War of 1918 and railways today

We are looking forward to seeing friends old and new at the Garden Railway Show in Peterborough on April 7^th.

Thank you to all our loyal customers who have bought our rolling stock kits over the years. It has been hard to find a good white-metal caster to replace Adrian Swain, but we are delighted to have found one here in Scotland. Even better, our price rises will be very modest. Some prices we can even hold at present levels.  The work is of the quality which you have the right to expect.

Buy now, while the kits are available!

Kits for WD bogies can be made up into a variety of WD wagons – D, E and F-class open wagons, H-class tanker wagons, covered freight wagons and ambulances. Swift Sixteen supply lovely wagon bodies.

We shall bring some Péchot kits. There will be a few of the historic platform wagons, first designed for the French Army in the 1880s, used through the First World War and only now being sold off to preserved railways in France and the UK.

16mm scale Péchot platform wagon made from a Wrightscale kit

We shall also offer the ever-popular mobile crane kit. Being a thoughtful officer, Péchot was aware of the dangers of handling vast high-explosive shells. This crane was one of many designs which aimed to make handling these deadly weights less arduous. Versions of this and the larger version of crane came across the Channel to be used on 2’ gauge prototypes.

16mm model of a Péchot system rail-mounted crane. The strange arrangement on the left is an ingenious counterweight making shellhandling easier

We hope also to have some kits for Mackenzie Holland signal kits. Watch this space!

We will have examples of the Wren 0-4-0 locomotive, the Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0, two forms of the Bagnall Excelsior, the 0-4-2 Tattoo and Baldwin Gas Mechanical locomotive on display. Pictures of our locomotives, and kits, can be found on the website of the show. Please see https://www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk/exhibitor/wrightscale/

We have been following the events of one hundred years ago. In the last blog, we left the brave Aussies hanging on with their fingernails against the storm-troopers of a furious Germans onslaught.  To recapitulate, this is what had just happened.

Drawing by J. Simont of British gunners March 1918. The artist shows them wearing gas masks. It is not certain that the Germans used tear gas in a space that was just about to be occupied by their own troops, but there was indeed a lot of smoke created by the artillery of both sides. From 'Illustration' magazine

The scene is the department of Somme. North of the river Somme, around the town of Albert were the British 3^rd Army. South of the Somme was the 5^th Army, south again of them were the French.

When waves of German attackers broke over the British 3^rd and 5^th armies on 21^st March 1918, the British were driven back by the speed, weight and fury of the attack. At four am a terrific bombardment started over 90 kilometres/55 miles of front. It stopped at ten past nine. In the time, more than 650,000 shells had been fired.

Normally, a bombardment would go on considerably longer. On this occasion, by the time that the smoke began to clear, the Germans were well on their way across No Man’s Land. They came in their thousands. Against 14 British divisions, there were 47 German ones.

On the south side, the ten divisions of the 5^th Army suffered terrible losses both of casualties and of terrain – up to 12 km/nearly 8 miles in one single day. The four divisions of the 3^rd fared better but also had to retreat to keep a united front.

By March 23^rd, the Germans had achieved their first target. They were poised to seize  communications with Paris.

Makeshift battalion command post at Plessi-le-Roi March 30th. The French were on the hill, the Germans in the chateau grounds below. Illustration magazine

Pétain ordered French support and the French 1^st Army started plugging gaps. The British 3^rd and 18^th Army corps joined with the French. What remained of the 5^th were already under French control.

By 26^th March, the Germans turned their main force on a secondary target, Amiens, sited on the Somme river, and the departmental capital. It controlled communications with northern France, the Channel and Britain. By April 4^th the Germans were within 16 km (10 miles) of the city.

It is argued that if the tide were not turned here, it would soon have been. German élan was nearly spent. They had advanced, fighting all the time, an average of 20km and in some cases much further. Their only supplies were what they had captured from an enemy obsessed about destroying what they could not carry – no water, no ammunition, no transport was to be left available.

It has been said that the Allies were saved by the state of the Somme battle-field. As every tree and building had been destroyed in 1916 and every river-bed was a churned up morass, the bleak landscape offered no shelter and no clean water.

The defenders at Villers-Bretonneux, just east of Amiens, were not to know this. With tremendous courage, they dug in and denied passage to the invaders. All went quiet. On 9^th April, the attack began in a new direction, well to the north of the Somme, this time the area around the river Lys. The pressure on the vital city of Amiens had lifted.

In March/April 1918, 189 steam locomotives were deliberately wrecked. The Baldwin 4-6-0, seen here as a 16mm Wrightscale model was a staple of British frontline transport and many were destroyed.

As the Allies retreated, they tried to keep valuable equipment from enemy use. Both sides knew that a complete 60cm gauge railway system would be as useful to the enemy as it was to their own. Where possible, trains rolled themselves and valuable supplies safely to the rear.

Where there were gaps, freight had to be trans-shipped on to metre gauge or standard, all needing man-power. That said, great things were done, especially north of the Somme. In the British 5^th Army sector, there had been no time to organise a proper trench railway system. They tried to evacuate some locomotives and wagons, but the network was neither wide nor deep enough. What could not be saved was deliberately wrecked.

