Early electronic betting systems at the Hong Kong Jockey Club

I ended up down an unusual rabbit hole the other day – electronic betting systems at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. So here goes a quick look at their pioneering efforts to make it easy for punters to pout their money on Hong Kong horse races from the convenience of their own home.

Smokers looking through the window of a Hong Kong Jockey Club branch

I started learnt about their electronic betting systems in this 2018 article from Bloomberg about a professional gambler who used a statistical model to bet on Hong Kong horse races.

The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code

Bill Benter did the impossible: He wrote an algorithm that couldn’t lose at the track. Close to a billion dollars later, he tells his story for the first time.
By Kit Chellel
May 03, 2018

Benter taught himself advanced statistics and learned to write software on an early PC with a green-and-black screen. Meanwhile, in the fall of 1984, Woods flew to Hong Kong and sent back a stack of yearbooks containing the results of thousands of races. Benter hired two women to key the results into a database by hand so he could spend more time studying regressions and developing code. It took nine months. In September 1985 he flew to Hong Kong with three bulky IBM computers in his checked luggage.

Twice a week, on race days, Benter would sit at the computer and Woods would study the racing form. Early on, the betting program Benter had written spat out bizarre predictions, and Woods, with his yearlong head start studying the Hong Kong tracks, would correct them. They used a telephone account at the Jockey Club to call in their bets and watched the races on TV. By the end of Benter’s first season in Hong Kong, in the summer of 1986, he and Woods had lost $120,000 of their $150,000 stake. Benter flew back to Vegas to beg for investment, unsuccessfully, and Woods went to South Korea to gamble.

In September 1988, having amassed a few hundred thousand dollars, Benter returned to Hong Kong. In his first year after returning to Hong Kong, Benter won (as he recalls) $600,000. The next racing season, ending in the summer of 1990, he lost a little but was still up overall. When the volume of bets rose, he recruited English-speaking Filipinos from the ranks of the city’s housekeepers to relay his bets to the Jockey Club’s Telebet phone lines, reading wagers at the rate of eight a minute.

A breakthrough came when Benter hit on the idea of incorporating a data set hiding in plain sight: the Jockey Club’s publicly available betting odds. Building his own set of odds from scratch had been profitable, but he found that using the public odds as a starting point and refining them with his proprietary algorithm was dramatically more profitable. He considered the move his single most important innovation, and in the 1990-91 season, he said, he won about $3 million.

The following year the Hong Kong Jockey Club phoned Benter at an office he’d established in Happy Valley. He winced, remembering the meaty hand of the Las Vegas pit boss on his shoulder. But instead of threatening him, a Jockey Club salesperson said, “You are one of our best customers. What can we do to help you?” The club wasn’t a casino trying to root out gamblers who regularly beat the house; its incentive was to maximize betting activity so more revenue was available for Hong Kong charities and the government. Benter asked if it was possible to place his bets electronically instead of over the phone. The Jockey Club agreed to install what he called the “Big CIT”—a customer input terminal. He ran a cable from his computers directly into the machine and increased his betting.

So what were the customer input terminals?

The story starts in 1977, when the Hong Kong Jockey Club contracted Automated Systems (H.K.) Limited to deliver a computerised betting system.

Telephone Betting System for the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club

In 1977, Automated Systems Holdings Limited became the primary contractor for the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club’s telephone betting system, a trial against an IBM-developed solution. The system was implemented on 30 VAX supermini and minicomputers. The processors were linked with an eventual 1,000 terminals located in 120 off-course betting centres throughout the territory. To maintain a high level of service, the club had specified a fail-safe system design which incorporated recovery facilities to allow dynamic isolation of failed components or computer systems on-line with full data integrity.

Which was expanded in 1989 to allow punters to use special devices to place bets directly into the telephone betting system.

Off-course Betting System for the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club

In early 1989, ASL serviced the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club again after the telephone betting system by supplying over HK$1 million worth of EASYway networking equipment and ABLE Computer to the Club for its Off-course Betting System. The inputting device was called Customer Input Terminal (CIT). The system provided great convenience to off-course punters who could just plug CIT into any telephone socket to place their bets, without the need to talk to a telephone operator. This reduced the operator’s involvement and call connecting time. EASYway also possessed the advantage of being flexible and expandable in incorporating with future standards.

