Creating a WWII Ambulance Train

Above: Home Ambulance Train Administrative Car No. 6204

The Prototypes: Background and History

In the early days of the Second World War, at the request of the Railway Executive Committee, all the main line rail companies participated in the provision and conversion of both "casualty evacuation trains" and "ambulance trains."

Casualty Evacuation Trains: These trains, some 30 in all (some sources say 34), were assembled for the purpose of removing wounded from urban areas to hospitals in safer parts of Britain. Twenty of these trains were based in the London area, six in the provinces, and a further two in Scotland. All were made up from existing rolling stock which was modified by each railway company in their own workshops. The GWR provided 6 of the trains which were composed of 12 vehicles, made up of two corridor brake thirds (used for carrying food/medical supplies and staff accommodation), and 10 stretcher vans fitted with steam heating. These stretcher vans were mainly converted from "Siphon G" bogie milk vans.

Above: Converted Siphon G milk van No.2067 as CET van "J" - the 10th in line.

Eventually, one of the stretcher vans in the middle of each train was replaced with a special staff mess/recreation van converted from a gutted centre corridor third or restaurant car. When the time came to begin the work, the GWR located the vehicles, effected the conversions, and moved them to their wartime stabling positions - all within 3 days.

Above: January 1940 - A general View of a Casualty Evacuation Train

All the vehicles in the CET's remained in the liveries of the companies to which they belonged, with the only identification being the painting of a yellow stripe at the end of each vehicle. Of special note was the fact that none of these trains carried the red cross symbol as the terms of the Geneva Convention restricted its use to vehicles carrying "service" as opposed to "civilian" casualties.The windows in all the vehicles were blackened out with the exception of the staff mess/recreation van. These windows remained clear, but utilised blinds to effect blackout conditions after dark.

An interior view of a Casualty Evacuation Train. Converted from a GWR Siphon Milk Van. The wagon was capable of carrying 41 stretchers.

The medical team of one of the Casualty Evacuation Trains. Many of these CET's were used as Ambulance Trains later in the war.

This 2 ton Morris commercial has been converted for Ambulance use by the GWR. In typical GWR style, the vehicle still advertised Devon as a popular holiday destination.

Initially, all 30 of these trains were maintained at 24 hour watch with a crew of 8. Fortunately, they were never used for the grim task they were prepared for. When the expected aerial holocaust did not come, a decision was announced (Dec 7th, 1939) that the number of trains "on call" would be reduced to 10 with the others available at 24 hours notice. Later that same month, the GWR temporarily released two of its trains and returned them to normal traffic. The remainder were used to move British and American casualties from the Channel ports to reception hospitals after D-Day.

Interestingly for the modeller keen on maintaining correct prototypes, Peter Semmons recollects seeing these trains working northwards out of Oxford on the GWR with Southern Locomotives in charge.

Ambulance Trains: Hard on the heels of the Railway Executive Committee's request for the conversion of the causalty evacuation trains came a further request (30 Sept, 1939) to convert 136 LMSR carriages for use in ambulance trains - both for "home" and "overseas" use (the GWR was responsible for the coversion of 18 of these vehicles - 12 for overseas use and 6 as administrative cars for the home service trains). From the initial 25 complete trains assembled, twelve were to be utilised on home soil and the remainder overseas (9 of the latter were subsequently lost at Dunkirk).

"Home Ambulance Trains" generally consisted of 9 vehicles, whereas overseas trains were generally made up of 14 vehicles. Brake and infectious ward cars were converted from completely gutted LMS 57' brake thirds, with seats, partitions and upholstery replaced by wards, surgeries, stores and staff quarters. Pharmacy cars were converted from corridor brake thirds and included a pharmacy, treatment room, office and store.

Standard LMS corridor 'brake third' coach as converted into "home" use ambulance car No. 5208 at Swindon Works.

 

Home Ambulance Train Administrative Car No. 6204. Note the white roof and top portion of the coach end. The red side crosses on this example appear to be made of canvas and attached to the coach by batons top and bottom, rather than painted directly onto the coach sides as in other examples.