Many examples of the D-Class wagon were used behind the British Front. Another important wagon was the H-Class which carried water. 1800 wagons had to be burned as the British retreated. 16mm model using Wrightscale bogies

In the the official history – Transportation on the Western Front – Henniker admits that between 21^st March and early April ‘nearly 300 locomotives and tractors were disabled by the removal of essential parts (injectors and magnetos) and nearly 2000 wagons burned. Over the six weeks to the end of April, destruction of 60cm gauge material continued. 189 locomotives and 138 locotractors were destroyed. The trench railway systems serving the Front had suffered equally. In early March 1918, the mileage operated was 920/1472 km. By the end of April, this had dropped to under 360 miles/576km.

If the German advance had been halted, it was a close-run thing .

Our policy on Data Protection and your Privacy    

Those of you who have put their names on lists of interest may be wondering about changes to the law on Data Protection. As you know, changes come into effect on May 25^th. We have considered the implications of these changes, and how the information we hold might affect your privacy.

We currently store our email address book online. It simply has name and email, no other personal details. All of you who email and expect a reply go into this email address book automatically. Every couple of months, I try to remove the ‘once onlies’  Everyone who emails us has the right to have their address removed immediately. We shall remind every first contact of this right. This is our only online data-base.

Our interest list is held off-line. In it, we try to include date of contact, a full name, postal address and phone number as well as email. This is because email addresses keep changing and we need an alternative way of keeping in touch. We, for example, have been obliged by our providers to change our own email address at least three times. We do not keep other personal details such as partner’s name, date of birth etc.

We do not hold any bank details online. Our policy is cash or cheque if at all possible. Where a customer requires the use of bank transfer, we shall discuss he situation beforehand. Privacy during the transaction will be ensured by the systems of the banks involved. Our bank is the Clydesdale. Their privacy policy is stated at

cbonline.co.uk/gdpr  

If you wish any email correspondence deleted after a payment, please inform us. We do not hold details online. We do not use internet banking.

Before May 25th, our Webmaster will put our privacy policy on the Wrightscale website.

Spring 1918 - were the Allies overwhelmed?

We are looking forward to seeing friends old and new at the Garden Railway Show in Peterborough on April 7^th. 

We will have examples of  the Wren 0-4-0 locomotive, the Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0, two forms of the Bagnall Excelsior, the 0-4-2 Tattoo and Baldwin Gas Mechanical locomotive on display, and kits to sell. Pictures of these locomotives, and our kits, can be found on the website of the show. Please see https://www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk/exhibitor/wrightscale/

The New Data Protection Legislation
Those of you who have put their names on lists of interest may be wondering about changes to the law on Data Protection. As you probably know, these changes come into effect on May 25^th. We have considered the implications of these changes, and how our information might affect your privacy.

In due course, our Webmaster will put up our privacy policy on the website.

We currently store our email address book online. It simply has name and email, no other personal details. Any member of the public who emails and expects a reply goes into this email address book automatically. Every couple of months, I try to remove the ‘once onlies’ in our email address book. Everyone who emails us has the right to havehis/her address removed immediately. We shall remind every first contact of this right. This is our only online data-base.

Our interest list is held off-line. In it, we try to include date of contact, a full name, postal address and phone number as well as email. This is because email addresses keep changing and we need an alternative way of keeping in touch. We, for example, have been obliged by our providers to change our own email address at least three times. We do not keep other personal details such as partner’s name, date of birth etc.

We do not hold any bank details online. As you all know, our policy is cash or cheque if at all possible. Where bank transfer is convenient, we do not hold details online though they will show up in our bank statements which are off-line. Privacy during the transaction will be ensured by the systems of the banks involved. Our bank is the Clydesdale. We have used paypal; in this case privacy is guaranteed by paypal and our own system as described above. If you wish any email correspondence deleted after a payment, please inform us.

The German army devised the flame-thrower in 1917. The Allies soon grasped the principle and this is one of their own photographed before March 1918 'Illustration' magazine

 This blog has been following the First World War as events took place one hundred years ago. The month of March 2018 is the centenary of the German Spring Offensive, also known as die grosse Schlacht or les coups allemands.   

Thanks to peace agreements with the new Soviet Government, the Central Powers no longer had to fear Russia. This released 60 divisions from the east, a force which could be added to the 144 divisions already posted on the western front. Everyone was aware that, given time, the forces of the USA would be entering the War and so a pre-emptive strike from Germany was expected.

The Germans were not going to waste this opportunity. They reorganised their attack around the new concept of the storm-trooper and a recent introduction, the deadly flame-thrower. Up until now, it had been impossible to clear a trench of defenders. Even if attackers had braved no man’s land and were actually in a trench, it could not be raked by fire. The trench was designed without straight lines so there was no straight line of fire.  The feisty flame-thrower was no respecter of angles. If the defenders weren’t actually burned, they died from suffocating heat. 

When waves of German attackers broke over the British 3^rd and 5^th armies on 21^st March one hundred years ago, the British were driven back by the speed, weight and fury of the attack. At four am a terrific bombardment started over 90 kilometres/55 miles of front. It stopped at ten past nine. In the time, more than 650,000 shells had been fired.

Normally, a bombardment would go on considerably longer. On this occasion, by the time that the smoke began to clear, the Germans were well on their way across No Man’s Land. They came in their thousands. Against 14 British divisions, there were 47 German ones.

