Large Scale Central

One for the steamers . .

OK, all you lovers of steam and history, try this on.

In 1863, after the Union defeat at Chickamauga, the B&O (in association with other roads) organised the movement of XI and XII Corps, Army of the Potomac, from Virginia to Bridgeport, Alabama. The operation has been called “the accomplishment par excellence in Civil War logistics.”

The B&O-specific piece involved moving over 20,000 men, and much of their equipment, over 412 miles in five days.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to calculate approximately how many cars and how many trains (e.g., a million trains of a thousand cars each) the B&O used to do the deed.

All of them…

Easy, since in 1863 it took 5 days to travel 412 miles anyway.

Therefore, all separate trains!

Probably the same as Amtrak now, with all their delays…

Thirty trains of appx 20 cars each.

If you’re a history buff, source is The Baltimore and Ohio in the Civil War, by Festus Summers, one of the most interesting reads I’ve had in ages.