Jeep train usually refers to a railway train hauled by jeeps fitted with railway wagon wheels instead of normal road wheels. World War II jeeps were converted from road vehicles into steel-wheeled rail

switcher A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...

shunter A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small Rail transport, railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as Shunt (railway operations), ''switching'' (US) or ...

s, light

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

s, speeders or

draisine A draisine () is a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure. The eponymous term is derived from the German inventor Baron Karl Dr ...

s. (The phrase was also used for

supply train In military contexts, a train is the logistical transport elements accompanying a military force. Often called a supply train or baggage train, it has the job of providing materiel for their associated combat forces when in the field. When focuse ...

s consisting of jeeps and for columns of jeeps linked together and pulled through bad ground by tractors. Not all primary sources will use this phrase in the same way.)

History

U.S.A.

Adapting automobiles as gasoline railcars is recorded as early as 1912 and early publicity on Jeeps mentioned their potential use as an

inspection car A speeder (also known as a section car, railway motor car, putt-putt, track-maintenance car, crew car, jigger, trike, quad, trolley, inspection car, or a draisine) is a small railcar formerly used around the world by track inspectors and work cre ...

. The

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

in Australia used flanged-wheel jeeps as switchers in 1943, which led to testing as road-switchers for future operations in New Guinea. Perhaps the first large-scale use of jeep as locomotive was in the CBI theatre. Eleven days after the Normandy landing, jeep speeders were in use on the continent, surveying lines for use or repair. Postwar, jeep speeders were used as inspection cars, and jeep trains used for light service, including recreation. The Jeep train at

Lewis and Clark Caverns Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park is a public recreation and nature preservation area located east of Whitehall in Jefferson County, Montana. The state park includes two visitor centers, ten miles of hiking trails, a campground, and its name ...

claimed to be the shortest jeep railway. Over time, hi-rail vehicles pushed dedicated speeders out of railroads; civilian jeeps were often used.

Australia

In Borneo in 1945, Australian soldiers converted jeeps to run on rails in order to compensate for the lack of locomotives on a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

railway line.Australian War Memorial, Reference No OG3138.
/ref>

United Kingdom

The

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

used railworthy Jeeps during World War II especially in France, Germany, and Burma. Jeep trains were used extensively during the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

France

French forces used rail jeeps – "jeep draisines" – including armoured rail jeeps, in Indochina, and later in the Algerian war.

Loads and speeds

A jeep, designed to draw on the road, could pull much greater loads on

rails Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

thanks to the lower rolling resistance of

rail vehicle The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can be ...

s. During Australian military operations in Borneo, jeeps hauled

goods wagon Goods wagons or freight wagons (North America: freight cars), also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon type ...

s with a payload of four tons of sand. In the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, a jeep train hauled a total weight of 52 tons over a route long at a speed of .

Military use

Jeep train, known as the Membukut Special in Beaufort, Borneo, 1945.jpg, ''Membukut Special'' in

Beaufort Beaufort may refer to: People and titles * Beaufort (surname) * House of Beaufort, English nobility * Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England * Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility Places Polar regions ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

, 1945 Jeep train with Boxcar in Burma.jpg, Double-heading on a long jeep train Jeep train in Burma.jpg, American jeep train in Burma 24 Infantry Brigade reverses a Jeep train on a portable turntable.JPG, Jeep train on a portable turntable in

Kimanis Kimanis (Chinese: 金馬利) is a town and also a parliamentary constituency in Papar District, West Coast Division of Sabah, Malaysia. It is located approximately 45 kilometres south of the city of Kota Kinabalu, halfway between Papar and Beau ...

, Borneo JEEP TRAIN WITH MAJOR GENERAL WOOTTEN CROSSING RAILWAY BRIDGE OVER THE BONGOWAN RIVER.JPG, General Wootten crosses the Bongowan river Jeep train at Kinarut station on the Jesselton to Papar railway line.JPG,

Kinarut Kinarut is a town in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. It is located about 20 kilometres south of the state capital, Kota Kinabalu, and Kinarut railway station is one of the stops on the Sabah State Railway. Kinarut is under the administration of th ...

station on the Jesselton to Papar railway WWII, Europe, France, "Private James E. Boyle, South Wales, Drives Fellow British Soldiers on Train Tracks" - NARA - 195345.tif, British Jeep in France, 1945 Road-rail Jeeps between Myitkyina and Mogaung, Burma, December 1944 (IWM SE 002870).jpg, British jeeps between

Myitkyina Myitkyina (, ; (Eng; ''mitchinar'') Jinghpaw: ''Myitkyina'', ) is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma), located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese it means "near the big river", and Myitkyina is on the west bank of the ...

and Mogaung,

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, 1944 Jeeps adapted for running on railway tracks head southwards from Mandalay, Burma, 21 March 1945. SE3615.jpg, British jeeps south of

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

, Burma, 1945

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Rail Jeep Jeep Military light utility vehicles Rail and road vehicle