Don Det – Don Khon railway line

Don Det – Don Khon
Remnants of the Eloïse steam locomotive exhibited on Don Khon Island
Route length:	7 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Legend Khone Sud First landing site in 1893 Khone North Canal between Don Kone and Don Det Ban Det

The Don Det – Don Khon railway was a seven-kilometer narrow-gauge railway on the islands of Don Det and Don Khon in the Si Phan Don archipelago in the Mekong in Champasak Province in southern Laos , which existed from 1893 to 1941 and circumnavigated the Mekong Falls .

prehistory

The locomotive with goats

Mekong Falls

The French colonial power in Indochina endeavored in the 1890s to move its border to the west at the expense of Siam . There were also military conflicts, including in the area of ​​the Si Phan Don archipelago in the Mekong. The French military tried here to establish the Mekong as a western border. To do this, the river had to be controlled by the French armed forces. For this purpose, gunboats were also required in the upper section of the river. The Mekong Falls with a total height of 21 m in the area of ​​the Si Phan Don Archipelago formed an insurmountable obstacle for their passage. In 1891, 1892, and 1893 attempts were unsuccessful for steamboats with running engines and the support of hundreds of men who hauled them up from the rocks on ropes and others who peged them with poles from the decks to overcome the rapids . A ship could at least be pulled up to 50 m below the highest point in a narrow gully before the attempt had to be stopped. Siamese-based Brit Herbert Warington Smyth recommended, more or less ironically, that a railroad or many locks should be built, the cost of which he compared with those of the Manchester Ship Canal , with only a ten-thousandth of the tonnage being transported.

history

The stern of the gunboat 'Ham Luong' during rail transport, 15. – 30. October 1893

Even if it was economically nonsensical, the railway line across the island of Don Khon was militarily necessary from the French point of view. The first stretch connected a pier below and above the Mekong Falls on Don Khon Island. It was built in the summer of 1893 with a gauge of 1000 mm. Legally, the railway was built on Siamese territory. It was not until October 3, 1893, that Siam ceded the islands and the right bank of the Mekong to French Indochina, after the French gunboat policy had forced it off Bangkok ( Pak-Nam incident ). This first route ran from the south of the island to its north end near the village of Ban Khon. Initially, light rail tracks were only temporarily laid and carried by the end of the manually pushed train at its head after it had passed a segment. The gunboats Lagrandière , Ham Luong and Massie were the first to be transported in this way, followed by Garcerie , The Colombert and Trentinian in 1896.

Civilian use followed after military use: freight and travelers were transported here between the ships that operated below the Mekong Falls and those that operated above. Initially, this continued to be done "manually" on a track that has now been permanently laid since 1897 from the village of Ban Hangkhon at the southeastern tip to the northern end of the island near the village of Ban Khon. This route was about 5 km long. Ships and trains were operated by the Compagnie des Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine (later: Compagnie Saigonnaise de Navigation ). The company had held the concession to operate the railroad since July 1897. The new, permanent line was considered so important that even the Governor General of Indochina, Paul Doumer , a great promoter of the colony's railways and later President of the French Republic , decided to go Opening appeared.

The first steam locomotive heated with wood was delivered by Decauville in 1909 , weighed 7 t and was named Paul Doumer . It ran on trains that carried up to 12 cars. The upper landing site proved unsuitable in the dry season. A new one was therefore put into operation on the neighboring island of Don Det in 1920 and an approx. 2 km long track was laid there. This branch crossed the canal between the two islands on a 13-arch concrete bridge. The trains had three car classes .

In 1940/41, during the Second World War , Thailand occupied the territories ceded in 1893 as an ally of the Japanese Empire and annexed them ( French-Thai War ). At that time, the railway was stopped because the Saigon - Vientiane connection had become meaningless due to the changed political situation. The railway infrastructure was dismantled by the Compagnie Saigonnaise de Navigation .

After changing the military situation, the Japanese began to rebuild the 750 mm track in 1945. When Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945 , only 4 km of the route had been restored. In 1946 Thailand had to return the territories annexed in 1941 to French Indochina. The French did not rebuild the railway because in 1949 a road was completed along the left bank of the Mekong, which largely replaced the shipping traffic on the river.

meaning

The line was the first and for a long time the only operational railway in Laos, until the Nong Khai – Thanaleng railway from Nong Khai in Thailand to Thanaleng in Laos , near Vientiane , was opened in 2009 .

The entire route, including the bridge that connects the two islands, has been preserved and, with the exception of a short section, can be used as a footpath or cycle path in an industrial plant. The remains of the railway are the main tourist attraction on the islands. A reconstruction of the route as a tourist attraction has been proposed.

literature

• John Keay: Mad About the Mekong: Exploration and Empire in South East Asia. Harper Collins . 2005.
• BR Whyte: The Railway Atlas of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia . White Lotus Co Ltd, Bangkok 2010, ISBN 978-974-480-157-9
• Frédéric Hulot: Les chemins de fer de la France d'outre-mer 1: L'Indochine - Le Yunnan . Saint-Laurent-du-Var 1990. ISBN 2-906984-05-1 , pp. 184f.

Remarks

1. ↑ The fares were: 1st class: 40 centimes , 2nd class: 25 centimes, 3rd class: 15 centimes. (Whyte, p. 148.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information from Whyte, pp. 143–150, map 32.
2. ^ ^{A b c} John Keay: Mad About the Mekong: Exploration and Empire in South East Asia. HarperCollins, 2005, ISBN 978-0007111152 .
3. ↑ Whyte, p. 143.
4. ↑ Whyte, p. 145.
5. ↑ Whyte, p. 147.
6. ↑ Whyte, p. 148.
7. ↑ Whyte, p. 148.
8. ↑ Whyte, p. 149.
9. ^ The only railway (ever) in Laos The International Steam Pages.
10. ↑ Whyte, p. 149.

Coordinates: 13 ° 57 ′ 49 ″  N , 105 ° 55 ′ 15 ″  E