The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-09-29
WAR RAILROADING
IN GREAT BRITAIN
Facilities Have Been Developed to an
Extreme Under the Government
Control System.

Correspondence Of Associated Preas.) !
LONDON, Sept 10. = One of the |
greatest of British war efforts has been |
in the department Of railway transport
10Th at home and abroad Very little
has been said about this work, perhaps
because il has gone on steadily, silent
" and unobserved. Some time ago Aris
| tide Rriand, then Premier of France,
visited great railway workshop behind
| he british lines in France. THE great
| FAULT | have to find with Tou English,
| he said upon that occasian. sis that
YOU do enormous things. but nobody has
any idea of what you are doing.
/ At home wa has put a tremendous
strain on the railways II was an in
stance of Britain S military unpreparcd
ness that military and strategic consid
ration found no place before the war
in her railway systems ard management.
The railways lacked uniformity. For
Iexample, there were three different types
Of air brakes in use, 50 that rolling stock
If different companies often could not
be made up into one train. The width
of cars and the clearance space between
tracks varied considerably. Very few
stations had adequate platform accom-
Imodation for rapidly entraining troops.
Du,ing the three Years of war much
progress has been made under govern
ment control of the railways toward
standardization and such reconstruction
rs was feasible to remedy the most Sc
rious shortcomings. This is frequently
noticeable at rural stations, where plat
folms Of the type most suitable for mill
| us - al hl1r
ban platforms and given a military cir
to the otherwise peaceable countryside.
The proper platform for entraining
troops is wide one running the whole
] length of the longest train. From such
! = platform troop trains can be loaded
at the rate of one an hour, and this
rate can be improved upon with prac-
ticed troops Where a railway station
possessed the most up-to-date platform
facilities, such as all British stations
will have by the time the war is over
it is possible to load two trains stimuli
EsaneouslY, and such q station is called
In military narlance a f'half-hour sta
ton At any ordinary old fashioned
waysde station it is often necessary
to allow two hours.
Entraining is the ruling factor in cal
quitting troop lh0N tNltHtS, SlHCe uc
training does not take quite so long.
The maximum normal capacity of
doubletracked line of railway III Eng
land is figured b. the military special
lists at six trains per hour each way. /
the early DAYS of the war the train
containing the British expeditionar
forces were run into the docks at intel
walls of = minutes, or at the rate 0
five per hour. On singh lin
three trains per hour can be worke
each way
The principle adopted in movin
troops by train is that each trainloa
should be q complete subdivision of
military unit The size of such trail
load is definitely limited by the nun
Der of coaches of which a train ca
be made up with safety. An ordinal
infantry battalion makes about tv
trainloads.
During five days when the first Bri
ish evolutionary force was being NOV,
to Franco, 900 trains were run load'
with troops and as many returned EN-
tv, giving an average Of 800 trains
day employed in the movement of troo
alone. In the first year of war, NOV
were made overseas of 100000 office
2,586. 900 other ranks and $4,000 hors
These figures include Cross Channel TT;
fic and all other moves made by s.
Figures for later years, presumab
larger, are not at present available.