by Bill Anderson/photos by the author
“Ackerman, Adams, Anderson, you’re going to Thailand.” With that cryptic announcement near the end of an advanced training class, the next chapter in my adventures with the Army Security Agency (ASA) was set. ASA supported the National Security Agency’s (NSA) communication intelligence mission. Back in that pre-digital age, these communications were generally transmitted in International Morse Code.
So, in early May 1969, I was in northeastern Thailand. The post was called the “7th Radio Research Field Station,” government-speak for eavesdropping on wireless communications in Southeast Asia. In 1969, this facility was less than three years old, self-contained with amenities seldom found at Southeast Asia military postings. These included fully air-conditioned buildings, a swimming pool, movie theater, library, and a water and sewage treatment plant, along with the normal military functions such as officer and NCO clubs, PX (post exchange), and mess halls (buffet-style eating areas).
ABOVE: Inspecting Henschel diesel-hydraulic locomotive 3008 on a southbound Rapid train on SRT’s Northern Line.
From my perspective, another benefit was the northern main line of the State Railway of Thailand’s (SRT) Northeastern Line just outside the eastern perimeter fence. On one of my first mornings, a faint but hard‑to‑mistake chuffing sound was heard. To my surprise, there was a southbound train pulled by a 2-8-2 wood-burning steam locomotive (a MacArthur class), a handful of motley looking freight cars, and two passenger cars. I learned this was the daily mixed train that moved what little regular freight business was left at the far end of this SRT main line.
State Railway of Thailand
SRT traces its origin to 1890, when the king established the Royal State Railways of Siam (the name was changed to State Railway of Thailand in 1951). A standard-gauge segment of 43 miles northward from Bangkok to Ayutthaya was the first to be completed, in 1893. The 90-mile meter-gauge line from Thon Buri, across the Chao Phraya River from central Bangkok, to Phetchaburi was completed in 1903. As the system grew in length, the goal of connecting to other countries’ railways that had meter-gauge (3 feet, 3-3/8 inch) railways convinced the Thais to change all lines to this narrower gauge. Thus, beginning in 1917 and over the next decade, all standard-gauge SRT tracks were converted to meter gauge.
ABOVE: A steam-powered mixed train at Kanchanaburi, summer 1970.
Continued enthusiasm (funding) for expansion of the SRT waxed and waned over the next half-century. This time-frame included an unplanned event when Thailand became part of the Southeast Asia theater during World War II. Outside funding from the USA and World Bank assisted with repairing the war-inflicted damage, but was limited for rail expansion.
However, over the next several postwar decades, the Northeastern Line benefited in two major ways. In 1955, the northern terminus was extended 33 miles from Udon Thani to Nong Khai on the Mekong River, the border with Laos and not far from the Laotian capital of Vientiane. Twelve years later, to relieve congestion on the legacy route to Bangkok, a new alignment was finished between Bua Yai Junction and Kaeng Khol Junction, a distance of 150 miles. Although the newer route was about 18 miles longer than the legacy route via Nakhon Ratchasima, better engineering and higher-quality track materials allowed “Rapid” and “Express” trains using this route to cover their endpoint distance in the same elapsed time.
ABOVE: On the author’s first SRT trip, he rode third class from Udorn to Nong Khai.
Udorn Thani … or is it Udon Thani?
Twelve miles north of my post was a modest-sized city that the U.S. military called “Udorn.” The official name for this city was, and is today, Udon Thani. Although the SRT train station sign advertised “Udorn Thani” in 1969-70, the SRT timetable listed Udon Thani. It appears that Udorn (Thani) was caused by a transliteration from Thai to English for Udon Thani. After the departure of the U.S. military operations in mid-1976, the Udorn spelling slipped into history.
In the late 1960s, Udorn was booming in large part due to the presence of a Royal Thai Air Force base. Although sounding like a Thai facility, virtually all operations were United States Air Force fighter‑bomber and cargo airplanes as well as Air America. The latter was the contract airline for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Otherwise, the city of Udorn was mostly a third-world experience.
The Udorn Thani railway station is on the east side of the city. Given the tropical climate, it has an open-air design and, compared to much of Udorn, is quite well maintained. All passenger trains stopped in Udorn, and some freight was transloaded across the tracks from the depot…