Trains of the Kowloon-Canton Railway

While in Tai Po last weekend (see previous post) I couldn’t of course resist a trip to the (free!!) Hong Kong Railway Museum. The museum is home to the original Tai Po Market train station which was a stop on the Kowloon-Canton Railway that obviously ran from Guangzhou right down the harbour at Tsim Tsa Choi originally.

The station house is excellent with some old signalling gear, the train masters office and the old ticket booth with a display of old KCR tickets. The building is marvellous and typical of the old KCR stations. Inside are some nice exhibits including an old KCR poster (which I’d really like – very annoying they weren’t selling reprints) and some old black and white pictures of crowds at the station.

There’s also a few oddities like an old trolley (left) which looks fun. There’s an old puffer that ran on the line in the 1920s (middle), a more recent (1950s) diesel (right) and a couple of old carriages you can stroll through.

A nice fast visit. Strangely the place was mostly full of happy young newly weds having their wedding photos taken next to old diesel trains and in front of the current lines of the KCR train sweeping past from the border at Lo Wu down to Tsim Sha Choi East. Takes all sorts I suppose.