The first proposals for a railroad system in the
Philippines was enacted by King
Alfonso XII of Spain on June 20, 1875. It directed the
Office of the Inspector of Public Works of the Philippines to submit a layout for future railroads in Luzon, the largest island in the
Spanish East Indies. Public works chief Eduardo Lopez Navarro then submitted the
General Plan for Railroads in the Island of Luzon on August 6 which was approved by the King Alfonso later that month. In 1882, a detailed design was made for the
Ferrocarril de Manila a Dagupan leading to
Pangasinan. Bids were laid out on January 26, 1885. The sole bidder was led by Englishman Edmund Hett Sykes'
Manila Railway Company, Limited, known to the Spanish as
Don Edmundo. His bid was awarded on June 1, 1887 but Sykes transferred the ownership of the consortium to Carlos Bertadano on July 8. English engineer Horace L. Higgins was assigned as the overall general manager in the
Philippines. Spanish officer José Gago y Palomo was also invited to oversee the overall security operations during the construction of the line. However, Palomo refused and instead joined the expeditionary forces of
Governors-General Valeriano Weyler and
Ramon Blanco against the
Moro people, where he served as an engineer in what is now
Tukuran,
Zamboanga del Sur. Construction began on July 31, 1887. Passenger cars were also ordered from the Metropolitan Carriage Company, later
Metro-Cammell of Britain. These initial sets were quite short compared to those used in Europe and only accommodated first- and second-class passengers with 24 seats each, the third-class passengers were put into modified
boxcars.
Philippine–American War used the railroad during his presidency and his escape. During the
Philippine–American War, the railroads were rather neutral having supported both Filipino and American forces. Most notably, the Manila Railway was the primary route of escape for then-president
Emilio Aguinaldo and his cabinet from the advancing American forces towards Central Luzon. Higgins himself was also involved in the sabotage of a bridge during the
Battle of Calumpit. Not long after, the American forces also took control of the company after Aguinaldo completed his escape. Despite being initially in Filipino hands, the American occupation of the Manila Railway and the
Tranvía became instrumental in accelerating the decline of the
First Philippine Republic and eventual capture of Aguinaldo in Isabela. Insurgencies came afterwards for the remaining Filipino forces during the war. American forces marked the rolling stock with various military company insignia until the insurgencies in Luzon ended in the mid-1900s.
American period The negative sentiment of foreign journalists regarding the rolling stock urged the Manila Railway to order more proper railcars. In 1900,
Delaware-based
Harlan and Hollingsworth and
Jackson and Sharp Company provided the first long coaches in the country. Metropolitan also provided their own stock soon after. By 1904, there were 120 passenger cars and 556 freight cars. Two new entities were then formed in 1906, the
London-based
Manila Railway Company (1906), Limited and the
Manila Railroad Company of New Jersey. That same year, the company managed to acquire its first
tender locomotives in the form of the
Manila Railway 100 class. The Philippine entity has been renamed into the
Manila Railroad Company soon after. Before 1913, the MRR's American board of directors transferred from New Jersey to 45
Nassau Street, a
skyscraper in
New York City. Express Daang Bakal Station
State ownership The
Insular Government of the Philippine Islands has proposed to acquire the Manila Railroad system in the midst of
World War I. On February 2, 1916, the London-based
Manila Railway Company (1906) Limited and the
Manila Railroad Company of New Jersey were both acquired by the government and were incorporated into the new state-owned Manila Railroad Company. Higgins stepped down as president and a number of Americans handled the post of president and general manager, most notably
United States Army colonel and
Republican National Committee member for the Philippines Henry Bayard McCoy (1866–1923). This brief period between 1916 and 1923 introduced the
Americanization of the MRR. American-built tender locomotives replaced the aging Scottish-built
tank locomotives and lighter-built tender locomotives. Annual reports have also adopted
American English conventions as a result. Metropolitan, having been a long-time supplier of coaches under Higgins, stopped manufacturing for the country in 1923.
American Car and Foundry Company stepped in as their replacement afterwards.
Filipino leadership McCoy was then succeeded by the agency's first Filipino general manager, Jose B. Paez. The MRR during his term established its own rolling stock manufacturing facility in its
Caloocan workshop. Not long after in 1936, then-Philippine president
Manuel L. Quezon initiated plans for what would become the
Mindanao Railway, an
electrified standard-gauge railway compared to the steam-powered
3 ft 6 in gauge railways of the Manila Railroad during that time. Construction began immediately, but the project never went past track bed construction when it was abandoned in 1940. Aside from rolling stock,
National Artist of the Philippines for
Architecture Pablo S. Antonio designed several of the stations. Paez's term with the Manila Railroad then ended on December 31, 1941, when the
Imperial Japanese Army took control of the Philippines in the midst of
World War II.
