http://www.mawlamyine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=99
One wonders if they have a gallery that deals with modern day pressganging of labor for ambitious rail projects:-
http://www.ibiblio.org/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/khrg94/94_04_13.html
That said, Myanmar's expansion of its rail system will hopefully have some positive effect.
http://www.farrail.net/bilder/burma/zugbruecke-spitz.jpg
http://www.farrail.net/pages/touren-engl/recent-tours/burma_pacific.html
http://www.farrail.net/galleries/galerie_14-holzzug-burma.html
http://www.farrail.net/seiten/tour-report/trip-report_birma-03.html
http://www.farrail.net/pages/touren-engl/burma-2006-02.html
Rail Pics & railtour accounts from Myanmar, including stationary ricemill steam engines:-
http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/burma99.htm
http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/pics/burma215.jpg
From a Cornell University online collection: -
Author: Wright, Arnold
Title: Twentieth century impressions of Burma : its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources
Publication date: 1910
http://dlxs.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=sea;cc=sea;sid=18f02592e857972a6d7e99761487d ec9;q1=wright;rgn=full%20text;view=image;seq=1;idn o=sea362
Then, GO TO PAGE: 140-146 on drop down menu
The 'small' setting on the drop down SCALE menu is best for reading, but the 'normal' setting gets rid of the illustration dappling effect.
There's also a section on Rangoon tramlines. GO TO PAGE: 301-302
Report on Katha-Bhamo Railway construction two posts back
From the Indian Railfan site:
http://www.irfca.org/gallery/Foreign/JWaiteBurma/
I see the administrator posted a link to some Burmese railway photos of mine on 29th December and I thought a little more info about these photos might be of interest.
The first six photos, of the Kerr Stuart tank locos, are all of the Burma Mines Railway, a 2ft gauge line which runs northwestwards into the hills to the north west of Lashio. The seventh and eighth photos, of the 2-6-2 tender loco, are also on the line.
The railway was built in the early 1900's to connect the mines at Bawdwin to the Burma Railway at Namtao. It's roughly 50 miles long altogether. It was worked by steam locos until the late 1970's when a fleet of diesels arrived. Most of the steam locos were scrapped in the late 1990's. These two locos are the only survivors and see use only for occasional railfan visits. When I was there in February 2006 both locos were in pretty poor mechanical condition. The tank loco is currently out of action altogether but is supposed to be undergoing repair off-site.
The line's HQ is at Namtu, quite a large town but there's no hotel. We stayed at what we were told was the old colonial governor's mansion - a magnificent old wooden building. The whole area is highy scenic but unfortunately is in a restricted area and is off limits to visitors except for railfan groups.
There's a more detailed article on the railway which I helped to write at www.farrail.com - go to "trip reports" in the English language part of the site and then to Burma.
The remaining photos are in and around Pegu (Bago) on the state railway system. Burma has only a few surviving steam locos and they are rumoured to have survived this long only because the railway's general manager was a steam enthusiast. They are in quite good condition as heavy overhauls at the railway's works at Insein continued until last year. Sadly a new GM was appointed recently. Steam overhauls have now ceased and so it's probably only a matter of time before the last locos fade away. There are no regular passenger trains and only a few freight trains still worked by steam. The photos at Mokpalin are of a freight train heading southwards towards Mottama. The Alstom diesel loco working the train had broken down there and was replaced by the steam loco - fortunately for me!
I've a number of other photos around Namtu both on and off the railway which I could post if anyone's interested.
Death Railway haunts jungles of Mon State
By Minh Zaw
http://www.mmtimes.com/no403/pic/008.gif
[Photo: Myanmar Times - An old locomotive donated by Japan in 1995 sits in the jungle at the starting point of death railway in Thanphyuzayat, Mon State.]
GRAVE number 19 in row G of plot A5 of the Thanphyuzayat War Cemetery stands as a memorial to a captain from the Australian Infantry. There is no way of knowing for sure how he died but chances are that the captain lost his life to malnutrition, disease or an Allied bombing raid.
What is certain is that he passed away during World War II at the age of 35 while working against his will on the notorious Myanmar-Thailand “Death Railway,” a project started by the Japanese in June 1942 to boost communication and supplies to the large Japanese army that was occupying Myanmar at the time.
Thanphyuzayat War Cemetery, located on 12.45 acres of land 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Mawlamyine in Mon State, contains the remains to 3771 prisoners of war who died while working on the railroad.
