had to be laid, single tracks had
to be converted into double ones, mammoth railway-yards, sidings, and
freight-houses had to be built, thousands of locomotives, carriages,
and trucks provided. This work was done by the Railway Companies of
the Royal Engineers, behind which was the Railway Reserve, whose
members, before the war, were employed by the great English railway
systems. Wearing the blue-and-white brassard of the L. C. are whole
battalions of engineers and firemen, bridge-builders, signal-men,
freight handlers, clerks, and navvies, all of them experts at their
particular jobs. It is impossible to overrate the services which these
railway men have performed. They build and staff the new lines which
are constantly being constructed; they repair destroyed sections of
track, restore blown-up bridges; in short, keep in order the arteries
through which courses the life-blood of the army. They are the real
organizers of victory. Without them the men in the trenches could not
fight a day. You cannot travel for a mile along the British front
without seeing an example of their rapid track-laying. They have had
to forget all the old-fashioned British notions about track
permanency, however, for their business is to get the trains over the
rails with the least possible delay; nothing else matters. Engaged in
this work are men who have learned the lessons of rough-and-ready
construction on the Mexican Central, on the Egyptian State Railways,
on the Beira and Mashonaland, and on the Canadian Pacific, and the
rate at which they cause the twin lines of steel to grow before one's
eyes would have aroused the admiration of such railroad pioneers as
Stanford and Hill and Harriman.

The engines for use on these military railways are sent across the
Channel with fires already built and banked, water in the boilers, and
coal in the tenders. They come in ships specially constructed so that
the whole top deck can be lifted off. Giant cranes reach down into the
hold and pick the engines up and set them down on the tracks on the
quays, the crews climb aboard and shake down the fires, a
harassed-looking man, known as the M. L. O. (Military Landing Officer)
turns them over to the Railway Transport Officer, who is a very
important personage indeed, and he in turn hands the engineers their
orders, and, half an hour after they have been landed on the soil of
France, the engines go puffing off to take their places in the war
machine.

It is