A Guide to the North Borneo Railway – Our Day on the Tracks

We spent a day on the old North Borneo Railway (now called the Sabah State Railway) a 134KM stretch of track originally built in the 1890’s.

Train travel is one of the types of transport that I really enjoy.  The scenic routes taken by trains often offer views you would never usually see.  Our day started early, as we wanted to do the full stretch from Kota Kinabalu to Tenom in a day so that meant we had to catch the earliest service. The service starts from Tanjung Aru station,  which is a 10 minute drive from the city.

We took a minibus (17A from Waswasan Station at 7am/RM2) although you can easily get a taxi for RM15. You can easily get all the way to Tenom in a day but there is no train back until the next morning so we booked ourselves in at the Orchid Hotel (RM60 Double Room)

The first train from Tanjung Aru to Beaufort was very modern. We grabbed ourselves a table seat which was perfect as Kelly had a couple of articles to write. The views out the window were pleasant with an overwhelming amount of green and lots of small villages along the way.

Even though the weather in Malaysia is almost always hot and humid, make sure you pack a light jumper or jacket because the air conditioning on the first train is turned up very high and you will find yourself shivering.

We arrived in Beaufort with plenty of time to explore before our next train. It was a very handy stop for lunch. There’s nothing much in Beaufort, the usual small shops and restaurants and a really big Mosque.  The rows of shops are built on stilts high off the ground to protect them from the floods on the nearby river.

We bought our tickets for the second leg and we immediately realised this was going to be a different experience. The train was much older, a diesel engine pulling much older cars. We took a seat by the window because an older local gentleman had advised us that the view out of the right side was the best. It turned out that he was right. The first thing I noticed as we set off was the people just hanging out the doors and windows. This train was slow and it was a much better view if you popped your head out of the carriage like a dog would in a car.

This is where the great views started; the train ran alongside lush jungle hills, rushing river rapids, humble wooden huts decorated with colorful clotheslines and breathtaking mountain vistas. The river wound its way through the hills, so close to the train tracks in some parts that we could have jumped out of the window and into the water.

As we slowed through tiny villages so that other passengers could jump off, groups of small children perched in trees and waved and shouted hello.

At Harogilat station we once again changed trains. Our next train was tiny and was pulling just two simple cars. These cars had very limited seating and more of an open air feel to them. We had to keep our balance as you could easily fall out of the open sides if you were not careful. This is the sort of train travel experience that I had come for.

As we slowly clattered through the jungle, we hung on for dear life as we leaned out of the open train to feel the fresh air on our faces and snap photos of the panoramas passing us by. The carriage was full of young children with their heads stuck out of the window, they were taking the school train and it would drop them off at remote points along the route.

The train arrived in Tenom at around 4:30pm and we headed to our hotel. There was nothing of note to do in Tenom, this trip was really more about the journey than the destination.

Useful Links for the North Borneo Railway

The Railways Wikipedia Page
Sabah Tourism’s Page for the Railway