World War II 'Death Railway': A train trip through Hellfire Pass in Thailand's Kanchanaburi

Train at Wang Yen Station. Photo: Guy Wilkinson Night time in the jungle. The sound of pick axes striking rock. The air is thick with the smell of bonfires, their flames casting eerie shadows of gaunt men against chasm walls. They are badly malnourished, forced at gunpoint to work 14-hour days amid smarms of mosquitos.