Railwayman Sergeant, Royal Engineers
1 Railway Regiment (Home Command), Railway Group, Royal Engineers
Military Railways in the UK started life with the construction of a route between Bordon and Longmoor Camp by the Royal Engineers at Longmoor Military Camp in Hampshire in 1903, having the construction authorised the previous year. The railway was initially built to 18 inch gauge, but from 1905-1907 it was relaid as a standard gauge (4 foot 8 1/2 inch gauge) railway, formally becoming the Woolmer Instructional Military Railway. The first formal railway troops were stood up 1915 and 1916 and became 7 Railway Training Regiment, Royal Engineers. 7 Railway Training Regiment were tasked with the instruction of and the operation of steam locomotives. The interwar period saw massive increase in passenger demand on rail traffic, resulting in the creation of dedicated Locomotive Operating Companies chosen to work with the "Big Four" railway companies; forming 1 Railway Regiment (Home Command). The interwar period saw an expansion of the Woolmer Instructional Military Railway, with an extension to Liss being constructed from Longmoor Downs in order to connect with the National Network on the southern end of the railway. This extension was opened upon it's completion in 1933. 1935 saw the renaming of Woolmer Instructional Military Railway to Longmoor Military Railway. From 1946, Longmoor Military Railway would be open to the public (during the summer only); and would remain to do so until it's closure in 1969. The nationalisation of the railways in 1948 saw a change in the structure of the Railway Group Royal Engineers (RGRE). Several of the Locomotive Operating Companies that had been deployed sent overseas to help with the war effort were either disbanded or tasked with providing an emergency reserve of locomotives and crews for the national network. The end of the war also saw three of the Squadrons of 1 Railway Regiment (Home Command) were disbanded and the surviving squadron was renamed Locomotive Operating Squadron (Home Command). 7 Railway Training Regiment, which remained wholly independent of Locomotive Operating Squadron (Home Command), would gradually be reduced in size and by the end of the Suez Crisis in 1956, 7 Railway Training Regiment had become 79 (Railway) Squadron, Royal Engineers, remaining independent of Locomotive Operating Squadron (Home Command). 79 (Railway) Squadron would finish their time at Longmoor in 1968, when the railway site was closed; and the Squadron would be moved to Mönchengladbach in West Germany. With the move, came a change in name - they became 79 (Railway) Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport. With the end of steam traction on British Railways on August 4th 1968, the Locomotive Operating Squadron (Home Command) became surplus to requirements; and was subsequently disbanded with many of the hundreds of locomotives scrapped. From 1969, the locomotives were all diesel-powered and for a while the future of the squadron seemed uncertain until 1983, when a multimillion-pound makeover was begun. New locomotives started to arrive, and the operating yard at Mönchengladbach got a makeover. ​The squadron was relocated to Marchwood, near Southampton, in 1999. It was taken under command of 17 Port & Maritime Regiment Royal Logistics Corps, and renamed 79 Port Enabling Squadron, with the addition of a troop of Vehicle Support Specialist (VSS) personnel.
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79 Squadron was disbanded at Marchwood on 13 May 2012. The Vehicle Support Specialists were resubordinated elsewhere in the regiment, and the Military-staffed and operated Railways capability ultimately lost on the disbandment of the remaining Territorial Army unit, 275 Railway Troop, in 2014. However, the Royal Engineers have maintained a railway infrastructure unit among it's order of battle, in the form of 507 (Railway Infrastructure) Specialist Team, Royal Engineers (V), (part of the Army Reserve), falling under the control of 170 (Infrastructure Support) Engineer Group, 8th Engineer Brigade, 1st (UK) Division. This is all that remains from the one-time 40,000 personnel who served in RE Railway units during the First World War.​
Sadly, none of the old Military-run railways in the UK survive completely intact - with most, like Longmoor, being completely ripped up (and sometimes the bridges allowed to be destroyed in training exercises as a means of disposal). However, several locomotives and items of rolling stock have survived into preservation, with some becoming part of the National Collection at some point in their journey. Perhaps the favourite locomotive at Longmoor, WD600 Gordon, is preserved at the Engine Shed Museum on the Severn Valley Railway. Several of the War Department 0-6-0 Austerity Tank engines have also been preserved, due to their ease of maintenance and relatively high power-for-size.
