Chemor railway station demolished

In Sept 2011 I blogged about Chemor railway station and mentioned that it might be shutting down. Not only did it close but it was also demolished less than one year later. Another piece of Perak's history gone.

I purposefully went to take some photos two years later in Sept 2013. The approach to the station in 2011 and then in 2013 -

and the station is now empty land -

Even the old house by the station has been abandoned -

 

 Above and below the 2011 view

 and 2013 it is fenced off and the vegetation is taking over

This house the other side of the lane is still occupied -

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Chemor & Tg Rambutan KTM stations

  For years now, KTMB, the Malaysian Railway has been doing a double-tracking and electrification project on the west coast line. The northern section, from Ipoh to Padang Besar is now underway. This project was proposed in 2002, then got postponed until 2008 and is expected to be completed in 2013 (according to Wikipedia). The project will also feature a 3.3 km tunnel in Perak, which will become the longest rail tunnel in South East Asia.

Between Ipoh (probably Tasek) and Chemor, the railway line will be re-routed to shorten the distance. Consequently Tanjung Rambuntan and Chemor stations are already closed.

Trains no longer stop at Tanjung Rambuntan, but they do stop at Chemor as they have to do the key drop. The next station to the north where trains stop is Sungai Siput.

Tg Rambutan station -

Tg Rambutan ticket window
The station is now occupied by food stalls.

The back of the station

The old line is overgrown

Driving to Chemor, there are two bridges across the road, for the old and new lines

This is the old line -

Chemor station approach -

Chemor station is now empty. However there is still a station master as trains do stop. Hassan kindly showed us around his office. We saw the machines for the keys - the train drops off a key, which is inserted into the machine which opens the circuit for the train to continue beyond the station.

Hassan

Chemor key drop

Chemor station opened in 1896. At that time it also served as the post office for about 20 years. It is likely that the station will be demolished. The new elevated track is almost as high as the station building. The new station will be built about 1 km north.

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Chemor station was demolished in July or August 2012.

See the demolished view Sept 2013.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission