I LEARNT something from the '6:39pm' picture in The Straits
Times yesterday.
When I was a very little child, my parents used to take me to
the railway station at North Buona Vista Road, where the Biopolis
now is, to watch the train passing in the evening.
(The train station is gone now, but the track still runs there,
and the area is still called Tanglin Halt.)
I used to see the station master handing a bag to the driver of
the train each time it passed, looking exactly like this photo, and
wondered why he did that. I never found out until now.
Today, after more than 50 years, I discover that it actually
contains a brass token, and is a safety measure to ensure that the
train with the token is the only one on that two-way section of
track!
Lee Hsien Loong
Prime Minister
