- Support Checkerboard Hill on Patreon!
Subscribe via email
Join 377 other subscribersTags
advertising Australia aviation Beijing buses China China Railways construction depots driving East Rail freeways history Hong Kong Hong Kong International Airport KCR Kowloon Kowloon Canton Railway Lantau Island light rail line guide locomotive Macau mainland maintenance Mass Transit Railway MTR mystery New Territories Octopus card on the road on the water Outlying Islands rail operations railway railway signalling Shanghai television commercials tourist trap trains trams tunnels underground Victoria Harbour West Rail
Archives
Recent Posts
- ‘The Queen Was Here’ plaque at Hung Hom station
- Looking back at Hong Kong’s pig trains
- Swapping left and right on the Tuen Ma Line
- “Pretty as a postcard” at Hung Hom station
- Ticket touts and the Hong Kong – Macau ferry
- Macau’s exclave in Mainland China
- ‘Flying’ to Macau on a Boeing 929 Jetfoil
- Beijing’s dead end expressway
- Catching the train to the Great Wall of China
- Ghost platforms on the Beijing Subway at Dongsishitiao
Yearly Archives: 2016
Closure of Kai Tak Airport and the transfer to Chek Lap Kok
The closure of Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport in 1998 and the overnight switch to the new airport at Chek Lap Kok always intrigued me – how did they manage such a massive move?
Posted in Transport
Tagged 1990s, aviation, Chek Lap Kok, history, Hong Kong, Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak Airport
Leave a comment
Mixing the old and new KCR trains
The MTR fleet of Metro Cammell EMUs has been conveying passengers on Hong Kong’s East Rail line for over 30 years, having originally been purchased by the Kowloon-Canton Railway in 1982 to serve the newly electrified route. In that time they received a mid-life refurbishment, which resulted in ‘new’ and ‘old’ trains running together.
Posted in Transport
Tagged East Rail, Hong Kong, KCR, Kowloon Canton Railway, rail operations, railway, trains
7 Comments
Farewelling the first generation MTR trains
The first trains ran on Hong Kong’s MTR network way back in 1979, and almost forty years later these trains still remain in service, albeit having been refurbished and upgraded a number of times.
Posted in Transport
Tagged history, Hong Kong, Mass Transit Railway, MTR, rail operations, railway, trains
3 Comments
Fixing failed doors on the Hong Kong MTR
Hong Kong’s MTR network is known for being a fast, efficient and reliable public transport system, but it doesn’t mean they are invulnerable to simple issues such as failed doors on trains. These videos capture how they deal with such issues.
Coupled train sets on the Hong Kong MTR
Trains on the Hong Kong MTR operate as fixed consist – each made up of a set of carriages coupled together, which never get broken apart except for inside the maintenance depot. However each train still has a coupler at each end, to allow for failed trains to be pushed out of the way, such as in this video.
Posted in Transport
Tagged Hong Kong, Mass Transit Railway, MTR, rail operations, trains
Leave a comment