Among them are 1600 British, 1335 Australians, 621 Dutch, 79 Malaysians and 15 Indians, as well as smaller numbers of New Zealanders, Canadians and Myanmar nationals.
“Most of the graves here are not occupied by the actual remains of the soldiers,” said Ko Thet Mon, the manager of the cemetery. “Some plots contain ashes and others have little more than the property of the deceased like watches, ballpoint pens and other belongings.”
The belongings were buried at the current site by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission established by Royal Charter after the graves of the prisoners were discovered along the death railway after the war ended in 1945.
“The cemetery was established in December 1946. At that time the tombs were marked with simple wooden crosses instead of the gravestones you see today,” Ko Thet Mon said.
“These graves represent the men who were found buried along the railway on the Myanmar side of the border. There are also about 10,000 men who have been buried on the Thai side in the Chur War Cemetery and Kanchanaburi Cemetery,” he said.
According to war historians, more than 16,000 prisoners of war and 100,000 impressed labourers – including Chinese, Tamils, Malays, Myanmar and Javanese – died during the building of the railway.
Construction started in October 1942 with the aim of building a 400-kilometre (250 mile) rail link from Ban Pong, Thailand, over Three Pagoda Pass on Thai-Myanmar border to connect with the Myanmar railway at Thanphyuzayat between the towns of Ye in Tanintharyi Division and Mawlamyine in Mon State.
More than 61,000 prisoners – including 30,000 British, 18,000 Dutch, 13,000 Australians and 700 Americans – were brought by the Japanese to Myanmar and Thailand to complete the railway within 14 months to meet the November 1943 deadline.
The men were divided into two work groups, one starting in Thanphyuzayat and one in Ban Pong. Although they met and successfully completed the railway in October 1943, the workers faced persistent food shortages and disease during construction.
According to www.far-eastern-heroes.org.uk, a website dedicated to British soldiers who fought in Southeast Asia during World War II, “food supplies were irregular and inadequate even at the main camps”.
The workers were paid only four pence a day, which was not enough to buy food or medicine to keep sick men alive. The prisoners pawned their rings, silverware, stainless steel knives and jewellery for food.
“Desperate men began stealing. Valuables were taken from dead bodies and jewellery and quinine were stolen from prisoners to sell to local agents,” according to the website.
Meanwhile, the Japanese were also unable to deliver adequate food supplies, with rice brought in by truck or barge often old and infested with maggots. Many parcels sent to prisoners by family members went undelivered.
“As much as 80 percent of a camp might be sick although only a small percentage was permitted to remain in the hospital,” the website said.
The prisoners also suffered from periodic epidemics. Although the bodies of prisoners who died of cholera were carefully cremated, the doctors were not permitted to extend medical aid to workers or supervise their method of burial.
After the railway was completed, many prisoner-of-war camps next to the railroad tracks or near bridges or other strategic points were vulnerable to bombs dropped by Allied aircraft.
Prisoners were not permitted to dig trenches in some camps or put up the white triangle symbol that warns aircraft of the presence of a prisoner-of-war camp, so their only defence against the bombs was their bamboo huts, the website said.
The hardship of these labourers is commemorated at the Thanphyuzayat War Cemetery with tombstones inscribed with words like “His duty nobly done, gone but no forgotten”.
Ko Thet Mon said that about 500 tourists visit the site each year, with May being the peak season.
“Many of the foreign visitors take photographs of particular tombstones and then post them on websites so relatives can see where they are buried,” he said.
“It seems that as more time passes, more people are interested in knowing about the prisoners who perished during the war. So maintaining the cemetery is very important,” he said.
Ko Thet Mon said he is trying to keep the area green but faces problems with limited water supplies.
“This memorial can attract many tourists so it should be a nice place.,” he said.
In 1995 Japan donated an old steam locomotive used during World War II to be kept at the railway’s starting point in Thanphyuzayat. Local officials also erected some sculptures of prisoners along the railway as well as a museum.
“This site should be restored because it is of historical importance and it can become a tourist destination. There is a war cemetery, the start of the death railway and hot springs, and Setse Beach only 10 miles south from here,” he said.
“If we can restore the site and attract tourists we can earn more foreign currency,” he added.
There are 2500 cemeteries in 149 countries around the world where 3 million Allied prisoners of war from World War II are buried. Three of them are located in Myanmar: Thanphyuzayat, Htaukkyant north of Yangon and near Hanthawaddy circle in Sanchaung township in Yangon.
http://www.mmtimes.com/no403/n016.htm
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