The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-28
ENGLISH MAKING
 IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY METHODS
Troop Movements Carried Out Now With Greater
 Efficiency.

London, Sept 27.-One of the great est of British war efforts has been in the department of railway transport, both at home and abroadL Very Httle has been said about this work. per haps because 1t has gone on stead1ly' silently and unobserved. Some time ago .Aristide Briand, then Premier of France, visited a great railway work shop behind the British lines m France '1rhe great fault l 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. It was an 1n- stance of Britain's military unprepar- edpess that military ansdf strategic considerations found no place before the war in her railway systems and management The railways lacked uniformity. For example, there were three different types of air-brake in use. so that rolling stock of different compan nies often would 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 ac- commodatton for rapidly entraining troops.
 During the three years of war, much progress has been made under gov l ernment control of the railways, to- ward standardization and such recon struction as. was feasible to remedy | the most serious shortcomings. This is frequently noticeable at rural sta l tions, where platforms of the type most suitable for military use have replaced the old suburban platforms, and given a military air to the other wise 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 practtced troops Where railway station possessed the most up-to- date platform facilities, such as all British stations will have by the time the war is over, 1t is possible to load two ltrains simultaneously, and such a sta- ton is called in military parlance a "haf-hour station" At an ordinary old-fashioned wayside station it Is of- ten necessary to allow. two hours.
 Entraining is the ruling factor in Icaic11lat1ng troop movement since de- training does not take quite so long.
 The maximum normal capacity of 8 double tracked line of railway in England is figured by the military specialists at six trains per hour each way, in the early days of the war, the trains containing the British Expedi- tionary force were run into the docks at intervals Of 12 minutes or at the i rate of five per hour. On a single track line, three trains per hour can I be, worked each. way.
 The principle adopted in moving troops by train is that each train load l should be a. complete subdivision of 1a military unit. Tue size of such a train load is definitely lin .ed by the sI number of coaches of which a train can be made up with safety. An or dinary infantry battalion makes about I two train loads.
 During five days when the first British E0peditionary force being moved to France, 300 trains were run loaded with troops and as many re- turned empty, giving an average of
 aoo trains day employed in the move ment of troops alone. In the first wear or war, moves were made overseas of loo 900 officers, 2,5s6. 900 other ranks and e42 900 horses These figures in
 ciude- cross-channel traffic an al,
 other moves made by sea. Figures for
 later years, presumedly larger, are moi
 at present available