End of the line for Cambodia’s bamboo trains

Villagers ride on a 'norry' in Kompong Chhnang province, northwest of Phnom Penh. Cambodia is planning an ambitious overhail of its rail network. (Tang Chhin Sothy, AFP/Getty Images / January 17, 2010)

For decades the precarious bamboo platforms have ferried people and goods in the nation’s hinterlands. But increasingly there is little room, or need, for them.

April 27, 2010
By Mark Magnier
Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Battambang, Cambodia

It rattles along at 20 miles an hour, swaying back and forth on uneven rails, the engine so loud it makes your teeth hurt. Then, rather unceremoniously, it runs out of gas and dies.

And you find yourself stranded in the middle of Cambodia on a handmade "norry" train, feeling a bit exposed on a 25-square-foot platform made of bamboo and scrap metal attached to wheels salvaged from old tanks.

Picture one of those hand-pump rail cars depicted in old Westerns, and you're close. It's powered (when it has gas) by a converted outboard engine. The brakes (when it has gas and you need brakes) are a wooden board pushed against the wheels. No seats.

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