Tracks to the Trenches

[Squiffy]

I hope you will enjoy these photos that I took in the summer, at the Apedale Valley Light Railway, near Newcastle Under Lyne, Staffordshire, England. The AVLR is a 2-foot gauge railway museum that specialises in industrial and WW1 military railways. For the TTT event they invited other vehicles and re-enactors. The Great War Display Team were asked to attend but they were otherwise engaged.

It would have been the icing on the cake to have a dogfight above the railway but hey ho...

The fact that the armies of both sides of the confilct used hundreds of miles of 2ft. gauge railways to supply the lines isn't something you see much about among the dozens of TV programmes about the Great War but this interesting event combined railway equipment and displays from historical groups and road vehicles.

Rolls Royce armoured car




Foden steam lorry




40HPSimplex petrol 'tractor' loco


McEwan Pratt petrol loco


20HP Simplex tractor and B-class wagon




16th Lancers training demo




Replica tank




US-built Baldwin loco, as used by the British and US armies




Another 40HP armoured Simplex




20HP Simplex




French infantry


British infantry

[Des]

Thanks very much Squiffy for posting these wonderful photos, they are all extremely interesing.

Des.

[Nigel Jackson]

Fascinating photos, Squiffy, thanks for posting them. I feel that I'm learning so much from inputs like this.

Best wishes
Nigel

[eindecker]

Thank you for those wonderful photos. It is constantly brought up how much we do not know about such a recent historical event as WWI.

[Mark]

Thanks for the great photos!

Mark G

[Steven Robson]

Yep, great photos Squiffy, thanks for sharing.  I enjoyed these very much.

Cheers

[WarrenD]

Trains, steam power, WWI militaria, and living history . . . . what more could a man want but an alcoholic libation and a good cigar??!! 

Man, I put together three WWI impressions back in the day when I was active doing living history and reenacting, but never got to use them.    I would have loved to have attended this, but the plane ticket would have been too pricey.

Thanks for letting me live vicariously through the photos Squiffy!

Warren

[jknaus]

Way cool. Thanks very much for posting those up.
James

[Cimmerian]

Great set of photos, thanks for sharing.

[KitRookie37]

Hello to all,
Excellent ! Thanks for sharing.
Best regards.
Alain.

[Rob Hart]

Really interesting photos. I had no idea most of those machines existed.