STEAM AT WAR 7




The crossing station keepers were bunkered about half way along their sidings and about 100 metres out from the tracks. The greatest horror of the station crews was the arrival and stopping of troop trains when 500 troops who had been cooped up in box wagons would detrain en mass and stoop and crap. The drill that evolved was to stop and hold such trains outside the station yard limits until everyone had crapped out. In the full spirit of "not in my back yard" many ruses were practised by station staff to ensure that such trains were kept rolling past their territories. Station crews established for themselves reasonably good long-drop dunnies that were frequently invaded by passing troops who tended to leave them less than pristine. So the owners would plaster the door with prominent "Beware of the snake" notices and construct a second edifice with a "Safe for use" sign for the peace of mind of the visitors.

While on this subject, one of the stations bore the name "Gundagai" for which the staff had prepared and erected a large name board featuring a dog crouched in an ecstasy of relief over a wicker tucker box. I remember the staff of an ambulance train appreciating this example of desert art.

There were very few if any train crews that escaped without adventure of some sort. To add to my runaway ride from Mohalfa to Similla I was to experience a near miss on the same section but travelling in the opposite direction. The line traversed wadhis that were natural drainage channels from the plateau in the wet seasons. Where track embankments crossed the wadhis two or three 2 metre diameter concrete conduit pipes were laid through the earth fills to provide escape for the water that would otherwise back up. One very wet early morning we had departed from Similla with the usual fully loaded train with banking engine shoving at the rear. After covering 25Km with everything going well and first light of day showing features dimly I spotted an irregularity in the rail alignment about midway around a curve to my side. The track was hanging suspended across a thirty-metre gap in the embankment. I yelled this intelligence to my driver who suspected that I was kidding, and did not immediately react. I cranked on the tender hand brake and shut down steam valves that were my responsibility and clambered out onto the cab steps prepared to take my chance and jump off. He crossed the cab, saw and sprung to action. He slammed the throttle shut and steam brake full on. There was a tremendous surge through the train as the bank engine caught up with the slack. I jumped off and scrambled clear giving hand signals to the rear engine crew too far back to see me in the dim light. However they felt the mighty surge and thinking that we had derailed shut off and braked. Fortunately on coming to a stop they released their brakes to allow the compressed buffers to run out. I ran to the front of our engine and saw that the leading wheels were on the edge of the drop and that the earth was crumbling away. I yelled to my mate to back off which he did with some urgency. The culvert pipes had not coped with the storm water and washed away. A repair gang was soon on the scene with bulldozers and stacks of sleepers and in about four hours saw us on our way.

Camel thorn bushes grew sparsely on patches of the desert and small herds of camels and gazelles roamed in the distance. Other animals that we encountered were desert dogs, foxes, wolves and desert rats. Small snakes, asps, lizards of all kinds, huge beetles and colonies of very large ants were another source of interest. Some of our own aircraft, Hurricanes and Beaufighters returning from missions chose to fly so low that their propeller wash stirred up dust trails. They would pass close alongside our trains and when coming from behind the first we would know of their presence was the sudden roar of their motors as they flashed past at cab window height. Their crews no doubt enjoyed the anticipation of our startled reactions.

There were occasional engine derailments through track subsidence and one engine going into a bomb crater. Where these events occurred the rails were cut each side of the accident site and the ends drawn sideways by bulldozer and the gap rejoined with new rails and sleepers and it was back to business as usual.

STEAM AT WAR 6




The trains were generally made up equivalent to 60 to 65 four wheeled wagons. A double bogie wagon was counted as two 4 wheelers, thus the train gross weights were 1200 to 1300 tons. They were totally unbraked except for the steam-powered brakes on the engines and tenders. The brake vans had hand operated brakes that were rarely if ever used. Depending upon the tension on the coupling links and hooks and compression on the buffers the distance between adjacent wagons could vary by 18 inches which caused any train length to vary by a hundred feet depending upon whether the engine was pulling or braking. Starting and stopping always demanded careful judgement. Instant stops were not possible and the official train speed was limited to 40 KPH. On descending grades and approaching known stopping places preparations to take control were initiated about three kilometres out.

The locomotives and tenders weighed 127 tons, carried 9 tons of coal and 4000 gallons of water. Permanently coupled and piped to each main line locomotive were two 4000-gallon tank wagons known as water batteries. These supplies had to last the Similla-Masheifa-Similla round trip of 313km which depending upon the visitations of war could take two to four days.

For reasons of safety and to conserve the train engine supplies a helper locomotive was attached to the rear of each train to assist it up the 28km 1-117 climb from Similla to Mohalfa. At the all clear signal to proceed the pusher engine had to start first to close the buffers to the point of nudging the lead engine which then gradually opened up to take its share of the load. This avoided the possibility of snatching the bank engine and the risk of draw gear failure. At the top the grade the helper engine was detached and the train proceeded on it way over generally flat terrain with the horizon visible all around. In the final third of the journey the line descended into and traversed a wide shallow wadhi followed by 19Km of a one in two hundred climb to the railhead at Masheifa.

