some cases these provided special facilities, as at Victoria, S.E. &
C.R., where arrangements were made for the exchange of French
for English money, the amount dealt with reaching a total of approximately
£10,000,000. At one period the railways were severely con-
gested by the traffic due to the evacuation of Belgium, and one result
of this was the continual stream of Belgian soldiers coming to
England on leave to visit their families, a total of 237,000 thus
travelling. At many stations local bodies, such as the V.A.D., etc.,
made very complete arrangements for providing refreshments to
soldiers travelling through and for attendance upon the ambulance
trains. Frequently valuable assistance was given by the various
ambulance associations belonging to the railway service.
British Railway Work in the War
During the war period British railways rendered essential services on a very large scale, both in regard to traffic requirements at home and those associated with active service in the various war areas. To some extent the former has already been covered by general reference, but further details must be given.
Military and Naval Special Trains.—Between the declaration of war and the date of the Armistice all the larger railways were called upon to run special trains conveying officers and men, frequently with guns, ammunition, horses and equipment, when passing to a port for embarkation to France or other theatres of war. There were also transfers of units between camps, leave travel and special events, such as the arrival of Canadian, S. African and other contingents from abroad and their journeys from ports of arrival to training centres, together with that portion of the American army which passed through the United Kingdom. In the aggregate the numbers of special trains operated by the leading railways were very great, and the following table shows, as far as information is available, the number of special trains mainly, if not exclusively, on the passenger side, run by the railways mentioned, with the numbers of officers and men who travelled:—
| Trains | Officers and Men conveyed | |
| L. & S.W.R. | 58,859 | 20,223,954 |
| L. & N.W.R. | 56,470 | 22,268,000 |
| G.W.R. | 33,615 | — |
| N.E.R. | 24,172 | 11,810,290 |
| L.B. & S.C.R. | 27,366 | — |
| G.E.R. | 13,000 | 6,231,293 |
| G.C.R. | 5,663 | 2,656,726 |
Three other railways may be mentioned, though their totals include also ambulance trains, goods and other specials:—
| Trains | Officers and Men conveyed | |
| S.E. & C.R. | 163,000 | 12,141,933 |
| M.R. | 11,502 | 2,282,000 |
| N.B.R. | 45,000 | — |
The numbers of special trains required on the freight side are more indefinite, as they included many trains run to meet the needs of the Government munition undertakings and of coal traffic passing from the colliery areas to the Fleet bases, and, to some extent, in connexion with the coal control scheme. However, it may be mentioned that on the London, Brighton & South Coast railway no fewer than 53,376 special trains were run mainly for traffic to and from the ports on the system. On the Great Western railway the total was 63,349 and on the Great Eastern railway 11,000. To meet the needs of the Fleet several railways ran 20 or even more trains per day conveying Admiralty coal. The arrival of the American army in Great Britain entailed the running of 1,684 special trains on the London & North-Western railway and 1,139 on the Great Western railway. When the Canadian contingents first arrived in England the London & South-Western railway was required to run 92 specials from Plymouth alone.
Ambulance Trains.—For home service a total of 20 trains was equipped for army use: G.C.R. 3; G.E.R. 2; G.W.R. 4; L. & Y.R. 2; L. & N.W.R. 5; L. & S.W.R. 2; M.R. 2. There were also two in Ireland, one each equipped by the G.N. and G.S. & W. railways. Five naval ambulance trains were also in use, these differing somewhat in regard to internal arrangements and equipment. Many individual vehicles were also fitted for the purpose of conveying small numbers of men in ordinary trains, and there were nine other trains sufficiently equipped to be brought into use as emergency ambulance trains. For service overseas 30 ambulance trains were equipped by the home railways, each consisting of 16 bogie coaches. These were supplied as follows: G.C.R. 1; G.E.R. 4; G.W.R. 8; L. & Y.R. 3; L. & N.W.R. 7; L. & S.W.R. 1; L.B. & S.C.R. 1; M.R. 2; N.E.R. 1; L. & N.W.R. and G.E.R. 1 jointly; L. & N.W.R. and L.B. & S.C.R. 1 jointly. Two trains presented by the United Kingdom Flour Millers' Association were constructed by the G.E. and G.W. railways jointly, and the Lord Michelham (or “Queen Mary”) presentation train was equipped by the L.B. & S.C. and L. & N.W. railways. A further train, known as the Princess Christian Hospital Train, was built by the Birmingham Carriage & Wagon Company. A majority of these trains was employed in France, but two went to Egypt and one to Salonika. When the American army came arrangements were made for 19 other trains, of the same general type as those previously supplied for overseas service, to be equipped by British railways for the use of the U.S.A. forces in France, as follows: G.C.R. 1; G.E.R. 1; G.W.R. 4; L. & Y.R. 3; L. & N.W.R. 4; L. & S.W.R. 1; M.R. 5. Twenty-nine others were on order at the date of the Armistice, when, of course, work was at once suspended. Including spare and extra vehicles, a total of 822 vehicles was thus adapted for the Government trains, and 304 for the U.S. trains.