The early Customer Input Terminals look clunky by today’s standards, with just five lines of text and a handful of buttons.


Hong Kong Jockey Club

But the design of the devices evolved over the years.


Hong Kong Jockey Club

But given Hong Kong’s love of gambling, the devices were still popular – Customer Input Terminals were the source of 17% betting turnover by 1997, with over 90,000 users by 2001.

However this made the uptime of the system mission critical for the Jockey Club.

Jockey Club technicians race against clock to eradicate CIT bugs
Robin Parke
3 November 1997

Hong Kong Jockey Club technicians were working round the clock yesterday to iron out a communications fault that played havoc with the popular Customer Input Terminal (CIT) system on Saturday.

Frustrated punters were forced into long delays before being able to place bets on the nine-event Happy Valley programme – or missed out completely. At one stage there was a complete break in the system for four minutes.

From shortly after the final event at the city track until last night, technicians were still working to find the gremlins and ensure that the CIT network would be up and running efficiently before tomorrow’s massive 10-event card.

Senior Jockey Club betting official Darryll Plowright said yesterday: ‘The information technology people are hard at it and we are confident that it will be fixed in good time for Tuesday’s meeting.

‘It is a fault in the communications system but I cannot be any more specific than that. They have been working since 6 pm on Saturday night and I have had reports since then.

Beside the involvement of local company Automated Systems (H.K.) Limited to develop the backend system, the Customer Input Terminal were also developed in Hong Kong by a company called Varitronix.

A September 1998 report by the Hong Kong Commission on Innovation and Technology cited Varitronix as a local success story.

Varitronix Ltd. was established in 1978 by a group of academics from Hong Kong’s universities with an initial investment of $1.5 million. It has since grown to be one of the world’s leading manufacturers of liquid crystal display (LCD), with a strong capability in custom design and manufacture of LCD-related products. Varitronix was publicly listed in 1991 and currently has a total market capitalisation of over $4 billion.

From the outset, Varitronix has adopted an R&D-driven strategy, focusing on custom design instead of competing on price with large foreign manufacturers of standard LCD units. To add value to products and drive further growth of the company, Varitronix has diversified into designing and making end products that incorporate its own LCDs. A notable example is the Customer Input Terminal for off-course betting that Varitronix makes for the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Varitronix’s competitive strength mainly lies in its technological capability as well as ability to leverage on the synergy between Hong Kong and the Mainland – technology-intensive product development and front-end production in Hong Kong; and labour-intensive back-end production in the Mainland.

Information Display journal in 1999 describing the current generation of devices as:

This wireless version of Varitronix’s Telebet customer-input terminal is used by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Over 80,000 of the older, wired terminals are currently in use. Both versions use a Varitronix touchsensitive overlay on a Varitronix-made display.

A clunky Motorola radio bolted onto the top of the fifth generation Customer Input Terminal replacing the need to plug into a telephone line.


Hong Kong Jockey Club

But by 1999 the sixth generation device of looked much the same as any of the personal digital assistants (PDAs) available at the time.


Hong Kong Jockey Club

But a few years later, having to carry a dedicated device just to place bets was seen as old hat, so the Jockey Club developed an add-on for the Handspring Visor PDA – but didn’t expect it to become popular.

Hong Kong Jockey Club meets the growing demand for hand-held betting service
SCMP Reporter
9 October 2001

Local punters can now make bets on horse races and buy Mark Six lottery tickets over their personal digital assistants (PDAs), but hand-held devices will never compete with mobile betting, according to the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

In response to the growing number of people using PDAs in Hong Kong, the Jockey Club launched its PDA expansion module last week.

The Customer Input Terminal (CIT – PDA) connects with the expansion slot on a Handspring Visor and any standard phone line.

‘We found it exciting to have over 360 people subscribe to rent PDAs with our expansion modules within six working days,’ said Jockey Club spokeswoman Lillian Chau.

Both the Visor PDAs and the expansion module are available for rent at the club. Annual fees are HK$500, with a deposit of HK$1,000 for a Visor Solo model and HK$500 for the module.

