Annual report on North Borneo / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on North Borneo / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Island). This branch line passes through large and small rubber estates and many native and Chinese small-holdings, while the main line proceeds on its way to Tenom and Melalap through the Padas river gorge, before entering the fertile Tenom valley. The total length of the railway, however, is only 116 miles. It is of metre gauge and was first opened on the Beaufort-Weston line in 1900 and was extended to Jesselton and Tenom in 1902. The whole system, together with locomotives, rolling stock, machines, tools and general equipment sustained exceptionally severe damage during the war. The pace of reconstruction and rehabilitation, which continues to be governed by the delivery of new materials and equipment, was slow. One great advance, however, was made towards the end of the year, when steam locomotives were again brought into use on the Gorge Line between Beaufort and Melalap for the first time since the liberation of the territory. Prior to this, the service had been maintained by converted jeeps, light-weight petrol locomotives, and rail cars. The present power and stock position compared with the position before the war, and last year, is as follows: W41 Steam locomotives . 12 Petrol locomotives . Nil Sentinel shunter . . 1 Rail cars ... 8 General wagon stock . 156 Coaching stock . . 36 End End 1948 1949 3 4 4 4 1 1 4 4 80 144 18 18 In addition there were: 2 in course of rebuilding (boilers awaited from U.K.). 2 pre-war engines laid up awaiting heavy repairs. 3 second-hand locomo¬ tives from Belgium un¬ der modification. Haulage capacity 20 tons only. New equipment. This figure includes 20 flat-tops and 30 lowside wagons obtained from Belgium, and in limited use pending modifica¬ tion of draw-gear. 4 others in course of re¬ building. It will be noted that the power and stock position is still very precarious; it is all the more serious because the traffic handled far exceeds the pre¬ war figures. The coaching and wagon stock rebuilding programme has been retarded by the lack of woodworking machinery which necessitates a great deal of manual labour and, similarly, the engine repair and rebuild¬ ing programme is behind schedule, owing to the lack of sufficient machine
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