Above and Left: Volunteers help to feed Dunkirk evacuees. Note the GWR rolling stock in the pic above.

All the vehicles were painted in khaki livery with white rooves. In the centre of the roof was a red cross, with a smaller red cross on a white background painted on the centre of the coach body side. All the windows were painted black. In what can only be described as a mammoth effort, Swindon Works completed the conversions on their 18 vehicles in just 3 weeks and all were ready by the second week in October 1939. Ambulance trains played a crucial part in the transport of soldiers to hospital and care facilities during "Operation Dynamo" - the evacuation of Dunkirk.

"Overseas Ambulance Trains": In the lead up to D-Day and with the launch of the "Second Front" in Europe in 1944, a special Ambulance Train Committee was convened to oversee the assembly of even more trains for "Continental" use. Some 33 complete trains were initially requested - many of which were converted from the original 1939 casualty evacuation trains. The GWR was to start out by contributing four trains - two (Nos 32 & 33) by July 1943, and a further two (Nos 34 & 35) by the end of the year.

The first two GWR overseas ambulance trains were completed early and were handed over to Brigadier-General P.R.Hawley of the US Army Medical Department by Mr F.W. Hawksworth (CME of the GWR at the time) at Swindon Works on the 24th March, 1943.

A complete ambulance train was capable of carrying over 300 stretcher cases together with the medical staff and provisions necessary to care for them.

The handing over ceremony with Brig. General Hawley of the US Army Medical Corps in attendance, along with "Movietone" news.

Another shot of the handing over ceremony of the first United States Ambulance Train at Swindon Works in 1943.

This pic shows what was known as the 'Brake, Infectious and Boiler car.'

Only slightly more spacious that the CET's is the interior of one of the American Ambulance Ward cars. Coaches were equipped with chemical toilets, hot water and heating, and special sockets for lifting onto ferry boats.

This pic shows the kitchen car from Ambulance Train No.16, built by the GWR and paid for by the United Kingdon Flour Millers Association, being lift tested by a steam crane at Swindon works prior to shipping to France.

Above: Field ambulances being swung onto ships ready for transport to the Continent.

Left: Austerity 2-8-0's being loaded at Cardiff Docks on their way to wartime Europe.

Each complete ambulance train was made up of a total of 14 vehicles as follows:

  • six ward carriages
  • one sitting up carriage for patients
  • two carriages for medical officers, nurses and attendants
  • two catering carriages
  • one carriage equipped as an operating theatre and pharmacy
  • one brake carriage incorporating boiler heating facilities, and finally
  • one combined brake end and stores carriage.

Again, the conversions were made from 57' third class passenger carriages of both the corridor and vestibule type. According to C.W.Judge, the outside of the carriages was again painted khaki while this time, the rooves were grey. Each roof had a large white square with a red cross painted on it, with a smaller version adorning each side.

This pic shows GWR 'Grange" No.6827 Llanfrechfa Grange assisting LNER B12 No.8525 at Kennington Junction with an ambulance train en route to Wheatley for Holton military hospital after D-Day.

LNER B12 No.8557 piloted by GWR Mogul No.5303 with an ambulance train at Kennington Junction near Oxford in 1944.

Trains were hauled by a variety of locomotives including USA Class S160 2-8-0 locomotives, or Riddles WD 2-8-0 or 2-10-0 Austerity designs. Southampton was the main port for the reception of casualties, and special sidings were provided at Shrivenhan, near Swindon for the unloading of American casualties. As a result, many ambulance trains ran up the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton line to Reading, Oxford and beyond, and also up the old Midland & South Western line from Andover to Cheltenham.
The Project: Modifying a Rake of Bachmann 57' LMS Coaches

In keeping with my interest in modelling wartime Britain, I decided an ambulance train would be a welcome addition to my military train stable. Now despite what the various historians wwite about liveries, standardizaition of design and so on, a quick glance at the pictures above will show that there was great variety ambulance train liveries, including coach and roof colour, and the size, positioning and even shape of red cross symbols used.