The Moment of Glory
The moment of glory for the Military Railways following the end of the Second World War came in the winter of 1962-1963, which has gone down as "The Big Freeze". The Big Freeze was a freak weather event that caught the whole of the United Kingdom off guard. Not for the first time, a level of rationing was introduced to ensure that there was enough for everyone to go around when it came to essential sustenance, which at this point even included coal. Initially, there was complete gridlock on the railways, with even the military not being able to move their locomotives out of their sheds. Valve gear seized from the cold, coal frozen solid, shed doors frozen and wedged shut by huge snowdrifts. But being the geniuses that they are, the RGRE came up with a solution and got to work doing the seemingly impossible. With an initial period of assistance from Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Helicopters, the RGRE were able to start accessing and clearing snow-covered trackbeds and getting railways up and running again. The Snowmen that had been put up on Boxing Day 1962 by excited schoolchildren would still be there at Easter 1963 to see the tremendous amount of work that RGRE was able to achieve in the perilous conditions. The particular talents of 263 Track Laying Company, Royal Pioneer Corps and the expertise of 591 Field Squadron, Royal Engineers (with their willingness to use as much explosives as possible to clear deep banks of snow covering the tracks) made a huge difference in maintaining a steady stream of supplies to rural communities who would have otherwise been cut-off and stranded by the snow. 906 Locomotive Operating Company (attached to the Western Region), working in conjunction with Royal Marines achieved credible success clearing railway lines in Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. Most of the movement of rail traffic fell to the Locomotive Operation Squadron (Home Command) as a large number of civilian railwayman would either be unable to use their locomotives or wouldn't even be able to report to their shed or motive power depot to sign for a locomotive in the first place!
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The effort and determination of RGRE wasn't enough to clear the whole country of the vast amount of snow that fell in "The Big Freeze", but being a versatile organisation, they were more than ready when the thaws came and all the snow had melted. Trackbeds were torn up by the walls of water, landslides and mudslides claimed many more miles of trackbed. Most non-military firms or companies would have struggled to have gathered sufficient resources in people and equipment in such a short time as RGRE did. Working with other parts of the Armed Forces, RGRE set out to do what was almost an impossible task.
"Nothing is impossible, everything is a challenge."
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The challenge was accepted and the impossible happened. The railway infrastructure was back up and running in time for the summer timetable of 1963.
The Training
Unlike the national network, where it would take five years of incredibly hard work (and very unsocial hours most of the time) for someone to be trained up and passed out as a fireman (and a further 20 years or so to become a qualified driver), it would only require a training period of 8 weeks to become a fireman on a steam locomotive used by the military, with an additional 9 weeks being required to get the personnel up to the required standard where they can drive trains on their own without the need for an instructor to be standing near them and looking over their shoulder. There was another thing that made the military railways different from the civilian run railways - the LNER, the LMS, Southern or the GWR - and that was the difficulty of calling in sick or skive off work. Why? On civilian run railways, if you called in sick, there wouldn't be much in the way of querying as to whether or not the illness was genuine or not. With the military-run railways, it was virtually impossible to try and pull a "sickie" or "bunk off"- as it was generally that person's Sergeant or Sergeant Major who would be driving the train! Occasionally, you might be incredibly unlucky and end up having the Warrant Officer or the CO driving the train, which meant there was going to be no excuses or claims of illness accepted without proof. The training would be carried out by either 5 Railway Training Regiment or 7 Railway Training Regiment, and once the personnel had completed their training, they would then be sent off to one of the multitude of Railway Squadrons and Regiments throughout the country (some Railway Regiments being on secondment to "the Big Four" and later to the regions of the national Network (after the Nationalisation Act 1948). The best trainees out of each intake, on the completion of their training, were chosen to remain at Longmoor to act as mentors and instructors to the new intakes.
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Those who were selected to be Guards on the train had a much stricter training compared to their colleagues who were looking at becoming footplateman. This was due to the candidates being able to learn and competently enforce railway bylaws and regulations, resulting in many Guards being selected from Military Police. The requirements for becoming a Guard included having the minimum rank of Sergeant (due to most drivers being Corporals or Lance Corporals). Those who were selected to become signalmen were given intensive training by British Railways signalmen and the Royal Corps of Signals, with some of those from the Royal Corps of Signals becoming Railway Signalmen in their own rite. Just like those who were selected to become Guards, the candidate Signalmen had to learn railway bylaws, in addition to being required to learn every type of signal used on the railway system and the correct sequence for "setting the road" in the signal box, culminating in a lengthy 3 day exam at the end of their training which determined whether or not they were classified as "competent" or better to permit them to operate a signal box.
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The pass rate for Footplate Crews was 100%, with Guards at 94% and Signalmen at 96%. To maintain proficiency, all those who were trained at Longmoor (whether they were operational or support [REME Workshops]) were put on duties on the national network. This would be on a 6-8 month rotational basis, resulting in many Footplate Crew gaining experience on a multitude of different classes of locomotives along many different routes.
Structure of British Military Railway Units
Typically, there would be a standard structure to what was known as Railway Group Royal Engineers (RGRE). This would be:
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Locomotive Operating Company - Consisting mostly of Other Ranks with very few Officers, responsible for operating Railway Locomotives and being emergency stand-by crews for use on the National Network in times of crisis (as they did during "The Big Freeze" of 1962-1963).
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Locomotive Operating Squadron - Consisting of 6 Locomotive Operating Companies, equivalent of a battalion and would have more officers than the Locomotive Operating Company, but these would only have an administrative role. and would not be trained to operate Railway Locomotives.
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Railway Regiment - Consisting of 2-3 Locomotive Operating Squadrons, one Transport Management Squadron (consisting wholly of Railway Transport Officers), Headquarters and Liaison Units.
