Transcripts For CSPAN3 World War I U.S. Railroad Operations

And memorial in kansas city, missouri, hosted this event. Its just over an hour. Hello. Welcome, everyone, to your National World war i museum and memorial. Im Camille Kulig Program Specialist and thrilled to have everyone joining us here this afternoon. Whether you have braved the rain, congratulations. You made it. Or if youre warm at home watching through our live stream. Today we have the pleasure of hosting dr. Rudy daniels who is going to present his lecture, the Great Railroad war, United States Railroad Operations in world war i. Today we also have the pleasure of being joined by one of the museum and memorials esteemed board members. He is going to speak more about his ample experiences with railways in the midwest. And his connection to the museum and memorial. Without further ado, please help me in welcoming dave everick. Thank you very much. Yeah, im really pleasured to join you today. We have a great guest and dr. Ru rudy daniels who is going to join us. Ive been with the Railroad Industry for about 23 years now. I have quite an experience with the military, too. I went to west point in 88 and was out in the military for nine years as an attack helicopter commander. And then joined csx railroad. I was there five years and then came to Kansas City Southern where i was there for 14 years and was able to make it up to the rank of chief operating officer there. And so i had a wide variety of experiences both in the u. S. , midwest, and in mexico. And then for the last five years, ive been working with gener genosy railroad. Im out helping the railway. One thing that a lot of people dont take into their thought process is that railroads have been around for 150 years. Rudy and i were just talking about the Union Pacific driving the golden spike celebrating 150 years. And when you think about how long the railroads have been around and really how the u. S. Has grown up around the railroads and how Much Technology has come so far, the railroads have not changed very dramatically. Sure we went from the steam efrpg u engines to the steel locomotives. It is still the most efficient way to move freight thats out there. I think the latest stat with the current freight operations is that we can move one ton of freight on one gallon of gasoline of diesel for 500 miles. So you think about that. Its pretty impressive. And then you think about all the roles that the railroads have played in a lot of the wars. Even the civil war. You know, one of the major objectives was to get behind the lines and get to your enemys rail structure. They would heat up the rail and bend it around trees in the civil war. Just to make sure that they cannot resupply or get resources to the front lines easily. You know, i just look at those things in the United States and the Development Even every town west of the mississippi river, every major city you see primarily used to be a rail hub. And then it built up around that rail hub. But the development of a lot of our history revolves around the railroads. And what youre going to hear about today is something you dont usually hear about. The role of the rails in world war i. It really had a dramatic impact. But you just dont see a lot about it out there. And really looking forward to dr. Samuels talk today. Let me give you a little bioon daniels, im sorry. He received his phd in russian and soviet studies from the Pennsylvania State university. And since then taught a college and universities, United States and germany. He has written numerous articles and books including trains across the continent, complete history of the u. S. And canadian railroads. And the Great Railroad war which can be purchased in the store that we have here. Most recently, dr. Daniels was a contributing editor to the Railway Atlas of the United States and currently gives talks on a variety of aspects of railroad history. Please help me in welcoming dr. Rudy daniels. Thank you very much. First of all, its an honor to be here this afternoon at the National World war i museum here in kansas city. A great honor to be invited and to do this presentation. And as far as world war i, the railroads of world war i, as a historian, i have written several other books on various subjects, but i feel its almost a privilege. Now it is a privilege to have written this story, to bring it to light. And basically to quote the french army during world war i, he said this is a railroad war. Quite simply this. You need a train to get the young men and women to ports to lead the United States, of course, ships overseas and trains again to get everything to the front. So railroads played not just a critical but a vital part in the american victory and the victory of world war i. I want to start off with a couple of slides here. This first one is all controversial. You see the soldiers this is the cs from the chesapeake and Ohio Historical society. They said well, they have soldiers embarking for europe. And ei kind of think this is in virginia because of the bridge. Ive been there. Today Csx Transportation and someone said well, no, the soldiers are arriving from europe after the war. The Historical Society said these are soldiers leaving for war. The reason for is it is they had overseas hats. The overseas hats were issued during the war because the standard hat they had originally took too much room. So if anyone here has an idea and a source that can help me with that, i would be more than happy to hear what you have to say. This is ascene thscene that hap over the country. The American Red Cross set up volunteers mostly women, sometimes children. And they would at these station stops, they would bring refreshments. It would be sandwiches and coffee in winter. Watermelon, ice cream, so forth in the summer. You know, seasonal and what not. The red cross operated almost 700 of these