This book provides an illustrated tour of the railways of southeast Asia, from Myanmar to Malaysia with detours to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Published in November 2022 by Amberley Publishing and written by Peter J. Green, this soft cover book measures around 23.4 cm x 16.5 cm, and has 96 pages and 180 illustrations.
It has a published price of £15.99 although Amberley Publishing currently has it on offer at £14.39, and at the time of writing, it can be obtained from Amazon for £11.85.
On opening this book, it quickly becomes apparent that the railways of south-east Asia are colourful, with striking liveries shining out from every page.
An interesting introduction that provides a brief background to the railways of each country is followed by five chapters showing the railways of Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam during the last 20 years.
With most of the places mentioned in the book having unfamiliar names, it would have been very useful to have included outline maps that showed the countries' railways.
Two notable omissions are Laos and Java, Although Laos only has 262 miles of railway and its absence is understandable, Java has an extensive railway network with over 7,000 km of railways, so perhaps the book should have had the sub-title “Myanmar to Malaysia”.
Although all these countries are modernising to a varying degree, this collection of photographs shows that there are still some ancient locomotives and carriages, but these are more than balanced by the wide variety of modern trains.
Modernisation is often accompanied by the rapid disappearance of semaphore signalling, but examples can still be seen in parts of Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia.
The photographs below are examples of the large number of brightly-coloured different liveries exhibited by the locomotives in all five countries.
Except for the different locomotives, the trains seen on the right below would look at home on Britain's railways, with a train of oil tanks at the top and a train of container wagons at the bottom.
Seemingly centuries away from the modern views of Thailand's railways in the previous illustrations are the scenes on the left-hand page below with trains running through the middle of streets.
On the right are two scenes from Myanmar, where the distinctly unbeautiful lines of the diesel locomotive at the top contrasts very unfavourably with the clean lines of the preserved 100-year-old steam locomotive at the bottom.
Surprisingly, Myanmar still runs occasional steam specials for which it retains a fleet of locomotives, one of which is seen at the bottom left.
Many of the locomotives featured in the book look as if they have been assembled without any consideration of aesthetics, and the example at the top right certainly qualifies under this heading as it resembles a freight wagon rather than a locomotive.
With just two tracks, the line at bottom right is a bit of an enigma when viewed against the impressive gantry of semaphore signals.
Looking quite derelict are the lines below in Vietnam, but despite their appearance, the trains shown are all on operational services.
As seen previously, several locomotives illustrated in this book must be on the short list for the ugliest examples of locomotives ever built, and the Cambodian ones at the top left below surely warrant inclusion.
At the top right, what appears at first sight to be a tram running through the streets as it approaches Phnom Penh airport is in fact a main line train.
While the two photographs at the bottom feature similar locomotives, the associated infrastructure is vastly different with the left-hand locomotive threading its way past lineside obstructions, whilst the right-hand loco makes the most of a pristine track.
This collection of photographs gives a good appreciation of the railways of five countries in south-east Asia, many of them bearing colourful, striking liveries. The Introduction is brief but sufficient to appreciate the background of each country's railways.
With there being no coverage of railways in Laos and Java, it might have been better to include a suitable sub-title better describing the countries included in the book.
There is no detailed index, but with the majority of place names being totally unfamiliar and with many of the locations having obscure place names, such as a train running from Wong Wian Wei station to Samut Sakhon it would have been a great benefit to include outline maps showing the railways for each country.
The author has done well to include photographs of both ancient locomotives and carriages and trains that wouldn't look out of place on Britain's railways.
Also, an equally varied selection of locations, from pristine tracks capable of hosting block container trains to trains groping their way past lineside obstructions in scenes reminiscent of South American railways.
The book has been well produced with excellent photographic reproduction that enhances the colourful scenes to be seen on every page.
The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Amberley Publishing.
We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing us with a copy of the book for review.
