Motor Services in the Malay States.
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An Account of the Motor-vehicle Organization of the Malay States Railways.
By A. E. Nleaden, A.M.1.Mech.E.
Until the advent of the rubber boom, the man in the street had probably concerned himself but little with the internal economy of the Malay Peninsula, unless it were in its association with youthful perusals of adventurous literature, which told of murderous attacks upon innocent mechantmen by fierce Malay or Dyak pirates. Although Singapore and Penang were known to him by repute, his knowledge of the ever-growing and rapidly-advancing intermediate states, viz., Selangor, Perak, Negri Sembilan and Pahang (now all federated under British protection as the Federated Malay States) was little.
This lack of knowledge is not surprising, when it is remembered that these states were, 25 years ago, little more than virgin jungle. To the civil servants of the Colonial Office, and to the independent traders who have brought the country to its present position of prosperity, all honour is due. If, however, there be one branch of the administrative service which, more than any other, has contributed to this prosperity, it is the Railway Department, whose many miles of open line, whose traffic arrangements, the number and class of whose engines and rolling stock, and whose efficiency of general management throughout, all collectively testify to its efficiency; in short, favourable cornparison may be made with any other railway east of Suez.
Following the example of many of the large railways at home, the help of motor road haulage has been extensively sought in order to develop districts remote from the permanent way. A large and far-reaching service of motor mail-wagons and motorbuses has been in operation since the latter end of 1906, and the wisdom of this enterprise has been amply proved from that time onwards.
The initial service was opened in December of that year, between the town of TapaIt, in Perak, slid Tapah Road. The latter is a junction on the main line to Penang and six miles from the town itself, which is the centre of a planting and mining district and is also the seat of administration for the Batang Padang district. The cars engaged upon this service consist of two 18 h.p. singledecked G.W.Ry.-type Milnes-Daimler omnibuses, with seating accommodation for 18 3rd-class passengers and five 1. class, three of whom are situated in a special compartment behind the driver and the other two beside him on the front seat. These cars run five double trips per day, in connection with the principal passenger trains, and are used either singly or both at once according to the traffic requirements. The service is still running well and has been consistently patronized since its inception.
It was no light task for those responsible to train native drivers in the handling of these vehicles, but patience and the early-cliscovered natural adaptability of the Malay native for this class of work have at last produced drivers, who, if not skilled mechanics are capable of handling their cars skilfully, whose coolness and intrepidity are unquestioned, and whose cleanliness of appearance, for natives, is exceptional.
In January of the following year, a second service was started a few miles further north, between Ternoh, on the main line, and Chenderiang, a mining town situated eight miles east of the railway line. Three more Milnes-Dsimler machines of similar type to those at Tape11 were placed on service here. The daily performance of these three vehicles, two of which are always in service and one in the shed, as a spare, consists of four double trips per car per day, or a daily distance, for each unit, of 64 miles. The cars meet all passenger trains at Temoh Station, and, occasionally, the extra vehicle runs short trips to the town of Temoli, which lies away from the station a distance of one mile. This car is very useful as a revenue earner at Chinese feast and holiday times, as there is no more-consistent traveller than the Chinaman on such occasions. This service has always been most popular and, when the mining industry is in a good way, the three cars have often to be all in service.
The rich lands lying along the west coast of the peninsula, between the Kualas, or mouths of the Kiang and Selangor rivers, were amongst the earliest to be exploited and cleared by rubber planters. This district is verywell equipped with a magnificent road, 28 miles in length, from Kiang on the Port Swettenham-Kuala Ltimpor to Kuala Selangor, at the mouth of the Selangor river. The coolie traffic on this road is large, as the road is bordered for miles by estates which are in an advanced state of oultiva
tion, but which have no other means of conveyance than bullock carts and pony gharries, so that a fine opening for motor conveyance was obviously presented without delay.
