New Year in a new land
This Christmas I was again in India visiting family. With the near extinction of ALCOs in India I decided it was time to try somewhere new for a change, so after family time and a small trip to Ooty it was off to Thailand. I had originally planned to make a small trip to Thailand last winter but got sick in India and ended up coming straight home. This was a mistake as the railway scene in Thailand has changed quite drastically in the last year and not for the better. Even still I had a fantastic time exploring a new to me country. One of the most well known railway lines in Thailand is the famed Burma Railway (Death Railway). The line was built largely by British POWs under the Japanese occupation of Thailand in WWII and made famous by the book/movie "Bridge on the River Kwai". After the war the British forced the line to be severed and today only a small segment up to Nam Tok in Thailand is active. The line itself is an important tourist attraction and many people come to visit just to see this segment of wooden bridges along the River Kwai. Here the afternoon service to Kanchanaburi crosses trestles with a classic Thai GEK (UM12C in GE language) shovel nose leading. I ended up spending the night in one of the houseboats along the river, unfortunately traffic is light on this line but was still really cool to be able to watch trains with a beer from the porch!
New Year in a new land
This Christmas I was again in India visiting family. With the near extinction of ALCOs in India I decided it was time to try somewhere new for a change, so after family time and a small trip to Ooty it was off to Thailand. I had originally planned to make a small trip to Thailand last winter but got sick in India and ended up coming straight home. This was a mistake as the railway scene in Thailand has changed quite drastically in the last year and not for the better. Even still I had a fantastic time exploring a new to me country. One of the most well known railway lines in Thailand is the famed Burma Railway (Death Railway). The line was built largely by British POWs under the Japanese occupation of Thailand in WWII and made famous by the book/movie "Bridge on the River Kwai". After the war the British forced the line to be severed and today only a small segment up to Nam Tok in Thailand is active. The line itself is an important tourist attraction and many people come to visit just to see this segment of wooden bridges along the River Kwai. Here the afternoon service to Kanchanaburi crosses trestles with a classic Thai GEK (UM12C in GE language) shovel nose leading. I ended up spending the night in one of the houseboats along the river, unfortunately traffic is light on this line but was still really cool to be able to watch trains with a beer from the porch!