Singapore has 3 railway truss bridges leftover from the days our city centre was connected to Malaysia by rail. I lived next to one of these railway lines, which stopped operating in the 1990's. I was always told that the land along the railway belonged to Malaysia, and that if I stepped onto the tracks, I'd be in Malaysia right away, right in my backyard!
I lived along the Jurong railway line. In my younger days, we still could see trains go choo-choo by from the shipyards in Jurong and connect to the Bukit Timah line. It wasn't till much later that I learned it went through a tunnel under Clementi Road and through Clementi Forest to connect to the main rail line which traversed the island from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands. In 2011, the land along the former Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway track was returned to Singapore after the Malaysian rail operator ceased train services here.
The 3 truss bridges are in the western side of Singapore and span different environments. The one along Bukit Timah and Dunearn Road is probably the most well-known. It goes over Bukit Timah Road and its parallel road in the opposite direction, Dunearn Road, and the monsoon drain between, connecting Rifle Range Road on one end to Bukit Timah Railway Station behind King Albert Park. It uses a Baltimore Truss construction.
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| Bukit Timah Road Truss Bridge |
The second truss bridge is near Hillview close to the Rail Mall. It spans Upper Bukit Timah Road, a major highway, and has stone supports with tunnel walkways on both sides. It uses a Pratt Truss construction.
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| Upper Bukit Timah Road Truss Bridge |
The third bridge is the one close to Clementi Road which spans Sungei Ulu Pandan (Ulu Pandan River) and Ulu Pandan Park Connector. It is probably the largest of the 3, even if it has less beams. This is the one I was most familiar with as I lived nearby. Before the tracks were removed, I traced them from its AYE end to Sunset Way before it dove into the jungle and under the tunnel at Clementi Road. Back then, it ran parallel to the river along the flats at Clementi. There were community farms on state land before they were removed due to complaints. Some of those farms had been around for 30 years! They were a space for older folks doing hobby gardening and farming and to hang out with their friends. It was a shame they have been removed. There was even a well near one of them, several metres above the water level of the river. A good stretch of the line was overgrown, some with ponds nearby with insects, dragonflies, and other wildlife. Some rare butterflies also made that stretch their home. Unfortunately development along the line meant that some of the nature has since been replaced by condominiums and roads. However, if you know where to look, you can even find some stretches of rail remaining without having to trudge through Clementi Forest. This bridge is now closed as it's quite run down and hasn't been maintained, but some years back I could still gingerly cross it.
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| Ulu Pandan Truss Bridge |
I wanted to capture these vestiges of our rail heritage and present not only the bridges but also the environments they are located in - roads, buildings, overhead bridges, rivers, etc. I chose to sketch these bridges using fineliner pens, specifically Pentel pointliners on an Etchr hot press watercolour sketchbook. I decided not to add watercolour wash over the linework, which stood well on its own. Each sketch took several hours. I started by blocking out the shapes on-location in pencil and finished them at home from photo reference. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. You can watch the video recordings of the process here:
- Shading Clementi Truss Bridge (27 min)
- Drawing Upper Bukit Timah Truss Bridge Timelapse (2:13 min)
