ON SHIFT - ABAD SANTOS, MANILA - MAY 2ND 2021

 

  Welcome to Abad Santos — a level crossing so extreme it makes a warzone look like a wellness retreat. Here, amid traffic that treats road rules as polite suggestions and horns as a second language, stands our crossing keeper: part traffic controller, part railway historian, and part miracle worker. While Manila swirls around him in a caffeinated haze of jeepneys, buses, motorcycles, pedestrians and the occasional vehicle that appears to have been assembled from spare emotions, he calmly goes about the noble task of stopping everything so a train can pass.

 During his shift we watch the parade of steel visitors trundle through: commuter sets grinding their way in from the north, and assorted rolling stock that looks like it’s seen things it can never unsee. Each train has a story — where it’s come from, where it’s going, and how it somehow managed to make it through Metro Manila without becoming part of the traffic itself.

 This isn’t just a list of trains; it’s a front-row seat to organised chaos, as seen through the eyes of the poor soul whose job is to convince Manila to stop moving… briefly… for the railway.

  Nah, that's an exaggeration, a list of trains is pretty much all it is. However, it is now a snapshot back to a time that will never come again.

Date	Origin	Destination	Time	Type	Loco/Railcar	EMU Set
May 2, 2021	Tutuban	Alabang	13:09	Loco Hauled	922	7
	Tutuban	Alabang	14:09	Loco Hauled	917	4
	Tutuban	Alabang	15:09	Railcar	8101	-
	Gov Pascual	Bicutan	15:26	Railcar	8002	-
	Alabang	Tutuban	15:39	Loco Hauled	922	7
	Tutuban	Alabang	15:59	Loco Hauled	918	6
	Tutuban	Blumentritt	16:20	Loco Hauled	2540	Light Engine
	Blumentritt	Tutuban	16:29	Loco Hauled	2540	7 + 918
	Tutuban	Alabang	16:42	Loco Hauled	922	7
	Alabang	Tutuban	16:50	Loco Hauled	917	4
	Bicutan	Gov Pascual	17:19	Railcar	8002	-
	Tutuban	Alabang	17:39	Loco Hauled	917	4
	Alabang	Tutuban	17:39	Railcar	8101	-
	Gov Pascual	Bicutan	18:06	Railcar	8002	-
	Tutuban	Alabang	18:39	Railcar	8101	-
	Tutuban	Calamba	19:20	Loco Hauled	918	4
	Alabang	Tutuban	19:22	Loco Hauled	922	7
	Bicutan	Gov Pascual	20:01	Railcar	8002	-
	Alabang	Tutuban	20:19	Loco Hauled	917	4
	Alabang	Tutuban	21:09	Railcar	8101	-

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Mark Chua.

Ap Cal, John McMarv, and Albert Latonero Nazareno.

Philippine Railway Historical Society

Philippine National Railways

Phil-Hist Investments

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Abad Santos Signalbox 2008 - Bill Sullivan

Abad Santos Signalbox 2010 - PRHS Inspection

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