BOOK REVIEW: RED FOR DANGER.

 Following on from previous railway book reviews I have now re-read probably the ultimate classic on British railways. My uncle was a "top link" engine driver with the legendary GWR and introduced me to Tom Holt's book 50 plus years ago. It is as exciting and interesting now as it was then.

The book basically details how Britain's railways introduced a wide variety of safety devices as a direct result of lessons learned from accidents over the years. All the major accidents on Britain's tracks from the earliest days until the 1970's are discussed using information drawn from the official Railway Inspectorate reports, with a detailed analysis of what went wrong and exactly how it could have been avoided by the use of some new equipment or working practice changes.

I suspect all railway enthusiast have this book but it is so well written and interesting it will probably appeal to anyone with even just a passing interest in railways. Very highly recommended indeed.

ORGANISATION OF THE ARMY.

CAVALRY REGIMENTS.

The primary purpose of the Cavalry regiment is to provide reconnaissance, flank protection and screening of the Army's movements from the enemy. It may also be used for raids behind enemy lines in certain circumstances. The Cavalry regiment consists of 4 Cavalry squadrons and a Headquarters squadron.

The Cavalry squadron comprises two troops each of 8 privates and 2 Corporals under the command of a Lieutenant assisted by a Sergeant. The  squadron is commanded by a Captain assisted by a squadron Sergeant Major. The total strength of a squadron is 26, all of whom are mounted.

The Headquarters squadron, none of whom are mounted,  comprises a Staff troop of 4 privates, a Corporal and a Sergeant, a Medical troop of 8 medics, a medic Corporal, a medic Sergeant, a surgeon Lieutenant with a surgeon Captain in command, a Quartermaster troop with 12 privates, 2 Corporals and a Sergeant with a Lieutenant in command and a Signals troop with 8 signallers, 2 Corporals and a Sergeant with a Lieutenant in command.

The command troop, all of whom are mounted,  has a Lieutenant Colonel as regimental commander with a Major as Adjutant and second in command, a regimental Sergeant major and two standard bearers, one with the national flag and one with the regimental flag. The total strength of the headquarters squadron is 51 giving a total regimental strength of 155, of whom 109 are mounted and 46 are foot soldiers.

The vehicles and equipment of the regiment comprises 6 limbers each towing a light GS trailer with secondary towing of a field kitchen trailer, a water tank trailer, a signals trailer, a medical trailer and two further light GS trailers. Foot soldiers of the Regiment are carried on the various vehicles to ensure the Regiment has full mobility which is also assured by the exclusive use of two wheeled vehicles.

The photo above shows a regiment in parade formation with the combat squadrons on the left and the headquarters squadron on the right in front of the regimental vehicles. **

This photo shows the regiment drawn up ready to advance with regimental wagons to the rear. **

My armies have a total of 24 Cavalry regiments. The arm of service colour for Cavalry is German purple, a shade of burgundy.

** Both photos show the old original regimental structure. New photos will be added ASAP

UPDATE.

 Much as I have tried over the past several weeks I am still finding less time for modelling than I would like. Perhaps over the coming weeks of deepest winter more time will become available.

That said I have at last been able to complete the first set of vehicles for my new Pontoon Bridge capability. The photos show the equipment for a single Pioneer battalion. I have now listed construction of sufficient vehicles to equip another 15 battalions.

I decided to leave the boats and chesses (pallets) unpainted. I have always felt the need to paint everything in my standard olive drab green but on this occasion I think this equipment just looks better in the natural shades of brown.

In addition to the above I have almost completed a batch of 30 field kitchen trailers. All that remains is to paint the wheels and chimneys black.

Finally I refer back to the saga of Humbrol enamel paints as mentioned a while ago. All the evidence I can find suggests that the range is being massively reduced although Humbrol (Hornby) have yet to make a public announcement. However my local retailer says the range is being reduced and the on-line colour charts only show a much reduced range. Interestingly it appears the acrylic range has been increased to include those enamel colours apparently being discontinued.

I have spent the past month  or so buying up those colours that I believe are going out of production but which I use a lot. So far there seems to be no shortage but this will soon change. My advice is if you use Humbrol enamels check the official colour charts and buy up any which you use and which not on the latest charts while you can.

BOOK REVIEW: TERROR IN THE TUNNELS.

 BRITAIN'S DANGEROUS RAILWAY HISTORY.

 As is often the case, having read a book on a particular subject, "Rails to the Front" in this case, I then find myself reading similar books for a while. I am afraid this means the next few book reviews will be about railways !!!!!

This particular book comes from my library and has not been read for a very long time. It basically details the various accidents that occurred both during and after the construction of the many railway tunnels in the UK. Most of the material is taken from newspapers of the time supplemented with official reports. The former of course offer by far the most interesting accounts because of the headline grabbing descriptions as well as the quaint language of the time. There are not too many illustrations but those included are both interesting and informative. 

