Model Pharmacy and Treatment Coach no 43F: British hospital train, Western Front

Place Europe: United Kingdom, England, Wiltshire
Accession Number RELAWM04318
Collection type Technology
Object type Model
Physical description Brass, Cast iron, Cotton, Leather, Rubber, Steel, Tin, Wood
Location Main Bld: First World War Gallery: Western Front 1917: Medical
Maker Swindon Railway Works
Place made United Kingdom
Date made c 1919
Conflict Period 1910-1919
First World War, 1914-1918
Description

This model, built in 1 1/2 inch to the foot (1:8) scale, is of a First World War pharmacy and treatment coach. The underframe is of steel and brass, the body and roof of wood, with additional details of brass, tin, cotton, leather and rubber.

Overall the model is painted in a chocolate brown, with each end bulkhead in a deep khaki green. The wooden roof is removeable and was originally designed to be displayed open to highlight the detailing inside. The roof features 14 pairs of wooden ventilators to its upper surface. The underside is detailed with two brass fans, mounted to equate with the kitchen and bunk room, four sets of leather handholds to each side, designed to sit above the upper bunks, and ten electric torch globes with wiring conduits. Two of these globes illuminate the bunk room, three, the kitchen, one for the office, one for the Medical Comforts Room and three for the rear corridor. The model was wired to enable these globes to illuminate, via a connector plate between the roof and the carriage. The original railway lines were metal and electrified.

The number '43F' is painted in red with a white drop shadow under the last window at each end, on each side, as well as on the upper right of each end bulkhead, and, inside, in black above the sliding corridor access doors at end end of the coach. A large red and white Red Cross is painted approximately in the centre of each side panel. The legend '27 TONS 5 CWTS' is lettered in white just above the sill line under the Medical Comforts store window.

The body of the coach is built entirely in wood. The roof cant rail is actually attached along the upper body frame, rather than the roof. The internal layout incorporates a corridor partially down one side. There are seven glazed windows and three half-glazed opening doors to the corridor side of the carriage; and 10 windows and two opening doors of the same pattern to the opposite side. Each window is framed; and each door is hinged to open, being secured with a small brass handle. There is a bump stop on every door and on the carriage section against which it opens; and a shaped brass vertical grab rail secured with brass screws down one side of each door frame. Green raised curtins are visible through every window and door. An additional pair of horizontal brass grab rails are secured under the rear window and its equivalent section on the corridor side.

Each end bulhead is fitted with four engineer's steps running up each side, rivetted to the bulkhead. A shaped brass grab rail accompanies them on each side, following the rising curve of the domed roof. There is a operating sliding access door with a brass handle centralled sited within the bulkhead. Both bulkheads are fitted with brown painted leather gangway bellows, with associated scissor frame arms and locking bar.

The underframe is fully equipped with a pair of double axle bogies with leaf springs, vacuum brakes and cast wheels. There are support frames, a leather-belt-driven generator and a battery box. Each end of the underframe is equipped with coupling equipment - a drawbar with a turnbuckle, a pair of hooks and chains, a vacuum brake attachment (actually a rubber-coated electrical connection), and a pair of buffers.

Internally the coach is divided into a bunkroom, a kitchen, and a corridor, off which are sited an office, a bathroom and a medical comforts room. Each section is divided by internal bulkheads with operating sliding doors; similar doors allow access to the other rooms. The floors are painted red, and the bunkroom and kitchen white. The walls of the corridor section and its associated rooms are painted with the lower half in red, the upper in white.

The triple-tiered bunks are arranged on each side of their room; two groups of three to each side. They are mounted on metal hinged frames with locking support arms, allowing the bunk frames to be lowered flat against the walls. Each bunk is equipped with a striped cotton mattress which are held to their bunk frames with scale leather straps, and a matching cotton pillow. There is a wooden ladder against one set of bunks, painted brown and bearing the number 43F in red with a white drop shadow. Small rectangles of brass grilling, representing ventilation grilles, are mounted to the wall above each upper bunk. A desk, chair and hot water urn sit at the end of one set of bunks; a basin and brass tap with associated plumbing at the end of the other. A lantern is mounted to the upper right of each sliding door, with a brass fan above the inner door.

