Alexandra Halt

 

 Seorang teman di Kelab Peminat Keretapi Malaysia bernama Trevor Sharot menulis:

• I've now completed my investigation into the location of Alexandra Halt and, as part of this, telegraph posts. I attach my report; it's a jpg because FB won't allow docs. If anyone would like a copy of the doc then message me.

   

  Ringkasan pengurusan: the halt was where I thought before, just east of the crossing at Alexandra Road. But more evidence now.
  
  Update: FB compresses jpg's so much that the text is barely legible, so here it is:
  
  Alexandra Halt

  This report describes research into the location of the railway stop on the 1932 Deviation named Alexandra Halt. It is not marked on any known map.

   

  The first known reference to this stop is in The Malaya Tribune, 26th April 1932:

  “… the following stations will be opened for traffic on and from Tuesday, May 3: Singapore, Alexandra Halt, Tanglin, Bukit Timah (New Station). … A stopping place at Alexandra Halt is being made for the local trains between Johore Bahru and Singapore.”

   

  Further down it states that the night mail express from Kuala Lumpur stopped at Bukit Timah and Tanglin but not at Alexandra Halt, while “Local trains from Kluang and Gemas… will stop at all stations.” Timetables confirm this.

   

  So it was ‘a stopping place’ rather than a station and it was at Alexandra Halt, a pre-existing name. What would “Alexandra Halt” have signified before the railway?

   

  The Alexandra Halt area

  The Alexandra area was named after Princess Alexandra - not the current one (born on Christmas Day 1936, several years after the halt opened) but the then popular Alexandra of Denmark (b. 1 Dec 1844, d. 20 Nov 1925). 

   

  Incidentally, her full name and title were Princess Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Not only Malay royalty have long names.

   

  The earliest known map marking Alexandra Halt is from 1937, a reliable survey map used to plan WWII defence posts. It was an area south of Tanglin and west of the railway. The Halt appears to be the meeting point of several rural paths (which I have highlighted to distinguish them from isoclines) running along the valleys between hills.­

   

  The area of the meeting point is now occupied by Tanglin Trust School. The school quad is at the dot above the x in “Alexandra Halt” on the 1937 map.

  The chronology of names is noteworthy. Tanglin Halt station is shown in 1937 in the Tanglin area; it was only later that the vicinity of and road near the station were named Tanglin Halt, commemorating the railway station. But the map marks Alexandra Halt as an area not a railway halt although that already existed; this is further evidence that the name pre-existed the railway.

   

  Location of the railway halt

  This is described in various references.

   

  The Straits Times 2nd May 1932 states:

  “The next stop is at a halt about a mile away from the junction of Alexandra Road and Pasir Panjang Road. This station, named Alexandra Halt, is about 2½ miles away from the terminus.”

   

  This places the stop close to where the line passed underneath Alexandra Road, just to the north of what is now Gilman flyover. So the halt was somewhere near that crossing, either to the east or the west.

   

  Another clue is the timetable. This showed that up trains took 8 minutes from Tanjong Pagar to Alexandra Halt and then 6 minutes to Tanglin Halt. Down trains also took 6 minutes for that stretch and then 7 minutes to Tanjong Pagar. On a proportionate basis, that places the halt ca. 750 metres east of Alexandra Road, just west of the later branch to the Archipelago Brewery.

  This is plausible. The houses and factories were all east of Alexandra Road, while to the west the land was War Department Property, through which the track made its turn to the north en route to Tanglin Halt.

   

  Another source places the halt precisely, if obscurely. The halt was little used and closed less than two years after opening. The Sunday Tribune, 18th March 1934 states:

  ”Alexandra Halt situated at Telegraph Post 485/20 between Tanglin and Singapore, will be closed for traffic on and from 20th March 1934, and trains will cease stopping at the Halt from this date.”

   

  This is 485 miles plus 20 telegraph posts from Prai. The mileage posts were marked on several maps but the spacing of telegraph posts was not fixed, nor does this appear in any known reference. This has been investigated - see the Appendix. This places the halt differently, right at the crossing at Alexandra Road, though uncertainty in these measurements does not indicate which side.

   

  How can this be reconciled with the timetable? The turn to the north just west of the level crossing, a near 90° bend, might have had a speed restriction. The turn radius was 16 chains; the minimum allowed was 10 chains. This would bring the halt closer to Alexandra Road. Also, the shorter distance between the halt and Tanglin Halt compared to Tanjong Pagar would mean less chance to gather speed; this again brings the halt closer to Alexander Road.

   

  Land usage. The land west of Alexandra Road was War Department property while to east were factories and houses. Neither side had any roads leading elsewhere; access was from the north and south only. The factories were all within about 200 metres of the road on their own access lanes and east of there was open land with scattered houses. So the halt was probably close to the east side of Alexandra Road.

   

  Would it have been on the north side or the south side of the track? The factories and houses were all to the north. There were small hills to the north and south between which the track had been threaded. Going east from Alexandra Road, the first hill was on the south side and by 1954 had been renamed Railway Hill. So the halt was probably on the north side, on the flat land housing the factories. A 1954 map shows a cul-de-sac there called Alexandra Avenue, which might earlier have been the access road to the halt.

   

  Just to the east of there, the track was carried on an embankment about 100-150 metres long between two hills, so this was not a likely spot. The Archipelago Brewery branch was east of that, but this is so far from the Alexandra Halt area that this is not at all a likely place for the halt.

  So it's not conclusive, but the most likely spot was at the end of Alexandra Avenue.

   

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to Malcolm Wilton-Jones and Zacky Uesoff for various facts.

  Trevor Sharot

   

  Appendix – Telegraph post spacing

  The spacing between telegraph posts was a compromise between cost, wire sag and local conditions. It was generally shorter round curves, to prevent wires infringing the structure gauge and shorter in urban rather than rural areas for further control of the wires.

   

  There is plenty of discussion of this topic on model railway forums, but nothing very helpful except to confirm that that spacing was not uniform.

  A small sample of railway locations in Singapore are known in both miles-chains and miles/TPs, allowing direct calculation of TP spacing. Accuracy is limited by measurement to the nearest chain, which could therefore be +/-11 yards adrift, or up to 21 yards if part chains were ignored rather than rounded.

  Another small sample of locations are known both in miles/TPs and locations on a map and/or aerial photograph. Mileposts are marked on several maps so again TP spacing can be estimated. Accuracy is limited by mapping errors; in particular, easement of branch curves at the points means that the marked position of the points could be a chain or more adrift, or obscured by the broadness of the track markings. Only cadastral maps or engineers’ plans would provide more accuracy, but none of these is known.

   

  The following results have been obtained, ranked by the estimated spacing.

  Tanglin military branch 55 yards

  Archipelago Breweries branch 66 yards

  Mandai halt 1903 72 yards

  Hindhede quarry branch 81 yards

  Hume Industries branch 83 yards
  

  Alexandra Halt 66 yards assumed