Somme Centennial

The Battle of the Somme needs no introduction but unlike the British, the French commemorate the beginning of the battle in May rather than July. This explains why we were at the Chemin de Fer Froissy-Dompierre from May 5th to 8th this year. The celebration at the CFCD was a double annuiversary; the centenary of the battle of the Somme and the 45th anniversary of the resurrection of this unique 60cm railway.
The railway was rescued by Jacques Pradayroil and others who formed APPEVA and the Blondin family who for two generations (and counting) have driven the railway to the success that it is today. It is a major site for those interested in the history of the 'Soixante' with an emphasis on military equipment. Even more interestingly, parts of the railway are still on the original alignment set down in the First World War.
We first encountered the railway in the early Eighties before it became so familiar. Luckily, in spite of major investment in a modern museum the railway still holds a lot of its essential character. It was built to move material from the canal de Somme up the steep valley side on to the plain above. To do this it utilises two-stage zigzags and a tunnel (added in the Twenties). When we think that a single mile of Front when quiet required at least 80 tonnes of basic stores a day, (plus engineering supplies) we begin to see how busy such a railway would have been.

May morning 2016 at the CFCD, Somme canal to one side, locomotives including in steam to the other. Photo Malcolm Wright

The atmosphere of this photo captures something of the supply end of a trench railway. Barges on the Somme canal would bring up supplies which were transhipped here before being moved up to forward supply dumps. From there, trains would move at night by petrol power to the Front. 60cm gauge at this, safer, end of the line tended to be properly engineered. At the forward end, rail was laid, relaid and often repaired in a matter of hours.

Kerr Stuart Joffre 0-6-0T  from the West Lancashire Railway visiting the CFCD in May 2016. Photograph Malcolm Wright

Although, thanks to Prosper Péchot, the French had a lead in siege train technology in the 1890s, the Germans as second adopters overtook them. It was the Germans who started the war ready with 1000 miles of track and corresponding material.. The scramble to defend Paris and then the needs of trench warfare had them hurrying to update. In the autumn of 1914, they placed large orders. To the existing Péchot system bogies and wagons were added a simplified Decauville design. As the advance of the central powers threatened their own industrial areas, many orders had to be placed abroad.
The design of 0-6-0 tank engine in the photo above was made both in France (Decauville) and by Kerr Stuart in England. Two differences are obvious even to the non-specialist. The English cousin has a spark arrestor chimney and the platework over the tanks results in a 'three-stepped' side view. Its French relation had a straight chimney and more angular platework, for all the world looking like four 'steps'.
For another chance to see this little darling, the West Lancashire Railway PR4 6SP lies between Southport and Preston and is open on Sundays and special occasions between Easter to October.

The British sector of the Front lay to the north, on the far side of the Somme river. In spring and summer of 1916, they had almost no trench railways, apart from heroic improvisations by the 'boots on the ground' and a system they had inherited from the French. During the battle of the Somme, the War Department Light Railways were formed. The new Directorate of Light Railways placed vast orders. As British engineering firms had their hands full of French orders, they immediately looked overseas to the great Baldwin Works of Philadelphia, USA, among others.

Baldwin 4-6-0T from the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway pictured at the CFCD in May 2016. Photo Malcolm Wright

A total of 486 of these Baldwin 4-6-0T locomotives were supplied to the WDLR during the war.  As with human combatants, many were irreparably damaged by the long and horrific conflict. The survivors were sold off during the years of peace and served in fields, mines and quarries, many abroad. If only this restored locomotive could talk!
If you missed a chance to take a train at Froissy, she will be back at the Leighton Buzzard light railway this summer.
During the celebrations, Malcolm took his model Baldwin 4-6-0 and photographed it beside her big sister, much to the credit of both.

We much enjoyed our days at the CFCD commemoration. Malcolm had brought along an exhibition of 16mm scale locomotives and rolling stock, as used during the First World War, both British and French. We have mentioned the Baldwin steam locomotive. He also took along his Baldwin locotractor, developed to slip unseen to forward areas. Those wreaths of smoke, though atmospheric, made steam locomotives a prime target for enemy guns! He brought along a variety of wagons, both French military and WDLR, made from Wrightscale kits. He had come along with what he thought was a life-time supply of Péchot wagon kits; visitors were so delighted to see the models appearing beside the prototypes that Malcolm sold out! He has had to order more.
The photo below is a homage to the Péchot System. Sarah was beside Malcolm with her book 'Colonel Péchot: Tracks to the trenches' and was delighted with the many opportunities to discuss his work with people who could actually see examples outside! 

