THAILAND’S STEAM SURVIVORS
In words and pictures, John Titlow highlights a host of steam locomotives which survive in Thailand – some in service, others on static display in a plethora of locations. He also shares his experiences of exploring the death railway built by Allied priso
Despite having a considerable number of preserved locomotives scattered around the country, Thailand does not have a railway museum. Many locos have therefore become rusting hulks with little or no protection from the elements.
The website International Steam www. internationalsteam.co.uk lists just over
80, from a variety of builders and gauges, with their details and location. The UK is represented by around 20, the rest come from Japan, USA, Germany and France – none are locally built.
Thailand’s main line is metre gauge, with 75cm and 60cm used on the sugar and wood lines. Identification can be a problem as numbers painted on the sides do not correspond with the correct loco.
While in Thailand, I had the opportunity to visit and ride on what is left of the aptly named ‘Death Railway’, built by Allied troops in 1943 during the Burma campaign, between Nong Pladuk (Ban Pong) in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Burma, linking the two capitals of Bangkok in Thailand and Rangoon, which is now called Yangon in Myanmar (was called Burma). Ironically, it was surveyed by the British in 1885 but considered too difficult to build.
Trains run from Bangkok’s Thonburi Station to Nam Tok, where the line now terminates far short of its original destination, 14 miles from the infamous Hellfire Pass and 100 miles from the Myanmar border. The line, including the infamous Bridge over the River
Kwai at Kanchanaburi and Wang Pho trestle bridge clinging to the near vertical hillside is now part of a huge tourist destination. The surrounding area is riddled with scenic caves, waterfalls and the nearby Sai Yok National Park – Hellfire Pass is also included, which is a far cry from the horrors of the Second World War and its construction.
Never forgotten
When visiting the area, nothing has been forgotten regarding the construction of the line and its many bridges by Allied Prisoners of War (POWS) and local labourers. The museums and graveyards stand testimony to this, where preserved locomotives are found at various locations, some almost hidden. Macabre is an understatement and you certainly get a feeling of the futility and insanity to build a railway through virgin jungle simply to feed the Japanese war effort.
It was due to the Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway that necessitated the building of the line as an overland route to supply the Japanese war effort in this region as it became too difficult by sea. It took about a year to complete from October 1942 to October 1943, which is an amazing feat, especially when hard labour was used rather than modern machines. POWS were conscripted for its construction, as well as local labourers
and they were treated as slave labour.
More than 12,000 Allied POWS and 90,000 local labourers died during the building due to diseases such as cholera, malaria and dysentery, coupled with the lack of medicines and poor diet. Furthermore, there was the harsh treatment meted out by the Japanese and Korean guards. The Japanese treated POWS as less than animals because they were captured rather than doing the ‘honourable thing’ and committing suicide.
When the tide eventually turned and the Japanese were in retreat, the line was used as an escape path.
After the war, the Burma Railway was considered a war crime committed by Japan – 111 military officials were tried due to the brutalization of the POWS; 32 received the death sentence.
In 1947, the line was closed to protect British interests in the region, with the rails ripped up for use elsewhere. However, the section to Non Pladuk was reopened 10 years later.
Since the 1990s, there have been several discussions about reopening the line as a through route but none came to fruition. To compound problems, a large dam has been built, submerging the line. The surrounding terrain is mountainous, so tunnelling would be essential, coupled with the serious work needed to replace the many lost bridges over the dips, which makes it unlikely.
The only way to get to Hellfire Pass, known locally as Konya Cutting, the largest on the line, is by road. The museum is funded by the Australian Government and the Royal Thai Armed Forces in memory of those who died. It got its name by the light from the flaming torches that illuminated the figures of the guards casting eerie shadows, especially when exhausted POWS worked between 16 to 18 hours a day. From the museum, a long staircase takes you down onto the line, then into Hellfire Pass itself, where you can follow the trackbed further past dips where trestle bridges would have been.
