Hillview Avenue was a proposed railway track !

When I was preparing a sketch map for my previous post, I searched for one that would show the hills and relief of the area around Hillview. I found an old 1924 map and used that as an overlay for my sketch map about battles that occurred in the region of Hillview.

Most everyone, I am sure, would not have noticed something on the battle map unless you are into railways or perhaps tried to look for the Rail Corridor which, of course being 1924, would not be on the map. Was there something different about the railway line there?

While doing the sketch map, my mind too got distracted by the railway line and I was thinking that perhaps I could share some trivial information that I knew about the railway line here.

On the battle map, there is a railway line drawn from Bukit Timah Village running towards Bukit Panjang.
This railway line was not the one that is today's Rail Corridor, the NParks project to conserve the former KTM railway corridor as a 'Green Corridor'.
This rail line was the older and original Tank Road-Kranji Railway, or sometimes called the Singapore to Woodlands Railway.

I reproduced the map here and the Tank Road-Kranji Line is marked in RED

(Click on picture for detailed view)

The original Tank Road-Kranji Line that was laid in 1903 ran alongside Bukit Timah Road (from Newton) to Bukit Timah Village. From there, it curved back towards Upper Bukit Timah Road and continued northwards to Bukit Panjang Village, on the western side of the road.

In 1932, the Tank Road-Kranji Line was replaced by the new Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) Railway (marked in BLUE in the map) that started from Tanjong Pagar instead. Now defunct since 2011, this is the current Rail Corridor. 

In this region, the KTM Railway ran along the foothills of Bukit Timah Hill and crossed Upper Bukit Timah Road near Rail Mall, continuing north using the same track-bed as the older Kranji Line all the way to the Johore Causeway.

While this may be something that some of you already know, that there were two separate railways, there's more trivia about this section of the railway that will surprise most of you.

The proposed Hillview Line
When the 1903 Tank Road-Kranji Line was being planned, the original route was proposed on the western side of Bukit Batok (hill). This would be through the valley between Bukit Batok and Bukit Gombak, in the region that would in future become 'Hillview'. The planned route is marked in YELLOW above. 

However, this plan was rejected and the route was redesigned for the railway track to run along the eastern slope of Bukit Batok, running parallel to Upper Bukit Timah Road. 
You can see the abrupt change in the track direction after Bukit Timah Village. This diversion would be at Toh Tuck Road today, where the Bukit Timah Community Club is located.

Perhaps it was easier from an engineering or construction perspective to use the main road? 
I do not know the real reasons for this change in routing. I hope some railway expert can reveal the reasons by commenting in this blog?

Things might have been a lot different perhaps for Hillview had the railway line been built through it.
Hillview Avenue, that was constructed in the 1970s, was laid on the exact route that the railway line would have taken.

The older 1903 Tank Rd-Kranji Railway ran on a terrace beside Upp Bt Timah Road.
The newer 1932 KTM Railway was located on the other side of the road.
The Ford and Hume factories were only built in 1941.
The raised railway terrace can still be seen today.

The Tank Rd-Kranji railway running down from the terrace.
The future Hillview Road would be built here in 1947.
The buildings at the bottom were the PWD Depot at Dairy Farm Road.

This is a map from 1898 of Singapore (from the YaleNUS/NLB collaboration online library)
that depicts the original Kranji to Woodlands railway line drawn through the 'Hillview' region.
The coloured overlay on the map was probably not on the original 1898 map
but was likely drawn in at a later date but before the completion of the railway line.