A Baldwin 4-6-0T in steam heads up a train outside the CFCD engine shed. Wreathed in drifting smoke,can just be seen a pair of Péchot bogies carrying portable track. Behind again is a Péchot flat wagon with its distinctive  stanchions and behind that is a Péchot wagon carrying a newly built reconstruction of an inspection vehicle built in the 1890s. May 1016. Photo Malcolm Wright

Outside the exhibition area can be seen a true homage to Péchot's work. When a French army base closed its 60cm gauge network, the CFCD was given a number of Péchot wagons and other material, dating back to the 1890s! It is a tribute to the resilience of the design that it could be put back to use. Bogie bolsters still carry 10m lengths of portable track as they would originally. The ten-tonne Péchot wagon in the photograph still looks good for its age. Just to prove its load-bearing capacity, the Péchot wagon behind has been rebuilt to a Belle Epoque design as an  Inspection Coach as used by the French high command and President. This was just finished for the May commemorations and we were able to watch this train leave the station and proceed up the line with Sarah onboard (a real priviledge). She was able to watch the original wheel brakes being screwed down as originally designed. It may have been a slightly rough ride for the President of France, but he was truly safe!
Come to Froissy to see this historic material . If you are in the west of France, you can see Péchot wagons in service at the chemin de fer de lac de Rillé, another place worth visiting. It has been mentioned in previous blogs.

CFCD May 2016. In authentic French costumes of the 1916 period, a re-enactment society pose beside a model of Etampes station commemorating its contribution to the War. Photo Malcolm Wright

This photo gives an idea of the hall devoted to models. We are just off to the right, in a good position to catch the re-enactment society in its pose beside the TEE exhibition. At the left were exhibits from the Confrerie des Amateurs de Vapeur Vive which put steam of the first world war period into historic context.  The poilus and  NCO in the photograph represent the infantry and Alpine troops as well as the soldiers who contested the area. As you can see, the French army greatcoat is pinned up during the day for ease of movement but at night could be opened out to provide a blanket for the legs. The coats are French horizon grey, similar to trench railway liveries of the period.The soldier far left wears a 1916 uniform, far right the uniform is a modern reconstruction (not the brighter blue) The bright red trousers have been abandoned in favour of sober grey - for obvious reasons.
Though uniforms and conditions improved during the war, French losses, not to mention other Allies and Central Powers, were terrible. When visiting the Little Railway of the Upper Somme, (one of the names of the CFCD) there are a number of memorials to the fallen which should be visited.All in all, this was quite an experience.

The Froissy Centenary 5th to 8th May

The Petit Train of La Haute Somme is having a centenary commemoration from Thursday to Sunday 5th to 8th May. There will be steam locomotives running beside the Somme canal,  train rides up to Dompierre on the plateau above, costumed re-enactments and models galore. Wrightscale will be at the party with an exhibition of First World War models.

Wrightscale Baldwin 4-6-0 The British army (War Department) prototype did not appear at the battle of the Somme but it was conceived at the time. Photo M.D. Wright

60cm gauge railways were used at the battle of the Somme and throughout the rest of the First World War. Over the years that followed, these narrow-narrow gauge railways were put to one use and then another until they became the Chenmins de fer Froissy-Dompierre CFCD. Come to enjoy an atmospheric train ride!
To the British, used to the claim that the battle of the Somme started in July 1916, the question may be 'why are the French commemorating the battle in May?'

French and Joffre at a meeting of the Allied generals. Three such took place on the 6,7 and 8th December 1915. From Illustration magazine

There is a good reason. The battle of the Somme was planned late in 1915, and the French did a great deal of preparation before July 1916. The French spent the winter and spring preparing transport in the Somme area. After February 1916, they were also fighting a desperate battle to hold Verdun, but they wanted this 'diversionary' front opened and kept pressing the British for support.
In my book Colonel Péchot: Tracks To The Trenches, I described how an artillery officer, Prosper Péchot had devised a system of portable 60cm railways for supplying their Army (and Navy). An updated version of the système Péchot was used to supply the French fronts while the German Army had their own Feldbahn system.

