Fields of Battle - Aisne

Decauville Railway at Confrecourt. Paul Decauville (1846-1922) was a French pioneer in light railways. His major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to steel sleepers; this track was portable and could be disassembled and transported very easily. The French military became interested in the Decauville system as early as 1888 and chose the 600mm gauge track to equip its strongholds and to carry artillery pieces and ammunition during military campaigns. Decauville track was used during the French military expeditions to Madagascar and Morocco. By the First World War, Decauville had become a military standard and the French and British eventually built thousands of miles of trench railways track. The Germans had a similar system, with normalized engines. Under good conditions 4 men could lay 400 meters of track in 1 hour: whilst derailments were frequent the light weight of the trucks meant that they were easy to re-rail. After the war many military rail systems were used for clearing the battle fields and providing essential public transport for both people and materials around the former battlefields

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