Phnom Krom railway

The Phnom Krom railway was a 600 mm (1 ft 11 ⁵⁄₈ in) gauge narrow gauge railway that ran approximately 6 miles (9.5 km) from the town of Siem Reap, Cambodia in the north to the temple hill of Phnom Krom in the south. Very little historical evidence remains about this railway, its original purpose, date of construction or date of closure.

The primary source of historical evidence for the existence of the Phnom Krom railway is its appearance on a number of maps. For example, a 1962 US Army Corps of Engineers map of the area shows the railway clearly marked, and its demarcation is as a ‘narrow gauge’ railway, as opposed to standard gauge (which, in keeping with the standard gauge of Cambodia and much of South East Asia, is listed as 1 metre). The railway also shows up in the same position on a number of other maps of Siem Reap from the 1960s.

The railway ran 6 miles (9.5 km) in a south-westerly direction from what was then the western side of Siem Reap town, in a straight line to Phnom Krom. According to the available maps, the northern terminus of the railway was just north of National Highway 6, in what was then a military area.

Though no evidence is known to exist on the origins and use of the Phnom Krom railway, it is possible to hazard some guesses based on the pattern of French colonial railway construction in the rest of South East Asia, and remaining physical evidence on the ground.

It is most probable that the railway originated as a quarrying railway, transporting stone from extensive quarries on the north eastern and south eastern faces of Phnom Krom (which are still evident, though now defunct) to provide material for the construction of the French colonial administrative centre at Siem Reap. It is impossible to speculate when the railway was constructed, but most likely it would have between around 1890 (when the French were, among other things, undertaking extensive construction in Phnom Penh which also included the use of narrow gauge railways) and perhaps as late as the 1920s, when work on the Grand Hotel D'Angkor was being undertaken (a project which would have required large quantities of building materials).

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