Howdee all,

For want of anything else to post, here is an insiode shot of a 7A in June 2009.

The carriage was still in use on the lkimited Alabang and Binan services being run by these sets at the time.

~~ PRHS - Naga Chapter ~~

Our Philippine Railway Historical Society 'Membership and Promotion Officer' and part-time Bicol resident, Paul Hornby, is proposing the setting up of a Naga Chapter of the PRHS for the Bicol region.


While the ideas and goals of this chapter are still being drawn up, they wish to promote railway preservation/restoration in the Bicol area, historical research and perhaps investgate the 'Friends Of PNR' type operation in the local area.


Membership to the group would be free, with any restoration work funded by the community, the members and through the 'Philippine Railway Historical Society'.

News and updates would be available to members by way of a internet forum, overseas (outside Philippines) membership would still be done through the current PRHS, including 'Along Da Riles' newsletter.


If you are interested in a Bicol region chapter, have some ideas, or would like more information, please feel free to contact Paul.


alco600 @ yahoo. com (remove spaces)

------------------------------------------------------------

For more information on joining the Philippine Railway Historical Society and helping us with the big task of preserving Philippine railway

history, please check out our

WEBSITE

14220

~~ PRHS Update ~~

Howdee all,

From our end I am happy to say we have located 288 back issues of 'Railway Gazette International' from the 60-early 2000s and I am currently in the process of going through all of them to record any Philippine railway history that exists.
Sadly the railways of the Philippines don't figure heavily in there, but there has been a number of small pieces on the LRT, as well as PNR and Panay Railways.
One extended article covers the previous south line rebuild.

Our Vice-President is currently in the Philippines and is to make another $60 donation to the RIHSPI, this one being directed to the restoration of the second BUDA car.

I am hopeful of launching another fund drive early in January to assist Karel's efforts with this historic vehicle. Just got to motivate the rest of our board first :-)

Another donation, in the form of a ticket, has been made privately to a project in Naga who is doing a display of local history for the railway station.

Publications:

Issue #3 of 'Along Da Riles' is now out and has been sent to members, PNR managers, other publications and industry people.
Feedback has been great as we slowly improve it, while we are now getting the occasional contributions.

Books: We are currently looking at a couple of these and trying to source costs for printing in the Philippines (to again help the economy there). A few ideas, one of which I hope to put out a help request for shortly. If anyone is interested in helping on the locomotive and railcar front,
I would be happy to hear from you.

Proceeds from these will go into RIHSPI preservation work.

-----------------------------------------------------

Thats it for this month guys.

The research work continues endlessly, as does the more boring duties of running a society of this type

Remember: Together we can achieve anything.

Regards
Brad Peadon
Philippine Railway Historical Society
http://philippine-railways.blogspot.com

Issue #3 of 'Along Da Riles is being distributed now.

