Roy Link the giant killer

Colonel Péchot (1849-1928) and his work was not known in Britain until the First World War; by 1916, the British had to create their own version of his narrow gauge system, known as the War Department Light Railway. 
The WDLR Album, compiled by Roy Link, appeared a few months ago. Starting with a useful introduction, it provides a snapshot of British narrow gauge military railways in early 1918.   Focussing on a remarkable album of pictures photographed on March 17th 1918, it provides stunning reproductions and background information on  the War Department Light Railways. The photos are reproduced to full-page size. Sceptics might dismiss a sketch or a small photo as 'easily forged'. Here, in large photos which could hardly be faked, there is little doubt that they are faithful views of what actually happened. Here is proof that there really were networks of 60cm railways running between the Western Front and standard gauge stations, staffed by British, ANZAC, Canadian, Indian and Chinese troops. As the Introduction explains, the Album was saved from a rubbish skip by Colonel David Ronald and Major 'Nic' Carter.

WD Baldwin 4-6-0T, laden E-class wagon and friends pose on a timber trestle bridge (detail of photo on page 36 of Album) Courtesy Roy Link

Modellers will grasp the potential of this treasury of images. The late Henry Holdsworth (mentioned in a previous blog) used these contemporary photographs to create scenes such as this in his Pont du Lyn layout. It is very good that Roy has put such photos out into the wider world so that more people can see it. The Henry Holdsworth model shows a WD Hunslet side tank 4-6-0 made by Henry himself crossing a bridge followed by a WD Baldwin 4-6-0T made by Wrightscale.

Pont du Lyn

The text is mostly taken from contemporary documents: an article which appeared in 'The Engineer' October 1918, a 'Short History' dated May 1919, a report by A.L. Stead ex Royal Engineers June 4th 1920, the Railway Gazette feature of 21st September 1920, Heeniker's History of Transport of the War and so on. Supported by re-rendering of diagrams and contemporary drawings, it steers us through the alphabet soup of Programmes and Classes, wagons, bogie wagons, steam locomotives and tractors.  We are able to find out about  the Ds, Es and much else beside.

A Dick Kerr diesel pulls a class F and class E wagon (March 17th 1918) Courtesy Roy Link

Built in the 1890s and pictured in 2004 this standard Péchot wagon was the inspiration for the WD wagons shown above

The sources used by the compilers of the WDLR Album mentions the French somewhat briefly and this can be misleading. For example, anyone reading the introduction of WDLR Album would think that it was the Germans who developed 60cm for military purposes. In fact, they got their best ideas from the French - Decauville in general and Péchot in particular.  Before 1914, there were over 500 km of French fortress railways in France itself, as against 385 km for the German military Swakopmund railway. Though the French started the War with very little portable track, by September 1914 they managed to cobble together 100 kilometres worth of 60cm to defend Paris. This was soon translated into trench supply, thanks to large orders at home and abroad. In September 1915, the freight moved in the Champagne sector varied between 700 and 1400 tonnes per day. In 1916, the British and their allies developed the WD system in reference to the French.

For any reader tantalised by Roy's reference to a Péchot Bourdon locomotive, here is some relief. Between pages 92 and 97, there is a fascinating sequence showing an F Class wagon being loaded with a 6" howitzer. Part of a Péchot Bourdon locomotive can be glimpsed at the extreme left of one of the pictures. Here is a complete Péchot Bourdon.
Why does the title of this blog post mention giant killing? As well as the contemporary album, it includes the archive of the late John Kimber, particularly enlightening in the section on rolling stock. John, like Colonel Ronald, rescued many a precious collection from the bonfire and saved them from posterity.The giant, Death, may have come for John, as it came for all those forgotten railway heroes, but their influence lives on in Roy's book.
In his introduction to the album, Colonel Ronald hints at another sinister giant, that of ignorance. The records, from which the book has been compiled, survived on the goodwill (and sense of history) of employees at various levels within the War Office. The original photo album, he wrote in his Introduction, 'was orphaned by many years of well-intentioned salvage drives, clear-outs and the like. .... The WDLR was not well served'
We all welcome this long overdue tribute to the WDLR system and its workers.