Railways and Tramways of Australia

Ambulance trains

 

Australia’s first ambulance train in the Second World War was handed over to the military on 3 February 1942.

 

Ambulance trains were assembled by the various government railway systems within Australia. The cost of converting carriages was paid for by the Army. Specifications stipulated that each ambulance train consist of staff car, personnel car, administrative car, kitchen/dining car, ward cars to accommodate patients, and a brake van. Ward cars were to have a water supply and electric lighting was preferred. The trains were effectively blacked out with black paint around window edges and heavy curtains. Red Cross emblems were to be displayed on the roof and sides of each vehicle.

 

Overall control of ambulance trains came under the authority of an Army officer initially designated as the Director of Rail Transportation, who negotiated with Railway Departments. Operation was delegated to local Army Movement Control groups.

 

The first two trains were ready in New South Wales on 3 February, only ten days after the request was made. Following conversion and assembly at Eveleigh, one train was based at Hornsby and the other at Punchbowl. Each train had eight ward cars.

 

Ten ambulance trains were assembled in Australia, with all government railways involved. Another four were proposed but never established. An additional temporary train operated in Queensland for around five weeks. On the North Australia Railway between Darwin and Birdum, ward cars for an ambulance train used converted cattle wagons as they were all that was available.

 

Most ambulance trains were withdrawn by early 1945, but Victoria and New South Wales each retained one until late 1946. After the war ended, they continued occasional use for repatriation of prisoners of war and other personnel. Most cars from the ambulance trains were later returned to general service.

 

Bibliography

‘First ambulance trains soon’, The Daily Mirror, 11 February 1942, p 4.

JY Harvey, Mercy trains, Australian Railway Historical Society (NSW Division), Sydney, 2001.

‘New military ambulance train on trial run’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February 1942, p 10.