Rare sight: Getting a photo of a steam train in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, is a lucky chance as the Malayan Railway Fan Club says one has to wait for many hours to get to see it. — JASON DEVADASON
ARE you fascinated by the sight of trains or buses? Do you take time to pore over their service alignments, route interchanges and stops?
If the answer is yes, then you could be considered a fan of public transport vehicles.
Unknown to many, there are fans of express buses and trains who have jointly started or became members of online fan clubs.
They organise activities such as tours to bus and train depots to have a closer look at the machines and to learn a thing or two about them.
Started young
It was a family trip from Puduraya in Kuala Lumpur to Pontian, Johor, for the Hari Raya holidays during his primary schooling years that aroused Mirza Rahimi Mohamad’s fascination for express buses.
Currently taking a diploma course in welding technology, the 20-year-old Klang native said it was his interest in these wheeled behemoths that influenced his tertiary educational path.
A rare sight of people walking all over the train tracks at the Tanjung Pagar station in Singapre, as the station and its tracks are no longer in operation. The event was organised by the Singapore Land Authority as a historical appreciation of the site. — Photos: Courtesy of fan clubs
He reckoned he would most likely start his career in that industry upon graduation.
“I can still remember the model of the first express bus my family took from Puduraya back then. It was a Hino AK1JRKA and the coach builder was Sum Hup Lee,” he said.
While express buses may more or less appear the same to anyone, the years spent on bus spotting activities enabled Mirza to tell at a glance not only the model but also the coach builders too.
His effort in sharing his sightings on a Facebook group called “Peminat Bas Bas Ekspress” (Express Bus Fans) has helped him to connect with many more experienced express bus spotters in the information exchange process.
There are more than 60,000 members in this online group.
Mirza said there were many local coach builders in Malaysia and their unique characteristics could be seen in their workmanship.
“For me, I am interested in the body design, chassis model, seats and joining. When I get on an express bus, I’ll head straight to the back seat just to listen to the sound of the engine,” he said.
Among his favourites are express bus fleets from Causeway Link, Super Nice and Mutiara, the last because they use Marcopolo, a Brazilian bus brand.
Another rare “spotting” for him was a Setra, a German bus brand with the coach building work carried out by LP Jaya.
Mirza has pursued bus spotting activities at bus terminals in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, around Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, Seremban, Melaka, Larkin, Kluang, Ayer Hitam, Yong Peng, Johor Baru and Kulai.
MLPTF members posing for a group photo during a visit to the Rapid Rail and Rapid premises.
“I have even done bus spotting in Lampung, Indonesia, while taking the Gumarang Jaya express bus to Bakauheni Port,” he said.
For another “Peminat Bas Bas Ekspress” member Muhammad Fredy Abdullah, 38, a vital benefit of being an express bus fan was having first-hand knowledge on bus companies with the comfiest rides and lowest fare.
Growing up, Muhammad Fredy’s parents did not own a car and buses were the family’s main mode of transport whenever they made a trip to Klang from their home in Kampung Sungai Udang.
For balik kampung trips to Kota Baru in Kelantan, Muhammad Fredy, an operations coordinator of a freight and cargo company in Klang, said Transnasional Express remained his favourite bus service for offering the most comfortable ride.
Engine sound music to ears
The thrill of discovering a rare model and the satisfaction of photographing such a find are main drivers for public transport fans, said Jason Devadason, 38, administrator and co-founder of Malayan Railway Fan Club (MRFC), a social media page.
He is also assistant secretary in the club, registered with the Registrar of Societies in 2014, that has close to 20,000 members.
While trainspotters like Jason can cross check with official schedules, the chance of spotting rare train models that are often used for freight often boils down to chance and pure luck.
“That’s how I wasted a huge part of my life. It’s really a waiting game,” laughed Jason.
MLPTF members during a visit to Wrightbus which made buses for the Kowloon Bus Company. With them are Wrightbus general manager Sean Smith (third from left), Cheong (right) and Muhammad Fredy (second from right).
One of his prized photos is of a steam engine train in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
He had gone to the station hoping to take photos of it, and it so happened that a train was there at the time. There were, however, days when he would wait the whole day and no train would appear.
In his younger days, he would spend up to eight hours at a train station just so he could photograph and take videos of trains passing by.
“Now that I am married, I cannot spend as much time for that,” said Jason, who is an operations manager in a transport company based in Klang Valley.
