Utilizing and applying the new knowledge and scientific achievements of recent years, drawing upon the fund of experience acquired by the Regular Army in its theoretical studies and past wars, making available the vast amount of technical skill which has assisted this Nation to its present commercial and industrial status, the Engineers of the United States Army worked and fought, planned, and accomplished in France a work which in magnitude exceeds any similar undertaking recorded in American history. From base port to first waves of an assault upon the enemy's position, Engineer troops have been constantly in action first to last and have "carried on" always with the high ideals of the profession and with the motto of the Corps of Engineers, "Essayons," before them.
CHAPTER II.
MILITARY RAILWAYS.
In establishing contact between our great bases of supply on the French coast and interior points, as well as with the fighters in the various fields of operations, the Department of Military Railways of the Engineer Corps found it necessary to provide thousands of miles of railway track ranging from the standard gauge down to the narrow 60-centimeter type built right up to the border of No Man's Land, to construct and ship across seas thousands of almost every kind of freight cars, to build hundreds of locomotives and transport them to Europe, to provide in addition fabricated track that could be laid under heavy shell fire, and hospital trains that could care for our wounded.
It was on July 10, 1917, that Gen. Pershing cabled stating that the French had asked for 300 locomotives and 2,000 kilometers of track, in addition to numerous items of accessories that go with an order of this size. Delivery of the locomotives was requested by October 15, 1917, and of the track by December 31, 1917.
It was ascertained that the American Locomotive Works had built consolidation engines for France of an entirely satisfactory type, and that similar locomotives for the use of British forces on French soil had been turned out by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. After the decision to adopt the consolidation type of locomotive, which is generally used in freight service in the United States, arrangements were made at once with these two concerns to build 150 locomotives each.
The consolidation locomotive weighs 166,400 pounds, and is about the heaviest that can be used in France. It has one pair of engine truck wheels and four pairs of drivers. The engine is just as large as it is possible to use within the French tunnel and platform clearances. The type sent to France was, however, not nearly so large nor so heavy as the general run of freight engines used here.
The order for 150 engines was placed with the Baldwin concern on July 19, 1917, and the first locomotive of this order was ready for shipment on August 10, 1917, just 20 working days elapsing between the date of the placing of the order and the day when the first engine was completed and all set up ready for shipment.
This is believed to have established a new record for locomotive construction in the United States and probably in the world for an engine of this size. All the other locomotives in this order were delivered promptly—36 of the Baldwin engines being freighted from the factory in August, 71 in September, and the final 43 in October. Of the locomotives ordered from the American Locomotive Works, 133 were freighted in October and the remaining 17 in November.