page_title: Trench railways
section_title: British equipment
hierarchical_section_title: Trench railways / British equipment
caption_attribution_description: English: Western Front: Western Front (Belgium), Ypres Area, Poperinghe. The main yards of the 2nd Australian Light Railway Operating Company at Pacific. On the left several light rail trucks are loaded with crates, probably containing ammunition; on the right is a 16-wheel hand-powered, 6-ton capacity, partially armoured light railway crane, built by Ransomes and Rapier of Ipswich, England.
context_page_description: Trench railways represented military adaptation of early 20th century railway technology to the problem of keeping soldiers supplied during the static trench warfare phase of World War I. The large concentrations of soldiers and artillery at the front lines required delivery of enormous quantities of food, ammunition and fortification construction materials where transport facilities had been destroyed. Reconstruction of conventional roads and railways was too slow, and fixed facilities were attractive targets for enemy artillery. Trench railways linked the front with standard gauge railway facilities beyond the range of enemy artillery. Empty cars often carried litters returning wounded from the front.
context_section_description: Britain selected a Hunslet Engine Company 4-6-0T design as their standard for the French Decauville 600mm rail gauge; but Hunslet's production of 75 locomotives was insufficient. Baldwin Locomotive Works produced 495 15-tonne (33,000 lb) 4-6-0T of a less satisfactory American design while Hudswell Clarke and Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. built 83 0-6-0T locomotives. One-hundred 15-tonne (33,000 lb) 2-6-2T of the American standard military design were later purchased from Alco's Cooke Locomotive Works for British use.
  Britain pioneered the use of petrol powered, 4-wheel synchromesh mechanical drive locomotives (known as tractors) for daylight use within visual range of the front. In 1916 the War Office required "Petrol Trench Tractors" of 600-mm gauge that were capable of drawing 10 to 15 tons at 5 mi (8.0 km) per hour.  Early tractors weighed 2 tons. Total production was 102 7 kW (9.4 hp) Ernest E. Baguley tractors, 580 15 kW (20 hp) Motor Rail tractors and 220 30 kW (40 hp) Motor Rail tractors. An additional two-hundred 30 kW (40 hp) petrol-electric tractors were produced by British Westinghouse and Dick, Kerr & Co..
  Former British trench railway equipment was put to civilian use rebuilding Vis-en-Artois between Arras and Cambrai. Twenty Hudswell-Clarke and Barclay 0-6-0T, seven Alco 2-6-2T and 26 Baldwin 4-6-0T engines saw service until 1957.
caption: This 1917 photo of the Poperinge yard of the Australian 2nd Light Railway Operating Company shows a water tank car in the right foreground. Behind the tank car is a partially armoured, 16-wheel, hand-operated light railway crane capable of lifting 6 tons. The crane was built by Ransomes & Rapier of Ipswich, Suffolk. Cars in the left background appear to be loaded with crates of food or ammunition.
exif: {}