'Courage, mon ami, on vous aidera' Clemenceau rushed to British HQ to reassure General Haig. In return, British troops were taken under French command. 'Illustration' magazine

On the south side, the ten divisions of the 5^th Army suffered terrible losses both of casualties and of terrain – up to 12 km/nearly 8 miles in one single day. The four divisions of the 3^rd fared better but also had to retreat to keep a united front.

The Germans were lucky to have attacked a load of soldiers just off the troop transports and they certainly made use of their luck. By March 23^rd, they had achieved  their target; they threatened communications with Paris. The remains of the 5^th Army had left the railway through Ham unguarded.

Pétain ordered Humbert back. The French 1^st Army plugged the first gap and then had to reinforce a second, the road to Paris through Montdidier. The British 3^rd and 18^th Army corps joined the French to ‘defend the beating heart of France’ as Hunbert put it.

Fearing the worst, Frenchinfantry guard the Amiens-Paris railway where it crosses the Noye.  'Illustration' magazine

By 26^th March, the Germans turned their main force on a secondary target, Amiens; Paris would have been better. As the centre of communications for the whole of France, the capture of Paris would have left the rest of the country a tangle of writhing limbs. Amiens was still valuable. It controlled communications with northern France, the Channel and Britain. By April 4^th the Germans were within 16 km (10 miles) of the city.

Was the German succes due to British incompetence, or did they make the best of a bad job? Arguments have raged for 100 years. Critics say that British intelligence should have been better, they shouldn’t have spread their forces so thinly, their technique was poor, both in attack and defence. These critics could point to instances of wishful thinking at the top, refusal to learn hard lessons, the lack of artillery on the field.

To quote a couple of examples from an extensive literature there is the book ‘The Mons Myth’ Terence Zuber The History Press 2010. It argues that: ‘British historians portrayed the battles of Mons and Le Cateau as successes of the heavily outnumbered British expeditionary Force which mowed down the Germans with precise and rapid fire… German … fighting techniques have been misunderstood, British troop leading was poor etc’

In The Myth of the Great War Profile Books 2002 edition, John Mosier is even more scathing about British leaders and their unfortunate troops - and also French leadership up until mid-1917. At every stage, the General Staff refused to learn the hard lessons of war. Their attitude towards the ordinary soldier was in every situation a disgrace. They wilfully threw away opportunities. In the earlyyears the vast system of trenches only grew up by accident. The valuable stronghold of Antwerp was thrown away without remorse. He had much that was unflattering to say about 'the miracle of the Marne' They insisted, as a matter of 19^th century principal on trenches being dug in the most dangerous place, a gentle dip slope in full view of the enemy - this suited guns with a horzontal field of fire.

Digging in. The defence was assured by heroic action fromAustralians,French and Britsih who had to dig new trenches to stoip the German advance. The enemy reachedt Villers-Bretonneux on April 4th 1918. 'Illustration'

We have left the brave Aussies hanging on with their fingernails against the storm- roopers of the German Army.  To find out what happened next, wait for the following episode.

The Péchot system and 16mm scale

We are looking forward to seeing friends old and new at the National Garden Railway show in Peterborough on April 7^th. We recommend a look at the Show website, ably curated by Richard Huss.

 https://www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk/exhibitor/wrightscale/

We are hoping to bring back a series of kits which celebrate the Péchot system. This was a vital part of military transport during the First World War, and for some years afterwards. From 1888 it had been a staple for the French Army. When the vast networks of 60cm railways that served the trenches were sold off, 1919-25, the French kept their Péchot locomotives and rolling stock for military use.

A Péchot wagon has been preserved outside Fermont, a part of the Maginot line. Until 1940 it had been used by the French Army. Photo 2005 S. Wright

Now at last, these wagons and bogies are finding their way on to preserved railways in France and across the Channel, so the enthusiast can enjoy and become familiar with the prototypes. Alas, only two locomotives survive, in transport museums in Dresden and Serbia, but there are a fair few wagons.

We are planning to re-release our 16mm scale kits for wagons and cranes. We thought this might not be possible - our well-respected white-metal caster Adrian Swain heads for a well-deserved retirement. Fortunately, with the help of a new caster and other sources of material, we hope to put the Péchot system back on your rails!

Fine 16mm model by the late Henry Holdsworth features a Péchotwagon in th eforeground with WD rolling stock. Picture courtesy Jim Hawkesworth

This design of bogie was the first project of my hero, Prosper Péchot, the basis of his celebrated Péchot system in 60 cm gauge. The first version of this system was described in a memorandum of 1882, eleven years after the Franco-Prussian War. The essence of his plan was to bring massive bombardments on the heads of the detested Prussians; an ambition shared by his military colleagues. Unfortunately for the French Army, short of building a standard gauge railway under the noses of the Germans there seemed no way of bringing big guns and quantities of ammunition close enough.

The secret of the system? Prosper Péchot took advantage of new technologies, science and experimentation to devise a portable railway. According to his calculations, the French army could extend such a railway several kilometres from an existing railway and have it near enough to threaten a German position within a few days.

Parts of a Wrightscale 16mm scale Péchot bogie. It ran on four wheels. Each axle could support 3.5 tonnes. Two axles could support in theory 7 tonnes but the loading was rated for safety at 5 tonnes.

