Deeds of a great railway : $b A record of the enterprise and achievements of the London and North-Western Railway company during the Great WarDarroch, G. R. S. (George Richard Sutton)
History
Deeds of a great railway : $b A record of the enterprise and achievements of the London and North-Western Railway company during the Great War
Darroch, G. R. S. (George Richard Sutton)
London and North-Western Railway; World War, 1914-1918 -- Transportation
As evidence of this, we may note that a total of 7,300,000 officers
and men "on leave" were conveyed in "special trains"; that a further
2,864,000 specified as "small units of troops and pre-arranged by
ordinary services," were accommodated in the ordinary trains; and that,
in addition to these figures, there were many thousands of troops
conveyed "every week in small units by the ordinary existing services,
of which actual figures are not available," but of which most of us,
retaining vivid recollections of overcrowded compartments and the crush
of corridors, will no doubt be able to form some vague if inadequate
estimate.
Luggage evidently was not in the habit of getting lost or left behind,
as the figure "89,745 tons of baggage conveyed" will go to prove;
45,517 cycles received careful handling in transit, and the necessary
accommodation was provided for the safe journeying of 500,000 horses,
plus the rolling-stock necessary for the conveyance of 5,476 guns.
Then, in spite of a number of the vessels comprising the London and
North-Western fleet being commandeered by the Admiralty, "a fairly
regular service both for passengers and cargo" was maintained viâ
Holyhead and Dublin, "the principal route between England and Ireland";
the two other sea routes viâ Fleetwood and Belfast, and Larne and
Stranraer, respectively, assisting materially in the working of this
"very heavy passenger and cargo traffic."
Turning next to "the requirements of the Fleet on the east and
north-east coast of Scotland, there was a continuous coming and
going of personnel, and movement of supplies, between the depôts
in Scotland and those in the south and west of England, and the
Admiralty concentrated the whole of this traffic on the west coast
route." In this connection (and incidentally we may note the strict
observance by the naval authorities of the Fourth Commandment) for two
consecutive years, and on every day of the week except the seventh,
which is the Sabbath, a special train provided exclusively for the
use of the Admiralty, was run "between Euston and Thurso (serving the
Rosyth depôt), the total number of men so conveyed being 500,000 and
the mileage incurred over the L. & N. W. system alone being 388,700
miles." Then, "owing to the position of the Fleet, rail-borne coal was
conveyed from the South Wales coalfields to such points as Newcastle,
Grangemouth, Burntisland, etc., entailing an average of about twenty
trains per day, in each direction, of loaded and empty wagons."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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