Several of the topics here have revolved around historic locomotive (narrow gauge and standard gauge) . It seems amazing that these locomotive and equipment are stil doing their jobs after years and years of service and periods of disuse.
While looking around You Tube.com I found a couple of videos that go into detail about the mission of the US Army Railway Operations in Europe during World War I.
This first video is a reflection of how Baldwin Locomotive Products were brought to France in pieces and assembled, as were various kinds of railway cars which arrived in kit form to be built and put into service.
“WW1 - US Military Railroads in Europe - World War One Trains”
In the first video are mentioned the operation of the 14" Naval gun batteries, and this video show how the battery operated and how dependent they were on the rail service to supply and move them around.
Ther German’s as well utilized the large railway guns, but little seemed to be said about the large calibre guns used by American forces in France at that time.
Popular Science Monthly had an article on the railway mounted 14 inch naval rifles somewhere around 1927 - you can use Google Books to view the issue in question. Accuracy was supposed to be pretty good, and the impacts were devastating.
The ‘naval rifles’ and the large caliber railway guns are an interesting area in themselves, but mainly I was interested in the information in the videos, referencing the way that the Allied forces moved into France and set up the various railway Operating Battalions, Regiments and support.
How they that then imported the American-made, to European standards the railway cars, and then the locomotives, in ‘kit’ form, to be built in France, and operated in the European theater of operations. Some of those locomotives still exist to this date. Preserved and possibly still operational. The video indicated that Baldwin Locomotive was building those engines at an approximate of 300 per month towards the end of the War(?).
The majority of the railway cars were used in Europe for long after the war. In the 1970’s I remember that at the Milan (Tn) Army Ammunition Plant they were still using some of those European-styled boxcars on their intra-plant cargo moves. They did not surplus some of them out into the area til the 1980’s.
It was a heroic effort that this country made in Europe then, and the Railroad Industry certainly contributed to that build-up. I think it would be safe to say that America left its mark on the French and other European Railways, as a result of WWI and then in WWII as well. My point in bringing it up was to point out to many that we in a lot of cases are not aware of that aspect of our Country’s effors, as it gets left out of the History being taught, and seems only to be available to those that get out and dig for it.
In line with that was this Thread from earlier this year:
I hear you about stuff getting left out of history. The PopSci article discussed the design, development and logistics as the naval rifles as well as their use. There was a comment about how the locomotive crates made for nice temporary dockside shelter for the crews involved in setting up the rifles and support trains.
The back issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics available on Google books do make for for some interesting reading with respect to history, more in filling in details left out of most history books as opposed to providing a “complete picture”.
And of course, some of the last steam locomotives that operated in regular service in each of the Euruopean countries were US-made 2-8-0’s and 2-8-2’s sent both during WWII and as aid afterward. Some are in excursion service today. They were not the most economical with regard to fuel and water but were generally easier to maintain than the local products.
For a real treat, see if you can find a video called “War Trains”, put out by Galloping Pictures. It’s a history of American military railroads from the Civil War through World War Two, but a VERY generous portion of the video shows American railroading in France during World War One, from assembling the 2-8-0 mainline locomotives to the narrow gauge locomotives that supplied the front with men and munitions. Utterly fascinating and a bit sad for me, considering all the World War One vets are now gone. It’s a bit like looking at ghosts. Also, there’s some good footage of the 14" railroads guns being assembled. Did you know they were all manned by US Navy personnel? Also, there was a book published in 1990 by Benchmark Publications called “Narrow Gauge to No Man’s Land”, a great study of the narrow gauge supply lines. I lucked into mine, but I’m sure there are others out there.
My friendly used book dealer found me a pristine copy earlier this year. It was only one of several that were available then.
Fascinating subject! Not only covers the history and front-line geography, but includes plans suitable for model building, for those so inclined. Well worth the money.