Inside is a special inaugeration issue!

~~~ RANDOM PICCIES ~~~

A random selection of shots found on the asawa's camera following the numerous camera hassles I experienced there.

View of Tayuman yard from Tutuban station.

New DMU pauses at Buendia station!

Speedo during test runs aimed at trying to reach 80kph.


Typhoon Tiongson taking some shots of a discovered MRR logo on the old 4w boxcar at Tayuman.
The logo appears on a bracket, or similar, near the top on the sides.

12965

~~ FRATESCHI U5B ARRIVES AT PAYATAS ~~

Like so many other promises I have made in recent weeks, this one to put photos of the U5B model are well behind.

However finally today I got around to doing a few shots and resizing them to show here.

It is part of the PRHS Modelling Group's idea to build a small layout based on a fictional station in Payatas.

This model is a fair bit longer than the real thing (model size), but when compared to the Frateschi model usually used for the 900s, which is also longer, they may well look acceptable enough.

Anyway, its arrival isn't marked with an immediate model, it still requires much work to get it going. This will be covered in more detail on the PRHS Philippine Modelling Yahoogroup forum.

Below are three photos.

QUIZ: Bonus points for anyone who can identify the famous series

showing on the television.

12720

PRHS MEETING - October 5th 2009

Attending: Brad Peadon, Bill Sullivan

Apologies: Paul Hornby

PHOTO: Showing recent floods around Blumentritt - Thanks to Happosai.



Hi all,



Tonight we had the monthly meeting of the 'Philippine Railway Historical Society' in Sydney.



The largest hurdle brought up during the night was that of board attendance and interest, something that has been affected following the negativity recieved from the Philippines when we decided to change our name to assit in the need to show the separate nature of the two societies.


There seems to have been a boycott of sorts over our (well some of our) desire to still mostly assist the RIHSPI under current conditions. #



With the reduced amount of people here for the meeting there were only a few items discussed.



** Advertising in the United States has commenced with an advertisment seen in one major publication and word that it has also appeared in another.


Prior to the recent problem we were investigating some paid advertising which was to come out of our own pockets and not that of the society. This advertising would be in primary USA magazines where the most people will be found.



** We have had some contact with a major Philippine broadcaster, through and Australian agent, and this has been positive in nature.



** The research project continues apace. I have been mostly concentrating on the diesel era, with Bill Sullivan more the steam era. Paul has been busy getting married and attending to other projects in the Philippines.
When he returns he plans to help greatly with things. This will certainly take off a huge amount of the pressure that is on me.
The plan is to include research findings in the group magazine, along with anything else that is donated, for all to enjoy. To this end we are always on the lookout for copies of photos, sightings, trip reports and anything else of Philippine railway interest.



** Along Da Riles #3 is approaching completion. Having to compile this one mostly myself, plus a new baby, has put it behind a little.



** The possibility of another preservation project in the Philippines has come forth. This is still in its early days and we hope to be able to outline this more when, and if, things become a little more concrete.

Finally I thank everyone who have given their continued support.
The Philippine railway hobby is a small one, but together we can work to enjoy it more.

Regards
Brad Peadon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# - On a personal note, I am still of the belief we should continue to offer continued support to the RIHSPI as well as any other official rail preservation/restoration project being completed in the Philippines.
There is a large non confidence feeling in certain parts of that societies board, but we should not use this as a reason to not support them, thus hurting other members and the people of the country themselves.
We MUST put the Philippines first!!! This is why we entered into this project in the first place.

*** FLOOD VICTIM DONATIONS ***

Thank you to Ferlie Am-Is, Ning Peadon, Honey Padregalan, Pam Vose and Tom Vose for you donations to our money raising efforts for the Philippine flood victims.

We continue the project!

-

-

-

-

**** AUSSIES - PLEASE HELP ****

Seeking Donations To Help People Affected By Philippine Floods!

I am helping to raise donations for the poor people affected by the huge floods in Manila.
Can you help with a donation, of any size?

Donations will be sent through the Pasalubong Food Store at 1073 Botany Road Mascot 2020 NSW Australia.

They can either be made direct to Pasalubong.

Please help those back in the Philippines when they need it most.

Railway related photos of the floods are few.

This one, taken by Mr Bicol, shows the area at Buendia on the 26th.