In June, 1907, a service of cars was
inaugurated, and two trips per day from each end were made with stoppages at selected spots in the road in order to pick up passengers from outlying districts. The original cars were 18 h.p. Milnes-Daimler single-decked omnibuses, but, the bodies being too small to cope with the traffic, 2832 h.p. ears of similar make, and fitted with 35-seated char-a-bancs bodies, were substituted. These bodies, of light angle-iron construction, with garden seats and substantial canopies, and with luggage grilles and side curtains, were designed and made at the Central Workshops of the Railway Department, and, with the addition of cushioned seats beside the driver for two or three 1st-class passengers, they have proved to be an ideal type for the class of traffic which is encountered in the rapidly-developing planting and mining districts. The largest State of the four originally mentioned, that of Pahang, is separated from the other States by a long range of hills running down the centre of the whole peninsula and rising in places to heights of from 6,000
to 7,000 ft. This range is crossed by the Pahang trunk road, starting from the town of Kuala Kubu (Selangor), on the main line to Penang, and reaching its highest point at the Gap or Semankok pass, at an altitude of 2,700 ft. The road, a triumph of engineering skill, winds up the side of the range with a wonderfully-even gradient, averaging about 1 in 30, for 21 miles to the Gap, and down on the other side with a similar gradient to Tranum, in Pahang, 14 miles farther on. The curves are in places exceedingly sharp, as little embankment or earthwork was attempted, so that gullies had to be traversed to their ends, and the direction of the road then sharply reversed. High jungle-grown slopes on the one side, and deep chasms on the other, border the road throughout. At places where the highway has to traverse a spur on the hillside, the cliff takes a sheer drop from the outside edge of the metalled surface, and at such spots splendid views of the State of Pahang are obtainable. No small amount of skill is necessary for the management of high-powered and heavy chars-a-banes on this particular route. The length of the grade is against good timekeeping, unless the car can he nursed skilfully, and kept, as far as possible, upon one steady speed, so as to avoid unnecessary gearchanging and the delay whilst waiting to slip into a higher gear again. During the period of heavy rains, which is usually from January until the end of March, great danger is met with in the shape of falling trees, landslips, and landslides, and it is found necessary to carry saws and axes upon all the cars to enable the drivers to clear the road to allow the cars to proceed.
In spite of these difficulties, and, after great pressure had been brought to bear upon the Government by the inhabitants of Pahang, a comprelten
Sire service of the motor mail-cars and motorbuses was started on 1st September, 1007. The cars employed consisted of four 16 h.p. Albion wagonettes, with seating accommodation for five 1st-class passengers besides the driver, and of three 18 h.p. MilnesDaimler single-decked omnibuses, accommodating eighteen 3rd-class passengers and two 1st-class on the driver's seat. The Albion cars carried the mails and did one trip each way per day, viz., from Kuala Kubu to Raub, 44 miles, including the 3.3 miles of the Semankok Pass. Mails and passengers were picked up at three stations en route, viz., The Gap, Tranum, and Tres. The 18 h.p. omnibuses did timidJar service at a slower rate of progress, leaving before the mail-car and being passed by it at Tras, nine miles from Raub. It was found necessary, owing to the narrowness of the road, and to the danger of meeting and crossing at any of the innumerable sharp turnings on the Hill or Pass section, to run to a regular timetable and to arrange all crossings at special safe places. This system proved very
satisfactory and is still in practice, although additional cars are running, and a service of goods lorries has since been started. Prom Raub onward to Kuala Lipis, a distance of 39 miles,
the road is fairly level, and, with the exception of two or three bad turnings, it is a good road for motor traffic. In places, it is exceedingly narrow and has little margin beyond the metal ; this makes passing difficult. Kuala Lipis is the seat of administration for the State of Pahang and the most important place in that State; lying 83 miles from the railway, it, of course, had to be brought into communication, and a single-car service was instituted making one day-trip each way (to Raub and return), and connecting with the mail-cars and omnibuses at Raub. The machine used was an 18 h.p. Milnes-Daimler single-decker. The mining town of Bentong, 21 miles S.W. of the road from Tranum, was also brought into the service, and a single car per day was put upon this road, running from Bentong to Raub and back daily, and making connection with the Kuala Kubu mail-cars and buses at Tranum.
Thus the whole of the populated districts on the eastern side of Pahang were brought into daily communication with the main line at Kuala !Cuba, and passengers from Kuala Lipis (83 miles), Raub (44 miles), and Bentong (56 miles) were enabled to proceed in one day to Kuala Lumpor, the capital of the Federated States.
Since the inception of this service, the 18 h.p. cars have been found to be of too low a power for the Pass section, and three 30-40 h.p. StrakerSquire chars-a-banes, seating 25 passengers, ware substituted.
(To be continued.)