Rail to the Rescue - Part 3
4th Divisions and the Siege Batteries. The ground was reasonably flat, although there were frequent humps and hollows which required ironing out. The whole line was completed in mid-April and its course is highlighted on Beatty's map.
The most significant operational result of the opening of the railway was that it provided the means to launch a series of prolonged bombardments of Sevastopol. From the end of March, 20 to 30 wagons were transporting 40 to 50 tons of ammunition daily to the Col. The empty wagons were then used to transport the sick and wounded for evacuation down to the harbour in little more than an hour. Ther was still trouble with Filder refusing to move his ration stores forward. Raglan finally lost patience and ordered him to do it immediately. Raglan had been generally most helpful in promoting the railway, but sadly he was unwittingly to prove Beatty's nemesis. On Easter Saturday 7th April, he expressed a wish to inspect the detachment of the 71st Foot which had been digging trenches on the ridge, before they went back down by train. However final planning of the Second Bombardment left him very late; everyone had had to hang around in the rain and a mist had drifted in, making the track especially slippery when they were finally able to set off. In Beatty's wagon the brake failed to hold on a downhill bend and spilled over on its side, killing one man, badly injuring another and leaving Beatty himself severely contused, and with undiagnosed internal injuries that ultimately largely contributed to his death from aortic aneurism less than a year later.
From this time Beatty virtually handed over the running of the railway to Colonel William McMurdo, who had arrived in the Crimea in March to command the embryo Land Transport Corps, which was due to take over the railway anyway once they had sufficient manpower to do so. In the meantime Beatty resisted all calls to start sending the navvies home, as their expertise was constantly required for track maintenance. As we know, corners had intentionally been cut during construction, and the forceful McMurdo was demanding in his punishing rail schedules. These had dramatically increased with the arrival of a further 60 dray horses.
The railway was formally handed over to the LTC on 14th July, although Beatty and his supervisors were to remain to oversee and direct maintenance activities until the
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