The WDLR companion and older brother was French

Our friend and colleague Roy Link has produced a book, WDLR Companion, to mark the end of the First World War. It acts as a supplement to the WDLR Album published in 2014. The first album was based around a photographic journey round the British Front in early 1918, the topic being the War Department Light Railways used by the British and Colonial Army.

The fkavour of War Department railways: a 16mm model of a Wrightscale WD Baldwin 4-6-0 pulls two WD covered goods wagons, built by Jim Hawkesworth on Wrightscale bogies

Drawing on his own graphic resources, the archive of Colonel David W. Ronald and the skills of Peter Foley, RCL Publications has given us, as of winter 2018, The WDLR Companion This companion book includes photos from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, the Scottish National Library, the Library of Congress and others. It also boasts a series of drawings by the talented Peter Foley.

Here, as an author in the same field, I confess a bit of envy. When I approached the Imperial War Museum their rates for reproduction were very pricey. For my own book, Tracks To The Trenches, I calculated that I could have spent at least £10,000 for the rights to reproduce the required illustrations. A self-respecting history of this kind would need at least double that number of illustrations thus an up-front investment of anything up to £20,000 before thinking of paying a printer or distribution costs. These high charges might explain why there was never a reprint of the excellent Light Railways of the First World War by WJK Davies.

At this point, once again, thanks to those who shared with me their archives and charged far more modestly. Without them, the book ‘Colonel Péchot: Tracks To The Trenches’ would not have been possible and the English language story of  Colonel Péchot and the birth of French, German and British military narrow gauge would not have been told.

Prosper Péchot 1907 with Légion d'Honneur. Photo courtesy Raymond Péchot

In a few words, Colonel Péchot: Tracks To The Trenches explains how Prosper Péchot made trench transport possible. Without his ideas, portable narrow gauge railways would have remained light devices, suitable for agriculture or quarries.   

It could be argued that the basic ideas already existed. The point is – they were in existence but never used together. It took the genius of Péchot to put together ideas from various sources. The 2’ gauge Festiniog railway, the portable railways of the Decauville Company, Fowler agricultural machines, the Darjeeling-Himalaya railway and the timber extraction railways of the USA were already in operation, but totally independently.

Péchot was the first to create a prefabricated 60cm gauge railway system which could be quickly set out in the field and then reliably transport a vast tonnage of freight. From Decauville he took the concept of portable-prefabricated rail and at the Decauville factory he devised valuable improvements. The Festiniog Railway showed that vast tonnages could be transported by narrow gauge. The Fowler company, among others, demonstrated tough little steam engines which could work in the field.

Péchot added his own ideas. Using his mathematical skills garnered as a graduate of the top Ecole Polytechnique and his experience as an Artillery officer, he calculated the merits of 60cm gauge. He needed a sweet spot. The broader the gauge, the smoother and more reliable running became; the narrower, the more expeditiously the railway could be laid. 60cm provided the best compromise. Between 1882 and 1888, he put his life and career on hold trying to persuade the French Army to lay in a stock of portable railways. He met with partial success in 1888 and more than 500 km (300 miles) of artillerie 88/ Péchot system railways were installed around the frontier fortresses of France.

Péchot-Bourdon locomotive on the military narrow gauge network serving the Belfort frontier defences. Picture courtesy Raymond Duton

Before Péchot, the Prussian army had been experimenting with 70 and 75cm gauge. Very soon after reports of French experiments appeared in French newspapers, the Prussians and soon the whole German Army went over to their version of 60cm gauge, known as Heeresfelbahn. Paul Decauville, mentioned above, recalled a letter from the German ambassador expressing great interest in the new portable railways. Ironically, they grasped Péchot’s ideas better than the French generals. By 1914, they had a thousand kilometres of track in readiness for attack.

The British, until they saw French field railways, had been using 2’6” (75cm.) Although they - and the USA - used Imperial measurements as a rule, they, too in their own good time, adopted the French metric standard of 60cm.

16mm Wrightscale model of a Péchot bogie wagon

The same applies to the rolling stock. Until then, whether Decauville or Welsh, narrow gauge wagons were sturdy little four-wheelers. Péchot insisted on bogie wagons. The body could be longer and thus have superior capacity. The bogies enabled them to take narrow gauge, roughly laid track far better. Braking for every wagon came as standard. They could even be operated by brake-wheel – or by a key at track level.

