Hospital Tramways and Railways – 4th edition

As I enter my eightieth year, I have to admit that I was looking forward to retiring from writing books. Although, do not get me wrong, I have found immense pleasure in all my researching and writing and best of all having the opportunity to meet so many people who, without ex- ception, have happily provided help, information, photo- graphs and support during my writing. I owe an enor- mous debt of gratitude to you all. So “A History of West Midlands Metro and Very Light Rail” was to be my last.Then Adam Gordon asked if I could do a fourth updated edition of “Hospital Tramways and Railways”. Since this was the only book of mine that combined my hobby and my work I felt obliged to do a revised edition. Of course I knew that I would enjoy doing it, as I had been keeping a record when I found associations between hospitals and tramways and railways that had been omitted from the original and later editions. Indeed, it was only when I was settling down to update the book that I realised that there was a whole facet of the opera- tion that had been missed out.These were Wartime Hospital Trains. Since the Boer War, injured servicemen who needed treatment have been taken from battlefield areas and treated in field and permanent hospitals.The more seriously wounded were sent back to Britain for hospital care.This was most pronounced in the First World War when hundreds of thousands of servicemen needed hospital care. In order not to delay treatment the trains they travelled in were equipped as mobile hospitals.This book now includes their story.