Spring Has Sprung.....

It's October and in Australia we're well into spring.

We've already had a few hot days (35 celcius hot enough  for you?) and it's not even summer!

Spring is also a time of renewal and growth and the time for the DSVN to make another announcement about it's future.

It's almost become an annual event! Sort of like Tet.

There have been quite a few announcements in recent years. The construction of a new line to Vung Tau, another to the Mekong for example.

Worthy projects you might suggest. And they are. If they are ever built!

The latest plan calls for a number of new locomotives, designated passenger and freight.

Up to now most VNR engines have been mixed traffic, so this is new.

The other interesting item is that the Hanoi - Saigon very fast train seems to be still on the menu, despite National Assembly concerns about it's cost and whether  Vietnam can build it.

It's still a long way off but it is still on the table.

See ya later!

Riding the Rails

This is a bit of an experiment.

I'm writing this as I travel home on the train.  On my mobile. Ah the wonders of technology!

I'm currently doing quite a lot of work on my Ga Hong Ha layout, especially finishing off the backscene and planting lots of trees.

I also have about four boxes of people on motor bikes to add. Never too many motor bikes on a Vietnam model railway.

I also have some cars from China which I intend to repaint into various VN cars such as taxis, police cars etc.

Unfortunately these tasks all take time as you know. No wonder so many people involved in the hobby are retired!

I came across sn interesting story about VNR. Apparently they intend to spend quite a lot of money on the system over the next few years including 24 new locomotives. Can't wait to see that!

My train is arriving at my destination shortly, so until next time.

See ya.

Onward

Well it wasn't quite two years but it's been a long time. Early in the year I was quite sick (a combination of the earlier pneumonia and another respiratory problem) but I'm a lot better since our May Vietnam visit.

We travelled to Vietnam again in May this year, a short 3 week trip. Boy was it hot! Temperatures in the order of 39 and 40c were the order of the day.

We travelled to Danang and had a look at the station there.

I maintained my promise of never travelling by coach again so we travelled by train of course and enjoyed the trip. We travelled back by sleeper and surprisingly we had a good nights sleep. Must be the gentle rocking of the carriage. Vietnam coaches tend to rock a bit because of the narrow metre guage.

We also got to the entrance of the locomotive depot in Saigon, but couldn't get in. But I did get some photos at the entrance. We weren't prepared to walk all the way back to the station in the heat just to get permission! Next time maybe.

I’m actually very excited.

I was recently browsing the internet and came upon an image of the cover of a book I have been trying to obtain for quite a while. I clicked on the image and was taken to a bookshop in Adelaide (Australia) where a copy of the book was being advertised.

The book was described as second hand and in good condition. Now this book, published in 1990, is exceedingly rare so I got quite excited. The price being asked for was probably about 3 or 4 times it’s initial price when new, but I couldn’t resist.

So I now have the book and it lives up to all my expectations. It is indeed in excellent condition including a clear plastic cover.  I have a little French so I am currently wading my way through it.

How it found it's way into a bookshop in Adelaide, Australia, is a mystery. 

The book is “Les Chemin de fer de la France D’Outre-Mer” Volume 1 “L’Indochine Le Yunnan”by Frederick Hulot. For those that don't speak French, "French Overseas Railways".

The book covers the French era of Indochina Railways and contains some wonderful photos as well as detailed text, particularly about locomotives.
So expect a number of corrections to be made on the website, as well as additional data.

I know I've said this before, but hopefully you will get a few more blogs now that my health is significantly improved.

Don't forget Issue number 5 of my e-magazine "Re-unification Express" is also due in the next couple of weeks, so look out for that one on the "Railways In Vietnam" website. 

Until next time.

Resurrection Shuffle...

Wow!

Forgive me Father, it's been more than two years since my last post!

A lot of nước has flowed under the cầu since then!

Another trip to Vietnam in March this year (visiting Nha Trang), the publication of my e-magazine "Re-unification Express" with the second issue finally available, lots of additions to the 'Railways in Vietnam" website and lots of other fun times.

As we get older we seem to lose some of that youthful energy we once had so the fact that I'm still trawling through all things Vietnam railways after nearly five years is a bit of surprise, even to me.

And now that I've taken on the "Re-Unification Express" e-magazine I'm busy, busy, busy.

Somewhere in all this I'm building a model railway layout and going to work!

My recent few weeks of what turned out to be pneumonia helped me have a think about future directions. But don't worry I'm not going anywhere. It helped me understand that I'm in for the long haul.

There are still many areas of the website that need updating, especially the freight vehicle page, so that is certainly on the agenda, but each time I decide to work on it, some interesting photo or document appears related to locomotives and that's my main interest so it becomes a priority.

