Gary Breen

Almost

[Thai Train Guide @ThaiTrainGuide]

🚂 An armoured rail vehicle at Thung Song Junction

I spotted this unusual little vehicle at Thung Song Junction this weekend. It looks like something halfway between a locomotive and a tank, and there’s a fascinating bit of railway history behind it.

It is an Armoured Wickham Trolley (ATW), a small armoured rail vehicle built by British company D. Wickham & Co. of Ware, Hertfordshire.

Armoured Wickham trolleys were developed for railway security during the Malayan Emergency, when communist insurgents frequently targeted railway infrastructure. Historical research from the University of Malaya records that 42 armoured Wickham trolleys entered service in Malaya in 1953. They were used to patrol railway lines and protect trains against sabotage and attacks.

Thailand also operated Armoured Wickham Trolleys. Here they were used by the Railway Police, particularly on the Southern Line during Thailand’s communist insurgency.

One of the darkest chapters in their Thai history occurred on 10 July 1979. An armoured rail vehicle was protecting a special train carrying money to pay railway employees when it was attacked by communist insurgents in the Ron Phibun area of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Six Railway Police officers and one State Railway of Thailand employee were killed. Despite the attack, the government money they were protecting was saved.

What isn’t clear yet is how Thailand acquired these vehicles.

They were British-built, but did Thailand order them directly from D. Wickham & Co. in Britain? Or were some transferred or sold to Thailand from neighbouring Malaya after the Malayan Emergency ended in 1960?

The second possibility certainly seems plausible. Both railway systems use metre gauge, and the timing would make sense. However, I haven’t yet found reliable documentary evidence confirming that this is what happened, so I don’t want to present it as fact.

This particular example has apparently been at Thung Song locomotive depot for many years, with photographs documenting it there since at least 2011.

It’s an extraordinary survivor from a very different period in Thailand’s railway history. Hopefully I can eventually track down its Wickham works number or contemporary SRT records and discover exactly where it came from.

#ThailandByRail #ThaiTracks #RailwayHistory #ThaiRailways #SRT #ThungSong #NakhonSiThammarat #Wickham #RailwayPolice #Thailand #รถไฟไทย #การรถไฟแห่งประเทศไทย

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@Dirk_D_Sanchez @theiaincameron My favourite bird.

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@LilyLilyMaynard Bloke

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@SimonMagus @s8mb I hope they are super tasty!

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@christopherhope @thameslink The Oxford comma debate will never die!

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@IanGee2023 @dwdmcdXXX She was also born in a 2 room house with 15 brothers and sisters (10 survived to childhood) with no running water or bathroom.

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@IanGee2023 @dwdmcdXXX My mum was a singer in a band and had exactly the same temperament as Dolly (my mum’s most common word was “beautiful “). I’ve just realised how alike they were.

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@FionneOrlander LOL

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@TheSimonEvansX One of my favourite childhood films.

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@banger_uk Mine too

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@SimonMagus At the Loon Plage camp 😂

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@AmbJapanUK @Telegraph You are awesome!

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@Ben_Bradley_32 @reformparty_uk How to fight it? Local authorities don't have much spare funding to do so.

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@HeadWarriorTWM My favourite bit of the 2 Ronnies!

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@murdo_fraser Needs a goal

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@SimonMagus @CarlBovisNature I know your favourite is the blue-footed booby.

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@scottiebateman I did that trip on Wednesday!

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

Since Gary Stevenson is everywhere with his bad economics here's what I (not an economist either) wrote about wealth taxes.

"Wealth taxes, on the living or the dead, reduce levels of investment in productive assets, undermine economic stability and won’t raise the money their advocates claim"

https://t.co/jbrfAPV3WS

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@merf_sdp Do you know the Breen family from Kettering? They are my cosuins.

[Gary Breen @westknighton]

@FUDdaily Greetings from Tokyo