The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-09-29
BRITISH RAILROADS
DOING GREAT WORK
They Are Moving Very Many Troops Ex-
peditiously and Safely and Say
ing Little About the
Feat.

London, Sept 20 correspondence OF
| the Associated Pressl One of the great
est of British war efforts has been in
the department of railway transport,
both at home and abroad Very little
has been said about this work, perhaps
because it has gone on steadily, silently
and unobserved. Some time ago Aristde
BRAND, then premier Of France, visited a
great railway workshop behind the Brit
ish lines in France "The great fault /
have to find with you English" he said
upon that occasion. "is that you do enor-
nous things, but nobody has any idea of
what you are doing"
At home, war has put a tremendous
strain on the railways. 1t was an in
stance of Britain's military unprepared
ness that military and strategic consid-
erations found no place before the war in
her railway systems and management.
The railways lacked uniformity, For
example, there we're three different types
of airbrakes in use. so that rolling stock
of 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-
mediation for rapidly entraning troops.
During the three years OF war, much
progress has been made under govern
ment control of the railways, toward
standardization and such reconstruction
as was feasible to remedy the most Sc
rious shortcomings. This is frequently |
noticeable at rural stations, where plat
forms of tho txypa Y,,naf c,fifa blo for !
tary use have replaced the old suburban /
platforms, and given military air to
the otherwise peaceable countryside.
The proper platform for entraining
troops is a wide one running the whole
length of the longest train. From such
a platform troop trains can be loaded at
the rate of one an hour, and this rate can
be improved upon with practiced troops.
Where a railway station possessed the
most up-to-date platform facilities, such
rs all British stations will have by the
line the war is over, il is possible TO load
.wo trains simultaneously, and such a
station is called in military parlance a
half hour station" At an ordinary old
fashioned wayside station it is often nee
,ssary TO allow two hours.
A@hNAaAAhiH - tiif hAAAiE AdAbtt III Ndi-
ulating troop movement, since detrain-
ng does not take quite 50 long 4
The maximum normal capacity Of a /
Iouble tracked line of railway in Eng
and is figured by the military specialists I
t six trains per hour each way. In the {
arly days of the war. the trains con !
aiming the British expeditionary force {
we're run into the docks at intervals of I
, minutes, or at the rate Of Eve per I
our. en a single-track line three trains '
er hour can be worked each way. II
The principle adopted in moving troops .
y train is that each train load should be 4
complete subdivision Of a military I n
nit. The size Of such a train load I. :
limited by the number Of 4
laches of which a train can he made M h
ith safety. An ordinary infantry bat \
ilion makes about two train loads. Ia
During FIVE DAYS when the first Brit
y eXpcditionary force was being moved p
, France. 800 trains were run loaded y
ith troops and as many returned emp q
Z. giving an average Of SEQ trains . day a
uPioyed in the movement Of troops 5,