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In addition to RGRE, there were other units of the British Army assigned to support them. They were:
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165 (Railway) Transport Squadron, Royal Army Service Corps - responsible for timetables
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173 Railway Bridging Company, Royal Engineers - responsible for building bridges, viaducts, level crossings and foot bridges
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263 Track Laying Company, Royal Pioneer Corps - responsible for laying and repairing the trackbed and track (known as the Permanent Way)
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591 Field Squadron, Royal Engineers - responsible for building tunnels and securing cuttings prior to the creation of the Permanent Way
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Railway Construction Companies, Royal Engineers - responsible for constructing sheds, motive power depots, stations, freight offices
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Wagon Erecting Companies, Royal Engineers - responsible for building locomotives and rolling stock
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Railway Regiment / Railway Squadron Workshops, Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers - responsible for maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock, in addition to re-railing derailed trains
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Railway Ambulance Squadron, Royal Army Medical Corps
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Railway Signals Squadrons, Royal Corps of Signals - responsible for laying and operating railway signals
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Railway Provost Companies, Corps of Military Police, later Royal Military Police
The Uniform
For those serving in one of the Locomotive Operating Squadrons (Home Command), the working uniform would consist of blue denim dungarees and jacket with a Grease-Top Cap - much like their colleagues working on the national network. However, if the Locomotive Operating Squadron was to be deployed overseas, then the standard British Army Battledress uniform would be worn in winter with special dispensation being granted for Denim Battledress to be worn during the summer or warmer climates (e.g. North Africa, Italy, Middle East). However, the Grease-Top Cap would still be worn by the Locomotive Crews. An interesting feature of the cap badges worn by the Locomotive Operating Squadrons was a segment missing off the bottom of the cap badge (generally part of the scroll), which would give the bottom of the cap badge a slight chiselled look.
For the remainder of personnel involved in railway units, their uniform was the standard British Army Battledress, with each separate unit having their own identifying insignia. The most notable among the variety of insignia was the coveted platelayers trade badge, which could only be earned by the men of 263 Track Laying Company, Royal Pioneer Corps; 173 Railway Bridging Company, Royal Engineers and other railway-related Specialist Teams of the Royal Engineers.
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One item of uniform that was issued to all railway specialist units was the Transport Unit badge featuring a wheel with a half wing, waves and a ship's wheel - symbolising all parts of the Army Mobility Network that would be responsible for the supply and maintenance of the Armed Forces.
While British Railways generally had ties to signify regions or types of rail traffic, the members of the Locomotive Operating Companies only wore a plain black tie or none at all. It would generally be easy to identify who was an officer and who wasn't by the wearing of a tie on the footplate; as it was generally officers who wore shirt and ties on the footplate - it was a very rare sight to see even a Warrant Officer or Sergeant Major wearing a shirt and tie on the footplate (virtually all of those who were regular footplate crews wore no shirt for purely practical reasons). Sweat rags (generally tea-towels cut in half or a face flannel) were very much a common sight in the pockets, as RGRE took particular pride in maintaining a very clean uniform. In a rather unfair move, those who initially found themselves falling below the required standard were confined to barracks with loss of pay for a period of 2-3 days. Following Nationalisation in 1948, this strict regulation was dropped, but a clean uniform was still a requirement given the chances of being requested to head to Longmoor to prepare for a passenger service carrying military personnel on the national network. The only recorded cases of when regular footplate crews wore shirts was during the "Big Freeze", where many were seen wearing long sleeve shirts.
The Locomotives
The men of 1 Railway Regiment (Home Command) would be expected to operate any class of locomotive that could be found on the area of the country to which they were assigned. For example, those who found themselves posted to 905 Locomotive Operating Company (attached to Southern Railway, later Southern Region of British Railways) could find themselves being footplate crew of four different classes of locomotive of multiple designs by Oliver Bullied then two or more locomotives of different designs and manufacturers within the same week. With the birth of British Railways and the advent of the BR Standard family of locomotives, the number of different footplates that any particular footplate crew would find themselves on increased, the ease of operation also increased. This was due to the inspired and well thought-out idea of standardising the footplate layout on the BR Standard family, thereby enabling any one particular footplate crew to footplate any of the locomotives of the BR Standard family after only having footplated one class of the family (like the BR Standard 2MT or BR Standard 5MT). One particular favourite of Locomotive Operating Squadron (Home Command) was the BR Standard 5MT, as they found that it was very close in performance, fuel and water economy, ease of maintenance and comfort to their usual War Department design locomotives. What was almost a general consensus across all of Locomotive Operating Squadron (Home Command) was a strong dislike of Great Western period locomotives - and all due to a feature they all shared; a single gauge glass rather than a pair of them (which virtually almost all of the other locomotives in use had). In what some would consider a slight breach of health and safety (which didn't exist at that point), some Footplateman Sergeants would solo crew smaller locomotives, such as the A1X 0-6-0T tank engines, also known as Terriers (due to their small size and very small tractive effort). If railway companies took offense to this (which rarely happened), one of the Austerity 0-6-0ST tank engines (along with a Fireman) would be brought into action to resolve the dispute.