canteens during world war i. And, of course, canteens would be operated during world war ii also. But this is kind of like the beginnings of it. During world war i, the troops were segregated. Here you have africanamerican soldiers also to show the red cross is serving them. With refreshments at various station stops. This photo was courtesy of the red cross. They did not know where this station or depots was. Here again, this supposedly is washington, d. C. Here you have, again, volunteer women, red cross women being bringing refreshments to troops on the train in major metropolitan area. This is really controversial. This is a field kitchen on a flat car. The Pulling Company offered to build for the United States during world war i kitchen cars that could serve, they claim, up to 400 soldiers an hour on a train. The army said, no, no, no, were not going to bite cars. Well just use flat cars and well just use baggage cars. Didnt work. The men were actually eating rations, their rations on the train. They just couldnt feed them. The soldiers life in world war i, um sure yim sure you see th the museum is very, very difficult to say the least. Notice here about how the United States did not want to give into the war. But once you got into december 1916 into january 1917, the mood of the nation changed. A large part of it in during the war is due to a man by the name of george kreel who had a campaign in movie theaters in particular to bolster people for the war. As soldiers and draftees and National Guard were offer to the off to their camps for training, these are scenes from nebraska, a small town west of omaha. You see these scenes. These were popular in the metro areas. Here is another such scene. This is chicago and northwestern that served that town. You see the towns people, family, everybody getting together to send the soldiers off. They traveled in coaches and night travel. The Deployment Company rearranged some luxury sleepers at that time, sleeping cars, into more spartan conditions so there would be more room for the men to have their supply bring their supplies with them. And heres the other scene. You can see it clearly there. You see how people were anxious. Civilians putting luggage on the train. In the early years of the war first months of the year, soldiers could take baggage and everything with them. Some of them even took their pets. The army said no more, only taking standard issue along with them. Okay, during the United States Railroad Administration there were 12 types of locomotives. Well get into this a little bit more. They were standardized. The idea was to standardize them for efficiency and also to be able to move locomotives from one part of the country to another no matter what company had the label. Were going to see the government is eventually going lease or rent the railroads from their original owners. The u. S. And the original company that purchased the locomotive could keep its name at the top in small letters of the tender. This is the chesapeake in ohio locomotive with the railroad. So they could keep their own name there. A lot of the railroads didnt like this. They didnt want to purchase the locomotives. They were limited to two types, heavy and light. Lighter ones because a Railroad Company may have trestles or bridges that could not take the heavier weight. And the variance of weight was nur fr from 5,000 to 12,000 tons. They had to follow all these government specifications. That is how parts could be easily interchangeable. Beforehand, a Railroad Company would order locomotive to its own specifications for a particular need and the government said, no, you cant do that anymore. There were only three manufacturers. Baldwin, philadelphia, american locomotive and lima in ohio. What is this . Were looking at these. P this this is a Narrow Gauge Railroad we used in france. They were built by baldwin. Contracts were issued to other companies when defects of the locomotives became apparent. One of the big defects was there was a pipe that connected these two water tanks. The locomotives didnt have a tender. So they had water tanks. The water would slosh about. They had a pipe between the two of them and they would tip over very easily. And i kind of say tongue and cheek, interesting that the engineers were recruited because they were short. When the locomotive tipped over, you had to be able to jump quickly out of the cab. As someone that is 53 could get out of that cab a lot sooner than someone that is 62. Well look at this. The usa there does not mean the United States of america. It would be in this little bunker in the water here in the tanks. These were used primarily this 50 horsepower was used near the front because they didnt want the smoke and fire from the steam engines to be seen close to the front because that would indicate a buildup of everything. And everything had to be mofrd within 20 miles of front because everything near the trenches was contaminated. The ground was contaminated from gas, poise onlies from poisons from the artillery shells. Everything had to be brought in by train. When you got close, just a couple miles to the trenches, they would use these mechanicals. Until then, they used the gasoline mechanicals before that they would use the steam locomotives. This is one of the gasoline mechanicals. By the way, as far as hiding any Troop Movement or any movement to the front for the germans, it was impossible. These things made so much noise. You could hear them ten miles away. So i dont know whether it did much good. Although general pershing used some of these for a ruse for his victory. This is a smaller version. These were usa again, United States army. Smaller version could move one or two cars. They were used to switch cars at a regulating station which well look at a station where your standard gauge met the narrow gauge. Again, these were narrow