 Science and trials in a Decauville factory demonstrated that a locomotive could run on 60 cm gauge. Yes, his plan was to create a railway a mere TWO FEET in gauge consisting of lengths of portable track. Each was light enough to be carried by a team of four. Admittedly, there was a lot of improvisation in those first trials, using whatever Decauville could provide. Péchot proved a principle: each axle could support a loading of 3.5 tonnes on this specially designed track and four axles together could support 14 tonnes. This was enough for a proper locomotive, and for a train of freight - as long as the wagons were supported by a sufficient number of bogies.

Spring pin from a Wrightscale Péchot bogie kit. This modest component could be used as a rerailing point

Like the prefabricated rail, the bogie had to be robust yet light enough to handle. A single bogie could carry a load of 5 tonnes on light rail. Not only could these run on an unpromising permanent way – a muddy farm track would do at a pinch – but also they could be re-railed by a couple of operators using materials to hand.

Stake from a Wrightscale Péchotwagon kit. This dual-purpose item could be used for load-retention but also as a rerailing bar.

At the time, this was all ‘cutting edge’ Steel of the quality and quantity required was only recently becoming available. Press tools capable of stamping out components from the new steels were also recent introductions. The idea of wagons running on bogies only went main-stream some years previously. For example, the celebrated GWR of Britain only introduced bogie wagons in 1873 (source wikipedia entry on GWR).THere wasn't even a French-language word for the bogie. It was often called 'wagon' or 'truck'

Péchot gathered ideas from around the world. He owed much to Paul Decauville who introduced a workable system of portable railways to industry and agriculture. He took an interest in the Festiniog railway, also the Darjeeling Himalaya Railway and there is evidence that he looked at logging railways of the USA. He felicitously combined them into something unique.

Trunnions from a Wrightscale 16mm crane kit, used to link bogie with wagon or in this case a rail-mounted crane. Péchot called it a 'turntable'. This link was totally flexible - useful on a winding track.

He did not go for officially sanctioned narrow-gauge. At the time, only metre gauge  was permitted for goods and freight in France. French government policy was to requisition what was available in time of war rather than to have independent military transport. As metre gauge networks spread out around France, so the confidence in using this version of narrow gauge spread. Péchot was therefore considered a maverick and a potentially expensive one.

Péchot wagon pictured on the Apedale railway by Jim Hawkesworth in 2014. Though shorn of its loading stakes (and other things beside) the wagon looks pretty good for its 115 years.

In order to introduce his system, he all but sacrificed his career. Once it was officially adopted in 1888, the French Army used it though it was fairly run-down by the early 1900s. The Prussians, however, who had been flirting with other gauges suddenly adopted 60cm for themselves. The date? 1888. Bogie wagons equally appeared. Coincidence? No. They knew a good thing when they saw it.

You might like to read:

Bailly, Roger ‘Decauville, ce nom qui fit le tour du monde’

Cénac, Dr Christian 60 cm pour ravitailler l’Armée francaise 14-18 (both French language)

Dunn Richard ‘Narrow Gauge to No Man's Land’

Wright Sarah ‘Colonel Péchot: Tracks to the trenches’ (story and pictures in English)

Wrightscale 16mm Pechot bogie non-slip decking. Before the days of Health and Safety, the designer thought about the welfare of the soldier. Shifting heavy weights in frost and rain was hazardous enough

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What the WDLR can offer the 16mm enthusiast

There have been lots of centenaries marked in this blog. In a forgotten siding at Froissy (the ‘little train of the Upper Somme’) Jim Hawkesworth snapped this abandoned WD wagon. One hundred years ago, the wagon was taking supplies to the Army in the trenches. In this very area , the British Army was waiting anxiously for a German attack. They knew it was coming, but not where or how. The people involved, their worries, most of the 60 cm railways which served them have all gone, but these mute and aged witnesses remain.

A WD class D wagon without a side waits on a siding at Cappy, Haute Somme. Photo taken by Jim Hawkesworth 1990

Perhaps these 100 year old wagons have something to teach us in the modelling community. To truly appreciate the passage of time, we should try to live more in the present. By this I mean enjoy everything and escape the concept of ‘waste-of-time’. Try to shake off the idea that being time-poor is somehow to be materially rich.

For example, ‘time-poor’ people look for meal replacements not real food. Too often, people entering our craft are looking for the equivalent on their scale railways. Yes, meal replacements and convenience foods have their uses. Ready-meals have appeared in the Wright household.

I have never tasted a true ‘meal replacement’ but they have been marketed for years, a staple of old-folks-homes and hospices.  Rachel Joyce describes the experience of consuming a ‘nutritional milkshake’. These have hopeful names like strawberry, butter-scotch and vanilla but their colour gives the game away. They are all a shade half-way between beige and pink that has no name except possible ‘blush taupe’. They are a chore, to be consumed without pleasure.

In contrast, consider a simple fruit, a peach. You may wonder what is so special.. Real food has the potential to  surprise or disappoint. A peach has non-standard colour, shape and a little ’give’ to the touch. It has a well defined crease and a dimple where it was once attached to a tree. It has a smell. When it is cut, the juice runs out. It dares the most careful eater to consume it without coating his/her chin in pulp. It has flavour, sometimes delightful, sometimes not. When it is eaten, there remains a glorious stickiness.

