Hong Kong Railway Museum

After finding out that Hong Kong had a Railway Museum, which triggered memories from my school days, when I visited a Railway Museum in the UK and spent way too much time climbing over huge locomotives, looking at the controls, etc. So, Hong Kong Railway Museum, here I come.

As always, after fueling up with breakfast, it's time to head for the MTR, then on to Tai Po Market station. In this case, it's not a direct journey, so on to the Island Line to Admiralty, then the Eastern Rail Line, which runs all the way to the mainland Chinese border. Checking the map, it's 9 stops from Admiralty to my destination.

A pleasant surprise when getting to Tai Po Market station: there was actually signage for the museum, which is a good sign.

Anyhow, the walk was about 15 minutes and included going through some of the street markets. The markets look interesting, something to check out after the museum.

Getting to the Museum and doing battle with the steps to get in, the first thing I noted was the noise of children screaming and running around. Not good; looks like a school tour group.

It happened again. I was about to bring up the camera and take some photos, only to hear another crash, and my DSLR with attached lens was on the concrete. At least this time I kept my glasses on.

A few of the school kids stared after the noise, and I even managed to control the torrent of bad language this sort of thing usually causes. 🤬

Just like the last time, the cause of the crash was the metal rings on the camera strap failing, which is interesting as they are meant to be made of titanium and rated for way more weight than I was putting on them.

Thankfully, the only damage was the hood, which was basically cracked in half; the actual lens was saved by the hood, or as it's now known, "Nikon Crumple Zone".

That lens has not always been as lucky, as quite a while back, my ex cleaning service knocked it off a shelf, and the repair bill hit AUD$900. Ouch comes to mind.

After this, it's time to replace the rings the strap connects to, and also the hood, as from personal experience, these things do not like being glued, looks like the plastic they are made of does not play nice with CA glue.

Oh well, replacing the damaged parts can wait for another day, and Photoshop does a good job at removing people from photos, so it is what it is, and this sort of place is basically for kids, and in my case, a big kid.

Yes, I did go into the main building hoping to learn more about the history of the Hong Kong Railway, but it was not to be; it was packed with children using interactive displays.

The above locomotive was the first I saw, and something I was looking forward to getting a very close look at, especially the controls, as I had seen something similar in the US with a diesel electric propulsion.

And yes, given the age of this one, I would have expected it to be diesel only, but nope, it seems it is diesel-electric. However, the closer look was not going to happen, as there were "do not climb" signs all over.

Anyhow, after some digging, there is some history in Chinese and English, for this specific locomotive on the museum's website, which makes some very interesting reading.

This one is of special interest as it seems it was made in Australia and imported into Hong Kong back in the 1950s. And the website also has more information on this specific locomotive.

Moving on, is the only example of a steam locomotive I had yet to find at this museum, and its an interesting example, being narrow gauge.

It's a little hard to read in the photo, but here's the history of this locomotive, from its manufacture in the UK to its second life in the Philippines and finally retirement in Hong Kong.

And yes, just like with some of my other pages, the above information has been translated from another language and has some grammatical errors, which I have left in for authenticity.

Sadly, this was the only example of a steam locomotive the museum had on display. I had hoped to see some of the larger examples the Kowloon Canton Railway used to use.

Moving on past this narrow gauge, there were several passenger carriages, which showed how things used to be. And yes, you can actually get on board these and look around.

Interesting, the movable seats are something current heavy rail carriages have back home in Sydney, other states in Australia may not have them, but we do 😉

While on the subject, these seats are basically the same ones used on the Star Ferry, and also remind me of those on an Indian train I rode back in the day.

Exiting the carriage, it seems that's all there is to see, which, to be honest, is not surprising given the location of the museum, built on the old Tai Po Market station. Maybe there is another site with more exhibits, but that's something that needs some digging, and not something for today.