gauge. Theres been a whole book written on the narrow gauge, particularly the men who operated them and in my book i have a chapter on how they were operated, the operations of them. This is a car used by ouffficer to ride to the front. They tipped over easily. You push them down the track and they went. You can stop them with a break, one spe with a brake, one direction only, one speed only. Thats it. There were two sizes they used. The lever here, thats what made it go. That was it. Go and neutral. This is the typical narrow gauge boxcar. They could only fill it up twothirds or three quarters because, again, they would tip over very easily. This he did not they would lay down the tracks very quickly and take them up quickly as front moved back and forth. Because the germans the same gauge track, by the way. And they used each others track as whenever possible. These were the wounded they were braced on the narrow gauge cars, flat cars. They were set up so. Those who were critically wounded were moved by ambulance. These were taken to a regulating station about 20 miles away to then be put on a standard gauge hospital car. These are from the national archives. Just to show you the railroad guns. Well see another one in a moment. You see the railroad gun. We used these gasoline mechanicals because we in the mountains, United States had its own lumber operation where it used narrow gauge to cut down trees and they were used for fence posts, for bunkers and so forth at the front. So this was critical. So the french said, okay, you can use the mountains. Start your own lumbering effort. Again, all done by the army. This photo kind of shows a lot of things. They were moved 20 or so miles from the front lines. Every woman was evacuated. Only military could be there. These are the knights of columbus. I got this photo from the knights of columbus. All the men, the knights of columbus, the ymca that was there, had to wear military uniforms and were subject to military law. Now this is a little tram that was smaller than the narrow gauge. Well look at this in a second. They would move artillery shells, food, other supplies in and around the trench area. The third trench area. The knights of columbus opened up these huts. They call them huts out of boxcars where the soldiers can go and get free donuts, coffee, anything for free. Here theyre tending to a wounded soldier. Hes not critically wounded. But hes placed on one of the trams. They even had a turn table at the front to show these cars to go around to be moved in different directions. So this is a third you railway tram, th that was used in the w. Here you can see the deceased that would be placed on these trams to be sent to the regulating station. Were going to see well talk about that in a moment, to be sent home. This is from russia. I got this from the National World war i museum here. This is a typical russian train, if you will. Old locomotives. Dated from the 1890s. People traveled mostly in what we would call freight cars. If you will, this was a train still under the control of the imperial side, imperial side, the emperor side and so forth. This gives you an idea. This is a five foot gauge railroad in siberia a. And here are civilians exiting the trains. There was a great epidemic in russia. Some people mentioned that more people died of the epidemic in world war i than bullets. I dont know how you measure that. This is still under imperial control because of insignia on the train, people would come to the east for medical treatment or as much medical treatment as they could get. They were also fleeing the civil war which was beginning at that time in russian. This is not a railroad photo. But this sf t but this is the United States flag in russia. The United States thats what by invitation. This is a regulating station. This is where the narrow gauge tracks meet the standard gauge tracks. And if you can look, there is a sailor there. Theres a sailor there. And who is this guy here . Walking. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Naval officers are there. This is where supplies were brought about a months worth of supplies at this regulating station. Thats what it was called. You see some of the supplies, lumber in the back and what not. And then they would by telephone call the regulating station. Please send supplies, whatever they needed, ammunition, water, food, whatever was needed at the trenches. And then they would dispatch for 20 miles on the narrow gauge. But this was the meeting place. Lets look a little bit closer. Theres that guy again. Heres that guy again. Hes inspecting the train and with the army oops. Theres navy here, too. Theres navy here. Look closely here. It has usn on that car. This is about 450 miles from the coast. We have usn. Maybe its a good discussion question. Oh here again, usn. Sailors. Hmmm . Look at this. A whole train. These were run at units. Were going to see. There he is more closely. I think some of you know who this this gentleman is. Yeah. And there is the big gun. There is the big gun. Bernard baroque, this is the guy who will solve the supply problem and organize the economy successfully to fight world war i. Baroque will call in a civilian, and wilson will call him in to solve the logistical problems of supplies. This is the car in which, i really should not have this photo, but this is world war ii where hitler had the car taken out of a museum in paris and brought to the same place the arm citi armistice was signed. Later on, he will have the car brought to germany and destroyed. This is a replica of the car in which the armistice was signed. I am proud of this. This is in the arms museum in france. And i took a chance. I had not used french for 40 years, so i wrote to them and i sent them an email. And i asked in french if i could purchase some photos of this car, a replica, to be used in presentations on