It is something of an enigma that two of the most important and frequent types of traffic that ran continuously throughout the Great War were also two of the most elusive and difficult to quantify accurately in detail, particularly as far as Northern England and Scotland are concerned.

Our Journal Special Edition provides an interesting perspective on how the railway companies responded to the increasing demand for handling the flood of casualties and transporting steam coal to fill the bunkers of the Grand Fleet

These tasks achieved against a background of dwindling manpower and deterioration of rolling stock, locomotives and infrastructure.