Why was the Somme chosen for a joint British/French offensive?
It was a relatively quiet area. The British intended to have their volunteer army fully operational by late summer 1916. They would be to the north of the river Somme, the French more-or-less to the south. The original purpose, as stated by Joffre in December 1915, was to paralyse German communications east of St Quentin. When Verdun was attacked in February 1916, the French purpose changed. An attack in the Somme area would provide a much-needed diversion for the hard-pressed garrison, and the sooner the better. The British went along with them.

Map of the river Somme and canal east of Amiens (where railways top and bottom left converge), showing communications. The hatched line shows the Front in autumn 1916. Bray and Froissy were almost at the node of the action. Péronne is to the east of the Front, where the two railway lines (top and bottom right) converge. 60 cm rilways have been laid, especially to the south of the Somme in the French sector. From a contemporary map, courtesy Terry van Winkle

The French 6^th Army (Nord) was responsible for the southern sector ie from the Somme river to the standard gauge Amiens-Chaulnes railway line. Their objective was Péronne, held by the Germans.
French preparations were thorough. Their 6^th Army (Nord) was being supplied by three 60cm gauge systems X, C and B and a fourth, A, under construction. Their Line B ran by the Somme canal and through Cappy and then north over the Somme towards Hem-Monacu. 

The 6^th Army (Sud) from Chaulnes to Montdidier had systems D, E, F, G and H. The 10^th Army, south of Montdidier down to the department of Oise, ran I, J, K, L and M. They are described as systems; as well as running from a viable standard gauge or metre gauge line to the frontline area, they had laterals and escape routes connecting them. 

Until the battle was well underway, the British had almost no 60cm trench railways. It was still the era of Kitchener and a robust belief in road transport. The grand plan, worked out in 1914-15, involved building standard gauge railways and canals to supply the Army. Indeed, these were built and were ready by .... 1918, long after the War was supposed to be over! In short the British had one completed 60cm line, running towards Thiepval, basically a legacy from the French Army.

When you come to Froissy, there are a number of other sites in the Somme that would interest.

The Thiepval Memorial. Photo courtesy of Pierre's Western Front, New Zealand.

This is a cemetery, so worthy of respect. You may notice its dramatic situation. This was itself part of the tragedy. Our soldiers  were fighting uphill. What a splendid, if short-lived sight they must have made! You will notice that this picture was taken by a New Zealander. One century ago, many ANZACs were fighting for the Mother Country.
The British left flank was held by Newfoundland Canadians at Beaumont Hamel. 

Beaumont Hamel July 1916 Photo courtesy of Newfoundland and the Somme, an organisation commemorating the sacrifice of so many Canadians

The Canadians have loyalties both to Britain and France, and so a relatively large number joined, in comparison with the population. 

Photo Courtesy of NFLD - Beaumont Hamel Memorial

Beaumont Hamel, then and now - a chance to pause and reflect.

 

Packing for the 16mm AGM Show

This is just a short post to show you all that now I am back in the workshop some progress is being made. In my last post, I told you how the chassis were all running on air. Well now they are finished.

They are done! The batch of Wrightscale Hunslet chassis are ready for painting.

This brings me to the Show. Hopefully, we'll have the opportunity to meet our customers, past, present and to come. We are bringing with us a good supply of kits, Péchot cranes and wagons and WD bogies, most complete with wheels.
I am sure you will have noticed the nice resin WD wagon body kits available from Swift Sixteen. Finishing them with our WD bogies being made of white metal makes a good wagon kit into a superb one!
We will also be bringing a few of Sarah's books, Colonel Péchot: Tracks To The Trenches. We thought we'd take the opportunity of marking our 25th anniversary of being in Scotland and coming down for the AGMs by offering 16 Millers a good, 25% discount ie £27.50 at the Show. The end is in sight. The book will soon be out of print so take advantage of this opportunity.

Workshop - getting there.

