The national archives of Malta hold a number of copies of a drawing of Hamrun station precinct. It’s a survey drawing showing the buildings then standing, but without the railway tracks between them.

It probably originated towards the end of the lines life, and still forms part of a wider collection of railway drawings. It’s likely it was drawn-up to plan a future for the site after the planned closure in 1931 or shortly after. The former gateway for trains exiting the station is now marked as an entrance from the street, suggesting the change from rail to road traffic priorities.

One of these line drawings is of more interest. The basic line-drawn plan has been used by a surveyor tasked with providing ground levels. The purpose of the drawing is made clear with the pencilled cursive title “Survey with levels”.

Spot levels are marked across the site, pencil dots with scribbled heights, but it’s the other notes that are of most interest.

The former station building is marked as stores, the old sidings on the north side of the original carraige shed are described as “waste lines”, and there’s some fascinating annotation pinpointing “engines and carriage” within the original 1883 engine shed.

The drawing must pre-date the construction of the 1937 Milk depot, and it confirms the planned retention of some of the locomotives. Number 5 and one of the original Manning Wardle engines had been slated for use by the technical school along with a former tramcar. It seems that at the time of this survey they were either already inside the shed, or were planned for instillation here.

The intention to stable these vehicles in the old engine shed is supported by later photos from the 1940s that show the smaller 0-6-0 engine No.1 outside the old shed along with the tram, now shorn of its upper-floor structures (presumably, these had to be removed before it could be placed in the shed?) What’s missing from these 1940s photos is any sign of the larger engine, No.5.

It’s likely that No.1 and the tram had become increasingly irrelevant as teaching aids and occupied space in the shed that could be put to better use. They might then have been hauled back out of the engine shed where they were photographed in 1943 and 1945, before eventually vanishing from history. But what of No.5? Was it still in the shed in the 1940s?

Another note on the drawing highlights “wagons” in the former carriage shed. Four irregular rectangles suggest a line of large vehicles along one side of the interior. Does this refer to some of the carriages still left unsold long after the closure of the railway? Their fate will have been firmly sealed when the sheds were cleared and demolished to make way for the milk concern in 1937.