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Antique coach goes on final trip

The five-tonne carriage was part of a locomotive train that used to travel from Taiping to Port Weld (now Kuala Sepetang), the country's first railway track constructed in 1885. 

The coach was first built in 1897 by Saltley Works in Birmingham and supplied to Perak Railway by the Metropolitan Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd.

For many years after ending its service, the coach was put on display between the northbound and southbound platforms of the Ipoh railway station. 

Yesterday it was lifted by crane onto a low-bed trailer for its journey to the Taiping Museum at 11.00 am. 
 

The antique coach will make way for KTM's RM4bil electrified double tracking railway project from Rawang to Ipoh, which is expected to be completed in 2004. 

"The Taiping Museum will have more space to display the coach," said Ahmad.

Railfreight Logistics Sdn Bhd managing director K. Suppiah, 54, who helped to supervise the move, said the coach used to be patronised by Europeans and upper class citizens due to its costly fare. 

Not everyone was happy with the decision to move the coach to the museum though.

Student P. Subramani, 19, lamented that not many people would be able to see the coach in Taiping compared to Ipoh. 

Insurance agency manager Jefri Palpernarvan, who is in his late 40s, said the coach should have been left at the Ipoh station to enhance its grandeur.

"I feel sorry about the coach, especially since no one really goes to museums anyway.  The coach should have been placed out in the open where its historic value can truly be appreciated," he said.

Other artefacts to be moved from the Ipoh railway station include a 10-tonne crane manufactured by Ransom & Rapier England in 1893 and an old five-tonne armoured carriage bound for the old KTM station in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

Another artefact to be moved to the Butterworth station is the 350 horsepower is the English Electric shunting diesel locomotive purchased by Malayan Railway in 1948.