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Research 2010/2011


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Walter, the Agong's 'special' man


The sound of railway bells and steam whittles carried in the wind always fascinated Walter van Weiringen. It was music to his ears. Even after retirement, a long drawn out train whistle brought a smile to his face. But now, after listening to them all his working life, he will not hear them anymore: van Weiringen died from lung cancer, at 82.

As a Class A special grade locomotive engineer, he operated the whistles and bells to signal personnel and give warnings of the impending arrival of his trains. He sounded every bell and whistle through pullstring cords and levers. As the steam era approached the 1950s, automatic air-operated bells were used on steam locomotives. English 20 Class engines and later, the Japanese diesel engines.

Van Weiringen was a proven safe train driver true to his Dutch heritage. "He was well known for his safety-consciousness and was a punctual driver who always brought home the trains on time,: said his second son Lionel, 51, a businessman. Understandably, he was the first-choice driver of the "Agong's Special" or other Royalty special trains" whenever the King or sultans used the railway to travel around the country.

For much of the 33 years he serves Malaysian Railways, starting out as a junior apprentice in 1945, van Weiringen covered thousands of rail miles, leaving the faded colonial grandeur of Singapore's 1932 art deco mainline station, rumbling slowly over the famous Causeway and on into Malaya, over railway built by the British and mainly single-track, past oil palm and rubber plantations and jungle.

Van Weiringen has since seen the change in Kuala Lumpur, trains now use the modern KL Sentral station, but those going north from KL still pass through the famous old Moorish-style station. Trains in Malaysia and Thailand run on metre-gauge tracks, narrower than the European standard gauge.

Van Weiringen showed an interest in trains from his teenage years under the family's Rasah Road home in Seremban, where his father, a medical practitioner, ran a clinic that served the poor, the rich and the Japanese.

He leaves his wife Gebriel, sons Arthur, Lionel, Francis and Lawrence and daughters Hazel, Ann, Olga and Christine, and 15 grandchildren.





Source: New Straits Times.
Author: Ian Pereira.
Published: 20-05-2008

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Tong Tong Fair 2012

Malaysians residing in the Netherlands might want to mark their calendar for the 54nd Tong Tong Fair taking place from May 17 till June 28 in The Hague.

For more information:
Tongtongfair.nl & Tongtongfestival.nl