However, the Jockey Club does not anticipate PDA betting to become a major trend. Instead, it released the new product just to ‘provide some channels [for betting] for specific users’.

And the development of the Customer Input Terminal continued with an eighth generation device launched in 2004, which required a 63 page manual to describe all of the available features.


Hong Kong Jockey Club

But with the Jockey Club launching an iPhone betting app in July 2011, followed by an Android app in December 2011, now it was the smartphone age – and the end of the Customer Input Terminal service came in 2016.

Customer Input Terminal service to terminate from 1 August
21/07/2016

The Club will cease its Customer Input Terminal (CIT) service from 1 August this year. The device, which was first introduced in 1988, can no longer be supported due to software constraints, while some hardware components are no longer available.

CIT customers were informed of the Club’s decision to terminate the service three years ago, during which time the Club provided assistance to switch to other betting channels. Other channels available include the Mobile Betting App*, Online Betting Service (eWin), Telebet and 1886 Automated Betting Services.

Launched some 28 years ago, the CIT was one of the Club’s most pioneering products, and in its original form allowed customers to bet via fixed phone lines. Wireless versions followed, culminating in the present eighth generation CIT. With the Internet and mobile phones providing customers with greater, multi-function, convenience, it is finally time to retire the CIT.

The Club will keep on developing innovative and interactive services, aiming at bringing customers an ever higher quality of betting entertainment experience.

Ending an era of highly specialised mobile devices.

Footnote: another Hong Kong online betting system

Mango was a network launched in 2002 by Telecom Digital Holdings Ltd using the Ericsson developed Mobitex packet switched data technology, accessed by their MangoCombo devices.

But they could do more than just place bets with the Jockey Club.

– get continuously updated information and odds on horse racing and football matches
– enable subscribers to place bets on horse racing and football matches, buy Mark-Six, and trade Hong Kong listed shares
– enable subscribers to transfer funds between their designated account and betting account
– provide updated market price on Hong Kong listed stocks and indices and enable subscribers to conduct securities trading via TD Securities
– enable users to check cash and securities balances on stock accounts and status of transaction orders
– provide access to e-mail, SMS and with diary function

The MangoCombo user manual including the full list of features.

Further reading

  • 2002 presentation by Steve Beason, Executive Director Information Technology, HKJC
  • 2012 presentation by Ray Fok, Executive Manager Digital Experience & Information, HKJC
Posted in Everyday Life | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Say hello to Chan Tai Man – Hong Kong’s everyman

At home In Australia I’m used to seeing “John Smith” is the usual placeholder name on forms and identity documents. But obviously placeholder names are a product of local culture, and so they’re different around the world – so in Hong Kong their everyman is named “陳大文” – Chan Tai Man.

Pedestrians and double decker buses in Hong Kong

I first found Chan Tai Man on an example of the special “Airport Staff Personalized Octopus” card.

Then as the example Hong Kong Identity Card on a bank loan application form.


Promise Easy Loan

And then on a Financial Assistance Scheme application form.


Working Family and Student Financial Assistance Agency

Example name on a direct debit donation form.


Evangel Children’s Home

A student visa application form.


Hong Kong Baptist University

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University ID card portal.


Hong Kong Polytechnic University

A mockup Hong Kong Police warrant card on Wikipedia.

A media release about new Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department warrant cards.


Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department

A advertisement for the Electronic Health Record Sharing System.


Department of Health

On an advertisement for ID card printers.


Photo by Kento Bento

And in a school English lesson exercise for writing a post card.


Presentation by Dylan Stokes

The Hong Kong University Press Style Guide also uses Chan Tai Man as their placeholder name.

For Hong Kong Chinese names, our preferred style is: Peter Tai-man Chan or Peter T. M. Chan.

If personal preferences are known, they should be retained.

As does this forum thread discussing how someone should include their Chinese and English names in business correspondence such as a resume or email signature.

I have both Chinese & English names. It really confuses me how I should “put” my name on my resume or in an email closing so as not to confuse native English speakers.

Say my Chinese name is CHAN Tai Man (CHAN is the last name, Tai Man is the first name) (my legal name)
My English name is Andy. (the way my friends call me or the way I expect colleagues or job interviewers call me) (not my legal name)

From the perspective of native English speakers who know little about Chinese names,
How am I supposed to “structure” my name on my resume or in the email closing so as not to confuse others?