Since the last workshop post at the New Year a lot has been happening in our day to day lives.  We have had to spend far more time looking after the affairs of my 97 year old mum.  Most weekends and a couple of weeks we have been away working on her old house and/or waiting in for estimators.  I am sure a lot of you will know the amount of time this all takes.  Beside this we try to see her every week so not as much time as I had intended has been spent in the workshop trying to reduce our ever lengthening interest lists.

1st April 2016  The stage all 11 Hunslets of the second batch are at.

Any time I have found has gone into the second batch of Hunslet quarry tanks.  I had hoped when I last wrote to have them finished by the AGM next weekend.  Well the photo shows where I have got to. They are not finished.  All the 11 chassis in the batch run beautifully on air and most of the platework is finished. 
Next week I will get the slide bars and motion plates on complete the chassis.  Still to do are the boilers, burners, valves and fittings, fit the smoke box and firebox castings, finish assemble, test and paint.
I hope this will all be done next month.  It sounds a lot.  However it is not as time consuming as the stage just finished. Each chassis involves making a lot of parts, drilling and tapping 60 or more holes. Fitting all the nuts and bolts ......... The only way to do this economically is by batch building. The downside is if anything goes wrong - say a broken tap, the problem has to be sorted before you go on. Hopefully we will get to the end soon.

The end point!

See you at the 16mm Society AGM Peterborough April 9th

As you know, we love all things 2' or 60cm gauge. Malcolm is coming with 16mm bogie kits for  WD wagons and French Péchot system wagons. He will have examples of his WD Baldwin 4-6-0 live steam locomotive and best of all, you will be able to see progress on his latest batch.  (of Quarry Hunslets)

Wrightscale WD Baldwin 16mm model

Sarah will come with copies of  her biography of Colonel Péchot. If you are mean, you can browse the inspection copy, and come away with information about the man who changed history. If you already have a copy, please come anyway and record your reactions, and any new information. She will bring along her notebook and you'll find your views on tour blog in due course. If you haven't already got a copy of Colonel Péchot: Tracks To The Trenches, buy one at our special Show discount.

Colonel Pechot: Tracks To The Trenches Hardback, 259 pages, about 300 illustrations including drawings and contemporary photographs RRP £36.75 Discount at Show

What is the link between Malcolm's and Sarah's interest?
Malcolm was the first to be hooked. Survivors from the First World War ended up on small rural and industrial lines in Britain. Ancient rolling stock and locomotives could be found when we were young, holed up in Penryn, the Great Little Trains of Wales, Amberley or across the Channel at Froissy. These were tiny kingdoms of track, remote and romantic. How could a fellow resist?

The romance of 2' gauge Photo MD Wright

16mm quarry Hunslet model. Come to the Wrightscale stand at Peterborough and see how it has progressed since January!

Sarah' first reaction was: 'Why?' Why did an idea born on the Festiniog Railway in Wales get taken up in France? Why and how did 60cm gauge become so important? Who was Prosper Péchot, and how did he manage to persuade the entire French Army and Navy to adopt his Péchot System?  

The celebrated Péchot-Bourdon lococmotive. Photo courtesy of Raymond Duton

Why did all the combatants on the Western Front develop their own versions of 60cm field railways? Why did networks rivalling in scale the trans-siberian railway just all disappear?
What could she do but embark on a book! We hope that it helps to answer some of the questions you may have.

The real centenary of the Battle of the Somme

At Froissy, Somme, on 5th to 8th May 2016, there will be a commemoration of the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. Do come if you can. Wrightscale are going to be there, with a WW1 display and our book 'Colonel Péchot: Tracks To The Trenches'
The museum and preserved railway are Bray sur Somme on the D329. Full details are on the APPEVA website.
You will be asking two questions. Why was the Battle of The Somme important? Why are the French making their commemoration in May rather than July?
It is important to commemorate the battle, as so many British, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and people from other parts of the Empire died, not to forget the French and Germans. For the British, it was the beginning of a painful process of rethinking, in military and social terms. 
Thanks to the revolution in military transport, the First World War was not over by Christmas 1914. With 60cm portable light railways, millions could be sustained on the battlefield for years. As 1916 approached, the  Allies looked for a new battlefield toenable, they hoped the army of British volunteers to drive the Germans out of France. The area around the river Somme was chosen. On its way to Amiens and down to the sea, river and canal flowed through the Front. Verdun was under attck further south; the French wanted the battle sooner, the British later.  July 1st was chosen as a compromise, and that is the date we British remember.

