A jeep train refers to a line of coupled railway vehicles hauled by a

jeep Jeep is an American automobile brand, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with other assets, from its previous owner, American Motors Co ...

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 locomotive (American English), shunter locomotive (British English), station pilot (British English), or shifter locomotive (Pennsylvania Railroad terminology) is a locomotive used for maneuvering railway vehicles over short distanc ...

shunter A switcher locomotive (American English), shunter locomotive (British English), station pilot (British English), or shifter locomotive ( Pennsylvania Railroad terminology) is a locomotive used for maneuvering railway vehicles over short distan ...

s, light

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

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 D ...

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 focus ...

s consisting of jeeps and for columns of jeeps linked together and pulled through bad ground by tractors, though not all sources use this term in the same way.

History

United States

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 draisine) is a small railcar used around the world by track inspectors and work crews to move ...

. 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 New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. 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 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 (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

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 warfare, guerrilla war fought in Federation of Malaya, Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Arm ...

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 * Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fi ...

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 types ...

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

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, 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,

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, 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 Malaysian town and a parliamentary constituency of Papar District on the west coast of Sabah. It is located approximately 45 kilometres south of the city of Kota Kinabalu, halfway between Papar and Beaufor ...

, 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 (, ; Jingpho language, Jinghpaw: ''Myitkyina'', ; , ''Sèna'') is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma), located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese language, Burmese it means "near the big river", and Myitkyina i ...

and Mogaung,

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

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

Mandalay Mandalay is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. It is located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631 km (392 mi) north of Yangon. In 2014, the city had a population of 1,225,553. Mandalay was founded in 1857 by Ki ...

, Burma, 1945

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Rail Jeep Jeep Military light utility vehicles Road–rail vehicles