Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
Modern tanks may not be as easily transportable by rail as one may wish. Tunnels constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries as well as bridges are going to present serious hurdles for transportation which in some cases may force delays of hours, days or even weeks if an alternate route can't be found/used.
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It will depend on the country and that will be hard to know. If I take the exemple of France and Belgium, it won't be a problem. Both countries have adapted their old 19th and early 20th centuries tunnels (or closed them). In addition, for France (I don't know for Belgium) our main land bases have a dedicated railway station. You should not forget that in most Western European countries, it is forbidden to roll your tanks on roads. Moving them with trucks in peacetime is extremely difficult. You need the authorizations, you need a special organization and our road tunnels have seldom been adapted.
Leg, you forgot something else. In Europe, trains have been used for centuries to move oversize goods.
I would suspect that to be true for Germany as well because it has a well developped railroad system.
I would be pretty confident for the Soviets also which are among the rare countries to retain dedicated railway troops.
One thing to check may be to see if a country has been developping the transportation system which consist of putting full trucks on train. If it has, you can be sure that tanks can be moved around that way. It's not absolutely accurate, however, as France for exemple can move tanks but has falleen behind in adopting that system for trucs.
What will remain an interesting source of problem, however, will be the difference between the rail system. A train leaving for France will not be able to go to Spain. A train from Russia will face similar problems... At least you can be sure to roll your trains from Paris to Warsaw. I took trains which were coming from Warsaw since I was a kid.
I hope all that is clear, I'm not sure.