In a Bill Mauldin cartoon, Joe is standing in the doorway of a French boxcar and says to Willie, “They shoulda hired a homme to clean up after them chevaux.” Seriously, I’d be interested to find out more about the railways operated supposedly right into the trenches of the First World War, apparently the British had a large network as well as the U.S. I’ve never seen any pictures of such operations. There are quite a few operating Baldwins in the U.K, the Churnet Valley has an Alco or Baldwin 2-8-0 under restoration I think.
Bill Mauldin was a hero of mine. My dad had several cartoon books, compilations of his cartoons. They meant more to me when I had returned from RVN. Anyway, back on task.
The railways you mentioned are commonly referred to as “Trench Railways”. They were used by bothe the Allies and the Germans to feed supplies from the rear stagng areas ( They were fed by the larger railways). (The narrow gauge Terench Railways ran to points on the Trenches to supply food, ammunitions, and fodder for the horses and mules.)
Remember that in WWI the "Front’ was pretty much composed of static emplacements and built up trenchlines. The soldiers would periodically make thrusts forward of their positions ( going ‘Over The Top’) into fire from the facing enemy positions (machine gun, rifle and light motar fire). The heavy artillery was back to the rear where it was supplied by heavy rail. It was hellishly deadly to soldiers who only had their helment and their wits. I digress.
Loking at all those vintage films from the First World War makes me offer up a silent prayer of thanks for motion pictures and the geniuses that made them possible. What would we give for movies of the Civil War?
Fortunately, or unfortunately, from the Civil War we have only the glass plate negatives of Matthew Brady and of Alexander Gardner who were authorized to photograph the Union side of the conflict. Brady is the more well known; while Alexander Gardner was considered to be somewhat of a scoundrel. This was due to his having been acused of and caught staging some of his photographs.
Here is a link to a site showing Civil War RR photographs:
Well, burning wood wasn’t THAT green. Consider the staggering amounts of wood fuel the society of the 19th Century needed to keep running, not just railroads but home heating and cooking, AND industrial purposes like iron and steel production. Thousands of acres of forest were cut down strictly for fuel. Around the Richmond Va. area there are surviving Civil War fortifications running through the woods surrounding the city. I wondered at first why they put the trenches in the woods, then I realised the woods weren’t there at the time, what I was looking at was second and third growth forest, the original trees had disappeared into buildings and up the chimneys. Luckily the increasing use of coal as the 19th Century wore on slowed down the de-forestation. Now I’M starting to digress!
Back in 1994 or so, an acquaintence and I went down to Dahlgren Naval Weapons Center, which is on the east end of an old RF&P branchline in Virginia. Long story short: the grounds were littered with gun barrels probably from 8 inches on up and they had on display one of the railway guns, but I don’t recall any data about it. Segue forward to Veterans’ Day 2011, and my conductor and I made a trip to the Pritzger Military Library in Chicago, where I discovered a book on the German Feldbahnen. It was a very comprehensive volume, but printed auf Deutsch. The Germans used a 600 mm gauge for their operations in both wars, if memory serves. Does anyone know if the line still goes to Dahlgren or the status of the railway gun on display? IIRC, they also had an old GE 45-tonner or two on the property>
600mm (60cm) was the standard gauge for light railways in Europe - the railways portrayed in Narrow Gauge to No Man’s Land were 600mm. This gauge even reached Scandinavia, I rode a 60cm railway in Sweden in 1986.
Sam, you might be interested to know that there are two new anthologies of Bill Mauldin’s cartoons, one has all of his military cartoons, the other has his postwar stuff. Try any good comic shop. Anyway, on the subject of 600 mm railways, there is what I can only call a “club layout” in central Germany where there is a 2 km oval of track used to run a collection of 600mm equipment. The story is, a man restored a locomotive and had nowhere to run it so he bought a piece of property and built a line, complete with a yard, workshop and so forth. Plus a pub! I’ll try to find out exactly where from the tour company if anyone is interested. They did some fine work and had a pretty large collection of rolling stock.