Adventures of the Old Jurong Line Part 4

In part 3 of this series of the adventures along the Old Jurong line, Chun See, Icemoon, Peter and I treated our eyes to visual art albeit in the places where they were not meant to be up on. While no train runs any more under the Teban Flyover, it appeared to be a site that allowed creativity to thrive.

After checking out the works of art that found themselves under the Teban Flyover, we walked back to Chun See's car and began the rest of our journey pretty much on his car. Occasionally, we would get out of the car to check out some landmarks and remnants of the Old Jurong Line.

This part of the journey was rather hard for me to grasp. Firstly, I do not drive and have not much idea where I was being driven to. Secondly, the Jurong area is a rather foreign part of Singapore to me as I have hardly visited that part of Jurong. As such, for the remaining of this post, I shall not attempt to explain too much about the Jurong Line. If any one who has some knowledge of the Old Jurong Line would care to comment and supplement this post, please feel free to share. Thank you.

Photo 1: This place used to be a railway crossing.

Photo 2: This objuect used to be part of a device that was used to create a barricade so that cars will have to stop themselves when it was time for the train to cross.


As best as I can make out from one of Peter's posts, there are three sub-branch lines ending points of the old Jurong Line. The three sub-branch lines of the old Jurong Line ended at:
1) Fishery Port Rd
2) Jalan Tepong
3) Shipyard Road.

Part of the objectives of our adventures that day was to visit the various ending points of the old Jurong Line. I don't know much about the history of the Old Jurong Line as yet, but I am glad that I had exposed myself to it anyway.

For lunch, we stopped at the former Jurong Ice Skating Rink. Everything there was new to me. By the way, Chun See found some very cheap pineapples that were selling at three for S$1.

After lunch, we continued the journey on the car. We came to somewhere in Jurong, and according to one of Icemoon's posts, the place was known as Jurong Port Rd. We witnessed, first-hand, the excavation of the railway tracks and sleepers.

Photo 3: Excavation of the railway tracks and sleepers.

I experienced first-hand how items from the past get excavated, removed, and gone they were.

Trying not to get into the mood for melancholy, I looked around and found what was possibly a traffic light meant for both vehicles and the railway train. Or was I wrong?

Photo 4: A special traffic light.

Back in the car, Peter, Icemoon and I tried to explain to Chun See who was waiting in the car about what the foreman who was supervising the excavation was asking us. We then continued the journey in the car. As best as I can remember, the car brought us to Jalan Tepong, near Fishery Port Rd. Here we found remnants of the Old Jurong line. We can no longer see the ending point that ended at Jalan Tepong.

Photo 5: A out-of-place remnants that we spotted near Jalan Tepong.

I overheard speculations that the Old Jurong line could have ran past this area (Please see photo 6) in the past.

Photo 6. Along Jalan Tepong.

We continued the journey, and occasionally, I seized my chance to take photographs while we were travelling on the car.

Photo 7: I can't remember what this place is.

While I can't remember fully all the details, I do remember that we had made a stop somewhere near Refinery Road. We saw railway tracks that were not straight, but bent (Please see photo 8). Peter suggested that the railway tracks were bent because we had seen the part of the track which the trains would use to change from one track to another.

Photo 8.

I was simply fascinated by having to experience a part of Singapore which I would normally not visit on my own. As the name of the area suggested, I saw oil refineries while we were near Refinery Road. After Chun See drove us once again at the area, we were ready to say bye to the Old Jurong Line. On the car, we also had the chance to drive across the bridge that joined Shipyard Road to Pulau Samulum. This bridge is special because Chun See had 'blew it' up during one of the demolition raids that took place when he was serving National Service.

At the end of our adventures, Chun See kindly drove the rest of us to Clementi MRT station before we parted for the day. While I still cannot fully make sense of the Old Jurong Line, I felt glad to be onboard this special journey. I felt I do have a lot more things to learn about my own country, everyday.

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Related posts:
Adventures of the Old Jurong Line Part 3
Adventures of the Old Jurong Line Part 2
Adventures of the Old Jurong Line Part 1
Managing fears: I have conquered a bridge