Steam Trains Operating In Thailand.

[nong38]

Last monday, 26th November I was travelling north out of Bangkok towards DM airport, on the way at about 1130am we passed a special train hauled by 2 steam locomotives. Looked really smart and pristine.

I have heard that steam specials run out of Bangkok 4 times a year does anyone have any imformation on these trips and how you can book and destinations or is always Ayuttaya?

Thanks for any useful responses.

[harrry]

If you google thailand railways steam you will get some information in the second link.

[kawaiimomo]

Around the King birthday (5th December) there are 4 steam locomotive trips. They all go to different places and is quite an experience if you like this trains. 2-3 years ago I took the one going to Nakhon Pathom, I wanted a short ride just for the experience of travelling in one of those machines. To my surprise, when we reached Nakhon Pathom, discovered a tour was included with the train ticket. All the passengers were divided into 4 groups with a colored card in some sort of necklace and were told to take buses and we were brought to some kind of zoo (coupon for food included), a royal palace, market, etc and back to the train back to Hua Lampong station.

The trains are keep in an amazing conservation state, the seats are a bit hard as they are made from wood and there is no aircon but the rotating ceiling fans and open windows :-P I could not speak almost any Thai at that time and I was the only farang who took the train until the Nakhon Pathom station and took the tour there, it was a little bit confusing but the guide and the elderly Thai people took good care of me (I would say all the people were Thai families)

Just be sure to book it in advance if you are interested because all the seats are booked very fast. When I booked mine I need to chose that trip because the other one I was interested in was already fully booked. Also, be on time to the station because the trains leave sharp on schedule (I was about 5 minutes late and the train already departed and I needed to take a motosai to follow the train and catch it in the next station, it was quite funny :-P)

If you like those trains you shouldn't miss it, I will repeat this year too ;-) I think seat61 web has more information on this yearly trips.

EDIT: 2-3 years ago the trips were from the 3rd to the 6th, one train to a different destination each day

[WilliaminBKK]

There is also the super luxury E&O Express, I thought the E&O was steam however it looks like diesel in the video, I could have sworn I saw a steam locomotive, must be suffering a memory leak.

I have a friend who saved for years to send his parents on the BKK-SIN run for their anniversary and they said it was the best trip ever, I won't share the link with my folks

http://www.orient-express.com/web/eoe/eastern_and_oriental_express.jsp

[SeaVisionBurma]

OP, someone suggested moving this topic to travel - you might get more answers about train travel there.

Moving to Travel In Thailand.

[nong38]

Thanks for the information and experiences, I will look into all this in the next few days.

[jko]

Useful info on HM King's birthday train to Ayutthya - on Richard Barrow's excellent travel blog:

here

Nice to see these things happening in Thailand.