ARMOURED TRAIN IN CANADIAN SERVICE

The fascinating story of Canada's sole armoured train of World War II. This purpose-built train patrolled the length of the Skeena River in Canada's Pacific Coast from Skeena to Terrace, British Columbia. The book follows the initial decision to build the train, its delivery and deployment, and finally its disposal. Illustrated with many new photographs from a variety of archival sources. "Armoured trains were perhaps the earliest real Armoured Fighting Vehicles, and appeared in various guises and places for many years. One unusual train was designed and put into service in Canada during World War Two. As the Japanese armed forces pushed through South-East Asia and across the Pacific, there were real fears of them invading the Western coast of Canada and some areas with strategic importance needed special defence measures. One stretch of line where Canada borders Alaska had its own armoured train for this purpose. Built using standard rolling stock, it had a protected engine which pushed and pulled carriages for troops as well as armed cars with 75 mm field and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. As such it would have been a formidable oponent to land forces, though like all trains it was vulnerable to attacks on the tracks and from the air. The story of No 1 Armoured Train is interesting and unusual. While it is easy to write this off as "a train, not an AFV" it is both and as such should appeal to those interested in either field. It may never have been called upon to fight but that does not mean that its story should not be recorded. That story is well told here, along with the background to the need for it there is an account of the assembly of the component parts including photographs of the various gun and troop cars, as well as details of how the train operated including the problems of using the same tracks as working trains. As this was a one-off, the account can go into considerable detail and the photographs would give a modeller the chance to produce their own replica which would certainly be something different though even in small scale would be a big model." - Peter Brown, Perth Military Modelling Site