The following numbers of journeys made by ambulance trains on various railways will indicate the enormous volume of this traffic, these figures applying, of course, only to the ambulance trains running on the home railways: L. & N.W.R. 13,318; L. & S.W.R. 10,173; S.E. & C.R. 7,515; G.W.R. 5,000; M.R. 3,982; N.B.R. 1,800; G.E.R. 1,172. This traffic was dealt with at various ports, but it is worthy of note that no fewer than 3,166 were despatched from the new Marine station at Dover, uncompleted at the time of the outbreak of war, but finished off at an early date sufficiently to serve for the transfer of wounded men.
Troop Movement and other Military Traffic.—The numbers of special trains given above will indicate the enormous dimensions which the traffic entailed by troop movement involved. At suitable places large numbers of both passenger and goods vehicles had to be kept in reserve to provide for movements of troops at short notice, and many of the cross-country or connecting lines proved of special value in enabling through journeys to be made from one system to another and by providing alternative routes to avoid congestion. The North London, Hampstead Junction, and North and South-West Junction railways carried nearly 14,000 special trains, and on several dates public traffic was entirely discontinued. The “widened” lines of the Metropolitan railway, through Farringdon Street and the connexion to the South-Eastern & Chatham railway at Ludgate Hill, were used by no fewer than 626,000 special passenger or goods trains, though this route was restricted by the limited loading gauge and could not, therefore, be used for ambulance trains and certain other traffic. The West London railway dealt with about 150 troop or special trains per month, and the East London a gross total of about 1,000. Bearing in mind that the magnitude of the forces involved a tremendous amount of leave travel, it may be mentioned that, during 1917 only, over 28,000,000 of H.M. forces travelled free by warrant on the home railways, while nearly 2,000,000 journeys were similarly made by civilians in Government service.
Traffic at Ports.—Dover was largely used as a centre for ambulance train traffic, but at Southampton a very large volume of stores, munitions and other material was dealt with, besides a considerable amount of shipping traffic necessarily continued. The Southampton train ferry to Dieppe was brought into use in Nov. 1917, that at Richborough, near Sandwich, being completed in Feb. 1918. Both enabled goods wagons to be sent across without transshipment, and they were especially useful for the conveyance of tanks, heavy guns, locomotives, etc. Avonmouth, Devonport and Liverpool were used as ports for supplying the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian forces. Immingham and other East Coast ports were largely used for supplying the fleets in more southern waters, while Leith, Aberdeen, Invergordon, Thurso and other Scottish centres were kept very busy in meeting the demands of the Grand Fleet. Newhaven and Littlehampton together dealt with nearly 7,000,000 tons of traffic on war account. In addition to the steamer traffic across the Channel the South Coast ports, including Richborough, sent over 1,000,000 tons by means of sea-going barges.
Munition and Admiralty Coal Traffic.—Besides the traffic directly required for the army and navy, the railways had to meet many other traffic requirements, as indicated by the following: The South-Eastern & Chatham railway alone conveyed nearly 200,000 tons of army mails, parcel-post packages and lighter stores not dealt with in bulk, via Dover and Folkestone. On the London & North-Western railway nearly 16,000 trains were run for the conveyance of Admiralty coal. In many parts of the country extensive forestry work was undertaken, and the conveyance of the cut timber amounted to hundreds of thousands of tons on many railways. On the North-Eastern railway the tonnage of goods conveyed on Government account amounted to 5,500,000, and of Admiralty coal nearly 12,000,000 tons, while to serve the numerous munition centres in the north-eastern area involved the conveyance of some 84,000,000 workpeople. On the Great Western railway at one time no fewer than 360 additional trains had to be run daily, solely for the conveyance of workers to the various war factories.