No doubt extensive damage has been done to new trackwork and that still awaiting attention.

12543

~~ FROM THE PERSONAL FILES ~~

Howdee all,

Am gradually going through all the old boxes and boxes of railway guff to find what is in there.
Here be one of my first shots of the PNR and of a locomotive that is impossible to photograph in this condition anymore.

Ol 908 was awaiting repairs back here in 1999, but by 2004 was beyond economical repair at Caloocan workshops and severely stripped.
As of June 2009 she was still sitting out the back of the shops, with cab and short hood gone, severely stripped of anything salvageable. Given she was like this in 2007 it is a wonder she hasn't become a Korean car by now.

Maybe she could become a good testbed for a trial rebuild.

It should be noted that 908 was originally 904, with 916 the original locomotive to carry this number.

~~ TAYUMAN TOWER ~~

This posting is mostly the result of a request on the PRHS PHILIPPINE_MODELLING group for a look at the rather historical panel in the tower at Tayuman.
One of the members has an awesome plan to model the yard at Tutuban/Tayuman and I remembered the track diagrams that appear in these photos from May. I am hoping these will be of use to his project.
Thanks to Karel Brouwers for his assistance in being able to visit this interesting tower, which has recently been reported as a contender for demolition.

Starting at the north end of the yard at Tayuman street you can see the loco shop at the far right, along with a connecting line that ran behind it to sidings where, until recently, squatters ruled supreme.

Today there is no sign of this connecting line, or the tracks

of the sidings it once served.

To the far left is the junction for the north and south lines.

Much visible is the mount of signalling that once existed and was

controlled by the tower.

Further on we can still see the loco shed and then the fans

of tracks that once existed here.

To the bottom is the carriage sheds, while in the centre is the former turntable.

The end of the sidings pretty much show where the current Tutuban station is nowdays, while at the bottom, to the right of the strange pink gadget, is presumably the line to the port, assuming it has since changed its location.


Tutuban station, now converted into Tutuban mall.
All this trackage is long gone, the yard area now carpark at the station now used by the population to relieve themselves of money.

A bonus shot of a caboose taken from up in the tower. This vehicle is currently used on clearing train duties as part of the Linkage Project.

Philippine Modelling

If you are interested in modelling any area of the Philippines, regardless of whether or not it is railway related, then you are welcome to join the PRHS Philippine Modelling group.

Members model in a variety of scales, in a variety of ways

and even a variety of topics.

No matter what you may model, many of the principles are the same and we invite you to join us, discuss what your modelling, give hints, ask

questions and make friends along the way.

~~ CARMONA YESTERDAY AND TODAY ~~

Lindsay Bridge got a photo of this three car CMC/CTC/CMC set standing at Carmona station back in the earlier days of the branch.



Sadly the station had developed into a jungle by the time of my visit in 2009. It had been closed since Typhoon Reming in 2006 and to date there has been no word on when it will reopen, and no actual clarification to what damage the typhoon did.

Next week we plan to do a more instensive photographic survey of Carmona in 2009.

~~ PRHS UPDATE ~~

Good morning everyone,

Been a while since I did one of these, actually I am not even sure I ever have. :-)

The society continues to slowly grow. It was never expected to be a fast thing and as such we are just happy to see growing interest.
We recently recieved our first member from outside Australia - thanks Jeffrey.
Thank you to everyone for their continued, and much appreciated, support.

The newsletter has changed from its small size to A4, while lessons are being learn't, and improvements made, with each issue.
Sometimes I have trouble fitting in everything.
The one thing we are very short of is small historical articles, or scans of historical items etc. We would like to eventually have a histrorical section regularly, but the editors main interest is 80s until today.

The society has ben recieving good coverage in the railfan and other press. This is slowly also proving to show dividends in membership. This sort of promotion shall continue, while I am hoping one of our local Sydney members will take on the important role of approaching local Filipino businesses here for possible support.

Possibly the biggest cause for confusion of late is the recent change of name from the RIHSPI-ANZ.
I shall try to rectify some of this below:

We are, as with the ANZ, basically a support group.
We have a slowly growing (but it is growing) membership and our primary goal is to raise money to donate to railway preservation groups in the Philippines.
The only change is that we can now donate to any railway preservation project in the Philippines that is an official project, this includes Mr Tiongson's RIHSPI.
