Asahi: 'River Kwai' train back up and running
The steam locomotive which during World War II ran on the Thai-Burma Railway featured in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai went back into service for the first time in four years on Sunday, railway officials said. The C-56-44 locomotive was built in Kobe 1936 and shipped to Thailand in 1941. It was one of two C-56s that were returned to Japan in 1979, after which it was put into service along the Oigawa railway line here. In 2003, it was taken out of service for repairs. In an unusual move, the C-56-44 engine's boiler was replaced with a similar one from a C-12 locomotive. The boiler and tender were repainted green, the same color it wore on the Thai railway after the war.