On a darker note, I found this artwork titled “Help” by Li Wei, featuring an anonymous man named Chan Tai Man.


“Help” by Li Wei

And finally, this cute little card from a Hong Kong gift shop called ‘eye4gift’.


eye4gift

Further reading

Posted in Everyday Life | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Staff travel discounts to Hong Kong International Airport

As a major aviation hub, it’s not just air travellers that make their way to Hong Kong International Airport each day, but thousands of staff who work behind the scenes to keep the airport running. However the premium fares charged by public transport operators serving the terminal can be a sticking point – hence staff travel discount schemes exist.

Planes, trains and automobiles

The Legislative Council detailed these schemes in 2017.

According to the Operating Agreement signed between the Government and the MTR Corporation upon the rail merger in 2007, the Airport Express Line is not a public transport mode for daily commuting, but mainly for business and travelling.

Members noted that in light of the traffic expenses incurred by airport staff travelling between urban areas and the airport, MTRC had put in place an “Airport Staff Discount Travel Scheme”. Airport staff could use Airport Staff Octopus Card to take AEL at a concessionary fare at the current level of around 57% off.

Under the scheme, airport staff are eligible to apply for the scheme if they are hired by recognized companies or organizations and are certified by their employers to be working for at least four days every week within the airport area. In 2015, a daily average of more than 7,500 passenger trips were made using this concession scheme.

There was a view that similar concessions could be apply to all train trips and franchised bus routes stopping at HKIA. In response, the Administration indicated that it had been encouraging public transport operators to offer fare concessions as far as possible having regard to various factors including the operators’ own operational and financial situations, service nature of individual routes and passenger demand. In respect of franchised bus services, discounted fares in the range of some 10% to 44% off the regular fares were offered to airport staff on specified airport bus routes and overnight airport bus routes.

These discounted fares require a special “Airport Staff Personalized Octopus” card.

Which is issued via a convoluted online application process, where the MTR validates that the applicant works for an eligible airport employer.

And can then be used to receive a discounted fare on the MTR Airport Express line, Citybus A- and NA- series airport express bus routes, and a handful of Long Win Bus operated A- and NA- airport bus routes.

LWB bus #808 ML3941 on route S1 along East Coast Road

And just to complicate matters, Citybus also operates their own “Designated Staff Fare Concessions Scheme” that doesn’t require a “Airport Staff Personalized Octopus, just an application completed via their own online system.

Citybus #6588 VT8444 beneath the Passenger Terminal Building on route S1 along Cheong Tat Road

Further reading

Posted in Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sourcing timber sleepers for the Kowloon Canton Railway

While reading through historical annual reports for the Kowloon Canton Railway, I came across an interesting piece on the troubles they encountered sourcing suitable timber railway sleepers that could withstand Hong Kong’s tropical conditions.


PA Images photo

The 1948-49 Kowloon Canton Railway annual report, page 16 is where I first read of their timber sourcing issues:

New Sleepers

During the year, the following quantities of hardwood sleepers were purchased:-

2,369 Siamese Hardwood Sleepers
301 Siamese Hardwood Crossing Timbers
4,000 Borneo Hardwood Sleepers

A local trading company failed to carry out the contract for the supply of 1,000 bridge and crossing timbers owing to the sudden imposition of a 10% export tax by the Siamese Government.

As well as the various types of timber previously used.

Kempas Sleepers. The majority of the timber sleepers removed from the track after the war (i.e. 1946 to 1948) were Singapore Kempas sleepers obtained as an experiment in 1938. These sleepers were creosote-treated. They started to rot from the core, and this was not easily detected from the outside until they were in an advanced state of decay.

Australian Sleepers. With the exception of the 2,000 pieces put in the track during Autumn 1946, all Australian hard- wood sleepers found in this Railway are over 15 years old and are still serviceable. No hardwood sleepers in these latitudes so far handled can compare with Australian Eucalypts.

Siamese Sleepers. Some Siamese sleepers were purchased six months ago, but it is yet too early to comment as to the probability of their useful life.

Borneo sleepers were received in the Colony in January 1949, and were first put in the track in April. Here again, it is too early to comment.

