Kinsaiyok was about 50 km, more or less, from Wanyai upstream on the river Kwae Noi. On the railtrack it was 172 km from Nong Pladuk and 120 km from Kamburi. There were narrow mountain streams which fed into the river and few plots of level ground on the banks. In the neighbourhood the riverbank became a cliffand near Saiyok (in Thai this means waterfall) a mountain stream became a waterfall which fell into the river from the top of a cliff, a beautiful sight. Kinsaiyok means New Saiyok, i.e. set up by the Japanese engineers, not a Thai place-name.

This was the point the labourers had reached in April 1943 and, in May, 3 Battalion of Railway Regiment embarked on construction of roadbed west of Kinsaiyok, which became the next construction base with radio hook-up for the engineers and a branch office for prisonersof-war and coolies, No. 3 Group. There were also the branch office of 42 Supply Unit and the Japanese field hospital.

Hardly had roadbed work west of Kinsaiyok begun than the rainy season started. The route ran along the high ground on the north bank and there were many small bridges to build over the small streams rushing down into the river. This in turn complicated the roadbed work. At Lintin, west of Kinsaiyok, an incident occurred when the embankment was washed away and at Kui Ye there was a good deal of earth shifting for the prisoners and coolies to do. At Hin Dat, over 200 km from Nong Pladuk, a hot spring gushed out, the well-known Hin Dat Hot Springs, and when the railway opened to traffic the Japanese set up a field hospital recuperation centre. (Futamatsu refrains from mentioning the ‘comfort station’ for ‘comfort’ girls set up here for Japanese soldiers and Korean heiho.) Brankashii, at 208 km, was the halfway point on the total 415 km length of the railway. Here was being planned a base for engine-sheds and installations for water and fuel supply. About 10 km to the west was Thā Khanun where 1 Battalion were to be stationed.