I have made a number of approaches to the RIHSPI about their interest in continued financial support, but to date only the Vice-President has replied.

So why bother with the name change?

There seemed to be significant confusion over our use of the RIHSPI name.
PNR especially seemed to continually link our group, which was autonomous, and the Philippine based one.
Due to cultural differences, this caused a bit of trouble for the Manila group.

At a board meeting here it was voted to enforce the idea that we were seperate by utilizing a new name. We would still support Philippine preservation as before, but we would technically call them grants so as to appear a different society.

At the current time we are investigating a number of proposals, but to date we have no plans to preserve our own rollingstock. As this would be difficult from Australia, I am unsure where the idea has risen from.
This is not to say we wont in the future.
Indeed the idea of RIHSPIs proposal of preserving Abad Santos signalbox still appeals to many within the PRHS, as does the restoration of all rollingstock the society recently earmarked for preservation.

First and foremost, my love of Philippine railways means that I will do whatever it takes to help the preservation of it along, preservation of items the 'CORRECT' way.
The PRHS will ALWAYS support ANY railway society in the Philippines and look forward to one day being allowed to support the RIHSPI financially, historically and technically again.

Clearing up some of the strange myths going around:

1) We have dumped the RIHSPI to fend for themselves.

Absolutely not. The RIHSPI would always remain our main priority should they request help in restoring items.
They are a very important society with a big job ahead, they should always be supported 100%. The PRHS, regardless of name, will always be here to support them.

2) Changes were made due to disagreement in the Philippines.

Again, absolutely not. The RIHSPI people are great people in person and I have nothing but fond memories of my time there with them.
The work done on the first BUDA car was fantastic, virtually beyond belief for those of us who saw her at Caloocan.
We may have some concerns about their ideas, but this does not prevent us from donating to those projects considered right.

3) We wish to set up a rival museum.

Yeah right, that would be feasable from Australia :-)
No, Manila does not need two museums, it needs one museum and that is the RIHSPI one. Locals should aim to support this one and help where possible.

If anyone else has questions, or have heard some myths surrounding the recent changes, please feel free to email me and I shall answer here, in public, on the website. These can be sent to PRHS.Soci ety @ gmail . com (remove spaces)

~~ PRHS LURKING IN LIGAO ~~

Membership officer Paul Hornby is caught enjoying the sight of 922 at Ligao, the first train at this station in nearly three years.

The CMC would be 366, the sole one south of Lucena and probably in the best condition of all her remaining sisters.

The date was the 4th of August and the photographer 'WheelOnSteel'.

I think the Inquirer journalist summed it all up last night when he closed with

"A DAMN GOOD PERSON"

We all know of her historical importance, its just sad that we only find out the greater person she was inside after her passing!

Farewell President Cory!

~~ 918 UNDERGOING A TRANSFORMATION ~~

PRHS Board Member Paul Hornby is currently holidaying down in Naga.

While down there his lovely new asawa has been quite generous with the railway time allowing him to bring us this interesting shot of 918.

He has been told that it will be repainted into its original blue and red scheme.

Meanwhile the trapped 7A/NR class carriages are also getting a good going over in preparation for resumption of services.

Exciting times ahead, both for the PNR and the PRHS!

~~ WHOOPSE ~~

~~ NATIONAL LUCENA WEEK ~~

A second selection of shots from our 2009 photo survey of the railway yard in this lovely town.
If a regular railway service is again instituted in this busy place, one could think of no better a way than to spend a week around here photographing.

Hopefully PNR can see the need for, at the VERY least, an hourly service to replace some of the endless bus journeys that clog Philippine roads and make them more dangerous.

The need is obvious, but then again, obvious isn't always that obvious to those it should be obvious too.

Note: Views expressed here are solely those of the blog author and do not reflect the thoughts of the PRHS, the PNR (who the author loves), the local Lucena government, the Cub Scouts of Argentina or any railway interested prudes.

~~ CH - CH - CH - CHANGES ~~

Can't remember who it was that sung that song - grrrrrrr old age and mental blanks are a terrible thing.

DON'T you laugh, you will all know soon enough :-)

Still while many things change, I am glad to have recently remade aquaintences with a few of my earliest Philippine based railfan friends. They have cheered me up during what has been a very dark period.

