Last Days KTM in Singapore ( pt 4 ) - fridge magnet and His Highness Sultan Johor writes such an interesting blog entry for Singapore Straits Times.

firstly, souvenirs hunters memang go all out untuk dapat cenderamata/cenderahati kenangan. Sampai ada bahagian rel pun dijual orang beli tak salah aku.

Well...memandangkan belanja untuk hiburan dan kesyokkan diri sendiri adalah terhad...
Jadi aku cuma dapatkan ni..
Fridge Magnets tapi alrite la... aku suka..bleh taruk satu esbok kat dapur Msia, satu kat esbok dapur Spore. Meaningful pasal KTM pe haha. Satu depicts Stesen Tanjong Pagar, satu depicts Bukit Timah Station.

Yang menarik tu ialah tarikh tahun yang diprinted kat Fridge Magnets khas keluaran KTM untuk peristiwa hari dalam sejarah ni. Tahun 1915 dok.




Suratkhabar2 English dan Melayu di Singapura memang have a field day untuk occasion ni.. Siap hari sabtu lepas ada all out seperate section untuk gambo2 last kopek KTM di Singapura.

Paling menarik , dorang ikut buat liputan rumah2 flet didiami keluarga pekerja KTM dan hari dorang pindah dan kucing2 dorang terpaksa tinggalkan.

Sapa tu hari, yang anonymous ke sapa tu reply kat blog posting aku, ah beb, Straits Times siap keluar gambo tempat pusing kepala Loco untuk short end long end sey.




Ini cuma sebagian je, banyak giler gambo2 tiap2 hari dan cerita2 baik kat sokkabar Melayu atau omputeh Singapura.

Tapi satu yang sangat unusual, ialah blog yang ditulis oleh Sultan Johor khas untuk suratkhabar Straits Times Singapore. Dan serious berbual, full of humour dan sangat menarik. Pada aku, memang best giler la, informatif abis dan menarik sangat tulisan His Highness ni. Wah sey, his highness everytime masuk Singapore either drive atau bawak kapal yacht dia. Wow.



ni blog dia untuk sokkabar Singapore pasal kenapa dia nak pandu KTM keretapi terakhir keluar Tanjong Pagar, Singapura.


Why I drove the last train out
July 01, 2011 Friday, 10:00 PM
His Royal Highness, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor, on why he asked to drive the last KTM train out of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.
________________________________________
WHEN I found out last year that Tanjong Pagar Railway Station would be closed, I expressed my desire of driving the last train out of Singapore to the KTM chairman.
What the governments do has got nothing to do with me. To me, it is a sentimental matter.
It was my great grandfather, the late Sultan Ibrahim, who opened the Causeway, designed for both road and rail links. He paved the way, literally, for the first train to rumble into Singapore from Malaysia back in 1923.
I felt it was only appropriate for me, as the ruler of Johor, to drive the last train out.
Besides trains, I fly jets, helicopters, and I sail my own yacht. I am never a boring person. Everything to me is a challenge. I always like to find something new to do. Every day, I look at the weather and think to myself, what should I do today?
So when the KTM chairman said OK, the train instructor was sent to my palace.
There was no train simulator. I had to study the diagrams of the controls and learn about the mechanics of how a train moves. After that, we started the practical lessons.
The first time I sat at the controls, it felt a little funny because there is no steering wheel. There is only the throttle and the brake.
It was a little scary too because, unlike a car, you cannot swerve when you’re driving a train. If there is something on the tracks, you cannot avoid it. You will hit it. It’s not like a helicopter, where I can go up and down.
What helps is that there is a note, or manifest, that the station master hands you before you leave the station, and which you need to sign for. It describes the route you would be taking, what the speed limits are, where the crossings are, etc.
As the lessons progressed, I learnt one other thing: You cannot think only for yourself when you drive a train.
You need to feel it. You need to feel its length, its weight, the momentum and the gradient you are on.
I drove around to places like Negri Sembilan, Kluang and KL, after I received my locomotive driving licence.
Thursday night was the first time I set foot into Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. That’s because when I come to Singapore, I usually drive or take my yacht.
I was told not to go more than 60km per hour, because these are old tracks and they could be a little unsteady.
There were two safety drivers with me at the controls. One of them was my instructor, because I always feel more comfortable when he is beside me.
I also brought my iPad onto the train because I always like to find out where I am and how fast I am going (Yes, you can do that with an iPad!).
I felt a little sad that it was a night journey and that I couldn’t see what was around me as I drove.
But I also felt very honoured, because there were so many passengers. They are a testament to the bond of friendship between the people of Johor and Singapore.
I knew many of them felt sad about the station. Some of them feel that Singapore is developing too fast. But I don’t think so.
We cannot control development. It happens at its own pace. But we must always know our history.
In Malaysia and Singapore, when we go to school, we do not learn about ourselves, but about the world.
You ask a Singaporean on the street: Where is Kazakhstan? Or, say, where is Cape Town? He will probably know.
But Segamat, Malaysia? Probably not.
So this is the message I want to say to Singaporeans: Learn about the history we share.
More than anything else, that is why I asked to drive the train.



tapi kan, memang, aku lalu immigresen Singapore, tengok tempat KTM baru, ada kejong sikit..haha. Nanti mesti gerek punya kalo dah lama sikit.