For my purposes, I decided to go with a "home ambulance train" and to use the picture of Administrative Car No. 6204 (at the top of this page) as my working prototype. I made this choice mainly because it was one of the shrapest and clearest pictures I had of a converted LMS 57' coach. Also, this picture appears somewhat unique in that the red crosses on the side of the coach appear to be made of painted canvas that partially obscures the windows, and seem to be attached to the coach with wooden battons at the top and bottom, rather than the typically painted on crosses in the other pictures. I figured it would be easier to model this style. Anyhow, here's my first attempt.

OK. Here we go.

Having procured a rake of maroon LMS 57' coaches at a great price from my buddy Peter Baddeley I set about dismantleing them ready for repainting. The pics below show the process of pulling them apart, removing the glazing, and masking up for airbrushing.

The first thing to do is to carefully dissassemble the coaches. Bogies are removed by taking out the small securing screw. The underframe can then be removed. Carefully bend the underframe downwards so as to allow the locating tongue to slip out of the coach body at one end.

The interior moulding can then be removed by slipping a flat screwdriver gently in at one end and levering the entire moulding out. This leaves the coach upper empty except for the window glazing.
Remove the glazing by using a sharp probe or screwdriver to lever the plastic away from the coach sides. In my models, the glazing was not glued to the coach sides, but had been attached by partly melting it onto the bodywork with a hot impliment. It was relatively easy to remove.
As I was modifying a whole rake of coaches, I found it a useful thing to carefully label and bag all the bits from each individual coach. This made reassembly much less of a jigsaw puzzle than if all the glazing and other parts were put in a single bag.
The next task was the repainting. Coach bodies were masked with standard masking tape and airbrushed with Humbrol Enamel No 195 (Satin Green, thinned 50:50 paint/thinner)
Once the paint was dry (I allowed about 48 hours to allow the paint to properly harden) the masking tape was removed and the coach sides remasked, this time to allow the rooves and the upper portions of coach ends to be painted, according to the photos of the prototypes.
As a bit of an experiemnt I used a Tamiya spray paint for the rooves - TS-27 Matt White. I was moderately happy with the results, though the paint is more of a satin finish than true matt. Next time I'll use the trusty airbrush with Humbrol Enamel No 34 (Matt White)
Again, allowing plenty of time for the paint to dry, the masking tape was removed and any overspray or excess paint on the coach ends covered over with Humbrol Enamel No 33 (Matt Black), or No 195 (Satin Green) for the sides.

The final stage before reassembly was to reinsert the glazing and paint the inside of the windows black, acccording to the prototype. For this used Humbrol Enamel No 85 (Satin Black), although any black enamel would do for this job.

NOTE: When gluing the glazing back in, make sure you don't use super glue or any other cyano-acrylate glue as this will fog the glass. Use a liquid polystyrene or contact adhesive instead.

Stay Tuned - The next instalment of this article will have pics detailing how the red crosses were painted on the coach rooves and sides.

References:

  1. Tim Bryan, The Great Western at War 1939-1945 (Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1995 - ISBN 1-85260-479-4), pp. 40-41, 176-177
  2. Maureen Hill, The Battle of Britain (Parragon Books, 2004 - ISBN 1-40544-008-2), pp. 16-23.
  3. C.W.Judge (Ed.), Thro' The Lens - A Pictorial tribute to the Official Work of the GWR Photographers (OPC Railprint, 1985 - ISBN 0-86093-312-1), plates 90-116
  4. O.S. Nock, A History of the LMS 3. The War Years & Nationalisation ,1939-48 (George Allen &Unwin, 1983 - ISBN 0-040385097-9), p. 27
  5. Peter Semmens, History of the Great Western Railway 3. Wartime and the Final Years, 1939-48 (George Allen &Unwin, 1985 - ISBN 0-04-385106-1), p.24