By Alphonsus Chern
Photojournalist
achern@sph.com.sg

 

I remember well enough the pride and conviction in Mr Hashim Muji's voice when I spoke to him way back in 2007.
 
“How long do you think the trains will run through Singapore?” I asked.
 
Declared the KTM Bukit Timah station master, “Another 900 years!”
 
Mr Hashim and his family moved from Kelantan to Singapore in the 70s, when his father found a job as a porter at the Tanjong Pagar train terminus.
 
He himself joined the KTM in 1986 as a goods checker, and worked his way to the rank of station manager.    
 
His next promotion - if there was going to be one, he said - would be to an executive position and away from the hands-on work he loves. He did not look forward to it.
 
I think I know what he would miss.
 
The pristine tranquility of the 80-year-old outpost, broken by the chirping of crickets and cicadas.
 
The musty smell of old grease and rags in the signal cabin.
 
The distant blast of an air horn heralding the approaching train.
 
I, too, wanted the trains to continue their clockwork routine through Singapore, chugging past grass fields and housing estates, crossing roads and rivers, with the occasional passenger hanging out of the train door waving to people on the street.
 
I wanted to see Mr Hashim, or Ambrose, or Atan, or Gani (I will tell you who they are later) on show – slamming home the levers, buttoning up his blue uniform, holding out the leather pouch with a brass token for the train driver as the locomotive roared through the station, waving the green flag as the train pulled away into the distance.
 
My acquaintance with the Bukit Timah railway station began in 2003, while I was a student in the Ngee Ann Polytechnic. There were times when I would walk to the station to take photographs of the place and talk to the station master.
 
In the office with pale green walls, I could savour the atmosphere of an era gone by.

-- PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

Under the royal gaze of the king and queen, under a portrait of the Prime Minister, hung a framed, yellowed map of Peninsular Malaysia, showing the East and West railway lines.

The British wall safe and the rotary telephone, the bright red token machines and the yellowed first-aid box with a red crescent instead of a cross, came from a time when life might have been simpler, things cheaper, and the people, friendlier.

During those years, I made friends with several of the station masters.

Hashim Muji, a rotund but serious character, whose changing facial landscape made for some interesting photographs over the years.

Former Bukit Timah station master, Mr Hashim Muji, wearing his raincoat while waiting for an incoming train in 2003. -- PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

Atan Ahmad, who told me that he yearned for company during the solitary days and nights spent at the station, and wished he was posted elsewhere. His wish was granted, and he is now a signalman at the JB Sentral station. Word has it that he may be posted to Pahang, but this is not confirmed.

The gentle and good-natured Abdul Gani, immortalised in a “6:39” photograph in The Straits Times while passing a token to the driver of an incoming train, is now also a signalman at the JB Sentral station.
 
Near the end of its days, the station grew more and more crowded, with curious passers-by and regular fans thronging the platform, posing for photographs while lying on the tracks, clambering on and over everything.
 
I thought that the serenity of the place was lost. This was not the quaint and unknown place I stumbled across and had come to love over the years. I kept away while the crowds were there.

Atan Ahmad, the station master at the KTMB railway Bukit Timah station prepares a token pouch for the incoming train in October 2009. -- PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

But on the final night, I took a deep breath and took a taxi to Bukit Timah to bid farewell to two old friends.
 
On the platform were nearly a hundred people carrying cameras, floodlights, and cans of beer.
 
It was a fantastic sight.
 
They surrounded Mr Abdul Gani, who was, for the first time, wearing a KTM peak cap borrowed from a 18-year-old railway fan club member, Mr Azmee Mohd Zaid, because his own did not have a badge.
 
As the Sultan of Johor drove the locomotive Tanjung Kupang No. 26108 into the station, Mr Gani raised the final token south of Woodlands on his outstretched arm. The crowd followed suit, their camera flashes scintillating as at a fashion parade.
 
 
The honour of lowering the Malaysian and Singaporean flags for the last time was given to two railway fan club members, Mr Saiful Anwar and Mr Dinie Razin, both 18, who solemnly held up both flags side-by-side for a full minute while others recorded the poignant moment.
 
Then while the crowd partied on the platform, tears flowed behind the walls, as Mr Gani broke into tears while bidding farewell to his closest friends.

Mr Abdul Gani (R), station master of the KTM Bukit Timah railway station, broke into tears when hugging Thomas Daniel (L), a long-time friend and railway fan before leaving the station for the last time on the night of June 30. -- PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

One of them was Mr Thomas Daniel, who for more than two years, would visit the station up to four times a week after work to chat with Mr Gani and to help him with his signal routine.
 
“I feel sad and empty now,” said Mr Daniel. “I am so used to going there, it was like my playground.”
 
Then, the lights were turned off, plunging the station into complete darkness.
 
The crowd bade each other goodbye. The group of partying Caucasians neatly flattened their beer cans and carried them away. The fans dispersed.
 
Car doors were slammed, and a cloud of exhaust lingered in the red glow of tail lights as Mr Abdul Gani drove his white Proton Saga back to Johor.

As the last KTM passenger train passes the Bukit Timah station, Station Master Abdul Gani passes the railway token to the driver, to the cheers of the crowd of enthusiasts who turned up to witness the event. -- PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

For a multimedia slideshow on the last days of the KTM in Singapore. Visit here:
http://www.straitstimes.com/ttl/popup/ttl_popup_potd.html?path=RememberingKTM_10173&type=multimedia