The North Borneo Railroad

[el cid again]

Built in the late 19th century, the British North Borneo Railroad was intended to develop the British North Borneo Territory. As shown in map art, and in the pwhex file, it is a useless stump of a line out of Beaufort running toward, but not reaching Jesselton. In fact, Jesselton is the base of the railroad. Further, it extends Southward from Beaufort, to Tenom (originally Fort Birch), the "breadbasket of Borneo" and the oldest Chinese community on Borneo. [Originally the Chinese came as laborers to build the line, but being farmers, they developed the rich land found in the mountains, malaria free, and remain to this day.] Map art shows this as a secondary road South from Beaufort. The "road to nowhere" should end at Tenom, which should be a minor source of rubber (represented by oil in RHS), of resources (unprocessed tobacco and food products) and supplies (processed or partly processed agricultural products - created by LI). The rail line should be four hexes long, running all the way from Jesselton to Tenom.

The line was and remains the heart of the territory, economically speaking. [A steam powered tourist train runs down the coastal section, but diesel takes you all the way to Tenom today] It was badly damaged during the war - and might be why the map art shows it as a rump. This is a mistake. Never mind that wartime damage is not possible to railroads in AE, THIS line NEVER stopped operating in EVERY section!
Yes - bridges were destroyed and not rebuilt until after the war. But they ran, bridge to bridge, in every section - porting across the rivers. Even when rolling stock was required, they made it locally - terming them "rail jeeps" - trucks modified with 1 meter apart "road wheels" (meaning railroad wheels) - to tow the cars.

[LargeSlowTarget]

I was wondering as well about this rump. The original line ran from Weston to Beaufort (this line is no longer in use), but this short stretch would be in the same hex anyway. It was extended to Tenom and then a second line was built from Beaufort to Jesselton. In 1906, the Tenom branch was extended to Melalap (a further 16 km), but this extension is no longer in use. Not really important in the scope of WitP, but nice to have nonetheless.

[el cid again]

Apparently the extension is not in use for passengers, but the language "last stop for passengers"
implies it is still used for freight. Not sure what is out there? This isn't a mining area - so it is
probably a rubber plantation or some sort of farming center. But it does not matter - being in the
same hex. Tenom is good enough. Much of this line is supposed to be spectacular, and I am
thinking of taking it next time I go to SE Asia. Apparently the line is the gage it is to permit
sharp turns, etc. in mountians.

[YankeeAirRat]

From most of the Malay historical sites, it is implied by offical Malay historical websites that the Sabah State Railway as the railway is known now; was developed to assist in the transportation of Tabacco from the plantations in the region to distrubtion centers on the coast. However, it was heavily damaged during the opening days of WW2 by retreating British troops and later by the Japanese and Allies to the point of being useless until the mid-50s. Then as additional roads were built some of the spurs were deleted due to operation costs.

[LargeSlowTarget]

While we are at it - the South Sumatra RR is "dangling" as well west of Lahat (at least in DBB - haven't looked at stock for along time). Lahat itself seems to be of little importance - dot base without resources nor industries. I have moved it to the RR terminus at "Lubuk Linggau" (46,91) - Lubuk Linggau had rubber plantations and thus gained a small resource production in my mod.