On the road you pass the very well hidden Weary Dunlop Park, which must be one of the most poignant museums on the line. Although there is little mention of it locally and a complete lack of signs, the entrance is through the Home Phu Toey Resort/farm, before dropping downhill to the museum.
Here is a better reminder of the line and the harsh conditions suffered – there is a rusting hulk of a steam locomotive and several wagons actually on the line. Weary Dunlop was an Australian surgeon, who saved many lives in the most adverse of conditions.
During the building of the line, the POWS did their best to slow construction down and sabotage it in many inventive ways, particularly regarding the wooden trestle bridges along the route. At Wang Pho Viaduct between Kanchanaburi and Nam Tok, termites were put into the wooden trestle bridge by the prisoners to eat away the wood, but teak was way too hard for them to penetrate. Many of the original timbers can still be seen.
The railway was epitomised in the 1957 David Lean film, ‘Bridge over the river Kwai’, starring Alec Guinness, which ironically was filmed in Sri Lanka. The present bridge bears no resemblance to the one in the film and was not over the River Kwai at all but over the Mae Klong River in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. At the time, it was the only bridge of steel construction in Thailand and was bombed heavily by the Allies in 1945 – where the two centre spans were destroyed, the curved outer spans of the original still remain.
Due to the power of tourism and to avoid confusion and disappointment, the Mae Klong became the Kwai Yai River in the 1960s. Nothing remains of a wooden bridge that was built 100 metres downstream.
There are only two daily return workings over the Death Railway from Bangkok’s Thonburi station located over the river from the main Hua Lamphong central station. It seems odd that trains depart Thonburi, which is a scruffy market area, especially when there is a link onto the line from Hua Lamphong. Tickets are sold on the day of travel only, with all journeys irrespective of length costing 100Baht for foreigners, roughly £2.60 third class only.
The initial departure from Thonburi is single track, before becoming double to Nong Pladuk Junction, which is not only the beginning of the Death Railway, but where the line splits north to Ayutthaya and south to Sungai Kolok. From here, it is single all the way to Nam Tok. Trains stop at all stations and the impression is they are relatively unimportant because returning to Bangkok the train was looped at Nong Pladuk Junction while three expresses passed. Semaphore signals are still used.
Operational steam
Steam rarely runs in Thailand but five locomotives are apparently in working order, kept at Thonburi depot, near the station where you can wander in for photos, they are two 4-6-0s, two 4-6-2s and one 2-8-2. The Pacifics run tender-to-tender on the king’s birthday
as there are no turning facilities. At the end of November and beginning of December, the 4-6-0s do the ‘River Kwai Bridge festival’ but this is not guaranteed. They are towed with the rods off to Kanchanaburi. With the amount of tourists in the area, running regular steam specials must surely be a missed opportunity. Finding out exact information is not easy.
Indeed, getting information out of Thailand is extremely difficult, especially regarding steam workings. Some new dates have been announced but no destinations. They include: March 26, anniversary of the first public railway; June 3, queen’s birthday; July 28, king’s birthday; August 12, Queen Sirikit’s birthday; October 23, Chulalongkorn Day; and December 5, Bhumibol Day. No further information is available at the time of writing, but one would assume the working would be from Thonburi.
The State Railways of Thailand (SRT) website www.railway.co.th is poor and difficult to use, especially if you want to contact a particular department or find full working timetables.
There are several steam locomotives in Makkasan depot in Bangkok and permission to see them is essential from SRT’S head office, but it was impossible to obtain. SRT’S headquarters is like stepping back into the colonial past, overstaffed with mountains of paperwork and bureaucracy. One story told by a local about the depot was that the Japanese went in and stole certain secrets, although I am not sure how true this is.
Visiting many of the sites to see the locomotives by train is impossible, so it’s either local taxi or motorbike. For example, near Jesada there are three locomotives, so motorcycle taxi was used between sites – and in nearby Salada at the film museum, people were helpful and advised returning to Bangkok is best by minibus rather than train.