The same applies to even the simplest of things, boiling a kettle. You could on the one hand, flick a switch and let your super-convenient device supply you with water at exactly 100 degrees. On the other hand, you could watch as the water travelled up to boiling point. At room temperature, water appears stationary. The French and the Chinese have terms for liquid as it starts to heat up – in French étincelant; the Chinese see 'fish eyes' in the water. At the simmer, the French say frémissant, a Chinese poet describes water as ‘pearls from a gushing spring’.  At a full boil, the French term is a gros bouillons, the Chinese say ‘galloping waves’. Are we perhaps missing something when we just flick a switch, walk away and come back when the job is done?

Coal tipper wagon  in HO scale produced by Roco International ref  4335a

In the same way, there are plenty of instant products for the modeller in a hurry. I am not decrying them. Pictured above is a lovely HO Roco wagon produced with painstaking attention to detail. It is, of course, exactly like every other Roco side-discharge tipper wagon reference 4335a .There is a place for this quality on any railway of this scale. But if a railway consists merely of a circle of proprietory track surrounded by ready-made buildings on which run locomotives and wagons straight from neat boxes, there is no individuality, no hopeful travel and no sense of owning the end result. All you have to do is transfer your money to the right quarter and then open the box. Isn’t this the equivalent of swigging down your Soylent Green instant lunch at your desk?

Many modellers may fear the alternative, which is making up a kit. They then miss out on a chief joy of the 16mm craft. A high proportion of available wagons and accessories are only available in kit form. The fact is, we aren’t the large market that is typical of, say, HO. The techniques of mass production are very often not practical. Whatever the reason for being drawn to 32mm or 45 gauge, the charm was not the vast range of readymade stock available. 

Most kit suppliers take pride in the customisations possible – early, middle or late versions of a prototype railway. The original wagons were adapted, botched and cannibalised. They were bought up by different orgaisations and used in new places.

Wrightscale 16mm WD bolster on Wrightscale WD bogies. The bolster was used for carrying long loads such as timber. Something similar was used to carry lengths of prefabricated track. Phot MD Wright

Making up a wagon is risky. Your first painful effort involves time, materials and the chance of many things going wrong. The end-result may be a wagon which compares poorly to the professional model, especially if it is a first attempt. For many of us, this is uncomfortable. We have been taught to avoid risk. Yet taking a chanc may bring its own rewards.

We are pleased that over the years, we have coaxed thousands of 16mm society members to consider Wrightscale WD bogie kits. On studying them, a fabric of history gradually unrolls. A lot was expected of these bogies. Two had to support a load of up to ten tons, on rough track without derailing. What is more, they had to be produced in their thousands within a few months.

Wrightscale WD 16mm bogie kit based on a 1917 prototype; long side-frame, short side-frame, end-frames and centre with pin to support one end of a wagon body. The wheels are Binnie Engineering curly-spoked.

As you get to know the components, you can see how these engineering problems were solved. The rivets are not mere decoration; parts were welded when this was sensible. Rivets and welds turned standard lengths of channel steel into sturdy frame members. Those chunky springs above the axle-boxes earned their keep; without serious springing, the bogie would be upset by rough track. The brakes, operated by prominent brake-wheels were essential to safety under trench conditions. Central to the bogie is the ‘pin’, the link with the wagon body which allowed parts to swing independently where necessary. A trench railway was sinuous at best. In fact, a nice straight line would be a gift to enemy gunners.

Most of all, let’s face it, hands-on modelling is a chance to overcome failure. Look on mistakes as part of the experience. Indeed, trouble-shooting is a valuable life-skill. There is no better achievement than looking failure in the eye and watching failure blink first.

16mm model of a WD covered wagon made by Jim Hawkesworth. It set on WD bogies. It has sliding doors; adaptations were used as ambulance wagons.

AEF and Baldwin Gas Mechanicals went to war 100 years ago

One hundred years ago, there was watching and waiting on the Western Front. The Germans signed a treaty with the new Soviet government of Russia which gave them a tract of agricultural land and ensured safety to their east. They could now move their armies westward. If they could attack as soon in the early spring, they could knock out France before the AEF (American Expeditionary Force of the USA) could deploy for battle. A system of convoys, for the most part British in 1917 to early 1918, was bringing US troops in British shipping across the Atlantic.

The Baldwin Gas Mechanical. Any excuse to include a picture of this lovely brute!A series built beginning 7001 running on 60cm gauge was built for the AEF. This is a 16mm scale model by  MD Wright

As well as an Army, the AEF had to create a whole system of trench railways, which they modelled on the existing 60 cm gauge. In ‘Colonel Pechot: Tracks to the trenches’ pages 236-239, I describe the US Light Railways. Just at the planning stage in 1917, they were a formidable force by the end of the War. 150 examples of the 50h.p. Baldwin Gas Mechanical locomotive were built. They were identical to a large order (over 500) for the French Army. US industry also imitated French practice and constructed over 2800 bogie wagons for carrying freight. Rich Dunn comments 'there was some controversy about this decision' Clearly there were many proponents of simple four-wheel wagons for gauge this narrow.