My visits always seem to produce something unusual. This time it was this tank car which seems to be a 'one off". The tank appears to have been fitted to an older vehicle.

I also had my usual day around Saigon Station and as usual the staff were quite happy to let me wander. Some of the staff insisted I took a photo of their comrade:

I've also been very excited because I came across three (count them "three") builders photos of CFI steam locomotives including the 231-300 class and the SACM built 141-500 class as well as a 230-300. These will appear on the website when time is available (see locomotives again).

So that's your lot for today. I hope it won't be two years till we speak again.

See you soon.

Another long gap between posts. Sorry about that, folks. I've been doing lots of other things since the last post including another trip to Vietnam. I came back at the end of February after a stay of about a month. While the primary aim of my visit had nothing to do with railways (I got married) , I did get to squeeze in some photo opportunities, once again at Thap Cham and Saigon. I will have to try somewhere else next time! The station staff must be getting sick of me!

During the trip I got to see one of the new D19E class (963 if my memory serves me) at Thap Cham on a freight coming from the north. The D19Es have clearling become the main motive power for the DSVN both the original 'Doi Moi' locomotives and the later pink and blue ones.

I also wandered around Saigon Station for a couple of hours.

As far as the website goes, nothing much has happened over the last couple of months. But that should change soon. I am working on 'blending' my former model rail website into the Railway In Vietnam site as well as adding an English language forum to the site. As well I'm working on an on-line (pdf) newsletter/magazine which you will be able to download and read at your leisure.

All these changes take time and as I am back in the workforce my time is even more limited. But it's all good fun!

Until next time.

Back in Action.....

Today is the first day of spring in Australia. A chance to renew the old and take on the new.

It's been quite a while since my last blogg. Personal and family changes have continued to get in the way of my interest in Việt Nam railways, but hopefully things are now back on track.

I have added a few bits and pieces to the website but I still have a backlog of material. At the moment I'm redesigning the 'Freight' page which will become similar to the 'Locomotive' page ie. an index page and then separate pages for each type of freight vehicle. This should make it easier to update and add new data as it comes to hand.

My plan is to do the same thing for the 'Coach' page but I think that is still some time away.

My other plan is to produce a brief history of railways in Việt Nam which will be in the form of a PDF booklet which can be downloaded. In the back of my head I see this as a test run for a possibly much larger volume, similar to the recently republished 'Railways of Thailand', which could be commercially published (if any publisher is interested), but I think that is still a long way away.

All these plans take time to complete, so don't hold your breathe.

I'm also currently trying to learn Vietnamese by attending Vietnamese language classes but this is a long slow process. Isn't it sad that as you get older your brain seems to have a lot more trouble 'assimilating' new knowledge and learning new skills. At least that's how it is for me.

There is also the possibility of myself travelling to Việt Nam  to live for a longer period of time, which I think will enable me to access large amounts of information that is not available to me now, as well as continue to build my own photo collection.

So, if anyone is still reading this blogg... welcome back.

A long tme between drinks....

Once again I must apologize to the person who reads this blog. Yes you know who you are!
It's been a long time between drinks!

I've had some major changes in my life over the last couple of months, I've moved and had to set up a new house. My work committments have and will continue to change and I have a future wedding/marriage to contemplate. Hopefully I'm more settled now so more time to blog. As the wedding will be in Vietnam it will be strange and interesting for me. So I've had no time for website updating or modelling until very recently.

I've  added some more bits and pieces to the website so hopefully some people will find that useful. I intend to do a major revamp when I get time so watch out for that, especially the freight and passenger sections, with a seperate page for each kind/class of vehicle..

As my future wife's family comes from the Phan Rang/Thap Cham area you will forgive me if lots of my photos on my website are from that area. It's the place I know the best.

I've had a bit of a think about the matters in the previous blog (relating to travelling on the DSVN) and now feel that maybe I was a bit harsh. I'm sure the DSVN staff were doing that best in a less than ideal situation.

I'm reminded of something that a manager in the rail system that I work for said a few years ago. He said we have to change the way we think about the main aim of what we do from 'running a railway' to 'providing a service'. When you 'run a railway' you concentrate on operating technology, changing points (turnouts) running locomotives and trains, operating signalling systems, shunting (switching) and so on. In this scenario customers are really a bit of a nuisance. In 'providing a service' we turn everything around so the customer becomes the most important aspect, 'operating' is just a way of providing the service that customers want. It's a big change and not so easy to introduce. I feel that DSVN hasn't quite made the shift yet. Just my personal thoughts.

The above photos was taken at Thap Cham in March. It's amazing that the D9Es (GE U8B) are still going strong in the south after all these years. Some of them must be nearly 45 years old!


And I'm not getting any younger either. So on that note I'll finish this blog. See you next time.