Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/322

254 the "Engineer and Railway Volunteer Staff Corps," and which is composed of a certain number of engineers, several of the great contractors, and the general managers of most of the principal railways, the contractors forming what is called the "Labour Branch" of the Corps. The intention is that in case of an invasion the officers of this-corps would superintend the working of the railways, as they do in time of peace, but acting then under the directions of the military commanders. The railways of the country, so far as might be necessary, and wholly if need be, would have to be, for the time being, given up to the service of the State, as was recently done in Western France, when the experiment was tried of mobilising certain Army Corps, and by thus utilising the means and appliances which are at all times available, and making a free use of the perfect organization and large resources of the great railway companies, it is believed that no difficulty need be anticipated in concentrating a considerable body of troops within a brief period of time upon any part of our shores that might be threatened by a foe.

In the early part of 1885, the War Office instituted a kind of test of the ability of the officers of the Staff Corps to perform this task, which it may be of interest briefly to describe, as although, of course, merely on paper, it served to afford a very fair idea of what could undoubtedly be accomplished by the railway companies in case of need. The test took the form of an "Exercise" proposed by order of the Commander-in-Chief, and constituted in point of fact a kind of problem to which the Staff Corps were required to furnish the solution. The assumption was that an invading force numbering 150,000 men had commenced to disembark on the Coast