We are indebted to the Forestry Officer for the advice and assistance afforded to the Department on sample timbers, and the inspection of sleepers imported for Railway use.

As well as the experimental concrete railway sleepers that were developed in the 1920s.

Up to 31 March 1949 there were:

19,935 concrete sleepers on the Main Line
8,565 concrete sleepers on sidings
3 ,785 concrete sleepers lying in yard (not on track)

32,285 concrete sleepers against an approximate total of 35,000 manufactured between 1920 and 1934.

It is worthy of note that after an average period of 22 years, 90% of Baker’s concrete sleepers are still in existence. Unfortunately it was necessary, however, when replacing 85-lb. rails with 95-lb., to remove the concrete sleepers from the curves in the Main Line due to the wider bottom of the new rail and the insufficient spread allowed by the concrete sleepers. The concrete sleepers thus removed were re-used in other places.

Issues sourcing timber sleepers continued through 1949-50.

A local contractor failed to fulfil the contract for the supply of 12,100 hardwood sleepers. Only 1,479 were delivered.

The successive non-fulfilment of contract for the supply of hardwood sleepers by local contractors in 1948/49 and 1949/50 has resulted in a shortage of 11,621 sleepers which means a delay in the renewal of 4 miles of tracks and 35 sets of points and crossings.

By 1950-51 the supply issues now related to the cresote used to protect timber sleepers from rotting.

In all, 22,727 Mai Yang sleepers and 3,322 bridge and crossing timbers were purchased from the Forest Industry Organization, Bangkok, through the Siam Rice Agency Ltd., acting as shipping agents.

The Forestry Officer, Hong Kong, recommended that the Mai Yang sleepers should be treated with 50% creosote and 50% diesel oil mixture by the open tank process, and therefore a pre-war plant for treating Kempas sleepers was reconditioned and used for this purpose. Work was started on 3.10.1950.

Owing to the intermittent short-supply of creosote from the United Kingdom due to shortage of drums, only 2,874 sleepers were treated in the first six months. An arrangement with a local firm of repute would have resulted in a regular supply admittedly at higher cost, but the Chairman of the Tender Board advised purchase through the Crown Agents. The final cost of the cheaper creosote will, in due course, be reflected in the earlier replacement of non-creosoted sleepers which are very difficult to obtain.

Some 1,121 very rotten timber sleepers lying alongside the track in the New Territories were sold as they lay: 5,500 were given to the Social Welfare Office for the use of a refugee camp, and 1,521 were brought back to Kowloon and sold to railway staff as firewood.

A shortage of hardwood sleepers delayed the main line re-railing program in 1951-52, with the work not completed until February 1953.

From that point it is believed that spot replacement of timber sleepers continued until the modernisation of the Kowloon Canton Railway through the 1970s, when the line was relaid in even heavier rail – UIC54 profile at 54 kg/m, or 109-lb. in the old measures – laid on modern precast concrete sleepers.

Concrete sleepers on the East Rail line

Footnote: the modern era

Timber railway sleepers are still used on the MTR system today, but predominately beneath points and crossings, thanks to the flexibility they provide for these pieces of complicated trackwork.

Timber sleepers trackside at Hung Hom

But timber sleepers can also be occasionally be found on tracks elsewhere – presumably due to clearance issues.

Yes, the MTR uses timber sleepers!

But since 2008 the MTR have made moves to replace them with “synthetic sleepers”.

There were originally about 10 000 “timber sleepers” on the East Rail Line (EAL). They are also used on relatively longer sections of Tung Chung Line and Airport Express Line.

Due to the ageing of and difficulties in procuring “timber sleepers”, the MTRCL has gradually replaced “timber sleepers” with sleepers made of synthetic materials since 2008 and will replace sleepers in the light of their actual conditions and ages. In terms of railway applications, there is no difference between the mechanical properties of synthetic sleepers and timber sleepers. The mechanical properties of both sleepers are in compliance with the Japanese Industrial Standard (Standard JIS E 1203:2007).

Generally speaking, “synthetic sleepers” have a longer lifecycle than “timber sleepers” and are able to improve the overall track reliability. Thus, “synthetic sleepers” are widely used in railway systems around the world.

