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And another repost, describing the authentic smells of Old Hong Kong!

Hong Kong – Pig Train memories

Browsing around the internet I found a picture that brought back not entirely pleasant memories.  It’s 1984, and you are standing on the subterranean platform at Mong Kok, first station up the line from the Hung Hom, Kowloon, terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway.  There’s a rumbling noise very different from the usual electric multiple unit as something else approaches.  Your two-year old daughter covers holds her nose.

Yes, it’s the PIG TRAIN

This picture by David Barth brought back unpleasant memories.  A pretty normal stock car, but it’s full of pigs.  Pigs do smell.  Lots of pigs in a small space smell worse.  A train of terrified pigs heading for the Mong Kok government abattoir is an olfactory assault of the first order.  The smell was overwhelming, and it lingered for a good 15 minutes or so after the train passed by.

Pig wagon (Photo by David Barth http://barthworks.com/index.htm)

It really wasn’t the same when the HK Government moved the abattoir to Shueng Shui and the pigs came a short distance over the border by truck.  After all, HK still needed a lot of pork each day!

This second picture shows the goods side of Hung Hong terminus.  I never tried to explore this area when I lived there 1984-85, so it’s good to see the photograph.  There’s an interesting collection of rolling stock, including some (then) modern refrigerated wagons in the foreground.  Good memories of an interesting time in my career.

Hung Hom station, 1984 (Phot by David Barth http://barthworks.com/index.htm)

I’m out of circulation for a few days, so I thought that I’d repost some more Hong Kong pictures, this time from 2015.  Here are a few more of those colourful trams.

Hong Kong – Tram Jam

Today’s title is blatently stolen from an excellent 1984 collection of photographs of trams in HK.  It tended towards the artistic, rather than the boring railway enthusiast album, but was none the worse for that.  (And it is still available second-hand from Amazon UK.)

What do you call a group of trams?  You have a flock of sheep, a pride of lions, and delightfully, a charm of goldfinches.  In Hong Kong at least I suggest a “kaleidoscope of trams”.  On New Year’s Day I travelled down to HK Island from Kwun Tong to meet my old work colleague Peter Stuckey for dinner.  I was a little early and caught the last of the light to snap this procession of trams on Johnson Road (next to the prosaically named ‘Southorn Playground’.)  However, there were none of the new-build trams amongst them.

We then had an excellent meal (as below).  Fried fish with egg and sweetcorn, tofu and greens and the ever reliable sweet and sour pork.  Followed by a cup of coffee at the base of Hopewell Centre, where we had worked on the 51st floor through the 1980’s.