Describing the result of such long waits as a labour of love, his effort did not go entirely unnoticed.
“There was one time when a German guy emailed to ask for some photos to be used in a book he was writing. Two years later, he sent me US$100 for my photos,” said Jason, whose interest in trains was influenced by his father.
His family used to travel to Singapore frequently in the 1980s and 1990s, and the preferred mode of transport was by rail because it was affordable.
Jason: Trains were the most affordable mode of transport in the 1980s and 1990s.
“Nostalgia played a huge part in my interest. I liked the old models with no air-conditioning, where you could push the windows up and down and hear the clickety-clack sounds,” he said, adding that he liked diesel-powered trains more than electric ones.
“My interest turned into a hobby when I first got a computer during my teenage years. Right after school I would be on either Yahoo, Excite, Altavista among other search engines, looking for keywords like ‘ktmb’, ‘keretapi’ and ‘malayan railwayfan’,” said Jason.
On the club, he said members currently only paid for trips they took part in. Trips are one of the main activities organised by the club.
“We have organised many trips before. To the east coast, from Johor Baru to Singapore, and to Butterworth and Padang Besar.
“One of the most memorable trips was to Gemas on a 23 Class locomotive. The sound of the Pielstick engine was pure music,” he added.
Being part of history
It was Valentine’s Day and it was the last day the electric train from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport’s Skypark Terminal would be travelling to KL Sentral.
For Cheong Sze Hoong, 45, and nine of his friends, who knew beforehand that the service would be temporarily suspended on Feb 15 following an announcement by Transport Minister Anthony Loke, there was only one thing to do – get onboard for this train’s final run!
These are the kind of activities that people who hold a fascination for public transport vehicles take part in, said Cheong, a freelance digital communications specialist.
“We took the 7.25pm electric train from KL Sentral to Skypark Terminal and waited at a coffeehouse until 10.45pm.
Cheong (standing) with MLPTF members on the last electric train from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport’s Skypark Terminal to KL Sentral after finding out the service would be temporarily suspended from Feb 15.
“All the shops had closed but the coffeehouse allowed us to sit there till it was time for the last train,” he said.
As administrator for Malaysian Land Public Transport Fans (MLPTF), a public social media page with over 10,000 members, Cheong finds common ground in a like-minded group.
“Our members come from a variety of backgrounds. Some of the posts generate a fair amount of discussions but most of them are just people who like trains and buses,” he said.
From the stops made by feeder buses to the different kinds of rolling stock trundling on our roads and rails, MLPTF members have been keeping the group alive with news feeds like airport upgrades, ehailing rides and the kind of traffic congestion that have arisen due to roadblocks and inconsiderate motorists who parked their vehicles haphazardly.
MLPTF’s genesis can be traced back to Skyscrapercity Malaysia, a local chapter of an international group called Skyscrapercity, an online community dedicated to towers, highrises, construc- tion and city planning enthusiasts.
Public transport was first featured as subsection in the forums for the local chapter in 2002 but by 2017 it had garnered enough fans for the page administrators to consider starting a public page on the subject alone.
“We are an apolitical, non- profit group. To show that we are serious in our objective in advocating public transport, we registered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in 2020,” said Cheong.
Rather than limiting themselves to online posts on social media, members also take part in social gatherings, he said.
“We write to public transport companies, specifically to the urban rail operators like MRT and Rapid KL for permission to visit their depots.
“As we are registered with ROS, they have taken us seriously and have been welcoming,” said Cheong.
So far, MLPTF members have visited bus and urban rail depots belonging to the LRT Kelana Jaya line in Lembah Subang, MRT in Sungai Buloh, Rapid KL in Cheras Selatan and KL Monorail in Brickfields.
The group has also visited a Klang-based bus manufacturer called Wrightbus that made buses for the Kowloon Bus Company, a public transport company in Hong Kong.
“It was a surreal experience to see buses that you’d typically only see in Hong Kong, travelling from the factory to Port Klang to be shipped over,” said Cheong.
Describing the gatherings as relaxing, he said the main anchor laid in an inclusive mix of people where a majority of the members were males.
Though the exchange of technical information is often part of members’ conversations, they also talk about friends, family life and pose for wefies.
Many of them also followed online groups such as the MRFC, a fan page of locomotive enthusiasts that started in 2005 and Transit Malaysia, a year-old page featuring online discussions on public transport policies.
