BRITISH RAILWAYS AND THE WAR
The first task before the Committee was one calculated to tax its resources to the full. The Territorials—the volunteer forces of the United Kingdom—had been called to the Colours, and had to be distributed to their training grounds and their defence areas all over the country. Simultaneously the Expeditionary Force, numbering 120,000 men, with a vast amount of material of war, had to be transported in a minimum of time to Southampton—the port of embarkation for France.
SEVENTY-THREE TRAINS IN
FOURTEEN HOURS
The Government gave the railways a time-limit of sixty hours to make ready for dispatch to Southampton of 350 trains of about 30 vehicles each. In addition, close on 1,200 other trains were necessary for conveying the equipment, munitions, and food supplies of the forces. There were about 60,000 horses to be carried—7 to a truck; there were 5,000 tons of baggage and 6,000 vehicles. Sir Herbert Walker, over whose system—the London and South-Western Railway—the trains had to travel to Southampton, described what was done in a speech shortly afterwards at the American Luncheon Club in London. He told of the Government time-limit of sixty hours. "We 'delivered the goods,' as you Americans would say, in forty-eight hours. At Southampton, for practically every day of the
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