Tracks to the Trenches

We attended the Apedale 'Tracks to the Trenches' (12th-14th Seprtember) commemoration of transport to the front line of World War One.(organised with the Moseley Trust) It was a vibrant event. Everyone from primary school-children to venerable grand-parents were there, both enjoying a day out and trying to get to grips with the experiences of the foot soldiers. You can visit the event's own website.  www.ww1-event.org

Raising steam for the big day ahead

 The guidebook to the weekend was beautifully produced. The introduction 'The narrow gauge railway at war' explained the point of the event and all the locomotives and wagons assembled there. Briefly, logistics - the trail ensuring that timely supplies reach the battlefront - are not glamorous but they are vital. The front-line, especially on the Western side, depended on 60cm gauge railways, quickly laid and relaid to provide soldiers with weapons, ammunition, food and forage. 
Unfortunately, the article had relied overmuch on an article written elsewhere. Mistakes had crept in. For example, the Paris Exposition (Exhibition) for which the Eiffel Tower was built was in 1889 not 1878. The Germans adopted 600 mm gauge in 1888, not 1889 when their first locomotives were built. The story about Arthur Koppel visiting the Paris exhibition and having an epiphany under the Eiffel Tower is charming, but just a story. For many months, hard-nosed Prussian 'observers' had been watching the French Army. The future enemy was the source of their ideas!

Henschel"Brigadelok" of 1918. One survivor of arround 2500 built. The attractive wine red frames are prototypical, the red buffing beams are not but are necessary for safety.

The father of portable railways was a French artillery officer, Prosper Pechot. From the time of the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1) he had been agonising over the next war, and how to avoid another defeat for his country. Victory, he knew, would go to the side which was better supplied. The Decauville Company started marketing portable track, largely for agricultural purposes, from 1876. Pechot saw the potential for military applications. Genius is application as well as  inspiration. With much theorising and experimentation, he worked out that 60cm/600mm track with the right design of sleepers, bogies and mechanical haulage could carry supplies in the volume required by a serious assault.
Paul Decauville, Director of the Decauville Company was the first to encourage him, from 1880 onwards, building prototypes so that he could test his ideas. For various reasons, his superiors were suspicious. Early in 1886, the Navy realised the potential and Pechot helped them move 34 tonne guns up vertiginous slopes and remote beaches. The Press finally brought the Army round and Pechot's ideas were officially adopted in 1888.  Then the French Army took a long rest. By 1914, the initiative was with the Germans who had no less than 1000 kilometres of portable track, wagons and locomotives, all ready to support the Schlieffen Plan and invasion. France, then Britain and later the AEF had a lot of catching up to do.

Built for the French Army, a "Joffre" class 0-6-0 built by Kerr Stuart in Stoke

 

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