Overall a fascinating book and highly recommended to railway historians but also generally as just a good book which I should have re-read a long time ago. In fact, the author has another book on disasters during the construction of Britain's railways which I have just ordered as a direct result of enjoying this book so much !!!!

BOOK REVIEW: RAILS TO THE FRONT.

THE ROLE OF RAILWAYS IN WARTIME. 

I found this book on Amazon some time ago reasonably cheaply and have finally got around to reading it. The delay has mainly been caused by the strange shape of the book which is landscape rather than portrait which I find peculiarly disconcerting in a book.

That said the book is very well illustrated and basically covers the use of railways in war from the Crimean War right up to WW2 and into the 1960's where use of railways for military purposes is claimed to have been superseded by road transport. However anyone watching the news from Ukraine over the past year will be only too aware of just how important military use of the railways still is to both sides.

Rather than cover every conflict separately, the book discusses the use of railways more by period with only the major wars meriting a specific chapter. The book is loaded with many excellent photos and although the coverage of any particular conflict is necessarily limited, it does give an excellent overall history of railways in war. 

There is a great deal of useful information in this book which means it should appeal to the reader who is looking for a general history of railways in war and in that respect it is certainly recommended.

PONTOON BRIDGING EQUIPMENT.

 PONTOON BRIDGING EQUIPMENT FOR THE WOODSCREW MINIATURE ARMY.

Regular readers will recall I mentioned a while ago that I had decided to investigate the provision of pontoon bridging equipment for my armies. This was provoked by Ion of Archduke Piccolo blog when he wargamed a campaign from my Imagi-Nations series early last year. One of his background questions was whether my armies had a bridge building capability. I replied in the negative but the thought stayed with me that maybe such a capability should be provided.

Ever since I have been looking, without success, for some everyday object that could be adapted for use as a pontoon boat. I did find a model in a manufacturers range but really did not like it that much. Recently I posted asking if readers had any ideas. Steve Johnson suggested I consider 3D models and Ian Dury suggested I look at ebay where a number of 3D printers were offering model railway accessories including model rowing boats. This was something I had not considered.

A quick look revealed a manufacturer supplying rowing boats in N gauge which seemed suitable. I made contact with the supplier and got the measurements of their boats which seemed perfect. I decided to order a pack of 6 boats just to be sure. While looking at the various other products available from this business I also found OO scale pallets, in packs of 30,  which looked like perfect "chesses" for the bridge decks so I ordered a pack of them too.  My original idea was to just use bits of cut up toothpick to represent the "chesses".  

(Chesses are the name used for the bridge deck timbers, apparently from the old French words chasse meaning frame and chassis meaning framework.)  

These items arrived just before Christmas and have proved to be top quality and ideal for my needs. 

Four boats and ten pallets provide a perfect 65 mm long, scale 32 foot bridge as shown below.

I quickly designed a new flat bed wagon and flat bed heavy trailer to transport both boats and "chesses". My idea is that each of my 16 Pioneer battalions will be provided with a bridging platoon comprising a wagon and trailer carrying four pontoons and another wagon and trailer carrying  ten "chesses". The four Pioneer battalions in each army would therefore have the collective ability to build a bridge some 250 mm long which is about scale 125 feet or around 40 meters.  Manpower to build the bridges would be provided by the existing Pioneer battalion soldiers. I prefer this arrangement rather than the alternative of creating dedicated bridging columns.

Below are photos of the new wagons, unpainted and without horses so far, showing the pontoons and "chesses". Just for clarification, the boats and "chesses" will be glued to the wagons and the illustration at the beginning of this article of a completed bridge was only a "proof of concept".

Close ups of the two specific loads are below. I found that two boats fitted on each vehicle and looked better too. I decided I prefer the look of having the boats the right way up however I understand from Ian Dury that most armies carried them upside down. Any views ?????

Each "chess" vehicle carries 5 "chesses". To make it look more interesting the top pallet is turned over.

It has crossed my mind to revise the arrangements to have a wagon with boats towing a trailer with "chesses".....any thought on whether this would look better ????

I am very pleased with these new models and hope readers will agree this new equipment looks good.  Many thanks to Ian Dury and Steve Johnson for pointing me in the right direction.

I have just placed an order for another 58 boats and 130 pallets with the supplier who is Cliff at "3D pluss" on ebay. Cliff makes a fascinating and very wide variety of model railway accessories in OO and N gauge, many of which, in my opinion, could have military modelling applications and he has proven to be prompt and cooperative in responding to my enquiries.

I will post photos of fully painted up vehicles as soon as possible.