Anyway there has been numerous changes to things the 'Philippine Railway Historical Society' does, so by way of an update:

1) The http://anz.rihspi.org website has been replaced. The new link viewable via our normal website of http://philippine-railways.blogspot.com.

2) The RIHSPI-ANZ Facebook site has been closed.

3) For those people on Facebook who would like to chat about the Philippine National Railways and share photos, there is a group called, not surprisingly really, Philippine National Railways.

4) Both the PhilippineRailways and Philippine_Transportation Yahoogroups can now be used to share photos. LocoShed_Photography_Philippines is thus rendered useless and is due to be shut down.

5) The RIHSPI-ANZ Yahoogroup is due to close shortly, to be replaced by a new PRHS one.

6) I personally officially step down from RIHSPI-ANZ duties in just over two weeks time.

To date a replacement here in NSW has been found.

I shall return to research and sharing stuff on the internet, while I will also be continuing the 'Along Da Riles' magazine for the Australian group and hope to improve it.

7) A revival of Lubricated Flange magazine?????

Hmmm despite rumours to the contrary, this was a very successful publication and may return in a vastly different format.

So thats where we are at - hope this helps to alleviate any confusion.

Perhaps you wouldn't have even noticed :-)

Take care all.

Brad

~~ NATIONAL LUCENA WEEK ~~

Part 1

A selection of photos showing Lucena in 2009

Photo by Happosai taken in July!

THE SEARCH FOR BLUE OCTOBER

As a rollingstock researcher I was very interested in Happ's piccies the other day of PNR rollingstock being violated by scrappers torches, missing their chances at preservation.

The question now arises as to which they were.As of June, when I was there, the following 7A types still existed.

It is believed that 7A members were the basis of this violation, which is surprising as the CMC/CTC were next in line (unless of course all these have already been done).

In coming days I shall be narrowing the list of suspects - if anyone else can help, please email me.

-

UPDATED 27-07-2009 (11.53, 12.25, 12.36, 13.49)

-

2001 - Believed to be one of the current scrappings!

2002 - Likely being scrapped.

2004 - AR Caloocan.

2005 - Believed to be one of the current scrappings!

2006 - In service

2007 - In service

2008 - In service

2009 - In service

2010 - SCRAPPED

2012 - AR Caloocan

2013 - AR Caloocan

2014 - In service

2015 - In service

2016 - In service

2017 - Believed slated for repair at Manila.

2018 - AR Caloocan

2019 - In service

2020 - Likely being scrapped.

2022 - AR Caloocan

2023 - AR Caloocan

2024 - AR Caloocan

2025 - In service

2026 - Likely being scrapped.

2027 - Believed scrapped in July before inaugeration.

2028 - AR Caloocan

2029 - In service

2030 - Believed slated for repair at Tayuman.

~~ NEXT WEEK ~~

Stay tuned for a week full of excitment, a week jam packed with rail action, a week you will tell your grandchildren about.

Thats right - its

* NATIONAL LUCENA WEEK *

We take a final look at Lucena in 2009 in a multi part special all week long!

Look forward to your company then.

In the meantime 'Guard Pusa' will keep you company!

-

-

RAILFANNING - A HOBBY MEAN'T TO BE ENJOYED!

A HOBBY CREATED FOR FUN!

-

-

~~ LUCENA INSPECTION CAR ~~

This little vehicle, the number of which could not be identified, is closed in behind a fence on Lucena station.
It seems to now be used for storage by a person living in the residence next to it.
Slowly rusting away, it would certainly make a great addition to the RIHSPI IC collection.

~~ FAREWELL MICK~~

A great friend and supporter of the

railway hobby cause.

Sadly missed by hundreds.

~~ ANNOUNCEMENT ~~

In an effort to make it more obvious to PNR (and others it seems) that we are seperate groups, many of you would already know that the RIHSPI-ANZ has recently changed names back to what we were originally, 'Philippine Railway Historical Society'.



We have applied for a domain name, but in the interim we can now be found at:

http://PRHSociety.blogspot.com



and our email



PRHS.Society @ gmail. com (Remove spaces)



Sadly it has caused significant bad blood, but our whole board felt it best, in order to protect the RIHSPI in the Philippines from the endless misunderstandings through cultural differences.



This really does not change much other than the name.



The PRHS still aims to operate the way we have and, despite only limited advertising to last month (have launched a huge campain this month), have been experiencing a gradual increase in interest and membership.



Donations would be in the form of grants, so as to alleviate any risk of us being still confused as a single group, even though, in effect we would be helping.



So needless to say, the name has changed, but we remain firmly commited to railway preservation in the Philippines, now and in the future.
We also remain firmly commited to supporting the RIHSPI in the future - indeed another donation heads its way to the Vice-President tomorrow.



