Great Malaysian Railway Journeys
FMS RAILWAYS MOTOR SERVICE

street with motor service vehicle

I wrote these Great Malaysian Railway Journey pages during the period 2014-2017. They used to be hosted on a separate Weebly website but, since mid 2026, Weebly is no longer available for customers in Malaysia so I am transferring the content here. Some of the information may be outdated and of historical interest only.

30 / 40 h.p. Straker-Squire no. R 25 on the Pahang trunk road30 / 40 h.p. Straker-Squire no. R 25 on the Pahang trunk road

In 1914, when the Federated Malay States Railways Pamphlet of Information for Travellers was written, FMS Railways ran a Motor Service linking various railway stations on the network with outlying settlements.

While the railway was helping the Colonial administration to open up the virgin jungles of Malaya for agriculture, mining and development, the rail network only served narrow corridors on the peninsula and roads were needed to extend prosperity to a wider area.

The longest routes, commencing in 1907, and covering the most challenging terrain, were from Kuala Kubu Station to Raub, then onwards from Raub to Kuala Lipis, and another route from Raub to Bentong.

Shorter services plied the following routes:

  • Tapah to Tapah Road Station (1906).
  • Chenderiang to Temoh Station (1907).
  • Klang Station to Kuala Selangor (1907).
  • Seremban to Kuala Pilah (1908).
  • Kuala Lumpur local services to Ampang and Salak South.

The vehicles (lorries and buses) carried mail, passengers and goods and were manufactured by the following makers:

  • Milnes-Daimler
  • Thornycroft
  • Straker-Squire
  • Albion
  • Halley
  • Leyland-Crossley

You can find much more detail and excellent photos on Uncle Howard's Album, a fascinating website* put together by Tim Light based on an old photo album purchased by Richard Peskett at a sale.

With the kind permission of Tim and Richard, I have created a short video from the photos on the website. If you have any information on Uncle Howard, I am sure they would appreciate you getting in touch (email address on Tim's website).

*This website appears to have been taken down since I originally wrote this article.

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AUTHOR BIO

the author

David (the one on the left) is the writer behind Malaysia Traveller, sharing first-hand travel advice from over five decades of living and travelling across Asia and the Middle East. Based in Malaysia since 2009 and now in Kuching, he has published over 790 pages on this website, personally visited every place he covers, and uses only his own photos. Readers can learn more on his About Me page. He also shares updates on Facebook and YouTube. He loves uncovering overlooked places that even some Malaysians have never visited.