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There are 4 Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries along the line of the railway, 2 at Kanchanaburi in Thailand, and another as Thayzakarun in Burma .

The railway was never built to a quality level of lasting permanence and was frequently bombed by the Royal Air Force during the Burma Campaign . After the war, all but the present section was closed. There are currently no plans to reopen it.

There are no longer any trains running on this stretch of the line, the nearest railway station is at Nam Tok from where trains of the State Railway Of Thailand can be caught running over the famous Whampo viaduct, and across the Bridge Over The River Kwai to Kanchanaburi which is the nearest major town and tourist base. Visitors to the museum usually base themselves in Kanchanaburi and it is possible to roll into one day a trip to the famous Erewan waterfall in the morning, followed by a trip to Hellfire Pass and the museum and then catch the train back to Kanchanaburi to cross the famous bridge around sunset.

As a part of the museum experience it is possible to walk through the cutting itself and along a section of the former railway trackbed. An audio tour including recorded memories of surviving Prisoners of War is available at the Museum.


TIMELINE



2006


  • In 2006, proposals to create a railway network linking eight south-east Asia countries would see a railway link restored between Thailand and Myanma. It is not clear if this would follow the original Death Railway route through Hellfire Pass, since this route was necessarily built quickly and to low standard of curves and gradients. - {Link without Title}



SEE ALSO


Hellfire Pass is also another name for Halfaya Pass in north Africa .


REFERENCES

  • ''The Japanese Thrust - Australia in the War of 1939-1945'', Lionel Wigmore, AWM, Canberra, 1957.