Japanese period After Paez stepped down from his post as general manager, the Japanese Railway Corps took control of the Manila Railroad on January 1, 1942. The company was then placed under the administration of the
Riku′un Kanrikyoku or the Land Transportation Management Bureau. The first train from Manila to San Fernando, Pampanga was inaugurated on February 15. The most notable event during its brief takeover was its involvement during the
Bataan Death March to transfer prisoners of war from
San Fernando, Pampanga to
Capas,
Tarlac in April of that year. Aside from deaths from starvation on the way to San Fernando, there were also accounts of prisoners of war dying on the train cars. Services were returned on the Cabanatuan branch on May 14. The entirety of the North Main Line to La Union was reopened on July 21, 1942. The South Main Line was the last to reopen, having been reopened in March 1943. The Japanese then extended
Main Line North from
San Fernando, La Union to
Sudipen near the border with
Ilocos Sur. The extension held its groundbreaking ceremony on April 6, 1943 and the line was opened by the
Riku′un Kanrikyoku in January 1944. The extension from Bacnotan to Sudipen was then dismantled in 1945 to reconstruct the lines destroyed during the war. Even then, passenger trains terminated at San Fernando with only freight trains continuing north to Bacnotan. In 1945, amidst the
Second Philippines Campaign, the Manila Railroad became the Luzon Military Railway under the
United States Army. Around that same year, the
Manila Railroad 300 class rack locomotives used on the Aringay line were scrapped during the Americans' northward advance. The nameplate belonging to No. 306
Mirador was rescued from the rubble and was restored much later in the
California State Railroad Museum.
Third Republic The Luzon Military Railway, the temporary name of the Manila Railroad during the Philippines Campaign, was renamed back to the Manila Railroad in 1946. At the same time, Sergio Bayan filled the previously vacant spot of general manager and finished Paez's 1941 report. According to a 1952 report, 75 percent of all MRR rolling stock were destroyed during the war. The agency adopted so-called
zombie cars as a result to augment passenger coaches destroyed by the war. These were gondola cars and flatcars with
trapal tents placed on top to provide cover akin to reused boxcars during the early days of the Manila Railway. Additionally, the remaining serviceable stock were rebuilt from 1946 and became the 4, 5, and 6 series coaches. A number of ex-US Army locomotives were also acquired such as the
800 class USA and the 8500 class diesel switchers. The first steel-bodied cars, marked 7C, were acquired from the
Pullman Car Company in 1948. A purchase of seven
4-8-2 locomotives followed in 1949 to replace
Manila Railroad 170 class units destroyed by the war, numbered the 100 class. Japanese company
Nippon Sharyo also provided the
JNR Class D51 locomotives in 1951 as part of war reparations, numbered the 300 class. This would be the last steam locomotive order of the MRR. In 1953, Magsaysay was elected as
President of the Philippines and continued the construction of the Cagayan Valley line during his term. The following year, general manager Salvador Villa started the MRR dieselization program as previously proposed by De Leuw. He ordered 40 locomotives from
GE Transportation which in turn made the MRR one of the first customers of the new
GE Universal Series diesel locomotives. In August 1956, the remaining steam locomotives were retired from all its flagship services regardless of their age. Asides from GE, the agency also ordered several passenger cars from Japanese manufacturers.
Carlos P. Garcia succeeded Magsaysay as the president in March 1957 after the latter
died in a plane crash and continued the Cagayan Valley line.
Final years Macapagal defeated Garcia for the presidential bid in 1961. His administration hosted visits of two Asian monarchs in 1962 and 1963. MRR readily involved in transporting these heads of state and their spouses outside of Manila. Crown Prince
Akihito of
Japan and Princess
Michiko also visited the country between November 5 and 10, 1962. While their visit continued, the proposed
Imperial Train to carry the couple to
Baguio was cancelled. A year later on July 9 to 14, King
Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen
Sirikit of
Thailand visited the Philippines and traveled to
Bauang,
La Union on a
2000 class-hauled
royal train operated by the MRR. Not long after the two monarchs' visits to the country and amidst a looming financial crisis caused by Garcia's tight currency controls and the
Filipino First policy, the Manila Railroad became the present-day
Philippine National Railways by the virtue of Republic Act 4156 on June 20, 1964. This name change was patterned after its
Japanese counterpart, who also provided railcars for the MRR.
Legacy historical marker In Thailand, the King's visit influenced the
State Railway of Thailand to purchase their own version of the 2000 class during the mid-1960s during the transition period from MRR to PNR. While both versions featured a shovelnose design due to the shape of the
cowcatcher, the Thai UM12Cs instead had a dual-cab layout with a cab-over design similar to other railroads in mainland
Asia compared to the more Americanized cab used by the MRR. These UM12Cs remain in service into the 2020s unlike the 2000 class which were scrapped altogether in the 1990s until 2000. the original 1936 plans for the expansion to
Mindanao becoming the
Mindanao Railway, and the reconstruction of the old southern line became the
PNR South Long Haul project. Lastly, most of the traces of the Manila Railroad were lost to history. Out of the hundreds of locomotives and railcars that entered the MRR, only three were saved while only one pre-war railcar and a few post-war steel coaches remain. All tender were scrapped in the remaining years of the 20th century. The last remaining diesel locomotive from this era, Manila Railroad No. 4010 was transferred to the Victorias Milling Company as No. 41, although this locomotive has already been shelved as of 2022. ==Other operations==