Sittaung Mon State Burma 9th January 2018

The sun was rapidly going down when we made our last photostop of the day somewhere south of the Sittang River bridge in Mon State. Burma Railways Vulcan Foundry YD 2-8-2 967 smokes through a shallow cutting with rubber trees on the left.

The star and anchor on the smokebox was the symbol of Mottama steam depot and was painted on 967 to recreate the look of the last few years of steam operation.

In 2004, MR had approximately 40 oil-fired steam locomotives, of which about a dozen were serviceable and saw occasional use on goods, local passenger and tourist trains. On April 24th, 2008, all of a sudden Burma’s state railway stopped all steam operations. Trains which were out on the line were stopped in the next station and the steam loco had to leave its train, steaming back to its depot. All steam locos were stored in Pyuntaza. They removed all brass parts and took off most of the rods.