For years, travellers in Cambodia had to deal with one of the world’s worst train networks.
They have created their own rail service using pieces of bamboo and abandoned barbell like train wheels.
The locals call the vehicles “Norries”, but overseas visitors know them as “bamboo trains”.
A repurposed water-pump or gasoline engine transfers power to the rear wheels by means of belts.
Warped and broken rails make for a bone-shaking journey.
But the drivers insist it is a safe form of transport.
On a bamboo train I can sit down and go to sleep.
you could’t do that on a motorbike."
And what happens when a bamboo train meets another bamboo train coming the opposite way?
They are then reassembled, engine restarted and on their way they go.
It can be done with a minute.
The importance of urgent bamboo train removal is of interest should a real train come your way.
Bamboo trains have become an unofficial part of the Cambodian transport system.
In Cambodia, that can equal two months wages to most citizens.
The bamboo trains were once found outside of numerous provincial towns anywhere railroad tracks had been laid.
It was possible to take the bamboo trains from Battambang to Phnom Penh.
The norry outside of Battambang are the last in existence.
Photo credit: Going Slowly
Photo credit
Sources:1,2,3
