The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1918-07-23
LIGHT RAILROADS
AT the FRONT
American Engineers Run Network of
Narrow Lines 60 Trenches.

most useful plaything in this war is
his toy railroad 1t isn't too much to
say that the defeat of Germany hangs
upon the skill and efficiency with
which he operates It,
Every moment of the day and night
midget engines, boldly labeled "U. s.
A." and drawing miniature cars over
tiny tracks, puff their way along our
battle lines in France, Milling up bit by
bit the material by which the Ameri-
can Army lives and fights. Jerky lit
tie things, with none of the smooth
rhythm of the great locomotives that
whirl us from the city to city over
here, they nevertheless get through an
enormous amount of work on the
same plan of multiplied effort the ants
adopted several aeons ago.
No army today could exist without
its light railroads. They are the i'm
mediate and necessary blood vessels
which throb Just below the skin of
war and feed the surface of the fight
ing front. Easily operated and quick
" laid they follow the flag with the
very pertinacity that George AIDE in
the bad old days once ascrDed to the
cocktail. And wherever their bunny
cadence is heard the listener may be
sure the foremost strench frontier is
Just around the corner. So death
curves" are as frequent on this rail-
road system as telegraph poles on the
lines at home,
The light railroad, as the allies op-
crate it in France. falls into the class
of old ideas which the cXigencies of
war have forced to an undrcamed OF
intensive development on the battle
field. In 1914. while all military au-
thorities realized that transportation
must he the backbone of any cam.
paign. it was thought that the stand.
lard-gauge roi ds-thc ordinary com
mercial lines supplemented by Tho
usual strategic" railway -- would
fulfill all requirements, both in tho
rear and at the front.
Zone of Light Railroads
1t was soon found this wouldn'
work. The front" was far too i'm
permanent. beth as 70 location ant
surface for the cumbersome and per
manent works of peace-time railroad
ing. So the standard, or broadgaugt
systems, retreated from trenches as
it were. to make way for the MIN
bier and more serviccable light rail
ways.
Now, back of the entire allied bat
tie line, there is a zone from 4 to
miles wide within which perfect net
work of light railways, running Owe
2-foot tracks, performs almost th'
whole function of transport Grown
up trains bring their freight-food
equipment. munitions, and even mel
to the rail heads" just out of or
binary cannon range. There the TO,
trains pick it up and distribute
practically into the trenches them
selves, jolting along with charmin'
sang-froid whether FritS shells b
breaking in twos and threes or by III
whole sky full
America is not a pioneer in mill
tary light railroading Our system i
borrowed pretty literally fror
French and British uses as we foun
= them when we entered the war. Her
and there, it is true, we have incor
porated wcll-tested ideas developer
in on owrn railroad or engineerin
experience. and as time passes we eX
} pect to embody other improvements
But we are using the French 6O-ccn
timeter tracks and in the main W
have INDUCED in no "new-fangled nc
tions."
I American Personality