Camouflaged in vegetation close to the former railway station at Tanjong Pagar, is a forgotten structure that perhaps reminds us of why the southern terminal station of the Federated Malay States Railway (FMSR) was relocated to Tanjong Pagar in 1932. The station was as many know, built to serve an important function as Asia’s and possibly Europe’s gateway to the Pacific and Indian oceans that lay beyond our shores. While the railway that was to link Asia with the extensive European railway network didn’t quite materialise, the Malayan Railway’s southern terminal still served as an important link for goods from the peninsula to be exported though the nearby docks at Tanjong Pagar, right up until the 1960s.
A turnbuckle for the tension wires supporting the gate.
A stop sign on the gate stands out in the vegetation.
Speaking to an elderly gentleman whom I met at the station and who was kind enough to show me to the gate to the docks, I was to learn that the last the gate was used was back in 1965, some 46 years ago. He remembers that there was a crossing across what was a narrow Keppel Road then, on which the train crossed close to where Tanjong Pagar Railway Station is right into the gate to the docks. With the closure of the station, which has been gazetted as a National Monument as of the 1st of July, I hope that the gate would also be kept – to remind us of why the station had been placed at where it was at Tanjong Pagar.
A post for the gate to the docks seen through the vegetation.
A view of the gate that reminds us of the purpose for which the railway station was sited at Tanjong Pagar.
The Long and Winding Road 
Thank you for documenting this lesser known part of the Tanjong Pagar Railway station.
As I recall the reasons for the choice of location of the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, I could not help but try to wonder much changes have happened over less a century since its opening.