An official letter will go out to members, readers and PNR shortly as soon as time presents itself anyway. However we thought it best to clarify the situation for all.



Best wishes


Brad

~~ MY BABY ~~

In recent weeks I have become very aware of cultural differences between Aussies and the Philippines.

Our different understanding of how things have been worded is a sad but regular thing we have to get used to.

One thing Aussies, well gunzel railfans anyway, seem to occasionally do is to become associated with a certain locomotive.

Over the years I have been associated, and it has even been mentioned in magazines, with 'Queensland Rail' 2142A and 'Freightcorp' 8216, the later of which is still constantly linked to me. It is quite a fun thing really and usually ends up leading to a special fondness for that locomotive from the railfan in question.

In the Philippines I have appeared to have semi-adopted 902, although I always thought it may end up being the mysterious 916.
She is a lovely locomotive, indeed the oldest operational (well possibly operational) locomotive in the PNR fleet.

Indeed it become the logo of the old 'RIHSPI-ANZ' and has gone on to be the same logo for the 'PRHS' who have the same goals.

Born in 1973 to parents General Electric, 902 was later adopted to the Manila Railroad Company. Its birth certificate listing it as number 39238 of model U15C. The locomotive went on to be part of the 'Philippine National Railway' fleet and has become the last operational 1st series U15C still operational with them.

What of the rest?
901 - Scrapped
902 - Available for operation - Stored Caloocan
903 - Beyond Economical Repair, to PNR thinking anyway.
904 - Half scrapped as 908.
905 - Scrapped

Heres hoping that 902 has a long future ahead of her, if not with the PNR in much needed freight traffic, then perhaps with the 'Railways and Industrial Heritage Society' of the Philippines if they realise her value.

Thankfully she is listed as in 'good condition' officially by PNR, which bodes well for the future.

See you again one day old girl.

Regards Brad Peadon
** Personal Views **

~~ 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ~~

Hard to believe really, but it is just over ten years since I first went to the Philippines and started a life time commitment of interest to that countries railways.
Back then Philippine railways were a different hobby.
A search of the internet revealed very little at all, while subject specific sites, other than a very outdated PNR one, were really unheard of.
Heading over for the first time in early 1999, I found myself armed with a couple of issues of magazines, a phone number for a driver called Jojo and very little real knowledge.
This trip saw me visit Caloocan and Tayuman, both far more friendlier places back then, as well as Espana, Buendia and Paco.
Many shots were taken, but as it was just a new interest, I didn't get quite the amount I should have.
Returning to Sydney I soon found myself missing the Philippines and wanting to go back. The return happened, but not for five years.
In the meantime I set up the 'Philippine Railways SIG' (later Philippine Railway Historical Society or PRHS) on the internet.
This initially consisted of a small Tripod website and a egroup (later Yahoogroups), the later of which continues to grow.
Over the years I have met so many people, some have become long term friends.
Through these people I have learnt so much about the Philippine railways, yet, there is still so much more to know - indeed I will never know half of the interesting history that exists there.

About a week before the decision to start it all was reached.
The four founding members who were at Caloocan to look at the BUDA cars are seen here with current RIHSPI board member Karel.
L to R: Karel, Harvey, Nick, Bill and Brad

Its great to take a look back at what has changed over the years.
We moved the website from Tripod to Geocities, then later converted to the use of Blogger. While the Geocities site still exists, it is not updated and will soon become history itself with Yahoo closing down their free website service in October.
We have extended our forums to include other types of Philippine transport, photography, modelling and even friendship based forums.

Things began to really change in 2007 when Bill, Harvey, Nick and myself visited the Caloocan workshops, saw the rusting hulks of the BUDA cars and decided then and there to start a preservation society in the Philippines, which later went on to be what we know as the 'Railways and Industrial Heritage Society Phils. Inc'.
This naturally progressed to include an Australian chapter of this group (RIHSPI-ANZ), which basically consisted of PRHS members. We instantly set about raising the worldwide profile of the society and start taking memberships and publishing a society magazine covering all manner of Philippine railway topics.

Today we are on the eve of some more big changes in the society and, while forced upon us, we feel we will become even bigger in the future.
We look forward to meeting people, sharing information, supporting Philippine societies and generally enjoying the wonderful hobby that is the Philippine Railways.

Come join us!