Rail to the Rescue - Part 3
course; on the other hand it was perhaps not entirely cooincidental that the navvies were swarming all over Frenchman's Hill at the time, and loudly complaining that they were not getting the fresh beef they were used to in the field.
Beatty was fast losing patience, and worried that the indiscipline was blackening the reputation of the entire railway. He was prepared to hand navvies over to the Provost-Marshall for military discipline, and the first floggings took place. The Sutler's camp was declared 'out of bounds' and strict inspections mounted on the men's huts to rout out malingerers, but beyond that, the supervisors agreed that there was little they could do. They had to make allowances for the very special circumstances - this was very different after all from the construction of a couple of platforms at Waterloo Station. They could only work the men hard and praise them equally hard for a job well done.
Of more concern was maintenance of the forward and upward momentum of the track laying; there was currently a lull as the engineering plans and calculations for the stationary engines were being worked out. Beatty had also made it his main priority to double track the Balaklava to Kadikoi section, and within the town itself. This required the clearance of several stores depots, which Beatty argued could be moved forward to Kadikoi. This put him in further conflict with Filder, who insisted that the Army draw rations in particular from Balaklava.
So although all the parts of the first stationary engine were present at its operating site by 23rd February - they were still there on 6th March. By this time the actual track had been prolonged past the Kadikoi yards up the hill for several hundred yards. It was possible, though undesirable in animal welfare terms, to haul wagons up the steep gradient by adding the requisite number of horses, and unofficially this was happening. The brakemen would then freewheel the empty wagons back down the track, controlling the rate of descent on the handbrake. An accident was inevitable, and when it happened, a multiple wagon derailment on 10th March, it resulted in a death. Lord Raglan chose to attach enormous importance to this incident and ordered an immediate Court of Inquiry. Perhaps he too was becoming concerned - Beatty had promised him that the railway would be complete by the 26th March. The accident might also have
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