Three Trysts with the Terminated Tracks

There have been many posts and photologs detailing the KTM ever since it closed down in July, but I wanted to add my personal narrative of the tracks to the collection since I saw that most of the photos of these tracks were taken almost right before they were closed, resulting in cluttered and similar-looking photos. Since I have had the opportunity to enjoy the tracks in their full splendour without too many people about, I would like to share photos of how it looked like in the past, when nobody cared too much about them. ):

I first discovered the tracks quite some time ago, when I first moved into my current abode. But I never bothered to go down and discover what it was all about, and that was when I made up my mind to pay this enigmatic site a visit after I had gotten my camera. That was way back in January, and the very first encounter with these sullen metal structures.


The sign that was vandalised after the KTM section closed, and subsequently removed.


The very empty bridge with nobody but me for almost the entire afternoon.


A girl who was texting her friend, but it totally reminded me of Inception. "You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure. But it doesn't matter. How can it not matter to you where this train takes you?"


The controls for the tracks - I couldn't even begin to imagine how many sections of tracks these levers controlled


A closer look at all the bright lights that I still cannot comprehend, but the ignorance just adds to the anachronism and mystery of the railway for me


Ancient relics by the house where the station master stays, just one of the many signs of decay slowly devouring the track


I was also really lucky that day; Besides getting many segments of the track to myself, I even came across a band (presumably local) having a photoshoot for their album cover here. It'll probably go vintage because you will never find the railway there again ;_;


That was the setting up, this was getting the real shot. I think the perspective will look really nice with the layered foreground and background from the angle of the cameraman!

That concluded my first trip there in January. Coincidentally, my dad proposed a few weeks later that we take the KTM to experience it before it closed down. So in March, my whole family took the KTM for the first (and unfortunately, last time) from the Tanjong Pagar station.

We booked the earliest train to get the cheaper tickets (0645 if I remember correctly), and my whole family bundled into the taxi without really waking up to see the station lit by street lights and not much else.


A view of the station from the outside, at the point where we got off the cab.


The gates were all shuttered up because we got there even before the ticket office opened, so I just tried to look around when the station was still sound asleep.


The train I thought we would be taking resting in the station before it began it's long journey, but it turned out that that was the 0800 Express train that had slightly pricier tickets.


This adorable cat was up and running way before many Singaporeans awoke from their daily slumber, I'm not too sure whether it was a stray though. I definitely need to take a few lessons from him (or was it a her =s) on how to chillax.


Food glorious food! Unfortunately most of the stalls weren't open at this hour, so my parents and I just got teh from one of the two stalls that were open.


The stall my parents got the teh from, as well as this friendly backpacking lady who is 70 and still travelling the world! It so happened that she was the only passenger other than my family in the station for quite some time, so we happened to have quite a good chat while waiting for the ticket office to open. Haha I wish I will still have this kind of energy when I'm at that age.


Finally boarding the train! As you can see the pace of boarding is quite slow, there's no rush and there's no crowd at all. It was more of a daily mode of transportation for people rather than a tourist attraction back then in March 2011, which you can easily contrast with photos of the last train departing the station and the fully-booked trains before that.


The train stopped for almost 2 hours at the Bukit Timah station, not for anyone to board in particular. I didn't particularly mind - it gave me the chance to shoot many things I wouldn't have the chance to. It was like a perfect photoshoot all set up for me - the morning sun, a life-sized train, not too many people walking around and into your shots (note I mention too many because having people is fine and adds life to most photos)


I found out the answer 2 hours later. It was to allow the Express train you saw earlier to pass since the track subsequently only had room for one train to travel at any one time, and this was the only place where you could so-called "overtake". So yes you do get what you pay for =p

In July, I paid one last tribute to the vestiges of the tracks still left in the heartlands of Singapore by going back to the same place I had been six months ago, and hopefully record the legacy of these tracks with my slightly-improved photography skills.

I wanted to capture the small details, the wear and tear after many years of use and being exposed to the elements, and a sense of grandeur and finality that I would not see all these structures again.

I got down low and shot quite a bit in black-and-white, but I always shoot in colour first and convert to black-and-white subsequently so that I still have a lot of room for post-processing.


One of the many rivets that the trains pass over everyday, reminds us of how insignificant we are within these huge systems that hum everyday


Bolts and nuts...


And more rivets!


The corroded metal girders add really pretty texture, and I was really lucky to get a nice lens flare to go along with this


The same bridge, 6 months later. But this time there are many people in the distance all marvelling at this wonder before they are about to lose it.


I really like the geometric patterns on this simple bridge. I decided to silhouette it against the clear blue sky just for fun!


And my last and favourite shot of the series! Observant readers may notice that they have seen this somewhere before...

Till then! I hope to bring you more interesting photostories, but this was just because I so happened to visit the railway three times at different periods of the same year. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing this!