boer war railway gun

[former user]

I happened to find this interesting picture of a british naval railway mounted naval gun, just prior to the battle of Modder Station

hope it pleases colonial wargamers 

I am always wondering how reality differs from the "primitive" depiction of colonial warfare through us wargamers....
understandably, no european force would have fielded railway guns against native warriors 

[Silent Invader]

Interesting image B.  Presumably that would have had a limited traverse so as to avoid blowing itself off of the tracks?   

[former user]

this is a very valid point!
however, we can see that the Gun is far too big for the carriage - so, hard to judge...
the carriage is not a normal one - it looks reinforced and without bogies
 - maybe someone has more consistent information?

otherwise, judging from the calibre, I would  classify it as heavy support and thus firing with a high trajectory.
It would also not be far off to expect an emplacement to be added in the firing position
but then the gun shield is rather useless.

My educated guess would be - rough aiming to the direction of the tracks, with traverse fine correction and sliding recoil buffering - that would also require the use of these gigantic beams visible in the foreground and the steel girders behind.

For an improvised gun this is the quickest way of deployment, since it requires the carriage only to be jacked up from the track - it was employed during WWI by the French.

[Luthaaren Von Tegale]

Could it have been built on the chassis of a light steam crane? - the wheelbase might support that idea as well as the foldout jack which is mounted on the frames by the second axlebox.

But why sandwich it between two cattle trucks? A couple of open wagons with uprights to retain the barrel when in transit would have been a better idea.

   vT

[Westfalia Chris]

It´s one of two 6in naval guns mounted on railway carriages and used for fire support tasks. From what I remember from "Railway and War before 1918" (Bishop & Davis 1972), it retained the original 360° traverse and was indeed usually fired as "broadsides", as opposed to the 9.2in railway gun which was also prepared for but never saw service in the Boer War, but was a "fixed firer".

Since those would run on Cape Gauge tracks, it would make sense stabilising the carriage, but I´m not sure it was actually necessary.

[former user]

But why sandwich it between two cattle trucks? A couple of open wagons with uprights to retain the barrel when in transit would have been a better idea.

this is indeed a bit "unfortunate"

Could it have been built on the chassis of a light steam crane? - the wheelbase might support that idea as well as the foldout jack which is mounted on the frames by the second axlebox.

seems convincing to me

Since those would run on Cape Gauge tracks, it would make sense stabilising the carriage, but I´m not sure it was actually necessary.

well if the traverse was functional, stabilising it would have been absolutely necessary.
at least I can't see any recoil buffering system
and yes, why not a steam crane with stabilizing system if available

[Westfalia Chris]

well if the traverse was functional, stabilising it would have been absolutely necessary.
at least I can't see any recoil buffering system
and yes, why not a steam crane with stabilizing system if available

Not necessarily so. The recoil absorber assembly is, in this case, not visible due to the gun shield and crew in front, but you can see it here:



Furthermore, I didn´t express myself clearly enough, so sorry for that: you can obviously see the swiveling stabilizer feet between the second and third axles from the right. You would not need much more stabilization than that, so the stuff in front next to the tracks might just lie there by coincidence.

[former user]

I see
so You think it would be enough?
very well then

mine was only guessing 

[Silent Invader]

Thanks for all the replies - most informative.  So if I understand it correctly, the recoil absorber is what looks like a piston tube (presumably one of a pair) sitting beneath the breach area?

[former user]

yup
You can see the end of the other one

[Silent Invader]

So I can.  Thanks B, I've learnt something new today. 

[former user]

me too
I would have expected the thing to topple over with the first shot

[Mr. Peabody]

It looks so Miyazaki.  Very interesting.

[Westfalia Chris]

I see
so You think it would be enough?
very well then

I don´t "think" it, I perform educated extrapolation from photographies I had seen of the things in action (strangely not on the web, though!). Furthermore, there are images of 12" howitzers deployed to fire broadsides in France in 1940, so basically the concept must have been sound (if complex) if it also worked for those considerably larger calibres.

As said, after the recoil dampener caught the brunt of the recoil, there should not be much left, since this could throw the original naval pedestal mount bearings out of true. Apparently, you can catch that with the deployable screw feet.

I will happily admit, though, that my thoughts as to toppling the car were exactly the same when I first came across pictures of the thing some 20 years ago.

[former user]

I "think" You mean something like the opening squence of this:

that shows the 15 cm naval guns on traverse mounts, with additional deployable 4 hydraulically dampened side outriggers (v. Senger  Etterlin: German Artillery 1939 - 1945. Vienna 1998, p. 151) 
that look triple the size oh those of the colonial gun

no doubting Your expertise, i know about the WWII medium calibres too, but You must admit that 1900 and 1940 recoil absorbing are pretty different things.

and I did not expect an improvised naval gun to be that easy....