Armored Train

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

one of the modern instruments of war. Credit has been given to Admiral Fisher of the British navy for the first use of the armored train in war, when, in 1882, he covered a locomotive with boiler plate and equipped cars, similarly protected, with field guns and put them to effective practical use. But the germ of the idea goes back further than 1882. When the Germans closed their vise-like grip upon Paris, the French made frequent sorties from the city, and in many of these attacks the guns were mounted on railroad cars protected at vital points by 0000 8 ENGLISH ARMOR OF THE 16TH CENTURY steel plates. Great Britain employed armored trains in the Boer War which served as a model for all others that followed. The protected engine carries a Maxim gun, and the protected cars have heavy field guns, operated by machinery, so that any part of the surrounding country can quickly be covered. Arrangements are made to compensate for the recoil, and also to give steadiness and stability to the cars. This latter is accomplished by an arrangement for clamping the truck to the rails by strong screw clips whenever the gun is fired. There are also several steel-plated vans accompanying the train, in which horses and soldiers can be safely conveyed. The rapidity with which the train can change its base of action renders it a difficult object for the batteries of an enemy to hit, and almost the only way ARMORED TRAIN to defeat its operations is to wreck or derail it; then it becomes a helpless target for long-range guns. Probably the first attempt in the United States to provide an armored car was that made by the Michigan Central Railroad Company, on the order of the American Express Company, for the purpose of protecting the valuable articles carried on its special express trains. These armored or "arsenal cars" were so constructed as to make the center of them with its steel plating a thoroughly bullet-proof room, with apertures so disposed as to enable the guards within to resist an attack by thieves from any quarter. During the remarkable dash of the American troops in the Philippines into the northern part of the island of Luzon, in search of the fugitive insurgent leader Aguinaldo, in 1899, much effective work was accomplished by an improvised armored train. In the World War armored trains were used on a limited scale.