A Malayan Railway kopitiam legacy

 

“Thank you for the well written story of our 88^th anniversary celebration,” said Lim Jit Tong also known as Barney, when he read what I had documented about their 88^th anniversary celebration of the Kluang RailCoffee, hosted at their flagship Kluang Railway Station kopitiam in late August 2026.

 

At the old KTM Railway Station in Kluang 
with Jack Lim [Right], Lim Jianle [Left]
and Robert Lim [2nd from Left]

As I looked back at my first meeting with his cousin, Lim Jit Chen, better known as Jack, at the Kluang Railway Station kopitiam, it was in 2006, a good 20 years out of their 88 years, so far.

 

It was my privilege to document the Kluang RailCoffee story in, My Johor Stories 2: Interesting Places and Inspirational People, among other heritage traders who were still doing the businesses started by their forefathers.

 

On that recent anniversary celebration held in Kluang, it was good to renew my acquaintance with old friends and to meet new ones.

 

I mentioned that I was introduced to two fellow members in their Lim Hainanese clan, namely Robert Lim Meng Zium, a Johorean, and Lim Jianle, who came from their hometown village in Hainan Island, China, just to celebrate this event.

 

Over chilled drinks on that warm and sunny morning, they shared with me an interesting discovery of the link between the railway kopitiam heritage in Johor with the Lim clan in Hainan Island.

 

Lim Jianle showing copies of the old letters 
to Jack Lim, while Robert Lim looks on

When I listened to their account of how Robert met with Jianle in Hainan Island, Jack chipped in to say that he received copies of the letters (collected by Jianle) that were written from the family who used to operate the kopitiam in the Johor Bahru Railway Station.

 

Jianle, I soon learnt, is a researcher and collector of heritage artefacts and these letters in his collection were exciting proofs of the link between the railway kopitiam heritage here with the Lim clan in Hainan Island.

 

The very thought of letters written between families here and their hometown in China gave me a flashback to, Dear You, a recent popular Chinese movie screened in Teochew dialect which shared a tale of how such letters were exchanged and how the Chinese would send remittances, financial help to support their families back home.

 

Early trade links that date back to the 15^th Century during the Malacca Sultanate, made South East Asia a familiar and accessible destination for the Chinese who were seeking their fortune abroad.

 

Meanwhile, poverty, overpopulation, severe economic hardship and political instability in Southern China, mainly Guangdong and Fujian provinces, compelled the Chinese to seek a better life abroad.

 

During the British rule in Malaya where tin-mining and agriculture were developed, it created a huge demand for labour so the Chinese were encouraged to work in these sectors in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

 

The Johore Bahru Railway Station
once had their own Book Stall

The Chinese diaspora would leave their villages in China and travelled by sea in very challenging conditions to reach the region known as Nanyang or South Asian nations like Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaya, of which Singapore was then part of.

 

Chinese junks full of sinkhek or ‘new guests’ (in Hokkien/Teochew dialects) would dock in Singapore port and agents would direct the new arrivals to their contracted jobs or send them to their dialect clan houses where they would get job placements.

 

While it was mostly young men who left the country to earn money to send financial help to their families back home, from the 1930s through to the 1970s, there was another wave of independent Chinese women who chose to move to South East Asia to work as domestic servants, nannies and cooks.

 

This sisterhood of majie – a word which means ‘mother and sister’ – in Cantonese dialect, alludes to their spinsterhood, as many took a vow of celibacy and chose to remain unmarried to maintain personal and financial independence.

 

In the early waves of Chinese arrivals, many found jobs as coolies in the Singapore docks, shifting goods and providing goods transport by tongkang and sampan.

 

Coming from an agricultural country like China, the Chinese also found work in agriculture as planters who cultivated the land to plant food and crops, like pepper and gambier.

 

Working hard in their adopted countries, the Chinese thrived and developed strong proficiencies in trade, retail and supply chain management. Many found their fortune in skilled work like laundry services, jewelry-making and iron-works.

 

The Johore Bahru Railway Station
was once the Station Rest House

When the Hainanese arrived in this part of the world, they found their niche in running traditional coffeeshops. Those who were skilled in baking bread in wood-fire ovens started bakeries and supplied freshly-baked bread, buns and cakes.

 

The British, who recognized their culinary skills, invited Hainanese to be their cooks. And as these Hainanese cooks applied their creativity in the English kitchens, it was the humble birth of a popular dish in this part of the world, known as the Hainanese-style Chicken Chop.

 

I thought it would be useful to connect the modern generation with the historical references above so as to better understand what transpired in the Lim Hainanese clan with regard to the legacy of the Malayan Railway kopitiam, coffeeshops opened at most railway stations along the North-South railway line in Peninsular Malaya.

