The history rail transport in Thailand began with the opening of the Paknam Railway on 11 April 1893.
Previous history The Kingdom of Siam, the country's name at that time, now known as Thailand. The first Siamese railway projects, which were discussed from the 1840s onwards, were aimed at linking the then British Burma to the Chinese market, which was to be run over Northern Siam for reasons of accessible terrain, a project that had been operating in various variations up to the 1880s, but never realized. A second, early-discussed railway project was to traverse the Isthmus of Kra the narrowest point of the Malay Peninsula with a railway because the Kra Canal was technically unworkable. However, as the British feared the importance of Singapore, this railway was not built even though the Siamese government had agreed in 1859.
The King of Siam received a model railway in 1856 as a gift from Queen Victoria, which is now exhibited in the Bangkok National Museum. In 1871 King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), who ruled since 1868, first used railways even during state visits to Java and British India. In 1864, the Dutch colonial administration commissioned the first railroad in Southeast Asia.
Early projects (1880s-1917)
First projects In the 1880s, the Siamese government issued various private consortia concessions for the construction of railways. However, these consortia were mostly speculative companies, which never even built their routes. In the end, the first viable railway in Siam emerged from a privately financed initiative: on 11 April 1893, the metre-gauge Bangkok-Samut Prakan route (Paknam) was opened by the king. The king had inaugurated construction in 1891.
Establishment of state railway The construction of a railway network was initially managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the technology and knowledge required was imported from abroad. In 1890, responsibility shifted to the Ministry of Public Works, where the Royal Railway Department (RRD) was created.
The government commissioned Sir Andrew Clarke in 1888 to work out plans for a railway network. By 1890 they were complete. In November 1888 the railway engineer :de:Karl Bethge (from Krupp) came to Siam and was given these plans by the Siamese government for his assessment. It was agreed to build a route from Bangkok to Saraburi to Nakhon Ratchasima (also known as Korat). The Siamese government called Bethge, engaged in Germany in the Royal Prussian Building Commission, to Thai state service. He became head of the RRD in 1890.
Northeast Railway In 1891, by law, the Nakhon Ratchasima Railway Company, the majority of which was located within the province, was established with the aim of building a railway from Bangkok to Khorat in standard gauge (1435 mm). Due to pressure from the British, the work was awarded to the English firm, Murray Campbell, contrary to Bethge's advice. After two years of preparation, the construction of the Northeastern Railway began on 9 March 1892 by the proclamation of King Chulalongkorn. The tools used for the first cut of the spade, a richly ornamented spade and the associated wheelbarrow, are now also exhibited at the Bangkok National Museum. The management of construction was assumed by George Murray Campbell.
Karl Bethge engaged other German engineers for railway construction, Hermann Gehrts (1854-1914) and Luis Weiler (1836-1918), both of the Prussian State Railways. Weiler reported to his father, who was also a railway engineer, in numerous letters. These are almost all preserved and are now in the archives of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
On 1 September 1896, the railway administration cancelled the contract with the British company since it did not carry out the construction work in accordance with the contract. The work was now continued on its own initiative. At the same time Nakhon Ratchasima Railway Company was nationalized and converted into a State Railways administration. The completed route was 135 kilometers long at this time. In December 1896, King Chulalongkorn took the opportunity to travel by train to the construction site. On an overhanging rock at 136.5 miles he wrote his name on a rock, the heavily weathered lettering is still visible today. On 26 March 1897, the first section from Bangkok to Ayutthaya was opened. This date is currently the "official birthday" of the State Railway of Thailand. Before the railway opened, a trip between Bangkok and Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima) took five days, by train it was reduced to six hours. The line was officially opened on 21 December 1900 by King Chulalongkorn.
Network expansion On 24 February 1898, the government adopted the principle that all the main routes in the country should be established as national railways. Karl Bethge died of cholera in 1900, and his successor, Hermann Gehrts, retired in 1904. In the spring of 1904, therefore, Luis Weiler in Haifa who was working on the construction of the Hejaz Railway became the director general of Siamese railways. As he assumed his position, the northeast railway was finished.
German companies such as Henschel and Krupp distinguished themselves by the delivery of locomotives. In 1909 a total of 49 locomotives from Germany went to the Siamese state railway. Other rolling stocks were imported from Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Eastern Railway Another project was the Eastern Railway. In 1901 an engineer's survey of the route was commissioned. However, both the southern and eastern railways were complicated by geopolitics: to the south and west of Siam were British colonies and to the east French possessions. The French considered Siamese railway construction, creeping towards French Indochina, as a threat, likewise Siam also feared French influence increasing in the region. When, shortly thereafter, a revolt broke out in northern Thailand, the state committed its resources to the construction of the Northern Railway, (Bangkok to Chiang Mai).
