A jeep train usually refers to a line of coupled railway vehicles hauled by a
jeep fitted with
railway wagon wheels instead of normal road wheels.
World War II jeeps were converted from road vehicles into steel-wheeled rail
switchers,
shunters, light
locomotives,
speeders or
draisines.[2] The phrase was also used for
supply trains consisting of jeeps and for columns of jeeps linked together and pulled through bad ground by tractors. Not all primary sources will use this phrase in the same way. Colloquially, the term jeepomotive has been used on several occasions.[3][4][5][6]
History
United States
US Demonstration run on a
3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) track at
Eagle Farm Aerodrome in
Brisbane, Australia on 30 June 1943. A Jeep fitted with rail wheels could easily pull 10 tons.[7]
Adapting automobiles as gasoline railcars is recorded as early as 1912[8] and early publicity on Jeeps mentioned their potential use as an
inspection car.[9] The
USAAF in Australia used flanged-wheel jeeps as switchers in 1943, which led to testing as road-switchers for future operations in New Guinea. Perhaps the first large-scale use of jeep as locomotive was in the
CBI theatre.[10] Eleven days after the Normandy landing, jeep speeders were in use on the continent, surveying lines for use or repair.[11]
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.[12] 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 railway line.[13]
United Kingdom
The
United Kingdom used railworthy Jeeps during World War II especially in France, Germany, and Burma. Jeep trains were used extensively during the
Malayan Emergency.
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 1,000 lb (450 kg) on the road, could pull much greater loads on
rails thanks to the lower rolling resistance of
rail vehicles. During Australian military operations in Borneo, jeeps hauled
goods wagons with a payload of four tons of sand. In the
Philippines, a jeep train hauled a total weight of 52 tons over a route 19 miles (31 km) long at a speed of 20 mph (32 km/h).
^Aboard the Jeepomotive Express. Australian servicemen using the jeep railway in Sabah, 1945. Photo: Geelong Advertiser. Reproduced in Light Railways, No 135, January 1997, page 16.
^Like the tiny but powerful ant, the "jeepomotive" carries, pushes or pulls many times its own weight. The makers set the haulage maximum at 1,000 pounds, but "jeepomotives" have been known to draw a three-ton truck laden with four tons of sand on this system. Squadron leader Jack Liberty of Perth, WA, adapted the Jeep by designing special attachment to the wheels of Japanese motor transports and by modifying the standard Jeep axle to take these wheels and track the one-metre gauge. Officially the average speed of the Jeep-train has been set at fifteen miles per hour but army drivers always seem to run to time in spite of any delays on the route. North Borneo. 1945-08-01.
^Jeeptrain: "Jeep engine of one of the strangest railways in the world—in Borneo, between Jesselton, Beauford, and Melalap, covering 116 miles of one-metre gauge. Fighter-bombers and retreating Japs took heavy toll of locomotives and rolling stock, and an RAAF engineer designed a substitute locomotive, producing the 'jeepomotive.'" The Mercury, 3 September 1945. In: The University of Dayton Alumnus, January 1945.University of Dayton Magazine, 1 January 1945, page 7.
^Class Notes: "1940— Maj. Earl Wiley has the task of re-establishing railroad operations on Luzon. Instead of the conventional locomotive Earl converted a jeep into a "Jeepomotive" as the motive power of the narrow gauge railroad to Manila."