International Railroad Discussion > Yangon to Inle Lake via Thazi

I left Yangon two days ago for the long trip north to Inle Lake. There are three thru trains from Yangon to Mandalay that stop at the rail junction of Thazi. I decided to take the morning departure and spend a night in Thazi before catching the slow train over the mountains to the towns closest to the lake.

1. The 11 Up. Under the hood beats a pure ALCo 251 heart. What a sound, there's nothing quite like it except maybe an English Electric. Manufactured in India tees seem to be the favored power for the mainline passenger trains.

2. An "upper class" coach. The railway has done something amazing. They've created a track structure that bounces the rolling stock in every known direction, and several known only to quantum physicists, simultaneously. Occasionally it would settle down to an up and down motion that has you bouncing out of your seat, over and over. Other than that the cars are comfortable and the train had a restaurant car that served good enough meals.

3. Passing the 12 Down and a home made rail bus. Many of the local and branch line services are operated with these home made DMU's. Some pull a number of passenger trailers and even freight cars.

I wish I could upload a video of the locomotive working the train, but the connection speeds are just too slow in Myanmar. I might get a chance the night I spend in Bangkok before continuing on to Beijing, but until then a few images will have to do.

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Great stuff, appreciate the view inside the car. All the fans!

NH2006 Wrote:
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> Great stuff, appreciate the view inside the car.
> All the fans!


Not to mention all the electric thingy's on the ceiling either :) B

I guess the loco is a YDM4 from DLW Varanasi. The car looks reasonably comfortable with 1+2 seating.

86235 Wrote:
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> I guess the loco is a YDM4 from DLW Varanasi. The
> car looks reasonably comfortable with 1+2 seating.


The builders plate on the loco indicated just as you said. It's a product of the loco works in Varanasi. Myanmar has some new units from that builder with full width car bodies and powered with 251 prime movers.
The cars are pretty comfortable, the open windows and no ac are nice, the alternative in Asia is usually filthy windows and ac that's far too cold. The breeze when the train's in motion keeps things comfortable enough and the view is great.

With the wheelbase of the locomotive trucks, I'll bet the head end crew has a decent ride.
...Lorenzo