The kitchen is fitted with a pair of lanterns either side of the door to the bunkroom. There are a pair of stacked hot water urns to one side of the door, and a red painted hand fire extinguiser mounted on the wall above a red cupboard labelled 'EMERGENCY USE ONLY' on the other side. Running along the side wall from the extinguisher are a table, attached to the wall, above which sits a set of four shelves, with circular cut-out for storing glasses. Next to this is a large urn amounted to the wall, sitting next to a basin and brass tap with plumbing. Next to this is a dresser with working sliding doors and shelving. A tap and bucket sit alongside this; the buckets and the urns appear to be constructed from galvanised tin. Along the other wall is a larger dresser with sliding doors and shelving, and a box with an opening lid. A large dresser with sliding doors is mounted to the far end wall next to a sliding door accessing the corridor.

The corridor runs down the remainder of the coach along one side. It doglegs towards the end. Three sliding doors along its length are marked, in turn, 'OFFICE', 'BATHROOM' and 'MEDICAL COMFORTS'. The office is equipped with a separate wooden desk and chair, a wall-mounted fan and lantern and a workbench with opening cupboards above. It has a wooden chair. The Bathroom is equipped with a bath with taps, a wall-mounted mirror and soapdish, a bench seat and a wall-mounted fan. The Medical Comforts room has two sets of shelving units, each with four shelves. In the corridor, opposite the entrance to this final room, is a dual level corner unit marked 'DIRTY LINEN' with four sliding doors.

History / Summary

This model represents the later development of British Hospital or Ambulance Trains, achieved in the final two years of the war, where a series of coaches became, in effect, a travelling hospital designed to meet the emergency needs of active operations. In the Official History of the Australian Army Medical Service (Vol 2, pp 393-4), Colonel A G Butler notes that by the end of the war on the Western Front, "there had been specially constructed ... between 40 and 50 ambulance trains. At the end of 1917, the general organisation of a standard train was ...composed of 16 bogie coaches... heated by steam from the engine, and were fitted with electric light and fans. No 1 coach was a brake van and lying infectious ward; No 2 a staff car with lavatories, dining and sleeping rooms for sisters and medical officers; and No 3 a kitchen and 'sleeping sick officers' car'. The following 8 coaches were 'ward cars' with 36 beds in each. The remaining coaches were pharmacy and treatment car, sitting infectious car, kitchen and personnel mess car, personnel car (other ranks), brake van and store car."

In total, such trains could carry 306 lying and an average of 60 sitting patients, and between 36 and 40 medical personnel.

A total of twelve full hospital trains were built at the Great Western Railway's Swindon Railway Workshops (Wiltshire), many of the coaches being converted from passenger types in the coach works department, which were managed by Frank Marillier, who was also chairman of the technical committee for ambulance trains in England, France, and the United States. Marillier was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) post-war for this work, and for developing the adjustable cots (seen in this model of a pharmacy coach), which allowed for a combination of both sitting and lying patients, thus improving comfort.

This 1 1/2 inch to the foot (1:8) scale model was also built at Swindon Railway Workshops, in 1919. These huge workshops were equipped with facilities for boiler making, working heavy gauge sheet metal, pattern making and casting, painting, smithing, springmaking, brass foundry and finishing, coppersmithing, woodworks, sawmill and carriage making. Apart from its production of Hospital Trains, the Works were heavily involved, during both World Wars, in the production and repair of military equipment, including artillery and tank components and marine engines. The site covered over 12 acres in addition to a village created for the factory workers.

The skills evident in this complex were brought to bear on the construction of this meticulous and detailed model, and likely employed the many workshops contained in the Works. Woodworking is most obvious, but also casting, metal working, upholstery, tin smithing and electrical skills. Because this model reveals such a high level of informed detail, it is likely that it represents an real-life example of a full-scale pharmacy coach produced by the Works.

The model and its original glass case was completed in August 1919 and was delivered to the Great Western Railway station at Paddington, London. Here it was picked up by staff of the Australian War Records Section Trophy Store, based at Millwall, before being shipped to Australia. No record has been found of this model being requested or commissioned.