This needs seeing…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyulmyICuHw
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund
What a neat video… thanks
Great video Terry. Thanks for the info.
Now they were decent sized train sets.
Hey, thank you Terry. That was interesting. I knew that they had ‘trench RR’ but running over the country side. Plus the different troops building the track work.
Paul
What interested me was the widespread employment of black soldiers in railroad construction. Anyone got any knowledge about non-white labour/construction engineer troops in the US Army of that time?
I know that in the British & Commonwealth Army the use of Chinese construction/labour was widespread on the Western Front. The graveyards in France and Belgium are full of these unsung heroes.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund
Terry,
They could have been French colonial troops from North Africa. Also didn’t Britain have a number from the Sudan at that time. The hats I saw in some of the scenes could have been either French or British colonials of that era. There were considerable number of them during WWI and would be quite natural that some would be assigned to RR construction for both British and US military lines as well as French.
Well Terry is the Army expert as far as I know - I was in the RAF. lol However, the troops at the beginning of the video look like British troops but soon we see other men with different headgear. I think these are American troops and further into the vid locos with the letters USA can be seen which might support my thoughts.
Quite a few British locos were sent to France during WW1, most returned and some of the same 0-6-0 locos got a second tour of duty over there in WW2.
The Railway Operating Department was responsible for UK rolling stock and (TAC will confirm or rectify) the Royal Engineers were in charge of things.
I don’t see French Legionnaires building railroads somehow. They were far better employed as tough fighters at the front. Incidentally there were many Americans in the (French) Foreign Legion in WW1: I believe some were transferred to the US Army once The United States had joined the war.
I do have one military boxcar on my railroad. It is one of the Aristo double door boxcars with a great US Marine Corps herald: it looks very sharp.
Alan: “I don’t see French Legionnaires building railroads somehow. They were far better employed as tough fighters at the front. Incidentally there were many Americans in the (French) Foreign Legion in WW1: I believe some were transferred to the US Army once The United States had joined the war.”
[b]I don’t know if you’re referring to my reference to French colonial troops or not but the Foreign Legion wasn’t what I said. The French Army in particular had many black troops from various French-African colonies in the trenches during WWI. They were certainly used as needed in all kinds of duty which could very well include general labor in building RR lines. Some of the scenes show troops that resemble them and certainly weren’t U.S.
I know Terry well enough to be very aware of his expertise in things military and otherwise. I was merely answering his query with the possibility that the black troops used in the US scenes did not necessarily have to all be American although there were certainly some of those too.
Incidentally my dad was in a field artillery regiment attached to the Rainbow Division in WWI and earlier on the Mexican border c.1916. The artillery was towed by horses until they were sent to France at which time they were mechanized.[/b]
Richard Smith said:
Alan: "I don't see French Legionnaires building railroads somehow. They were far better employed as tough fighters at the front. Incidentally there were many Americans in the (French) Foreign Legion in WW1: I believe some were transferred to the US Army once The United States had joined the war."[b]I don’t know if you’re referring to my reference to French colonial troops or not but the Foreign Legion wasn’t what I said. The French Army in particular had many black troops from various French-African colonies in the trenches during WWI. They were certainly used as needed in all kinds of duty which could very well include general labor in building RR lines. Some of the scenes show troops that resemble them and certainly weren’t U.S.
I know Terry well enough to be very aware of his expertise in things military and otherwise. I was merely answering his query with the possibility that the black troops used in the US scenes did not necessarily have to all be American although there were certainly some of those too.
Incidentally my dad was in a field artillery regiment attached to the Rainbow Division in WWI and earlier on the Mexican border c.1916. The artillery was towed by horses until they were sent to France at which time they were mechanized.[/b]
They had mechanical horses in the Artillery? Who would have guessed that?
Steve - look up Scammell Scarab ‘mechanical horse’ - an odd-looking three-wheel light truck/tractor unit beloved by British Railways in the late 1940’s.
Anyhow, my question has been answered off-line. Many black US troops were used in tasks where the British and Commonwealth Forces used foreign labour from the colonies. Although the Royal Engineers had overall responsibility for the general layout of the railways, they were actually built by the hard labour of the Royal Pioneer Corps - the Army’s ‘navvies’, and run by the organisation that later became the RCT - Royal Corps of Transport, but BY the RASC - Royal Army Service Corps and the RAOC - Royal Army Ordnance Corps [the store-keepers]. You have to remember that in those days the British Army had over a million members…
And in answer to the comment about the LE, they actually have built more than they have destroyed - roads, railways, dams, wells, canals the lot, as a look at their history would tell you.
Thanks for all the comments.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund
Thanks Terry: I knew I could count on you filling in the missing pieces. I think I misread your post Richard attributing ‘colonials’ as Legion Etrangere.
Thanks Terry, pretty cool.
“They had mechanical horses in the Artillery? Who would have guessed that?”
Just shows to go ya! 
That is a great video.
Only problem is on my confuser it stops playing about 2/3rds the way through.
Any thoughts as to why?
Need to know. You don’t. :lol:
I think it has something to do with the curvature of the earth, or the coriolis affect. Maybe even the antenna gnome.
Worked fine for me up here, though.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund