THAILAND - BURMA RAILWAY

Credit: Australian Military History

By : Ross Harris

Australia has a strong military history in Thailand with 13,000 of its prisoners of war involved in the construction of the infamous Thailand – Burma Railway in 1942/43. I don’t know if many people realise that about 130kms of the line in Thailand is still in operational service as a passenger railway. I rode the railway and visited several sites last year.

Having captured much of South East Asia, Imperial Japan was keen to push eastward and conquer India. A rail link between Thailand and Burma was proposed many years earlier but was deemed too difficult. The Japanese built the line using captured Allied soldiers from Singapore and Malaya and also up to 200,000 of local labour. The railway branched off the Thai South Line at Nong Pladuk Junction and there’s a large stone marker with a plaque marking the start of the line. Locomotives were imported from Japan, whilst track and sleepers were brought in from dismantled railways in Malaya and the East Indies. It was opened in 1943 following the death of 12,000 Allied soldiers and 90,000+ civilians during its construction. The line was operational until 1945, following Japan’s surrender.

At Kanchanaburi the line crosses the Khwae Yai River (I shall talk about this later), and generally follows the river for several miles. Not far out of Kanchanaburi the line passes through a short but deep cutting at Chong Kai. This is significant as a cutting built by POW forced labour and which is still in active use. At Tham Krasae solid rock cliffs meet the river and the only was through was via a series of long timber trestle viaducts to carry the line snugly between the cliff edge and the river. These all-timber structures was built by POW forced labour and the first blast with dynamite killed many soldiers. The operational line terminates at Nam Tok, 160kms northwest of Bangkok.

In the 1990s a 1km extension was opened to the Sai Yok Noi Waterfall where the single track ends in a dead end and on weekends a diesel passenger railcar takes visitors right up to the waterfall which is very popular in summer. From here the formation of the line is very hard to find as the jungle scrub has engulfed it. There is one exception at a locality called Phu Ta Khian. Behind the Buddhist temple, up some steps on to the embankment, is a 300 metre section of railway track, still in situ. It is possible that this section of track has been relayed by monks for the benefit of tourists, but never-the-less, the rusting rails and rotting sleepers are authentically ‘Death Railway’ infrastructure. Adjacent to the temple, monks have placed several static displays of dog spikes, wagons and sleepers.

In the next post I'll talk about the military features at Kanchanaburi. I've written this info as I understand it but people are welcome to provide corrections or additional info.

C&P: 18/11/2025: 1.44 p.m