Review by Peter Brown

One stretch of line where Canada borders Alaska had its own armoured train for this purpose. Built using standard rolling stock, it had a protected engine which pushed and pulled carriages for troops as well as armed cars with 75mm field and 40mm anti-aircraft guns. As such it would have been a formidable oponent to land forces, though like all trains it was vulnerable to attacks on the tracks and from the air.

The story of No 1 Armoured Train is interesting and unusual. While it is easy to write this off as "a train, not an AFV" it is both and as such should appeal to those interested in either field. It may never have been called upon to fight but that does not mean that its story should not be recorded.

That story is well told here, along with the background to the need for it there is an account of the assembly of the component parts including photos of the various gun and troop cars, as well as details of how the train operated including the problems of using the same tracks as working trains.

As this was a one-off, the account can go into considerable detail and the photos would give a modeller the chance to produce their own replica which would certainly be something different though even in small scale would be a big model.

Thanks to Service Publications for the review book.

Page created 26 March 2005