Don Det–Don Khon railway

The governor of Indochina saw the Mekong as "the main point of connection between the different countries of French Indo-China (Cochin-China, Cambodia, Laos and Tonkin), which will be able to communicate with each other through it".

[1] The main obstacle was in southern Laos, where the river divides into several channels with rapids (known as the Khone Phapheng Falls) at the Siphandon Islands.

The gun-sloops Lagrandière, Ham Luong and Massie were the first to cross the island by this method, followed by the Garcerie, Colombert and Trentinian in 1896; the latter sank in the Mekong River after a 1928 gasoline explosion.

The first seven-tonne steam locomotive was christened Paul Doumer (Governor-General of French Indochina from 1897 to 1902), and equipment was supplied by Decauville via Cochinchina.

As the vessels could only travel when the river was in flood, during the 1910s the railway was extended three kilometres (1.9 mi) to Don Det and it terminated at a pier near Ban Khon.

[1] The French started to build the bridge in 1917 and it was delivered to the "Compagnie des Messagerie Fluviale de Cochinchine" on January 1, 1923, for operation.

[citation needed] Although there are few accounts of the railway–written or pictorial—Marthe Bassenne, a physician's wife, travelled between Phnom Penh and Luang Prabang in 1910: The train, struggling and grating amid the clashing sound of steel, hauled us across the island, which is covered by teak trees and bamboos whose branches brushed our faces.

Sweat caked my hair under my sun hat; the heat burned my arms through my clothes; and the mosquitoes took advantage of my predicament to attack me as they pleased, all over my hands and face…Although the railway—including the 170-metre (560 ft) concrete viaduct—remains largely intact and can be walked or cycled (except for short stretches in a maintenance yard), its rails have been removed.