This wide-ranging and extensively researched work reviews the way in which the British army exploited the potential of railways from the 'dawn of the railway age' to the outbreak of the First World War.

Edward M. Spiers is Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of Leeds

1. Public order: the army and railways
2. Railways and home defence
3. Railway experiments in mid-Victorian wars
4. Operational railways
5. Strategic railways in India
6. Sudan military railway
7. Railways on the Veld: the South African War, 1899-1902
8. Conclusion: railways and the preparation for war, 1914
Appendix 1: Working methods on the Sudan Railway, 1884-5
2. Indian volunteer railway units
Bibliography
Index