Railroads
French railroads were largely
adequate to transport American
military supplies to the battlefront,
but the use of American engines and
rolling stock and the construction of
rail yards and repair facilities was
required. Most of the 1.5 million tons
of engineer equipment the Americans
brought to France related to railway
constructionoroperation.
Before the Armistice, the engineers
built 937 miles of standard-gauge
Engineers work on a narrow-gauge
railroad tracks in France, primarily
railway built carry supplies field
at docks and storage facilities.
artillery positions.
A notable addition to France's
Eight engineer regiments built
rail lines was a
cutoff the
narrow-gauge railroads between the
American engineers built to avoid a
railheads of standard-gauge lines and
rail bottleneck in Nevers. The cutoff
the battlefront. American-operated
included a
bridge over
light railroads hauled 860,000 tons
the Loire River, the longest bridge
and personnel.'
built by the Americans in France.
The 316th Engineers,
repair
railroad tracks
damaged in the
war at
Flanders),
Belgium.
A
railroad
crosses
the old
gauge tracks at
south of
Saint-Mihiel, France.
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