German Military Intelligence told the High Command that this fresh new AEF was grouped south of Verdun (east of Soissons at the bottom right of the map); the western Front swung east from Soissons through Reims, then on to Verdun and Toul. Though this area had been regarded as the hinge of the Front in 1916, for various reasons, the Germans did not wish a frontal attack on the AEF.

Railway map of north-east France. In February 1918, The Front ran from just west of Lille at the top right to just east of Soissons, bottom right. A strong attack on Amiens(centre), well to the west of Albert, would knock out most n/s communications. Map courtesy of Terry van Winkle

The original Schlieffen Plan had been to attack France from the North-East, punch through the existing defences, destroy communications, cut off northern France and encircle Paris. It had worked before. The Front now ran from Soissons northwards, west of Lille, dangerously close to the Channel.

Military Intelligence also told the Germans that the British had just taken over the sector of the Front west of Amiens and had no time to settle in. This city was an irreplaceable centre for communication and supply for the whole north-east sector. A successful attack could cut off the north of France and most of the Channel ports (Boulogne is shown top left on the map). Thus their forces could encircle Paris without a threat to their northern flank. With France knocked out, the AEF would go home. They had come to protect their sister republic and didn’t have much interest in Britain. German Intelligence suggested that the new army stayed well clear of the British.

It was a good plan and nearly worked.

The Germans had developed storm-troopers. In the last years of the war, Stoßtruppen ("shock troops" or "thrust troops") were trained to fight with imfiltration tactics. Most memorable of these tactics were flame-throwers directed into trenches. Gas projectiles were also used.  A soldier trained in these methods was known in Germany as a Sturmmann ("storm man", usually translated as "stormtrooper"), formed into companies of Sturmtruppen.  

It is observed in Wikipedia that the infiltration tactics were much copied. In the Second World War, the Russians developed the flame-thrower into the Katyusha (Little Katy) and used this against the Germans.

The Allies were aware of a German threat. Unfortunately the British generals simply reinforced the defences forward of Amiens. This filled the trenches with fodder for flamethrowers.

The first AEF  troops were in France by August 1917. A contingent arrives by standard gauge Photo 'Illustration'

Fortunately, the British were also learning the use of trench communications. A resilient network, described at more length in ‘Tracks to the trenches’ page 226-7 had strength in depth and redundancy. Even if one line was cut, reserves could be brought up on parallel lines. Another advantage of the trench railway was how quickly it could be repaired.

The Germans also misunderstood the AEF. It did not stay solely behind the lines at St Mihiel. Troops were already out with the French, learning war-craft and how to deploy the Schneider 155 and the Filloux 155 which were being manufactured for them in France.

Some of the AEF were also supporting the British. In Rich Dunn’s ‘Narrow Gauge to No-man’s Land’ he describes how the 12^th Engineers of the AEF were out on British War Department Light Railways quite early in 1917. The 11^th Engineers were also with them, as standard gauge specialists.

Both 11^th and 12^th Engineers did brief training in June to July 1917 and left for Europe by the end of August. The 12^th Engineers arrived in Liverpool on August 15^th to lead a parade of US troops through the city. They then went to the Somme valley (east of Amiens) to operate the WDLR. 

Both 11^th and 12th saw action in November, helping to capture some territory. When the Germans counterattacked, they fought their way out in spirited fashion. You can read the full story in Chapter 2 of Rich Dunn’s book.

Doughboys facing the oven! French and US soldiers share a trench in the winter of 1917-18. The US boys look fresher. The French are wearing the distinctive greatcoat and ridged helmet. Photo 'Illustration'

Though not made by simpletons, claims that the AEF kept itself to itself are overly simplistic. There were, no doubt many jokes about being divided by a common language, but they joked together, fought together and, sadly, often died together.

Sarah Wright,‘Colonel Pechot: Tracks to the trenches’  Birse Press

Richard Dunn ‘Narrow Gauge To Noman’s Land’  Benchmark Press

WJK Davis ‘Light Railways of the First World War’David & Charles

Slow Locomotion

Modern technology promised to speed up our world. Take for example the telephone. It saved visiting or writing. A mobile phone saves the bother of going to the telephone. A quick flick through the contacts device saves us even the trouble of dialling. And so on.

Does that mean we spend less time on the telephone? Now the average person spends more time looking at the mobile than sleeping. Frequently it is the last thing a digitally connected human looks at when going to sleep and the first thing reached for in the morning.

There is plenty that is good about the modern hyper-connected world but some not so good. One big problem is our feeling about ‘down-time’. The phone and then the mobile were justified to us as time-savers. If time is money then somehow time has become money. Our down-time has to be as streamlined as a fully automated work-place. Leisure is a matter of films seen, pages read, engines run and how many people have ‘touched base’ with us.

To the hyperconnected moderner, this looks like a mess.Nothing is running; the vegetation is clearly flourishing but there is no activity ... and yet!

Fun has become a matter of numbers, the bigger the numbers the better.

Even time-off becomes a treadmill. For the railway modeller, the more turns the model train has done, the more photos taken and uploaded, the more this, the more that, the better. What have all these numbers actually done for us?

Always being connected and busy can lead to chronic fatigue. The whole point of leisure is that we step outside ordinary existence. It is a complement. This may be to numbers, results or competition. Unlike work, it is not the goal that is important, it is the journey.

