New casualty evacuation train, Goodmayes Station, Redbridge, Greater London
The dedication of a new casualty evacuation train by the Bishop of Chelmsford at Goodmayes Station. The Bishop of Chelmsford blessed the train whilst being watched by nurses and staff gathered on the tracks. Ambulance Trains, as they were also known, were first used during World War One. According to www.roll-of-honor.com ' By the time of the Second World War there were about 30 ambulance trains in operation. Each carriage was painted with a red cross on white background on the roof and side so that enemy planes would identify them as hospital trains and not troop or supply trains. Under the Geneva convention this prevented them becoming a legitimate target . A typical ambulance train would have 14 carriages. The first carriage would hold the brake carriage and boiler, depending on the number of stretcher cases there would usually be six carriages made into bedded wards, one carriage for patients who could sit on seats and one carriage that was a combined operating theatre, pharmacy and medical store. Two carriages would be fitted into a cookhouse and dining room whilst two more carriages would serve as accommodation for the medical and nursing staff. The last carriage was the brake end and general store. In Britain civilian nurses worked aboard hospital trains during the evacuation of patients from cities that were bombed by the German Luftwaffe.'