Northern Railway
There has been substantial amount of pressure from the foreigners for a state railway to the north. The construction of the Northern line started once the Khorat line opened to traffic in 1898. The line was decided to divert from the Northeastern Line at Ban Phachi Junction, contrary to the Punchard Survey which suggests a junction at Saraburi. The first section to Lopburi was opened in 1901.
Due to financial strains, the government loaned a total of 4-million pounds from English and French banks, accelerating the pace of the construction, opening up to Uttaradit by 1909.
The construction was greatly slowed down after reaching the northern mountains. Furthermore, with the start of the construction of the Southern Railway in 1909, further extension of the Northern Line was halted and some engineers were relocated to the southern construction site.
In 1912, the construction was resumed, planning to reach Lampang and Chiang Mai. Although the construction was again stagnated due to the resource shortages caused by World War I. As a result, while the construction reached Lampang by 1918, the 109 km section to Chiang Mai was only opened in 1922.
Northern Railway gallery
Southern Railway With the completion of the northeastern railway, planning for the Southern Railway to Phetchaburi began, and its construction began in April 1900. In contrast to the previously established railway network east of the Chao Phraya River, which was built in standard gauge, the state railway chose metre-gauge to lower construction cost as well as to ease the transition to Burma and Malaya which also used the metre-gauge. This decision was made easier as the southern railway was cut off from the rest of the network as there was no bridge across the Chao Phraya River. The southern route, therefore, did not depart from Bangkok's main railway station, Hua Lamphong Station, but had its own terminus in Thonburi, at the Thonburi Station. Its station building was designed by the German architect Karl Siegfried Döhring in the style of the Brick Expressionism.
In 1909, a British engineer, Henry Gittins, was appointed as the head of the project. Later in 1913, the group separated into an independent body as the Southern Railway Department, with the RRD then renamed as the Northern Railway Department. The construction was separated into three sections with construction on all three commencing simultaneously in order to shorten construction time.
In 1921, the entire line was opened, becoming Siam's first international railway.
Effects of World War I Siam joined the First World War in 1917, forcing the firing of 28 German engineers employed in the RRD. To solve the engineer shortage, King Vajiravudh ordered the unification of the Southern and Northern Railway Departments on 5 June 1917 into the Royal Railway Department under Prince Kamphaeng Phet, becoming the first Thai to head the department.
The Interwar period and World War 2 (1917-1945) Siam's participation in the war enhanced its stance on the international stage. With the prospect of potential colonization subsiding, Siam becoming an international railway hub of Southeast Asia became a possibility which was fulfilled by the Japanese occupation force in the Second World War.
Postwar expansion
Eastern Railway While the project was initially suspended in 1906 due to fear of French intervention, the line to Aranyapratet was reconsidered. While the transport demand for the line was expected to be relatively low, King Vajiravudh pressed the project forward as a gesture of goodwill.
In 1926, the 194 km line to Aranyapratet was opened, however due to the French side prioritizing the construction of roads, the construction of the rail on the French Indochina side had not yet started.
Unification of railways There were two main issues preventing the unification of the lines on the East Bank and West Bank of the Chao Praya River: The difference in gauge sizes and the lack of a bridge connection.
While the Northern and Northeastern lines, on the East Bank, use the standard-gauge (1435 mm), the Southern line, on the West Bank, uses the meter-gauge (1000 mm). In the end, it was decided that all standard-gauge lines were to be converted to metre-gauge in order to make potential international connections more convenient since all the neighbouring countries adopted the metre-gauge. The conversion started in 1920 and took ten years to complete.
Along with the standardisation of the track gauge, it was also decided to unify the two workshops into one central workshop, thus requiring a connection across the river. The construction of the Rama VI bridge was then started in 1922 and opened to traffic in 1927.
Coordination with roads As part of the engineer shortage in World War I, the Department of Ways, in charge of constructing and maintains main roads, were put under the jurisdiction of Prince Kamphaeng Phet. The policy adopted by the state regarding land transport then became rail-oriented with roads only functioning as feeder roads or secondary transport to places where rail is unable to reach.
Locomotive improvements In 1929, the RRD proposed a plan to electrify the 90 km section between Bangkok to Ban Phachi. However, the plan was rejected due to the fact that electrified railways were still new to Southeast Asia and electric locomotives would not be able to be utilized in other sections.
In the end, the RRD adopted diesel locomotives instead - becoming a dieselization pioneer. In 1928, two diesel mechanical locomotives were introduced, with 13 more ordered and put into service in the early 1930s.
The 1932 revolution After the 1932 revolution, the Royal Railway Department, previously holding the authority equivalent to a ministry, was downgraded to a department. With itself now at the same level as the Department of Ways, the RRD lost its full control over land transportation.