WDLR (War Department Light Railways) on WWI trench maps

[tractionman]

Hi folks,

 

I have just acquired the new book, 'WDLR Album', by Roy Link.

 

As has been noted elsewhere (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/89938-wdlr-album/) it is a top quality production, amazing images and very interesting text.

 

For those looking to explore the lines of the WDLR network on the Western Front, you might like to know that you can access online ‘trench maps’ which show the network in a lot of detail.

 

Various trench maps of 1:5000; 1:10,000, and 1:20,000 scale are available (free to view) via the National Library of Scotland (NLS) geoserver, their online mapping platform, accessed here: http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/

 

To get to the trench maps you’ll need to use: ‘1. Select a category’, using the menu bar on the left, then select from the list ‘Belgium/France, WW1 trench maps’, and then use ‘2. Select a map group’, at which point a huge long list of maps of the front will appear (all British trench maps).

The maps have all been ‘georectified’, that is positioned according to their correct geographical locations. (See screenshot below).

 

Using the ‘Change transparency’ slider, the trench map will become transparent so revealing the modern aerial photograph (eg Google image) underneath – this means you can relate the historic map to the modern landscape, and locate the lost WDLR lines, as well as all the other paraphernalia of the frontline mapped at the time. 

 

It's fantastic to be able to do this, to see where the lines ran, and explore the networks of the light railways. If you're able to get to the WWI battlefields to visit, these online maps would help to identify areas to search for any surviving remains of the lines on the ground. They are also in some cases detailed enough to help in WDLR modelling projects.

 

Hope this is of some interest.

 

All the best,

 

Keith

 

 

[Bomag]

WDLR? Google come up with an american radio station.

[tractionman]

WDLR = War Department Light Railways. 

 

Sorry, I should have made that clearer - have a look at: http://www.wdlr.org.uk/wdlr/blog/

 

I've amended the thread title.

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[GWR88]

Thanks for the info Keith,

I've been looking at building a small WDLR depot.

Thanks

Lloyd

[tractionman]

hi Lloyd,

 

Glad the inf is of use/interest.

 

I should have mentioned in my first post that the earlier editions of the British trench maps usually show only German trenches (for reasons of security at the time), marked in red, and not the British trenches. This policy changed during the course of the war, when British and German trenches (and associated features such as light railways) were also shown on the trench maps.

 

So for details of the WDLR networks the later maps (1918 editions especially) will be more useful.

 

I have inserted below one example from the Somme battlefield (near Albert), from September 1916: the upper screenshot is an extract of one map showing light railways crossing the landscape (with German trenches by then in British hands), and the lower one is the same location but with increased transparency, to see where the railways ran in relation to the landscape as it is today.

 

NLS are uploading more trench maps from their collections, but already their web-mapping site has many map editions (the maps were revised regularly) so it is possible to see how the rail (and trench) networks developed during the war for large parts of the Western Front.

 

all the best,

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GWR88]

Thanks Keith.

So the red lines are German trenches?

Lloyd

[tractionman]

hi Lloyd,

 

on this edition of this particular sheet, yes, originally the trenches were German - the full sheet (with legend, see bottom left) is viewable at: http://maps.nls.uk/view/101464807

 

but by September 1916 - when this edition of the map was printed - this area was under British control (though I stand to be corrected on this by a military historian!).

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[GWR88]

Thank you Keith,

I found a small canal/trench railway interchange on a Ravine map from the dropdown list but i cant see how you get the whole map up? Sorry if i'm swerving off topic a bit

Lloyd

[tractionman]

sure, the whole map sheets are available here: http://maps.nls.uk/ww1/trenches/list.html

 

that sheet I chose states that the trenches shown are correct to Sept 1916, but that the map was published in March 1917. 

 

all the best,

 

Keith

[GWR88]

Thank you Keith for helping with that! Thanks to you i'm now veering towards a WDLR layout instead of my proposed american one!

Lloyd

[Kickstart]

Hi

 

Excellent find. Thank you.

 

All the best

 

Keith

[KevinWalsh]

This might seem a stupid question but I'm going to ask anyway.

 

On the map above the rail-lines appear to run across the trenches, did they cross them via a bridge or was the trench/rail intersection at ground level (i.e. rail-line in a cutting running across the trench floor)

[PhilJ W]

If they were captured German trenches they would probably be infilled as indeed would be our own trenches as they would no longer be required the front line having moved on. Its highly unlikely that the railway would cross a trench that was still in use.

[tractionman]

hi folks,

 

There is an interesting photograph in Keith Taylorson's nice little book, Narrow Gauge at War (Plateway Press, 1987), on page 31, of a trench tramway running across a trench on a little bridge.

 

The photo caption states that the scene (Sept 1916?) is of the area around Courcelette, near the Bapaume-Albert road, so close to where the trench map in my post (#5 above) shows the tracks crossing over trenches.

 

Since I posted the NLS maps above I've looked at my Somme books and see that the British frontline was pushed well to the east of this area by the date of the map (March 1917), so the trenches marked in red (surveyed in September 1916) presumably are those abandoned former German trenches that were by then in allied possession.

 

The aerial photographs taken at the time are also really useful sources, but these are not yet widely available online to my knowledge. Some are on the IWM site - see http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205022506.  There is also a good book called The Western Front from the Air by Nicholas Watkis, which has aerial photographs showing some narrow gauge lines running across the battlefields: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Western-Front-Nicholas-Watkis/dp/0905778499 

 

all the best,

 

Keith