The Port Dickson Railway line was opened in 1891 by the Sungei Ujong (Malay Peninsula) Railway Company. It ran from Seremban, the main town of Sungei Ujong (now Negeri Sembilan) to the wharf at Port Dickson covering a distance of 25 miles. It was the 2nd oldest railway in the country, after the Taiping/ Port Weld line which was opened in 1895.
Port Dickson (PD) was a newly established port at that time and was named after the Straits Settlements Colonial Secretary Sir John Frederick Dickson who died the same year the railway was opened. PD was previously a small fishing settlement known as Tanjong by the Malays while the Chinese called it Arang after the charcoal production that were carried out there, notably at Pulau Arang, the small island off the jetty at Port Dickson.
The main purpose of the railway line was to facilitate the export of tin ore mined in the interior as well as for passengers who had to travel by bullock cart previously. There was only one train in each direction per day at first but this was increased to two per day from 1 April 1892 with schedule timed to coincide with the movements of steamers at Port Dickson.
The railway was taken over by Federated Malay State (F.M.S.) Railways in 1908. The Sungei Ujong Railway had been operating profitably but this may have been at the expense of regular repairs and maintenance. By July1905 the line and stations were in a ‘deplorable dilapidated condition’ according to The Straits Times of 20 July 1905.
There were initially three stations en route to Seremban, namely Quala Sala (Kuala Sawah), Rasa (Rasah) and Baubau (Mambau) It was known as the Zig Zag Railway due to its circuitous route but various realignments and line straightening took place over time, most recently from 1971-77 which involved closing stations at Siliau, Kuala Sawah, Sirusa and Sungai Salak. Passenger service was suspended on the line on 1 August 1930 but goods trains continued to operate. In the mid 1960s, with the opening of the Esso oil refinery in PD, Jet fuel was shipped by train to the old Subang Airport and Ipoh among other places. The line was finally closed in July 2008 following the derailment of a freight train carrying diesel. The railway tracks are still in place for much of its distance. There are also plenty of signage, signalling equipment and other railway equipment along the line. There have been proposals recently to reopen the line as part of the Malaysian Vision Valley.
The geocache
The geocache is a small magnetic container that is hiding under a structure