Thailand-Burma Railway Centre
The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre (TBRC) is a privately operated interactive museum, information and research facility, which opened in January 2003. It is dedicated to presenting the factual and unbiased history of the construction of the railway between Thailand and Burma by Allied prisoners of the Japanese and Asian laborers during WWII.
The COFEPOW National Enterprise Competition for Primary Schools
A factual and unbiased centre
The Centre is fully air-conditioned and offers the visitor an informative and moving experience as the story unfolds over the two levels of world-standard and interactive galleries. The revealing and sometimes graphic displays are very interesting, emotive and educational to all visitors.
Due to a unique and intimate knowledge of the railway and its associated wartime campsites, railway stations, and cemeteries, connected family members can be taken on a TBRC personal pilgrimage tours to the specific work areas of their PoW relative. Historical guidance and accommodation packages are tailored to meet individual circumstances.
TBRC is an excellent facility that not only meets the needs of the most demanding visitor, but gives the many relatives of ex PoW railway workers around the world somewhere they can go to for answers to their many questions, from staff with a deep personal understanding of their needs. The Museum galleries continue to expand as new artifacts become available through family donations or new information is revealed by the vast amount of ongoing research being conducted by the Centre.
The Museum complex is on the western side of the main Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, 1km from the city centre. The location is approximately 100 metres from the cemetery entrance, and about 200 metres from Kanchanaburi railway station. Both the ground floor entrance plaza and the Coffee Shop/Cafe on the second level give superb views of the cemetery for quiet contemplation of the tragic events in WWII.
If you are seeking information on a POW then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
TBRC Tours
The TBRC has a number of tours you can go on whilst in the Far East. Click on the links below to see more information.
COFEPOW initiative to encourage donations to the Centre
Statement regarding Appeal for Funding Assistance
Although we are not about to close the doors and are able to survive from our own private funds for many months of little income, we clearly see we will need assistance to last through an expected lengthy recovery period over the next few years. As a totally privately funded research organisation consisting of a small group of dedicated people providing free in-depth research for families of former WWII PoWs, we consider our future while we await the return of international travel.
Seeking Funding assistance by donations:
With serious uncertainty regarding Covid related effects on international travel persisting well beyond anything expected at the beginning of the pandemic (now well over a year ago), we foresee that TBRC will not have sufficient reserve funds to cover costs until full resumption of overseas visitors to Thailand providing sufficient revenue to cover operational costs.With the state of the world regarding Covid still very volatile, the rate and timing of the recovery process will be influenced by the various Government reactions to the pandemic. It is reasonable to expect recovery to be a slow start in the first year, building strongly in the second and third years and perhaps not close to "previous normal" until 2024/2025 at best.However, we have people who have pre-planned Pilgrimages with us now awaiting new travel dates as soon as the situation becomes clear and we are still planning and offering new Pilgrimage tours with interested PoW related families on an ongoing basis. So there is plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future with many people keen to travel as soon as possible. Our priority is therefore to have funds to survive until our visitor revenue can cover our costs.
Current Assistance:
We have had various discussions and offers of assistance from similar organisations, including COFEPOW and MVG, who have generously offered their full support. Other such organisations in the Netherlands, Australia, USA and elsewhere are also generously assisting which greatly helps as a means of reaching a broader audience.While do our best to help ourselves, we are extremely grateful for some assistance to help keep our Research Facilities and Team together for the long-term benefit of related families of former PoWs. Our hope is to reach as many people as possible over the coming months and multiple small donations can combine to be a significant help in meeting our ongoing expenses until things get back to normal.
Making Donations easy and inexpensive:
While we have many families of Far East PoWs who recognise the great value of our work over almost 20 years, it us not often easy/inexpensive for the average person to make overseas payments to TBRC in Thailand from various Countries. Currently the best method of making donations to us is the non-bank service provider known as "Wise" https://wise.com/
It is very economical, fast and efficient for International Money Transfers(IMT) by on-line users with best known exchange rates to Thai currency and they charge negligible fees. The exchange rate is so much better that it can cover their small fee meaning full funds are received as intended and also arrive in our account within minutes. It is a bank-to-bank transfer meaning the payer makes the money transfer from their bank account and “Wise” pays direct to TBRC bank account.
To make a payment, go to https://wise.com/ and get instant, fully transparent advance information on your transaction by inserting the required amount in the box and selecting the “to” and “from” currencies as indicated. Then click on "Get started" and step through the "sign up" process and continue as required.
Of course there is always Online Banking (if set up for international) to make overseas transfer of funds or via a bank branch (extra fees apply). If transferring through a bank, funds are best sent in your own currency (converted at our end)
For making IMT transfers IN ALL MAJOR CURRENCIES (e.g. GBP, EUR, AUD, USD, CAD, NZD, THB, SGD, JPY, HKD, MYR) to TBRC, our bank account details are as follow:
TBRC Email address: admin@tbrconline.com (for confirmation and notification)
Bank A/c name: T.B.R.C. Co. Ltd
Bank: BANK OF AYUDHYA pcl (Krungsri Bank)
BRANCH: KANCHANABURI,THAILAND
Current A/c No: 1520 01323 6 [10 digits, no spaces for digital/online use]
SWIFT Code (11 digit): AYUDTHBKXXX
Note: Some systems require 8 digit SWIFT Code in which case delete the last “XXX” which simply means “Head Office”.
SWIFT Code (8 digit): AYUDTHBK
We look forward to continuing our valuable work indefinitely for the benefit of all families of former PoWs of all nationalities who we believe have a right to know their relative’s locations and experiences during captivity.
Your understanding, friendship and support is always greatly appreciated.