The opposing trains met and passed at crossing stations spaced about 12.5Km apart manned by small detachments of 16th ROC personnel who lived a fairly lonely existence, but those who wished were relieved at regular intervals. One of their staff met each train at the station outer limits and either directed us into the passing loop or gave us a train order to proceed into the next section. We surrendered the train order that we had carried through the section that we were vacating.

Naturally, half our operations were through the nights. There were no engine headlights and we covered the gaps between the engine cabs and tenders with tarpaulins to conceal the flashes from the furnace fire door openings. To view the steam pressure and boiler water level gauges as well as to make feed-water injector adjustments we carried kerosene bulls-eye lanterns with the lenses covered while not in immediate use.

Kerosene lanterns shielded within petrol can housings with tubular apertures facing approaching trains marked the crossing loop outer limits. The attendant at the points carried a shunter's signalling lantern which displayed a steady red light for stop, a green light for go on through the main line and a white light waved from side to side to indicate entering the crossing loop. On moonlight nights visibility was good but on really dark nights we got by with our interpretations of the shades of darkness. Our night vision became highly developed and by glancing away from the direct line of travel we could pick up the distant pinpoint signal lights. On clear moonless nights the brilliance of the stars helped. Under winter storm cloud cover the nights were pitch black, but our familiarity with the feel of the track, sounds, bumps, kinks, curves and grades kept us informed of our whereabouts.

STEAM AT WAR 5




In these early days the locomotives and rolling stock belonged to the Egyptian State Railways who maintained an engineering inspection staff at the point where the trains passed out of their control to military control. Their duties were to record the particulars and condition of all rolling stock outward and homeward bound across the demarcation point Changes in condition and perceived defects were charged against the war department. The situation was ready made for conflicts of interest between the army and Egyptian examiners. The latter invariably attempted to declare all vehicles in first class condition on the outward trip and almost worm-out wrecks on their return. In fact all of the locomotives and rolling stock that the ESR directed to this line were in generally rundown condition. We were grateful to be supplied with a fleet of brand new war department locomotives built by British works to the LMSR Stanier "8F" freight design. New 20 tonnes gross 4 wheeled and 40 tonnes gross double bogie wagons and boxcars and LNER pattern 25 tonne brake vans also came on the scene.

By Christmas 1941 railway construction had proceeded a further 128 Km past Mohalfa to Masheifa on the desert plateau 40 Km south in the desert from the small coastal village of Sidi Barrani. The route traversed generally stony desert with gentle descents and ascents across wide shallow wadhis with a final 19km climb to the railhead. A supplies and distributing depot was established at Masheifa with train arrival and dispersal yards and a balloon loop of about 3.5 Km diameter with four curved sidings for train unloading. This circular feature was chosen in order to present a relatively difficult target for enemy aircraft to align on. While I saw none of the trains occupying these sidings come under air attack I was involved in incidents when trains on the straight arrival, departure and shunting roads came under fire. Locomotive servicing facilities and an engine turning triangle were also installed. A spur line branched out to the north/west to a point about 6km away where there was established an elaborate dummy railhead manned by a unit of South African field engineers. From very secure bunkers they ventured out to continually change the positions of dummy rail wagons, motor trucks, armoured tanks and supply dumps consisting of stacks of empty petrol cans as well as genuine war wreckage and fake and real anti aircraft gun emplacements. During the many air raids the intrepid engineers set off most convincing explosions and fires. It is probably a conservative estimate that for every tonne of bombs dropped on the real railhead four tonnes were lobbed on the dummy. German propaganda broadcasters constantly reported the total destruction of the railhead complex.

The 16th Railway Company was moved from El Daba to Similla to work the now completed section to Masheifa. The El Daba to Similla-Mersa Matruh section was handed over to a British railway-operating unit. I became part of a small detachment transferred to Masheifa to run construction trains on a further 112km extension westward to Fort Capuzzo on the Egyptian-Libyan border. As the line progressed a detachment of the 17th company personnel was brought in to complete the section and run trains when required past Masheifa. Our detachment was returned to Similla to continue with the regular train workings. Five to eight trains a day were run each way. The westward loads were troops and their equipment, motor transport fuel, field guns, armoured tanks, food rations, NAAFI canteen stores and two or three ambulance trains a week to relieve the forward casualty clearing hospital. The homeward journeys brought out troops being relieved, war ravaged tanks and armoured vehicles, damaged aircraft and motor vehicles of all kinds and enemy prisoners of war and their equipment all under heavy guard. Prize enemy items of armoury were captured tanks, new long range mobile guns and a high speed eight wheeled armoured car that could be driven with equal facility in either direction. A notable item was a new German Folk-Wolf 190 fighter aircraft practically unscathed.