SLEEPER TRIP CHIANG MAI - BANGKOK 17 - 18:TH AUG 1993

We arrived in Chiang Mai very shortly before the train was
supposed to leave at 1640, so I didn't have time to examine the
station in any detail. As it's the end of the line north from
Bangkok it's single ended. There is a long passenger platform
with tracks on either side of it, to the west of it are tree
freight tracks, including a separate switching lead, for some
goods sheds, to the east a five-track yard. Its switching lead
goes off to the engine servicing facility which consists of a
track with a line of seven diesel pumps.

There was a number of boxcars present, but too far off to let me
say anything more than that they were short two-axle cars with a
door at the centre of the side, and not very new. Petroleum
products cars were more common. Just as we left, a train of 14 of
them arrived. They looked rather long, the tanks were not
cylindrical but oval in cross-section and about 50% wider than
high. They were four-axle, with the trucks looking just like on
modern American freight cars, but as the gauge is only 1067 mm,
the wheels looked disproportionally large.

The only type of engine I saw was Co'Co' diesel-electrics made by
Alsthom. It's configured as a box with cabs at either end, and
large ventilation grilles in the sides. There are four white and
two red lights at either end, placed like this:        ww
Coupler are American-style knuckle couplers.         rw  wr

We went 2:nd class, as there no longer is any 1:st class
available (like in Sweden really, as we renamed 2:nd class 1:st
and 3:rd 2:nd some decades ago). The train was about 12 cars,
about half 2:nd, half 3:rd class sleepers. (I didn't get to count
them before we left, and in Lampang 3 cars or so were added, in
just a 7 min stop.)

There was very little text on the car I could read, but I _think_
it was marked with 90 km/h maximum speed. There are 40 passenger
seats per car, convertible into beds, placed like this:
                                                _
 |t |  |s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s| |
 [     !                                       ! ]
 |t |ww|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|s s|_|

! = Automatic sliding doors
[ = Ordinary door to next coach
_ = External doors, not necessarily closed while the train is in motion
t = Toilets, the top one on this sketch of the "European" style,
    the bottom one a hole in the floor. Both flush straight out
    on the roadbed.
w = Two washbasins. The area on the opposite side of the corridor is
    storage for sheets and stuff.

The seats are wide and comfortable. When the attendants come
at around eight or nine o'clock the facing seats have the
backrests folded towards each other to form the lower bed, the
upper bed is folded down from flat against the wall above the
window. Curtains block off the bed from the corridor and the
windows.

It's air-conditioned to 23 deg C, and I didn't find any place
were smoking is permitted (I like that). I never understood why
some external doors were left open, as they only let in the balmy
air, and no windows were openable.

We departed one minute late, I clocked the speed on the straight
part across the river plain to about 70-80 km/h. Chiang Mai is
200 m above the sea, but as the rails doesn't follow the river
plain more than 30 km, during which the view mostly consists of
rice fields, and then crosses east over a mountain chain for
about 60 km, during which I estimated we reached above 1000 m.
All small stations in this are had three tracks, otherwise it was
only single-tracked.

During the first hour, we averaged 65 km/h, including two stops,
one of which included a meet with a 3-car railcar consist which
looked very modern. The highest posted speed limit of 105 km/h
probably applied only to vehicles like that. During the stretches
with relatively sharp curves, 70 km/h was the posted limit. Where
the gradient was steep, up to 2.5%, 45 km/h was the limit. A few
places had the speed maximized to 20 km/h, but most of these
looked like temporary restrictions (but not all), as the signs
were green with white text, compared with white with black text.

Unfortunately dark fell soon, so I couldn't enjoy much of the
view, which was rather hilly and forested.

We arrived at 0620, 20 min late, which makes for an average speed
of 50 km/h, so the stops during the night cannot have been very
long. I think only the part closest to Bangkok is double-tracked.

Last modified 1999 July 14 by Urban Fredriksson