ANOTHER "Death Railway"??

[el cid again]

Working on Sumatra's locations, I discovered one of them was the terminus of
another POW/native RR project similar to the Burma-Siam RR. This one is possibly
even more heartbreaking. It was completed on the DAY Japan capitulated, and
never once moved a single train for economic purpose end to end. Other details
are very similar to the better known "Bridge on the River Kwai" story (never mind
that the movie version is semi-fictional - the bridge is destroyed by bombers -
not by explosives - and the Japanese - big RR fanboys - are offended at the idea
they needed help building a mere RR bridge: "call us war criminals, fine, that is
not offensive - say we need help with a bridge - we are really insulted" sort of thing).

See The Sumatra Death Railway: Packenbaru to Morea. Packenbaru is a loation on
the Malacca Straits in the game - and the RR trailing off to the SW actually is headed
to the coal fields on the SW side of the island - showing mainly remnants of this
project. The real RR functional route runs NW along the coast - although the Japanese
idea may have had merit IF they could have completed it in time to matter -
eliminating the need for ships to make the dangerous voyage into the Indian Ocean
to Padang - the normal coal export port before the war.