Hong Kong Railway Museum

The Hong Kong Railway Museum (HKRM) is a railway museum in Tai Po, Hong Kong.^[2] It is managed by the Leisure and Cultural Service Department as a branch museum of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (HKHM). Opened on 20 December 1985, the HKRM is located at the site where the old Tai Po Market railway station was built in 1913.^[3] Admission to the museum is free.

TraditionalChinese香港鐵路博物館

SimplifiedChinese香港铁路博物馆

Hanyu PinyinXiānggǎng Tiělù Bówùguǎn

Quick facts Tai Po Market (Tai Po)大埔墟, Chinese name ...

Tai Po Market (Tai Po)

大埔墟

The station in 2003

Chinese name

Traditional Chinese

香港鐵路博物館

Simplified Chinese

香港铁路博物馆

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Xiānggǎng Tiělù Bówùguǎn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Hēung góng tit louh bok maht gún
Jyutping	Hoeng¹ gong² tit³ lou⁶ bok³ mat⁶ gun²

General information

Location

13 Shung Tak Street,^[1] Tai Po
Tai Po District, Hong Kong

Coordinates

22°26′51″N 114°09′52″E

System

Former KCR station

Owned by

Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation

Operated by

Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation

Line

Kowloon–Canton Railway (British Section)

Platforms

2 (2 side platforms)

Tracks

2

Connections

Bus, minibus^{[citation needed]}

Construction

Structure type

At-grade

Platform levels

1

Other information

Status

Ceased operations, converted to museum

Website

Hong Kong Railway Museum

History

Opened

1 October 1910; 115 years ago

Closed

6 April 1983; 43 years ago

Services

Preceding station	KCR			Following station
Tai Po Kau towards Kowloon		KCR British section		Fanling towards Lo Wu

Location
Tai Po Market (Tai Po) Location within the current MTR system

Close

History

The Kowloon–Canton Railway (British Section) opened in 1910 at Tai Po Market. It was one of the stops in the New Territories. The station building was erected in 1913. Since then, it has acted as a centre of administration and trade, which indirectly boosted Tai Po Market's economy by bringing traders there.

The Kowloon–Canton Railway was electrified in 1983 and the station was taken out of service, with the opening of the new Tai Wo station north of it and the new Tai Po Market station south of it. One year later, the Old Tai Po Market Railway Station was declared a monument. The site, together with the buildings and relevant exhibits, were then given to Regional Council by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation for the setup of the HKRM, which eventually opened to the public on 20 December 1985.^[4]

Architecture

The building of the station has a unique architectural style, among original Kowloon–Canton Railway (British Section). It is of indigenous Chinese architectural style, with a pitched roof with decorative ridges, and many small figures decorating the exterior, such as peonies, red bats, and magpies, that are commonly found in existing historic southern Chinese temples.

Exhibits

Inside the museum

On the left of the museum, there is an exhibition room of train tickets and train models of not only KCR trains but also Japanese Shinkansen, Eurostar, and several European locomotives including those from Germany. The further internal part of the room is a refurbished ticket office and signalling house.

Rolling stock

Three locomotives are on display at the HKRM:

EMD G12 diesel-electric locomotive No. 51 Sir Alexander - introduced in 1955 as Hong Kong's first ever diesel locomotive, and named after then Governor Alexander Grantham, marking the KCR's transition from steam to diesel. After a new batch of diesel locomotives arrived in Hong Kong in late 2003, Sir Alexander was withdrawn from service. KCR Corporation staff spent more than 1000 hours restoring it to its original 1955 appearance, removing rust, repainting it dark green, and restoring the period-accurate logo. It was donated to the HKHM to be put on static display at the HKRM on 18 May 2004.^[5]
EMD G26 Diesel-electric locomotive No. 60 Peter Quick - Originally purchased by the KCR in 1973, it was leased to the MTR after the MTR-KCR merger. Peter Quick was withdrawn in 2022 and moved to the HKRM to be exhibited on static display in October 2023.^[6]^[7]
W. G. Bagnall 0-4-4T narrow gauge steam locomotive No. 17BG - The locomotive is one of two of its type that formerly ran on the narrow gauge Sha Tau Kok Railway branch line between Fanling and Sha Tau Kok. Following closure of the line in 1928, after only 17 years of operation, the locomotives were sold to Victorias Milling Co., Inc., a sugar mill in the Philippines. There, they were numbered 17BG and 18BG. The operators in the Philippines negotiated with the KCR Corporation to return 17BG back to Hong Kong, and succeeded in 1995. Soon, the locomotive was restored to its original appearance by the KCRC to be acquired by the HKHM for display at the HKRM.^[8] The other locomotive of the pair was also brought back to Hong Kong and is reported to be undergoing restoration.

There are seven historic coaches on the tracks for public viewing and appreciation of the contrast between the older and newer designs.

1911 third-class coach No. 302 - the oldest surviving piece of rolling stock in the region
1921 engineering brake coach No. 002
1921 third-class coach No. 313
1955 third-class coach No. 223 (an educational video room)
1955 third-class combination coach No. 229
1964 first-class coach No. 112
1976 ordinary-class coach No. 276

A pump trolley and a diesel-engined railcar are also on display at the museum.

A 1:1 scale model of a non-refurbished East Rail line Metro Cammell EMU was once on display at the Museum, but was removed in 2004 to make space for Sir Alexander.^[9]

Transportation

The museum is right in the middle between Tai Po Market and Tai Wo stations on the MTR. It accessible within walking distance northwest from Exit A2 of the former and southeast from Exit B of the latter.