 

In Malaya railway services began in 1885 with the opening of a 13-km line that connected the tin-mining hub in Taiping to the coastal port of Port Weld or Kuala Sepetang, in Perak.

 

In 1910 the Federated Malay States Railway or FMSR was established to merge various regional state networks into a single centralized administration.

 

From 1910 to the 1940s, the network expanded to form a backbone line that connected major economic corridors from Prai in the North down through Kuala Lumpur to Johor and Singapore.

 

The telephone number at the
Station Hotel, Johore Bahru
was only four digits

As the railway system was modernized, it went through various name changes including the Malayan Railway and eventually in 1962, became Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM). In 1992, KTM was corporatized into Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) as a government-owned entity.

 

Before major roads were constructed, the railways primarily served to transport tin and rubber to international shipping ports and fresh produce to the towns.

 

During the British rule, the railways were also an important means of transport and railway stations not only offered a refreshment stop in the railway kopitiam but also provided comfortable accommodation in their railway rest house or railway hotel.

 

The printed letterhead on the sheets of paper used to write those letters from the Johore Bahru Railway Station, confirmed this. At that time the word, Johor was spelled with the letter “e” at the end, to read as Johore.

 

When I saw that the telephone number of the Station Hotel Johore Bahru was made up of only four digits, 2819, it was pure nostalgia, truly a page from the past.

 

From these old letters, we saw that the Johore Bahru Railway Station not only housed a hotel but it also once was a Rest House and even had its own Book Stall.

 

Copies of the old letters in
Lim Jianle's collection

So many thoughts were swirling in my mind and I could not resist quizzing Robert and Jianle for more details on how they discovered this connection. After all, Robert was a Johorean in Johor while Jianle was in Wen Chang village on Hainan Island.

 

Robert explained that during this year’s Qing Ming festival, he returned to Hainan Island for the annual tradition and met with Jianle while they were in the Lim clan ancestral hall.

 

In the course of their conversation, Jianle revealed that he has a collection of old letters received from the Lim family who used to operate the kopitiam in the Johore Bahru Railway Station.

 

Robert, who was familiar with Lim Jit Jee, brother of Jack, made the connection among the Lim clan members and encouraged Jianle to come to Kluang for the kopitiam’s 88^th anniversary celebration. And this was where we met and started to talk about this railway kopitiam legacy in Malaya.

 

Looking back, Jack recalled that his father told him that a Hainanese man found favour with the British and was tasked to operate a kopitiam in the railway station.

 

Word about this work opportunity spread around their village in Hainan Island and members of the Lim clan soon joined the kopitiam industry in Malaya.

 

They eventually monopolized the trade, operating coffeeshops in all the railway stations from Johor Bahru to Bukit Mertajam and even the buffet coach on trains.

 

Jack recalled that his grandfather Lim Luan Hee, first started working with a kopitiam in a plantation in Taiping and it was such a tough experience that he decided to give up.

Lim Jianle was presented
with a copy of my book

He was in fact, on his way out and while he made a stopover in Tampin and stayed with a relative, he was advised to bravely stick it out. Then when he heard that a railway station canteen in Kluang was available for rent, he seized the opportunity and moved to Johor.

Armed with one kati (500g) of sugar and a few cans of milk, Lim started serving his first customer at the Kluang Railway Station canteen in 1938.

Lim slowly built the business in the pre-war days and it continued to thrive in spite of the Japanese Occupation. Upon retirement, his eldest son, Lim Heng Yong, took over and continued to operate the business with the same spirit and commitment. 

To serve early customers waiting for the first morning train, Heng Yong would sleep on a little canvas bed in the shop after the close of business so that he could be up early the next morning to serve breakfast by 6.30am.

In the 1990s, Heng Yong’s son, Jack took the business to new heights by establishing the Kluang RailCoffee brand. This brand continues to grow under a team led by Lim Ben Winn, Jack’s son, and Lim family members.

Currently, the Lim family operating the Kluang RailCoffee kopitiam prevails as the only Lim clan members who have persevered and continues the legacy to operate a railway station kopitiam in the nation, just as their forefathers did, some 88 years ago.

 

The Kluang RailCoffee kopitiam is located within the charming old KTM railway station at Jalan Station, 86000 Kluang, Johor. Check social media for their list of other locations in and outside of Johor.

 

Note: Meanwhile, Robert and Jianle said they will follow a lead to track down the Lim family who used to operate the kopitiam in the original Johore Bahru Railway Station. More about this as the story unfolds.