The Slow Movement started as a protest. An Italian - they consider themselves the home of good food - was so shocked at the sight of a McDonald’s next to the Spanish Steps that he started an anti-culture. The Slow Movement protests against speed, size and surplus. At its best, it gently encourages slowing down, doing less, walking more and sleeping more.

One former burnt-out activist admits that her first attempt at craft-work was a failure. Her mind-set was one of speedy results. She had purchased a cross-stitch kit simply to pass time on long journeys. The first lesson she learned was … read the instructions! In the hyper-connected world, pausing to read these meant that the competition would pass her. She would be left behind!. All that happened was, she got her thread into a tangle and wasted time and material. She realised that no-one minded. No-one was racing her. She went back to the beginning and tried to make sense of the advice in the instructions. Then she had to apply the advice to the kit. At first it was slow, mindful, but then she picked up speed and ended with a first attempt whichgave her pleasure. She could even be proud of it.

16mm live steam Wrightscale Wren. This is not a switch-on-and-go sort of locomotive, but the joy that it can bring is immense. Step back, step out of time, enjoy the journey Photo MD Wright

The Slow Movement applies to our craft. Instead of fingering endless boxes of products and  racing our 16mm locomotives around the track, slow down. Enjoy the journey. If you have a live steam rather than electric locomotive, you have already grasped the vital point. The journey from shelf to trip is all part of the experience.

The instructions on the Wren 16mm locomotive are a veritable gateway to pleasure. The ritual begins with warming some water and conveying it in the correct container to the locomotive. Using a syringe, give the boiler its first dampening. 60 cc (four tablespoons) is enough. This is not just to apply water, but to reseat the ball-valve. The ritual may need to be repeated in a few minutes.

Check the lubricator. Water may have gathered inside. Unscrew the bottom nut and allow this to drain away. Tighten the nut gently. Loosen the top nut. Lubricate and then tighten, again, gently.  Moderation applies here.

Make friends with your gas filler. Make sure that your gas cylinder is at normal room temperature. On a cold day, carry it around for a little before use. Remember that gas will flow readily from a warm place to a cool one.

When it feels comfortable to the touch, connect gas filler to cylinder. Push the filler down gently to find the valve to the locomotive gas tank. Push down a little more and gas will flow from your gas bottle. Learn from subtle signs when the gas tank is full. When the burner sighs thanks to escaping gas, you are probably there!

If there is poetry in ritual, there is plenty of poetry in lighting the gas burner. Hold a flame in front of the front buffer beam of the Wren. You will learn from experience how far in front; about two finger-breadths is probably a good guide.

Open the gas valve slightly, and the flame should ‘pop’ back into the burner.  After a few seconds, you should be able to adjust the burner until you hear the purr of a well-tempered locomotive. Adjust to be ‘more open’ or ‘more closed’. It all depends. Once you have heard the purr or soft roar of a contented locomotive, then it will be forever recognised.

Wrightscale Wren seen from the back. The huge rod coming down into the gas tank is the filler. The water-filling valve is to the right, the regulator is the handle seen just above (it is in the 'off' position) the gas control valve is the hndle on the left.  Photo MD Wright

Allow the locomotive to adjust and pick up steam.

Problems with lighting are usually caused by carbon deposits. If gas persists in burning below the smokebox or the fire keeps going out, the jet needs cleaning. Have the cleaning wire at the ready. Loosen the cleaning screw and gently roll the little wire with a forward motion through the jet. Gently, gently. Check that the o-ring stays on the conical washer as you replace the cleaning screw. Try lighting again.

When the pressure gauge comes to life, you can think of running but firstly, any condensate must be removed from the valve gear. When 20 psi shows on the gauge, engage forward gear (handle to front). Flick the wheels forward to clear condensate. Quite soon, the wheels will start to turn of their own accord.

Now open the regulator … and let her away.

This all seems long-winded. By the standards of our hyper-connected, super-efficient world, this is an invitation to a waste of time. See it rather as a gateway to a slow world. This has been a journey, part of the fun, part of the re-invention we so desperately need.

Dick Kerr and Baldwin Gas Mechanical locomotives

Our friend Jim Hawkesworth recently produced a photograph. It dates back to the 1960s. A First World War survivor waits outside the depot of the Sabliers de Nemours just outside Paris. It was then a working sand-extraction works though these days, its 60cm railway has become a heritage site – worth a visit if you are in Paris area.   

He had fond memories of the day. An enthusiasts’ coach tour had started early at Pithiviers, then still a centre for a 60cm network. They had been dragged away from the attractions and struggled up the crowded Route Nationale towards Paris. They visited the sand extraction works on the Loing, now the site of Tacot des Lacs museum and railway. They were finally on their way to dinner and bed when they passed through Nemours. There a night-watchman was shutting up the works while the staff put away their 60cm locomotives and stock. The bus skidded to a halt and the passengers streamed off to see this attraction. parc roulant – of the sabliers de Nemours with their bus parked firmly in the gateway in case it should accidentally close.

