This model railway is classified

The prototype elements of the Wampo, Nieke and Sonkrai are based on
two post-war intelligence reports on the Burma Thailand Railway.

The
main report was written by then Lt. Cecil Carter Brett, a Canadian
intelligence officer serving in Southeast Asia as part of a joint
British-Canadian-U.S. Intelligence, interrogation and translation
corps. (Brett later became head of Asian studies at Monmouth College
in Illinois).

The second report was written by the Japanese under
issued under the name of Yoshimoto and introduced as evidence in the
Tokyo War Crimes trial. The locomotives and rolling stock I have
chosen are based on lists in Brett’s report, with additional
information from the Yoshimoto report and information obtained from
rail and steam buffs and websites.

After the end of the Second World
War, the British military ran the railway, in cooperation with Thai
State Railway and the Burma Railway for about a year. The Burma
portion of the line was abandoned in June 1946, due to the high cost
in money, equipment and possibly lives of maintaining the line,
Britain and the rails salvaged for scrap. Britain turned the railway
over to Thailand in October 1946 for £15.Million and the line was
dismantled north of Nam Tok.

Freelance elements The area where
the toughest construction for the prisoner of war and coolie labour
was at the mountain border crossing at Three Pagoda Pass, an area
with a sparse population even today. Under normal circumstances (as a
recent United Nations study showed) a railway in this area would be
uneconomic.

For the purposes of this model railway The
complete line continued to operate after June 1946, operated by Great
Britain who had claimed ownership of the railway because it was built
partly with POW labour and as the colonial power in Burma and in
cooperation with the Thai State Railway system. The freelance
assumption is that the railway continued to operate and that it is
now late 1947.

Locomotive and rolling stock

The standard gauge in Southeast Asia is
three metres, one metre narrow gauge but almost all the locomotives and rolling
stock were standard gauge prototypes. All were modified somewhat for
use in Southeast Asia, so most of the locomotives I have purchased
are “as close as possible.” On the BurmaThailand Railway,
the Japanese used:

• Locomotives androlling stock
  shipped from Japan

• British locomotives and rolling
  stock based on British models from the Federated Malay States
  Railway and Burma Railway

• US built Baldwin locomotives built
  for and modified by the Federated Malay StatesRailway

• Japanese built locomotives purchased by Thailand prior to the
  outbreak of war.