The MTRCL started to implement the plan for replacing worn out “timber sleepers” on EAL in 2010. As at August 2019, 4,000 timber sleepers have been replaced by synthetic sleepers.

Since then the MTRCL has replaced over 2,600 “timber sleepers” to give extra track reliability. The remaining “timber sleepers” with better conditions will also be replaced by the end of 2021. By then, the replacement of all “timber sleepers” on EAL will be completed.

The “synthetic” sleepers in question are FFU synthetic wood sleepers manufactured by the Japanese company Sekisui Railway Technology.


Sekisui Railway Technology photo

The technology having been proven in Japan for decades.

FFU is produced by compressing single strands of glass fibre with polyurethane foam using a high-pressure extraction press. The manufacturing process is initiated by mixing the base materials polyole and isocyanide with several additives, and after compounding and extrusion, the raw mixture is reinforced with long glass fibres. Foaming and curing then takes place before the finished product is cut to a standard length of 12m for further processing and sizing to any length determined by customers.

One of the major benefits of the sleepers is their longevity. This was recently demonstrated in a study conducted by Japan’s Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) on behalf of Sekisui of FFU synthetic short sleepers and FFU synthetic bridge sleepers which have been in service in Japan for the last 30 years.

The survey results show that after 15, 20, 25, and 30 years in service the short sleepers exhibited no cracks and warping, no changes in the colour of the surface layer, and no loose screw spikes, and overall were in good fixed condition. Furthermore, the sleeper plates were in good fastened condition, while no peeling or cracks, or loose sleepers were found during observations of the bonded portions from the ditch side.

But were to blame in a September 2019 derailment on the MTR East Rail line at Hung Hom.

Thanks to the synthetic sleepers behaving differently under load than timber sleepers.

The Panel concluded that the derailment was caused by the dynamic track gauge widening beyond a critical level at turnout P5116. The investigation found that, in the early hours of 4 August 2019, the EAL Track Maintenance Team replaced two worn out timber sleepers with new synthetic sleepers to correct the track gauge.

Due to the special combination of rail alignment at a sharp curve, high traffic intensity and the difference in stiffness between the new synthetic sleepers and neighbouring sleepers in this particular location, this arrangement had an unintended consequence in that the two synthetic sleepers created a localised hard spot in the rail support system. This hard spot resulted in most of the sideways loading from the trains passing through this curved section being exerted onto the rail fastening of the two newly replaced synthetic sleepers, which accelerated the fastening’s deterioration.

Three of the fixing screws failed as a result, which allowed one of the rails to move sideways, leading to an increase in the gap between the two rails or “dynamic track gauge widening beyond a critical level” and train wheels hitting the check rail. This in turn led to the derailment.

So it seems nothing is ever that simple.

Posted in Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hong Kong experiments in concrete railway sleepers

Today concrete railway sleepers are a common sight on railways around the world, including Hong Kong, but recently I discovered that the Kowloon Canton Railway was involved in their early development.

Concrete sleepers on the East Rail line

Down the rabbit hole

Concrete sleepers are mentioned in the Institution of Civil Engineers’ obituary for Robert Baker OBE, former Chief Engineer for the Kowloon Canton Railway.

After three years’ training in the manufacture of instruments he was articled for three years to Sir Robert Elliott-Cooper, and then embarked on a varied career of railway engineering, serving in England, Greece, Malaya, and China from 1911 until his retirement in 1934. He was concerned mainly with the administration and maintenance of the Kowloon-Canton Railway in Hong Kong, filling the post of Chief Engineer from 1927 onwards, combining that post with Manager. During that time he did some pioneer work in the development of reinforced concrete sleepers.

His experiments commenced in the early 1920s, as this article from the Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser dated 26 January 1922 describes.

A Hongkong resident, Mr. R. Baker, of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, has recently patented at home his invention of a new kind of concrete railway sleeper, experiments with which have so far proved the idea to be a great success. A company called the Timeproof Ferro-Concrete Railway Sleeper Co., with its offices at Westminster, has been formed to control the Manufacturing rights.

With the establishment of the company mentioned on page 85 of the 20 January 1922 issue of ‘The Electrician’.

