It took about three and a quarter hours to get to the river side station.
The site of the bridge over the Kwai is very beautiful. The river is green and fast flowing, quite wide with tree covered banks. There are brightly painted long tailed boats for hire, and some zoom up and down very fast and noisily, driven by boy racers.
Walked over the metal spans of the bridge, on a plank between the rails. It is a single track and you have to get to the side if the train passes. Bright sun gave a cheerful aspect and it was difficult to immagine the terrible traumas suffered by those working on the original bridge, in the 1940s.

The view from the bridge is truly delightful. Wide open countryside all round - nothing like the view of it in the film which was anyway made elsewhere - was it Sri Lanka?
Back in the village had lunch overlooking river in River Kwai Hotel restaurant and then because time was very short rode on back of motorcycle taxi to the Railway Museum. As the moto drivers did not have spare crash hats, they kindly lent us theirs. I held on to the driver's boney shoulders, but I see other pillion passengers just balance. The Railway Museum is worth much longer time to see it all, although it is quite small. The exhibits are well displayed, the text is in English and Thai and fascinating. There is a model of a pit where the workers had to climb down to dig the rock. The information about the medical men improvising equipment is poignant, the photos and relicts brought it all to life. What a sad place. Over 70,000 Malay/Tamil and over 70,000 Burmese died, and UK men well over 6,000. (Hope I have got the figures right). Other nationalities included Australian, Indian, and a few US. Wish I could have spent at least over an hour there. There is meagre free information in the shop but you can buy books. Opposite is the cemetary where you can contemplate the terrible nature of war (if so inclined). Information about the Japanese also helped to explain why what happened, did happen.
There were a lot of Japanese tourists at the River Kwai too. Wonder what they were thinking.
Back in time for train with the kindly moto drivers, and caught the little shuttle from Kwai stop for 10 Baht to next stop, Kanchanaburi, where the tickets to Bangkok are so much cheaper. But the train was delayed so had to wait about 45 minutes and got back three and half hours later to a deserted station.
Here there there were no taxis. A kindly man helped to flag down a taxi in a nearby main road, but the drivers do not usually speak English and it was difficult to explain where the hotel was. A long day but memorable, and quite unmissable. Better this way than by organised coach trip.