Federated Malay States Railways
Named after the then recently formed Federated Malay States in 1896 and founded five years after the formation of the federation, the company acquired various railways that were developed separately in various parts of Malaya, and oversaw the largest expansion and integration of the colonial rail network encompassing the Federated Malay States, the Unfederated Malay States (except Trengganu) and the Straits Settlements, with lines spanning from Singapore in the south to Padang Besar (near the border with Siam) in the north.
Swettenham's proposal encompassed three phases: The first was to be the construction of a "development" line towards the north that would connect Perak's railways with those of Selangor's and the Province Wellesley's, while running through valuable but underdeveloped land in between; the second phase consisted of an extension of the line to Kuala Lipis, Pahang's then administrative capital, to promote the development of the state's mineral industry; the third section was to be a southwards extension from the Selangor Railway's southern terminus in Cheras to Seremban, connecting Selangor Railway to Sungei Ujong Railway and providing direct connectivity from Prai to the north to Port Dickson to the south.
Swettenham's proposal was approved by the Colonial Office under the justification wide-ranging transport linkages would allow access to land for use in agriculture and diversify the region's sources of revenue, while improving administrative efficiency by linking the FMS with the Straits Settlements (widening the scope of the plan to include additional linkages to the Straits Settlements of Malacca and Singapore).
While the Prai-Port Dickson line was completed in 1903, extensions were still required to connect the network with Malacca and Singapore.
The extension southwards led to the formation of two short-lived railway companies largely intended to oversee the construction of lines within their state borders.
The system suffered minimal damage during the initial invasion and bombing runs, but saw the dismantling and closure of minor branch lines during the occupation for construction materials for the Thailand-Burma Railway.
Similarly, several FMSR locomotives were transferred for use at the Thailand-Burma Railway during the period, but were eventually returned after the war.
The Malayan Railway would in turn be formally rebranded with a Malay translation of the name, Keretapi Tanah Melayu, in 1962.
Exceptions can be found in and around larger stations and cities, where higher rail traffic necessitates double tracks or more.
Railway signalling was entirely mechanical and manually operated; the entirety of the system utilised semaphore signals and each station with multiple tracks are equipped with a lever frame housed within the station building or a separate shed.
While rare and almost exclusively found in portions of the system with larger numbers of tracks, dedicated signal boxes were also built.
While much of the track was laid out along cuttings, several tunnels were also excavated near Seremban, Bukit Berapit, Sungai Mengkuang, Ulu Temiang, Dabong and Kuala Geris.
One, which characterised the vast majority of stops, are vernacular timber structures with sizes that varied based on the size of the towns they served based on construction methods of past state railways; larger timber stations are typically exemplified by longer platforms and lengthier station buildings designed to house communications, signalling control, luggage handling and station management, while lesser halts are often identifiable by small timber shelters (if any) and short platforms.
Despite their simplistic constructions, many of the stations buildings were typically adorned in traditional fashion with wooden carvings and cast-iron decors.
During early consolidation the FMSR would inherit many of former state railways depots, workshops and yards located around major stations and junctions, which were eventually downgraded into minor depots while centralised workshops charged with more important maintenance duties were constructed in specific regions.
The largest of the new workshops was the Central Workshops in Sentol, Selangor; completed in 1905, it occupied a large plot close to the town and employed around 5,000 employees in its heyday, building railroad cars, fabricating railway parts, and performing maintenance on traction units.
The first FMSR site was situated in front of a major marshalling yard in the city near the Kuala Lumpur padang (present-day Dataran Merdeka), close to the Federated Malay States administration building.
The second building would similarly see brief use as the FMSR would eventually move in 1917 to a larger, dedicated Railway Administration Building at Victoria Road, styled similarly in Neo-Mughal architecture and fronting the then newly completed Kuala Lumpur railway station.
The second and third FMSR headquarters survive to date, the former subsequently housing various occupants before serving as the National Textile Museum and the latter continuously housing successive rail operators in Malaya and Peninsular Malaysia after the dissolution of the FMSR, including the Malayan Railway Administration and Keretapi Tanah Melayu.
The FMSR began ordering its own locomotives by 1907, continuing to do so up to the Japanese invasion of Malaya in World War II.
The locomotives were also known to assume all-black liveries throughout the existence of the FMSR, with the exception of the Johore Railway, which used Catalan blue.
From 1912 onwards, certain Class As were also transferred to the Construction Department; FMSR 71 (Malacca Railway 2) was sold to Siam for use in coal mining assignments in 1924.
The locomotives were only briefly used, surviving World War II, before renumbered by the FMSR in 1946 and sold to the Singapore Harbour Board in September of that year.
Also originated from local state railways, the series was, however, made up of a smaller number of locomotives, compared to the Class A, with only seven.
All Class Cs were known to feature outer cylinders measuring 12" by 18", 3' 3" driving wheels, and 140 pounds of boiler pressure.
In 1907, the two Class C Hawthorn Leslie locomotives were passed to the then independent Johore Railway, two years before the opening of the state's line in 1909, and returned to the FMSR in 1912.
Delivered in the form of three batches between 1907 and 1914, three companies, Kitson, Nasmyth Wilson and Robert Stephenson, would produce a total of 54 Class H locomotives for the FMSR, while another 6 were delivered to the Johore Railway in 1908 before its absorption together with the rest of Johore Railway into the FMSR in 1912.
While nearly consistent in design, 11 1908 Class H locomotives from Kitson featured thicker frames that increased each of their weights by over 2½ tons.
During Japanese occupation of Malaya in World War II, five Class Ls (FMSR 216, 220, 222, 224 and 229) were taken to the Thailand-Burma Railway.