Timeproof Ferro-Concrete Railway Sleeper Company, Ltd. (178 965), 2, Dean’s-yard, The Sanctuary. Westminster, S.W. Registered Jan. 10. To acquire from Robert Baker the benefit of an invention for improvements in railway and tramway sleepers, and turn same to account. Nominal capital, £900 in” 750 ordinary shares of £1 each and 3 000 founders’ shares of Is. each. Directors”: R. Baker, D. Macdonald, W. Daniel, and E. A. Kite. Qualification of directors, one share. Remuneration of directors. £50 each. Chairman, £75.

And finally after a lot of digging, I finally found an in depth article on the new invention in the 5 January 1922 edition of the Hong Kong Telegraph.

Hongkong Resident’s Invention
A New Railway Sleeper

A Hongkong resident, Mr. R Baker, of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, has invented a new kind of concrete railway sleeper, experiments with which have so far proved the idea to be a great success. Mr. Baker went Home a short time ago to patent the invention. A number of big people in the railway world be came interested, and a Company to control the manufacturing rights was formed. It is called the Timeproof Ferro-Concrete Railway Sleeper Co., and the offices of the Company are at Westminster.

The idea of a concrete sleeper is by no means a new one, Italy had about a hundred miles of rail way line laid on concrete sleepers in 1915, but as little or nothing has been heard of the scheme for several years it is to be concluded that the idea was not a success. Mr. Baker’s sleepers, however, are different from any of the previous styles. There are some three or four hundred laid near Shatin and these have been such a success that their inventor considered the idea worth patenting.

Mr. Baker has been working on the invention for several years and has experimented with several types before selecting the one which he has now had patented. It was in Sir Henry May’s time, in fact, that he first started his experiments. It is understood, that the present Governor looks upon the invention very favourably and it is, to a great extent due to Sir Edward Stubbs that the idea in being seriously taken up.

The new sleeper is quite different in appearance to the old wooden sleepers to which we are accustomed. It is of cruciform section in the middle and fairly narrow. It gets wider at the rail seats and tapers at the ends. It is of concrete, in the centre of which are a number of steel bars. It has several advantages over the old-fashioned type of wooden sleeper and it is claimed that it has also many advantages over concrete and other sleepers with which experiments have been made in white ant countries the life of a wooden sleepers not long and another great enemy of the wooden kind is dry rot. The sleepers on the Kowloon-Canton Railway come from New South Wales. They cost about fifteen shillings each at the present time, they require a great deal of attention and their life is about twelve years.

The Baker sleepers will work out st about $10 each, but as they will not be liable to attack by white ants or dry rot it will not – be necessary to treat them with kerosene oil to preserve them, which will be a great saving, and the inventor sees no reason why is they should not last half a century or more.

One great advantage with the Baker sleeper is that it does not require so much ballast as other kinds, and one thing it will help to prevent is people walking between the metals. The old wooden sleepers are placed at such a convenient distances apart that coolies often walk between the metals, stepping from sleeper to sleeper. Many have met their death in this way, but sa the new concrete sleeper is sharp and not flat on the top, walking on them will not be possible and this undesirable practice will have to cease.

The new sleeper is receiving considerable attention in the railway world. The Great Western Railway at Home is experimenting with the new Baker sleeper’s and railways in Jamaica and Tanganyika are making inquiries.

It will probably be some time before all the Kowloon-Canton Railway is laid on these sleepers, owing to the extra cost. The British section contains some 60,000 sleepers and taking the life of the average at ten years (it might be a little more than that), that means replacing about six thousand sleepers a year. The concrete sleepers cost nearly double the wooden kind, however, and it will probably not be possible to replace all wooden sleepers with concrete ones, at present, but Mr. Baker says he hopes to be able to lay about a thousand a year.

Specimens of “ant-proof railway sleeper” were exhibited in the Hong Kong Section of the European Exporters’ Rooms at the 1922 British Empire Exhibition, but it appears that the Timeproof Ferro-Concrete Railway Sleeper Co. was not a success – the London Gazette dated 5 September 1939 advising that the company would be struck off the register and dissolved, which occurred on 8 December 1939.

So what did Baker’s concrete sleepers look like?