A Dikk Kerr petrol electric tractor waits outside the depot at Sabliers de Nemours, south of Paris,1963. Photo courtesy of Jim Hawkesworth

Naturally, they asked permission to look round - in impeccable English. Equally naturally, the watchman replied – in good cursive French. They took his stream of imprecations and expressive gestures as permission. In no time at all, the British party were swarming around the site.

Jim snapped this Dick Kerr petrol electric locotractor which was just about to be put back in the engine shed. Its pedigree is long and interesting. Already a veteran in 1963, the design dates back to the 1916 plan to modernise British transport on the Western Front and to my mind this makes it a significant locomotive. It marks a revolution in military thought and action on the British sector of the Western Front Just briefly, this is why:

In 1914,  British and Continental military planning were very different. In the 19^th century, the French realised that the only way to supply an army, given the impressive growth of artillery, was to construct temporary field railways, using portable track panels.  The British did not and so once the Western Front came into being, they were at a logistical disadvantage.

This was partly because, between Crimea and 1914, the British had not made war on a large nation with modern armaments. They were consequently complacent. The French in contrast had endured the bruising defeat of the Franco-Prussian War. There was another reason which I have explored in my book Colonel Péchot – Tracks To The Trenches. The French Army included an officer, Prosper Péchot, who made it his life’s work to ensure that his fully integrated system of 60cm portable railways was adopted. It was adopted – for attack rather than defence - in 1888. Although the official name of the system was artillerie 1888, the Army always called it système Péchot. The Germans – coincidence? – produced their own 60cm feldbahn, also in 1888. By 1914, they had 1000 km of prefabricated track, and, more importantly, a couple of regiments of specially trained engineers. The French had less material, but soon placed orders for a massive increase in 60cm rail and rolling stock. The British had 4 ½ miles (7.2 km) of 2’6” track and no plans to build any.

International amity. This photo of 16mm scale models taken on the 'Pont du Lyn' line built by the late Henry Holdsworth makes n important point. A German d-Lok feldbahn locomotive, a French Pechot-Bourdon and Baldwin Gas Mechanical a British Hunslet 4-6-0 and  British  Dick Kerr and SImplex petrol locomotives all share a line. The prototypes were often used together.. Photo Jim Hawkesworth

By 1916, the British realised their mistake. Lloyd George sent his trouble-shooter, Eric Geddes, to France. Just before the War, Geddes was deputy manager of the North-Eastern Railway.  Interestingly, when young, he had managed a narrow gauge line but it was 2’6” gauge.

16mm scale model of a Dick Kerr made by Jim Hawkesworth

When he assessed French practice, he rejected any gauge but 60cm, the same as the système Péchot. This was the basis of Programme B, the War Department Light Railways. By late 1918 the WDLR involved 6000 miles (9600km) of track, over 600 steam locomotives, over 800 tractors of various sorts, and well over 10,000 wagons.

Starting in 1917, the American Expeditionary Force of the USA built up their own enormous system of railways, based on a modernised plan which harked directly back to the système Péchot. 

These 16mm models are all from Wrightscale. The 50h.p. Baldwin Gas Mechanical prototype was made in the USA for the French Army. The WD wagon, just seen at left was British and the wagon in the background is  artillerie 1888.  Photo MD Wright

After the War, the huge 60cm networks were dismantled. British, AEF and German material was sold off as War surplus; this is why US-built Baldwin Gas Mechanicals  ended up on the Festiniog Railway, also at Froissy and why a British locotractor was working the Sabliers de Nemours many years later. (Relatively little French material was sold off in this way – until recently.)

Among the first orders of this historic Programme B was one for 200 electric locomotives and a power system. Geddes realised that the original French system, involving steam locomotives, was unsuitable for trench conditions. Night or day, a steam loco provides a good target for hostile artillery. The French and Germans were already bringing petrol driven ‘locotractors’ into service. The British on the other hand thought that electricity would be the ideal smoke-free, spark-free and silent power source. Orders were placed with both British Westinghouse in November 1917  and (a little later – we believe) Dick Kerr Limited. Each were to supply 50 pairs of tractors - one of each pair could take electricity from trolley-poles  Conditions on the ground soon convinced the powers-that-be that the motor should be driven by petrol, but 50% of all ‘tractors’ supplied had vestigial electric connections. The other half of each pair had electrical connections so that they could run together.

Which design arrived in France first? BW undertook design and testing and so it is reasonable to assume that they were first built, but the Dick Kerr locomotives have earlier WD running numbers. This often happened in wartime and so numbering is not clear evidence that the DKs arrived first.

The two designs were similar: armoured 0-4-0, 15’1” in length, nominally 45 h.p. supplied by two 22.5 b.h.p. motors. When it was clear that transmission systems were not going to be built at the Front(!), each was fitted with a 55 h.p. petrol engine to supply the generator. The motors fitted in the DKs were slightly less powerful than the ones in the majority of the BWs, therefore overall output was lower in these examples. The tractors can be told apart immediately because the DKs had louvred sides, the BWs panelled.

They were not too heavy (8 imperial tons), reasonably well  armoured and not self-advertisers to the opposition – no clouds of steam nor showers of glowing sparks. All the same, they did not see much service at the Front. The gearing was very low and so they were too slow. They were far more useful elsewhere. Forward work-shops and repair stations needed power and so, in a neat reversal of the original concept, they often became parked power units. I suspect that otherwise, few would have survived the War.