations commenced in 1925 when the metre gauge quarry railway was connected to the FMSR main line. Two locomotives were purchased from Hawthorn Leslie in 1925 and 1927 for use in the quarry and these were maintained by the Singapore Harbour Board, who supplied additional motive power when required. Most of the granite was required by the Singapore Harbour Board and in 1935 they took over the whole operation including the locomotives.

The contractors were Topham, Jones & Railton and this old photograph shows 2 locomotives. Construction commenced in 1920 and took 3 years. They almost certainly used Manning Wardle 1413/1898 which was built as standard gauge but may have been converted by this time.

Singapore Municipal Council
In 1928 Atkinson Walker supplied four of these metre-gauge vertical-boiler chain driven rail tractors to the Singapore Municipal Council. They had works numbers 105-108. Interestingly, there is a picture of No 2 in the Singapore Trams book, but the bodywork is very different. It may well be that whereas the picture on the right appears to be a works photograph when new, the picture of No 2 could be of a later rebuild. I have yet to find any details of where they were used, but the Council was responsible for the provision of water, electricity, gas, roads and bridges and street lighting. It is also known to have been involved with large construction projects, similar to Kallang airport, which had a 3' gauge railway (see above).