It was lucky that Robert Baker patented his concrete sleeper design, as that should mean detailed documentation of them should still exist – with a quick search on Google Patents bringing up a United Kingdom patent application titled ‘Improvements in railway and tramway sleepers‘ by an R Baker, dated October 1920, and an Australian one with the same and author dated March 1922.

Unfortunate both lacked the full text of the application, so I headed over to the IP Australia website, found the relevant patent application, and lo and behold – the full text!


Australian parent application 1922005839

Describing the invention as:

I, Robert Baker, c/o The Kowloon-Canton Railway, Hong Kong, China, Engineer, hereby declare this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed, to be fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-

This invention relates to reinforced concrete sleepers for railways or tramways.

According to this invention the reinforced concrete sleeper is of cruciform section at the centre and rectangular section at the rail seats. Recesses are made in the upper surface of the sleeper to form seats for hard wood or composition shock absorbing blocks upon which the rails are supported; the recesses are cast at an angle with the upper surface of the sleeper to correspond with the
required inclination given to the rail and at the same time allowing blocks of parallel or rectangular section to be used.

Preferably the ends of the sleeper are tapered at the sides and on the upper surface, and have a step underneath either side adapted to grip the ballast and assist. in preventing lateral creep or buckling of the track.

Preferably the sleeper is provided with eight reinforcing bars, two bars being located in each web of the cruciform at the centre. Six of the bars are carried through the lower portions of the sleeper under the rail and two in the upper portion whilst two additional bars may be introduced at either end which pass through the upper portions.

Along with a diagram of the sleeper design.


Australian parent application 1922005839

So how did they fare on the Kowloon Canton Railway?

Unfortunately the Hong Kong Public Libraries digitised archive of Kowloon Canton Railway annual reports only goes back to 1946, but the Hong Kong Telegraph dated 29 June 1929 offers a short summary of that year’s KCR annual report.

5,070 reinforced concrete sleepers were made departmentally; the cost of manufacture including supervision and all charges, was very much lower than previous contract prices.

2,320 concrete sleepers, 431 wooden sleepers, and 73 crossing and bridge timbers wore required to replace worn out timbers in the track.

And the website of David M. Webb has a copy of the 1934 KCR annual report, which happened to be a pivotal point in their use of concrete railway sleepers.

The manufacture of reinforced concrete sleepers ceased on the 1st August, experience having demonstrated the unsuitability of sleepers of this type.

At the end of the year, 69.6% of the sleepers in the main line were concrete.

Permanent Way renewals were as follows:-

– 5,000 “Timeproof” concrete sleepers.
– 702 Wooden sleepers.
– 482 Bridge and Crossing timbers.
– 11 sets of crossings.
– 1 set of switches.
– 29 rails.

Rather interestingly, this decision coinciding with the departure of their inventor.

Mr. Robert Baker, Manager and Chief Engineer, left the service on the 23rd March, retiring on pension with effect from 11th August. He was awarded the O.B.E. in June in recognition of his services to Government.

But despite their apparent “unsuitability”, according to page 16 of the 1948-49 annual report the concrete sleepers were still in main line service after decades of use:

Up to 31 March 1949 there were:

19,935 concrete sleepers on the Main Line
8,565 concrete sleepers on sidings
3 ,785 concrete sleepers lying in yard (not on track)

32,285 concrete sleepers against an approximate total of 35,000 manufactured between 1920 and 1934.

It is worthy of note that after an average period of 22 years, 90% of Baker’s concrete sleepers are still in existence. Unfortunately it was necessary, however, when replacing 85-lb. rails with 95-lb., to remove the concrete sleepers from the curves in the Main Line due to the wider bottom of the new rail and the insufficient spread allowed by the concrete sleepers. The concrete sleepers thus removed were re-used in other places.

This re-railing of the main line was eventually completed in February 1953, which I assume marked the end of these pioneering concrete sleepers on the Kowloon Canton Railway.

Footnote: concrete sleepers strike back

As part of the modernisation of the Kowloon Canton Railway through the 1970s, the line was relaid in even heavier rail – UIC54 profile at 54 kg/m, or 109-lb. in the old measures – laid on modern precast concrete sleepers.

Concrete sleepers on the East Rail line

Posted in Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment