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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
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
