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Let's also not forget that in Europe virtually all the significant bridges had "destruct wells" built into them to allow rapid emplacement of explosives at the right spots to drop them quickly. We tested and developed a fluid explosive at the Armor and Engineer Board, Ft Knox, KY, that would allow us to just "pull up and pour in".

"This rather sparse network was fed by numerous smaller, single track, feeder lines whose transport capacities were far from optimal. In fact, the majority of the Soviet rail line network was the same as it had been for the Czars armies 20 years earlier. In some regions of the Soviet Union, single track rail lines existed for no apparent reason."

This is a puzzling statement since the Soviets had spent the past years upgrading the rail system with American and German help beginning in 1926. Secondary lines were still a bit of a problem but I certainly wouldn't portray the majority of the rail net as pre WWI. [8|]

Panama,

I think what the writer means here is that the net remained for the most part unchanged since the days of Nicholas II. That is to say the existing rail beds, etc were used. The remark made about rail lines that served no seeming purpose may have been ones servicing GULAG.

I have a 1940 book titled Economic Geography that compared with a 1908 atlas show little change with the rail lines. The main additions that I can think of off the top of my head were the double tracking of the Trans-Siberian, a line built from Grozny to Astrakhan, some lines built along the Iranian border and the one built to Vorkuta.

Just looking at the rails on a map won't tell the story. Technical improvements such as unit trains, automatic blocking, centralized dispatching, stricter regulations on loading and unloading, regular inspection, automatic air brakes and automatic couplers were implemented. Heavier rails for heavier locomotives, four axle cars and reduction of grades and recurving with the technical improvements increased loads, higher average speed and faster turn around of rolling stock and increased freight from 93 billion ton/km in 1928 to 415 billion ton/km in 1940. Over a four fold increase. This was a major improvement.

Too bad so much of the rails fell to the Germans in 1941 and 1942. [:D]

ORIGINAL: burroughs

Therefore I think it would depend on the era, the theater and the OpFors involved,eh?

From the American Civil War...



The need to keep the trains running to the front resulted in some amazing displays of engineering prowess during the Civil War. This bridge in Virginia was constructed of "round sticks cut from the woods, and not even divested of bark" in May 1862.

The Army boasted that the bridge was built in nine working days, using the labor of the "common soldiers of the Army of the Rappahannock, under the supervision of Brigadier General Herman Haupt, Chief of Railroad Construction and Transportation."

The bridge may look precarious, but it carried up to 20 trains a day.

Great picture of a toothpick bridge.

Easy now, Panama. I've had to build stuff like that in my career in construction. [;)]

If I had to build something it would look like that.

I'm a fan of industrial structures, and I like the way that bridge looks. The guy standing on top of the train has some guts. I guess he wanted the best view if the thing collapsed.

It looks like it replaced a "stone / concrete and steel" bridge. The only problem is that in TOAW this new bridge would have the same rating as the bridge that it replaced. However, I think that a few near misses from an air attack would destroy it whereas the near misses would not have had the same effect on the original bridge. That is assuming that the bridge is in a game that has air power. Which brings me to the question, why can not artillery attck and destroy a bridge? Is this something for the wish list?