The Péchot system of compensated springing was a world leader. Unfortunately, between 1888 and 1914, the French army lost its early technological lead. In 1914, what material that was left was ageing; Péchot bogie wagons were still going strong but there were very few of them.

In 1914, the Péchot system acquired a powerful advocate. As the German Army thrust westwards, General Gallieni was charged with the defence of Paris. The capital of France was ringed by fortifications, but there was no way to roll supplies up from the railway stations. He realised the potential of a light railway system that could rapidly deliver  military supplies. Though retired, Péchot returned to make a contribution to the defence of Paris and, once more, the value of artillerie 88 was demonstrated.

General Gallieni, remembered as the hero of 1914 as his efforts stopped the German advance. Photo copyright MD Wright

Paris was soon out of danger to be replaced by the realities of trench warfare. New rail, rolling stock and locomotives were needed, in great volume. The Decauville company produced a relatively light design which could be rolled out by the thousand, the 'Decauville 15'. 

For all its merits, the WDLR Companion provides a blinkered view. The enormous contribution that French design made to the British War Department Light Railways is only mentioned briefly in the text. A railway stores depot in Andruiq (page 9) included projects such as ‘manufacture of standard gauge, metre gauge and 60 cm’ in 1915. In early 1916, the British took over a French sector (also page 9). ‘The takeover included a 60cm French military railway.’  The book admits that orders for 60cm gauge material flowed home from February 1916 onwards. (pp 9-10)

So far, the push towards 60cm field railways came from relatively junior officers.

General Haig, fairly recently appointed British CinC, was open to suggestions; the Battle of the Somme was not going well. Photo copyright MD Wright

It was not until the battle of the Somme was under way that ‘Top Brass’ got involved. On September 11^th (WDLR Companion pp 13-14) Haig recorded a meeting which included L-G (Lloyd George), M. Robert (the French Minister for Muitions) and Sir Eric Geddes. ‘The necessity for 60 centimetre railways was quickly shown’

Here, hey, a revolution in British thinking has happened!

The compilers of WDLR Companion are well aware of the French influence. They had access to the Imperial War Museum Archive where there are various photos of French field railways, for example Q 4111 (Decauville wagons on the ex French system)

In 1916, Sir Eric Geddes was apointed Director of Light Railways and was in at the formation of the WDLR. Photo copyright MD Wright

I feel particularly disappointed. Roy Link and the Wrights have been friends for many years. He knows about the huge contributions that Péchot made to military narrow gauge railways.

In the drawings section of WDLR Companion, there are two or three plans featuring Decauville-15 bogies and a Péchot bogie. For these drawings, we can thank Peter Foley.  He has clearly examined surviving examples, checking to see where they have been modified during their long service life.

They are attractive drawings, and we hope that they will inspire interest in French military narrow gauge. The reader can see from pp 166-7 the differences between the heavily engineered Péchot bogies and the relatively light Decauville 15 equivalent. We should like to comment on an outstanding feature. This was one of the innovations that made the Péchot design revolutionary.

A Péchot bogie which retains some original features. Photo courtesy Jacques Pradayrol

The chequer plate shown (page 166) without comment on the top surface of the Péchot bogie was one of the world-leading introductions produced by the Péchot team. Remember – the original designs date from the 1880s.The original drawings housed at Chatellereult and a bogie in its original state indicate this early use of non-slip surfacing. As can be seen from the drawings of WD wagons and the Decauville ones, their top surfaces did not have this thoughtful safety material.

In this enlargement of the photo shown above, you can just see the non-slip surfacing.

 The simplest way to produce a non-slip surface was to use cast iron. Unfortunately, this was too brittle for use in the field where heavy weights might be dropped with, literally, shattering results. The material must have been steel. Before theappearence of the huge rolling mills of the 20^th century, production of steel was usually in sheet form. But these sheets must have been pressed in relatively small portions.

It may be a little pernickety, but we’d like to suggest that the simple diamond pattern shown in the drawing is slightly misleading. Because of the technology, the diamond pattern would have been heavily ridged. This could have been indicated on the drawing if traced in double lines. It would have been a simple matter for Peter Foley to haveindicated the way that they would have appeared in the 19^th century.

 This is a small quibble. We just wish that, In all, given Mr Foley’s work, it would have been simple for the text to have pointed out more of the history of the War Department Light Railways.