At the end of our field visit to the PNR yard in Tutuban, our group was treated to a free ride to the Buendia (Gil Puyat Ave.) Station. Some of us sat on the last car so we were afforded a view of the railway tracks and the environment along the PNR right of way. The result is a set of photos that I like to call “a peep into the train’s backdoor.”

At the time, there were no rehabilitation work along the commuter line and one could clearly see the state of the tracks that could easily lead to derailment. Communities were dangerously close to the tracks as many informal settlers have encroached upon the PNR ROW. There is even a makeshift basketball court in the middle of the tracks. Thus, trains moved quite slowly partly because of the tracks and partly because of the people, mostly children who routinely cross the path of the train.

People have set up benches between the tracks and tambays are often found drinking or gambling, of the dangers posed by the trains.

Absent at the time were the trolleys that serve as informal transportation for communities along the line. These trolleys were generally human-powered, pushed by their operators and taking advantage of the the tracks and the unseen slopes to generate momentum and speed. These trolleys were light enough that they could easily be removed in case a train happened to be passing. I have photos of trolleys from my trip to Bicol that I will be including in future posts.

It is said that the state of a country is clearly reflected in the conditions or situation of its transportation system. I guess the photo above gives us a pretty good picture of where the Philippines is right now if only we can deduce the essential elements from the photo. We have children wandering about and not getting the education they need to become productive members of society. This, despite primary and secondary eduction being free and compulsory. We have a problem concerning waste disposal that definitely has environmental consequences, not to mention a contribution to the perennial problems of flooding. We also have a housing problem where affordable, well-located housing is generally unavailable thereby attracting people to informal settlements. In the latter case, some settlements seem to be encouraged by local politicians if not local governments as they provide cheap votes come election time. And of course, there’s our transport system that needs a lot of attention if only to fix the results of failures in transport planning.

Need I say more?

During the field in 2003, we also visited the PNR yard in Tutuban. The original central station/terminal of the PNR was already lost to what is now the Tutuban Mall. Perhaps in the near future, the PNR would again have a central terminal with architecture evoking its glory days. I’ve always imagined something that looks like what is Tokyo Station today. After all, stations of what was the PNR Main Line North featured red bricks.

At the PNR yard in Tutuban, one could see what were operational and abandoned rolling stock and other equipment. Notice the roofs of the passengers cars? The roofs were modified because informal settlers were throwing their garbage and other wastes on top of the cars. The reasoning for the modification was that the wastes would just slide down. There’s some anecdotal evidence that the settlers also did their own adjustments by tying two plastic bags of garbage and hurling the two in such a way that the two bags would be on either side of the roof.

A turnout at the PNR yard – turnouts allow for the diversion of trains from one set of tracks to another. It has three basic components: switches, acute angle or vee crossings (also known as “frogs”), and obtuse angle crossings. Visible in this photo is the frog at the middle of the picture and the check rails across from either side of the frog.

Every wonder how the switches are activated so trains can transfer from one set of tracks to another? The contraption on the left is a lever that moves the rails for the trains to switch tracks. Of course the LRT and MRT lines use a more modern version of these devices so trains can transfer tracks once reaching the end of the lines.

PNR staff working to secure the rails to the railroad ties (sleepers or traviesa) – it may look pathetic but the PNR was really so ill-equipped that they had to use manual drills to make holes on the wooden sleepers and then hammer the spikes (shown in the foreground) to the ties. Note the man with the big hammer on the left waiting for his turn to work. Since then, the PNR has changed many of these sleepers so we see mostly concrete ties in their places. Many sleepers were stolen not just along abandoned tracks in the north and central Luzon but those along active tracks as well. These were sold as construction material, garden accessories or even accents for houses, offices or restaurants.

I found some old photos from a field trip at the PNR we organized for our students back in 2003. I remember we had a big delegation composed of senior undergraduate students of Civil Engineering, senior Tourism students, and graduate students taking up MS Civil Engineering and MA Transportation Planning. The PNR was very kind to accommodate us and explain to the students how the company was making ends meet at the time. Many of us faculty and technical staff who were still fresh out of our stints in Japan were saddened by the state of the PNR and could only utter words of support and encouragement to its management. We are now quite happy that there has been significant progress in the past few years for both the commuter line and Main Line South.

Following are a few photos from that 2003 field trip:

Students gathered around an old bogey under maintenance at the PNR facilities. The two people on the right in the photo are Dr. Dayo Montalbo of the School of Urban and Regional Planning and Dr. Val Teodoro who was senior technical staff with the NCTS at the time.

Taking a closer look at a bogey with the detached cars in the background. The state of PNR rolling stock at the time was a depressing sight considering what was once a proud company.

A look at the maintenance facilities at PNR Caloocan. This is a far cry from the modern facilities we later saw at the LRT 2 Depot in Santolan, which was only recently opened at the time.

Barbells? These are the trains’ wheels. Other spare parts are in the background. To the untrained eye, the area where they keep the spare parts looks like a scene in a junk shop.

Locomotive coming in for maintenance. PNR rolling stock at the time have seen better days and required a lot of work in order to keep the trains running. Passenger share of the PNR was insignificant due to its often irregular service at the time, partly due to the conditions of its rolling stock and partly, too, because of the conditions of the tracks.

Students and their teachers during a light moment beside locomotives undergoing maintenance in the PNR garage.

More photos on the field trip in a succeeding post.