This map dates from late July 16 showing the Front pushed east. On July 1st, Froissy was almost on the Front; the French managed to attack up the escarpment and take Dompierre. Map courtesy of Terry van Winkle

The French had been preparing the battleground since the previous year. By May of 1916, they had at least a dozen 60cm gauge railway systems, supplying their sector of the battlefield, south of the Somme. The British were to the north and along the valley of the Ancre, a tributary of the Somme.
The British had precisely one, taken over from the French. Their plan was to build conventional links - standard gauge railways and canals - and rely on motor transport in the mean time. One of the many lessons that the slaughter on the Somme was to teach them was ... to belatedly build their own WD narrow gauge system. This has since been celebrated in such events as the MRT 'Tracks To The Trenches' at Apedale Staffs in 2014 which pulled in a massive happy crowd. The Froissy event promises to be just as interesting.

This  0-6-0 locomotive in French military grey is of the pattern used in WW1 (not quite sure about the chimney!) Photographed by MD Wright at the Apedale Tracks to The Trenches event

This partly explains why, from the French point of view, the centenary should take place in the spring rather than the summer of 2016. In addition, France has chosen May 8th  to commemorate all the wars of the 20th century. It is a public holiday. In Britain, we just have the May Bank Holiday which wanders around the calendar between the 1st and 7th.

Also pictured at Apedale 2014, is this Brigadelok type 0-8-0 locomotive, also painted in authentic colours.  Yes, the buffer beams are red, but they were too low to be spotted by the enemy and the bright colour could just save the life of a soldier working on the line.

Thus, by French logic, we should be out there, remembering the Battle of the Somme at Froissy on 5th to 8th May. People wearing First World War uniforms have been invited, plus surviving locomotioves and rolling stock. Froissy was at the centre of the action, lying on the north/south boundary of the French and British sectors, and on the east/west divide of the Front itself. The Germans will be there too.

The British Simplex was one of the locotractors developed for use on the Front. THis was also photographed at Apedale by MD Wright

Take a train ride. It will be vastly more civilised than the journey the soldiers took. Engineering works such as teh tunnel were post-war additions. Wagon-loads had to be pushed up the slope by hand or pulled, one at a time, by crazy little petrol-motors, taking care not to damage the camouflage screens.  It all had to happen at night, when the enemy were least likely to see you. If there was a mishap and you were driven to profanities (all too common an occurrence) you were well advised to swear quietly. If the enemy couldn't see, he could still hear!
But enjoy the sun, the camaraderie, the very physical nature of the railway ride. Every contour is marked by a gasp, every bend by a little jolt. We are a hundred years away n time and a thousand years in spirit, but it is good to remember those distant people, almost all volunteers.

Colonel Péchot's children - lac de Rillé

The 60 cm gauge network at lac de Rillé (pronounced ree-ay) appears in my Péchot biography (page 206). Péchot himself never knew the network as it was established after the second world war, but it has some interesting preserved stock which would be very familiar to him.
An association of volunteers - AEFCM - was encouraged to build their railway by the side of the lake in the commune of Marcilly 37330 that is, in the department of Indre et Loire. Nearby are the famous châteaux of Chinon and Azay-le-Rideau, but more about those bygones below.

Steam train at lac de Rillé. Copyright Stevan Lira

Although the department does not have a history of 60cm railways comapred to the like of Loiret, Tarn and Calvados, the Powers That Be recognised the value of a preserved railway, recalling times when narrow gauge transport was vital to daily life.  The aims of the Asociation are interesting. They include the valuable ones of maintaining a railway, running steam engines and restoring old stock but also the aim of education. Their slogan is 'Welcome to train lovers and mechanical bodgers! We welcome and train youngsters from the age of 12'
In practice that means that volunteers work on the permanent way and maintain stock so that the public can take rides into the days of yore. They also preserve the know-how and techniques which belong to a by-gone era. This is practical history in action!
They have acquired locomotives and stock from various sources, industrial and military. Their oldest steam engine dates from 1913, the oldest wagon from 1890. The oldest wagons include ones of the Péchot design.

