undercategory railway wargaming

[former user]

I don't know if this is the right place to post

this suggestion:
now and then, a thread appears with some wargame train as topic
though not played by many, it seems to become popular  (company B train etc)
could there be an undercategory somewehere, say in interwar, dealing with threads on railway wargaming?
this way we could pool information instead of jumping through the forum
I am sure company B would be happy as well

[Prof.Witchheimer]

have to think about a bit, like the idea.

btw a Reichsbahn (Epoche 2) H0 railway is a dream of me.

[former user]

best period anyway
and also rather available in HO

thing is that railway is the prerequiste to modern warfare from 1860 on, yet does seldom appear on tabletops
(which is understandable because of costs and availability)
but there should be at least a track on every second table

the technical nature of model railway would require a special handling, because gamers have to research a very specific topic, which is also very briefly covered in historical publications

for those who might not be aware of, here a (incomplete list) of conflicts unthinkable without Railway:

ACW
franco-prussian war 1870
2nd Sudan campaign  (even with armoured trains)
Boer war
WW1
RCW
SCW
Chinese CW
WWII
and so forth
even the recent Balkan conflicts featured a Krajina armoured train....

[Plynkes]

A track on every second table? That's a bit much isn't it? I know railways were vital to war once they were spread across the land, but that doesn't mean that all the battles were fought on them. Munitions factories were vital too, but we don't put them on the tabletop. 


Still, having said that, I would dearly love to game the incident from the Amiens campaign in 1918 when British cavalry broke through the German lines and attacked a railway gun. The Germans were trying to steam away to escape, but they continued to fight as the horsemen swarmed all around them. There is a colour plate of this action in a book I have called "Great Battles of World War One" and I have always thought it looked like it would be a lot of fun to game, what with all the cavalry, and the Germans valiantly fighting from a moving train (which had several trucks that were on fire, thanks to the RAF).

Eventually they captured the train and moved on. It was then stolen by Australian infantry who drove it back to the Entente lines! 

[Hammers]

A track on every second table? That's a bit much isn't it? I know railways were vital to war once they were spread across the land, but that doesn't mean that all the battles were fought on them. Munitions factories were vital too, but we don't put them on the tabletop. 


Still, having said that, I would dearly love to game the incident from the Amiens campaign in 1918 when British cavalry broke through the German lines and attacked a railway gun. The Germans were trying to steam away to escape, but they continued to fight as the horsemen swarmed all around them. There is a colour plate of this action in a book I have called "Great Battles of World War One" and I have always thought it looked like it would be a lot of fun to game, what with all the cavalry, and the Germans valiantly fighting from a moving train (which had several trucks that were on fire, thanks to the RAF).

Eventually they captured the train and moved on. It was then stolen by Australian infantry who drove it back to the Entente lines! 

Wow. That's pure Wild West...

[former user]

see?
there You are
 allthough I would disagree on that one

A track on every second table? That's a bit much isn't it? I know railways were vital to war once they were spread across the land, but that doesn't mean that all the battles were fought on them.

I did not mean that the railway has to be involved, but if you check the development of the railroad networks, a track as scenery should be often involved
everyone knows that the RCW was fought along the rail lines, but how often do you see a track in the many games?

btw, another interesting battle I would like to fight is a sequence at the start of the Poland campaign 1939, in whitch the "charging polish cavalry against german tanks" was mythologized (actually the cavalry stumbled into a tank column at dawn and quickly retreated)

anyway, later on two polish armoured trains countercharged a german armour column and inflicted serious losses which delayed the german offensive considerably
one of the many occasions when the polish army proved they were not the easy match as spread by the german propaganda

[Plynkes]

former user, you will be pleased to learn that I do own a small amount of railway line scenery for gaming purposes. I'm not one of these steamheads like you and the Prof, so I only have enough to reach across the short side of my gaming table. I have a nice little embankment for it to sit on, too, a curved piece and a bridge for some variety. It has so far only been used in one game but it is good to have it as an option. I orginally made it for my planned 1914 Tanga games, but we haven't got around to playing those yet.

[former user]

see
there You are

a wargamer who wants at least some accuracy takes such things into account   

steamhead....
that's a nice honorific
can I have that as title?
like steamhead librarian?

[Prof.Witchheimer]

can I have that as title?
like steamhead librarian?

you can put it to the Personal Text in your Profile - Forum Profile Information

[former user]

 
was meant to be a joke, but, well  ..... 

[bluewillow]

we almost use a railway track on every ww2 table we play on at the club, and and I would say every 10th table for ACW.

Big burn to build a armoured train myself for 28mm pulp, looking around for 1/46th scale tracks and trains, although may go down the HO/OO scale and say the track is narrow gauge , then build up sratch carriages and engine 

cheers
matt

[former user]

good luck Matt
so you want to go the hard way
you might want to try, S track (22mm wide)
wheels and buffers are available as Lego spare parts (maybe loco wheels too)
in any case you can use playmobile spare wheels as loco wheels

all available online as spare parts