WW1 ambulance or hospital trains.

[Haig paxton]

I'm trying to find out as much info as possible about these trains use during the first world war but there is very little about them in books. Do any users know of any books that may help?

 

[Joe19B]

I'm not aware of any dedicated books on the subject but 'Wounded' by Emily Mayhew, ISBN 978-0-19-932245-9, has a good chapter on ambulance trains.

 

[Flamingo]

Try the RAMC / Army Medical Services museum in Keogh Barracks. If you can get a trip in to the National Archives in Kew, the war diaries are there as well as other original documents.

 

[deltic]

If you google ambulance trains national railway museum you should end up with a link listing a large number of books and articles on the subject

The list of books mentioned includes


o Anonymous “Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front (Edinburgh London : William Blackwood and Sons, 1915)
o Bennett, Ernest Nathaniel, Sir “With Methuen's column on an ambulance train” Dodo Press, 2007
o Dunn, John Welldale Digital (DVD) recording of the World War One tapes of John Welldale Dunn containing information re his ambulance
train travel
o Fairman, J.R. “Netley Hospital and its railways” Southampton :Kingfisher Railway, 1984
o Friends Ambulance Unit “A train errant : being the experiences of a voluntary unit in France, and an anthology from their magazine” Hertford, Simson, 1919 (rare book)
o Gittins, Sandra “The Great Western Railway in the First World War” Stroud: History Press, 2010
o Gould, David, 1946- “The South-Eastern & Chatham Railway in the 1914-18 War” Towbridge: Oakwood Press, 1981

o Great Britain War Office “Railway manual (war) 1911 (reprinted with amendments, 1914)” Uckfield: Naval & Military Press I association with the Imperial War Museum
o Great Central Railway Company “63 ambulance train constructed for the United States Army Medical Department at the Great Central Railway Company's carriage works” Westminster : Knapp, Drewett, 1918
o Haller, John S., 1940- “Battlefield medicine: a history of the military ambulance from the Napoleonic Wars through World War I” Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011
o Hamilton, J.A.B. (James Alan Bousfield), 1899-1971 “Britain’s railways in World War I” London: George Allen and Unwin, 1967
o Harris, Michael "Great Western Coaches 1890-1954" Nairn : David St John Thomas, 1993
o Holmes, Richard1946-2011,”Tommy: the British Soldier on the Western Front 1914-1918 London : HarperCollins, 2004
o Jenkinson, David "LNWR Carriages: a Concise History", york, Pendragon, 1995
o Lacy, R.E. (Raph Edwin) & Dow, George "Midland Railway Carriages" [Upper Bucklebury] : Wild Swan 1984-1986
o Langham Rob “The North Eastern Railway in the First World War” Fonthill Media
o Mayhew, Emily “Wounded: From Battlefield to Blighty, 1914-1918” London: The Bodley Head, 2013
o Millard, Philip A “LNWR Great War ambulance trains” Potters Bar :London & North Western Railway Society, 1993
o Moore, George Abraham “The birth and early days of our ambulance trains in France, August 1914” London : John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, 1992
o North Eastern Railway Company (Great Britain) “North Eastern Railway ambulance train” York : North Eastern Railway, 1917
o Plumridge, John H “hospital Ships and Ambulance Trains” London eeley, 1975
o Pratt, Edwin A. “British railways and the Great War : organisation,efforts, difficulties and achievements” London : Selwyn and Blount, 1921
o Railway News “Records of railway interests in the War” London :Railway news 1915-1917
o Wolmar, Christian. “Engines of War” London: Atlantic, 2010

 

[Ploughman]

There may be some info and a few photos in Rob Langham's book
The North Eastern Railway in the first world war.
ISBN - 978-1-78155-081-6
Fonthill Media
published 2013

There may also be some references in The NER Magazine 1917

 

[krus_aragon]

Wikipedia's article on the War Department Light Railways and Trench Railways list the following titles among its sources:

Davies, W.J.K. (1967). Light Railways of the First World War. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.

Small, Charles S. (1982). Two-Foot Rails to the Front. Railroad Monographs.

Westwood, John (1980). Railways at War. San Diego, California: Howell-North Books. ISBN 0-8310-7138-9.

DeNevi, Don & Hall, Bob (1992). United States Military Railway Service America's Soldier Railroaders in WWII. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press. ISBN 1-55046-021-8.

I haven't read any of these, but I'd reccommend the first one on the strength of other titles published by David & Charles which I have.

 

[John Webb]

"Britain's Railways at War" by Alan Earnshaw, published by Atlantic Transport Publishers, 1995, ISBN 0 906899 48 6, covers WW1 and WW2 - there are 4 pages on the WW1 trains with a number of photographs. There is less detail about WW2 ambulance trains - the latter are better covered in O S Nock's book "Britain's Railways at War 1939-45" published by Ian Allan, 1971, ISBN 0 7110 0239 8.

 

[Haig paxton]

Thanks everyone.

 

[341o2]

Wikipedia's article on the War Department Light Railways and Trench Railways list the following titles among its sources:

Davies, W.J.K. (1967). Light Railways of the First World War. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.

Small, Charles S. (1982). Two-Foot Rails to the Front. Railroad Monographs.

Westwood, John (1980). Railways at War. San Diego, California: Howell-North Books. ISBN 0-8310-7138-9.

DeNevi, Don & Hall, Bob (1992). United States Military Railway Service America's Soldier Railroaders in WWII. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press. ISBN 1-55046-021-8.

I haven't read any of these, but I'd reccommend the first one on the strength of other titles published by David & Charles which I have.

this book is now rare, I am fortunate to have a copy, p79 regarding locomotives manufactured by Hudsons nicknamed "Pugs". One, no 442 sported the gold stripe for being put out of action by enemy shellfire while hauling a train of wounded men

 

[Romilly]

I am trying to remember where I've seen it this week, but I think that it's at Edinburgh Waverley that there is a historical display of railway-related WWI items and display panels: one of those panels is about ambulance trains.

Or see this which I stumbled across:

http://www.rail.co.uk/rail-news/2015/1915-ambulance-trains-and-quintinshill/