Péchot well-wagon at lac de Rillé. The Association plan to restore it to the original condition. Courtesy David Mumford

The first comment anyone makes when seeing a Péchot wagon is: 'Good-looking for its age! Eleventy plus years and still going strong!' (with apologies to Tolkien).
Manufacture of these wagons took place between 1889 and 1893. Péchot bogies had been first thought of in 1882 and  prototypes were at work in the mid 1880s.  My previous blog mentions them at Fontainebleau in 1886. Army documents refer to them in 1883-4.
To some, Péchot wagons were a short-lived and wonderful phenomenon. The French used them as transport in their frontier forts, pretty well unchanged in 1914. When the Germans noticed the advantages of French 60cm, they copied many aspects, but improved on them. Their standard bogie wagons were, if not exactly cheap and cheerful, much less sturdy. When trench warfare began in 1914, the French ordered bogie wagons in their THOUSANDS. Again, these were relatively light, compared with the Péchot design.
Where are all the THOUSANDS of French and German military bogie wagons? About as many remain as remain of the small number of Péchot originals. They are thus truly exceptional.

Péchot well-wagon photographed at Apedale just before their 2014 Tracks to the Trenches event. Courtesy James Hawkesworth

Above is another Péchot survivor photographed in England. This also looks good for its age.  Compared with the one at lac de Rillé, this one has been less modified.  In the Frenchexample, the well has been covered up. and the ends have been fitted with modern boards. The English example is, as designed, with flat ends and a proper well. The French called them dos d'âne/donkey back. The centre of gravity of a Péchot wagon was exceptionally low, the whole being very stable, even when loaded. When Jim took the picture, the wagon was still being used, loaded with lengths of track to make sidings for a commemorative gala. These lengths of track were supported over the well by the sleepers visible in the photo.
The wagon seen at Apedale was itself modified from the original. Pockets are visible along the side of the wagon; there are also ones along each end. These took stanchions which originally were intended as side barriers. They have gone. The wheels for operating the brakes have also gone.

Péchot wagon at Fermont, eastern France. The stanchions and one brake wheel have survived. Photo Author.

This Péchot wagon is nearer to the original. The stanchions are in place and one brake wheel survives. They were removable, which made the well-wagon a flexible load carrier. It could be completely open and loaded with dense and heavy items such as artillery shells. It could be given a flat base by covering over the well, and take a gun or vehicle, the brake wheel being removed to make loading easier.  Otherwise, ropes or more solid walls could be put around the stanchions and it could carry building materials. Stanchions could also be removed and put into rerailing pockets, acting as useful levers to lift a bogie which had sprung off the track.
This wagon stands outside the entrance to Fermont, one of the entrances to a Maginot line fortification. Placed there as a memorial, it is proof that this famous feature of the interwar years was being served by 60 cm railways.
Back to lac de Rillé ... It has much else of interest.

A Brigadelok 0-8-0 plus tender at lac de Rillé. Courtesy David Mumford

Once again, sun and steam have been photographed at lac de Rillé. This locomotive appears in 'Colonel Péchot: Tracks To The Trenches' In the book, the author located it at Marcilly, which is of course, the postal address. Attractive though the lake may be, I don't suppose that the French post office deliver many letters to the water! This fine locomotive, lovingly preserved, belonged to a class built for the German Army on the other side of No Man's Land in World War 1. They were a good design. While the French rested on their laurels after accepting the Péchot system, the Germans actively developed their 60cm gauge. This design was the fruit of years of experience, in Germany and German South West Africa. After 1918, the French eagerly accepted many of these locomotives as part of war reparations.
Come for a ride and enjoy what the area has to offer!
Interestingly, there is another link with the Péchot family. Prosper Péchot's late grandson used to spend his summers here in the Touraine. The author had the privilege of corresponding with him, and many of the letters had a local post mark. Raymond Péchot, observed that, as Scots, we had particular interest in le vieil Baugé a small town nearby.  During the Hundred Years' War, the Scots sided with the French against the English. We all know that at least one point. the French were holed up on the Loire.with the English in possession of northern France. The Scots weighed in to prevent an English incursion into the Touraine and helped to save their allies!