I came across a 1917 edition of a book entitled "Military Railways." This is a handbook of how to design, build, equip, staff and operate a battlefield or behind the lines railway as of the end of the Great War. The book was fascinating and very informative. This particular copy has seen hard times and is clearly deteriorating so I have elected to scan it for preservation and to present it here.
I scanned all 195 pages and turned them into PDF files. The files are about 5 to 25 pages each with a file size up to 4 meg depending on the kinds of images on those pages. This is just about as much (a half hour download or so) as a dial up internet user could be expected to successfully download in one chunk.
I would like to hear how clear the book came out, especially after it is printed on various printers from various versions of Acrobat Reader. The book is basically a 4" x 6" handbook so I scanned it at 450 dpi so that it would print well on a 300 dpi printer on "A" size paper.
You'll need a copy of Acrobat Reader version 4 or better to view the files. Click on the links below to download the PDF files.
The original work was printed by the Government Printing Office and carries no copyright. I have elected to copyright the electronic image of the book because I put so much time in reproducing it in electronic form. Rights are granted to make use of the images for personal or educational purposes.
The book has no Table of Contents or chapters. Paragraphs, Figures and Tables are simply numbered in sequence. There is an index that refers to the Paragraph, Figure and Table numbers.
| Paragraphs | File Size (MByte) |
Contents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 6 | 0.73 | Overall description of a military railway |
| 7 to 25 | 1.81 | Trackwork |
| 26 to 31 | 1.39 | More trackwork |
| 32 to 60 | 0.99 | Surveying |
| 61 to 89 | 1.25 | More surveying, trackwork and roadbed |
| 90 | 1.45 | Roadbed |
| 91 to 127 | 2.18 | Trestles and cableways |
| 128 to 156 | 1.14 | Turnout design and construction |
| 157 to 178 | 1.55 | Stations, stockyards, engine yards, switching yards |
| 179 to 234 | 1.80 | Rolling stock, railroad organization and personnel |
| 235 to 366 | 1.78 | Telegraph and whistle signaling, operating rules |
| 367 to 474 | 2.4 | Train orders, track signaling, train classes |
| 475 to 552 | 3.97 | waybills, freight loading, maintenance of way, railway defense |
| Tables XVII to XXV |
1.92 | Math tables |
| Index | 0.73 | Index |
For those of you with broadband internet connections (T1, DSL, cable modems and such), you can get the whole thing in a single PDF file.
The Whole Enchilada, 34.2 MByte
