Nils reports: As 2Bangkok.com posted the Paknam
Railway map (807kb) by Dik van der Spek, it would be appropriate
to mention the thread
about the location of its Hualamphong station. Furthermore, I attached the pictures from 1946 posted by Wisarut on the Thai forum (see below). What is most amazing is how tiny the Paknam Railway station was! I also visited the area with those old photos in hand to get an impression of the situation in the old days.
Above: View from subway exit
1 across Rama IV Road towards exit 3. Essentially, nothing seen in this
picture existed back in 1946. A lot in this area has been redesigned
following the construction of the subway station and looks very different
from 1999, when I was first there. The photograph was taken about where
Hualamphong Canal used to be. Above: The recently renovated
Station Hotel, also quite old, is not in the 1946 photo. [There also
used to be a hotel where the old shophouses are called the Ratchathani
Hotel which was supposed as plush as the Oriental Hotel.] Rama IV Road - 2004
Rama IV Road - 1959
Above: This is, as far as I can tell, the position of the Paknam Railway Station! The red lines are approximate extensions of the baselines of Hualamphong Station, for better comparison with the old photo. Immediately to the left is the intersection of Rama IV and Mahapruettharam Road (which still sported a bridge over Khlong Hualamphong in the old times). That is how mass transit has been gobbled up by motorized individual traffic.
Finally, consider this: From 1925 to
1959, Sala Daeng Intersection had a crossing between Tramway and Paknam
Railway (wonder how that looked like). The Paknam Line was dismantled
1960, the Silom Line 1962. Now, 45 years later, we finally have a crossing
again at this point, between Skytrain and Subway (plus the flyover)....
much in the same way, Hualamphong subway station has replaced the old
Paknam station underground. Paknam Station
- November 3, 2004
|
The area around Hualamphong Station
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