Uniforms and Equipment of the Old Army - Transport Troops - Railway Regiments

Already in 1866 there had been field railway detachments in the Prussian armies in the field.

Over time, up to 1914, three railway regiments (No. 1–3) were formed, as well as 1 railway battalion (No. 4) and

1 operations department of the railway troops

as well as

1 Bavarian railway battalion (Munich).

Saxony and Württemberg provided companies to Railway Regiment No. 1 and to Railway Battalion No. 4 respectively.

Railway Regiment No. 1 and Railway Battalion No. 4 were based in Berlin-Schöneberg.

Railway Regiments No. 2 and 3 were stationed in Hanau.

The railway troops as a whole were subordinate to the Inspection of the Railway Troops.

The Prussian railway troops wore the black lacquered leather helmet with nickel-silver fittings and a guard eagle with flat scale-chains made of aluminum bronze.

For parade a black plume was worn.

The tunic was made of dark blue cloth with ponceau-red trims down the front and on the pocket flaps.

Its square collar and the Swedish sleeve cuffs were black. The trims were again ponceau-red and white linen lace was worn.

The buttons were white or silver.

The (silver) braids (of the non-commissioned officers) were patterned.

The grey shoulder straps showed the regimental number under the letter E, or, for the independent battalion, the 4 in red.

The cap made of dark blue cloth had a black trim band with ponceau-red edging as well as such an edging around the rim of the crown.

Leg and footwear corresponded to those of the line infantry regiments. This also applied to the waist-belt buckle, the leather equipment and the calfskin knapsack.

Service with the railway troops is described in the popular work: The Old Army. Memories of Service Time in All Arms. Together with "Peter Purzelbaum" (civilian name: Alexander Karl Anton Prusz von Zglinitzki), edited by H. C. v. Zobeltitz (Berlin 1931) as follows:

"On the edge of the Tempelhofer Feld, in the Kolonnenstraße, surrounded by barracks and depots, lay the military station Berlin. Slowly the engine pushed passenger train 102, shoving backwards, up to the platform and hissed out the hot steam. The station master, a staff sergeant, came out of the station building. Through the barrier, where a lance corporal punched the tickets, the passengers jostled. On the platform itself a troop of foot artillerymen had formed up, who probably wanted to go to Kummersdorf or Jüterbog. In front of a general and the officers accompanying him the train conductor, recognizable by his helmet and the lowered scale-chains, himself flung open the compartment door, standing stiffly at attention and saluting. Otherwise everything went on as at the station of a small town, only one had the impression of even stricter order, even greater cleanliness. Or was it only the morning sun that made the brass handles and the windows of the train particularly gleam and glitter. "Ready!" - after a last look at the watch the man on duty threw his arm up: "Departure!". Expelling black clouds of smoke in jerks, the locomotive pulled away....." (p. 39).

"Soon after the founding of the railway troops (19 May 1871) the need for a dedicated railway line for the training and continuous exercise of operating personnel made itself felt. Four years later the military railway Berlin–Zossen–shooting range (Kummersdorf), largely built by the railway battalion itself, was opened, with a length of 45 kilometers. With increasing use of the railway also by civilian traffic, where the transport of the stones obtained in the large brickyards of Klausdorf played a special role, operations were increasingly expanded until in 1897 the busy military traffic led to its extension by a further 25 kilometers to the troop training and shooting range Jüterbog. In all of its individual service branches the railway was operated purely militarily, starting with administration and train operations up to the maintenance of the track and the locomotive and carriage park in its own workshop. The one railway battalion grew, with the advancement of technology and the expansion of the army over time, into a brigade of three proud regiments. On their red shoulder straps they bore a yellow E with the Roman numerals I–III beneath it; while the independently now brigade-subordinate "Operating Department" bore the winged wheel. At the military railway, at Klausdorf and Sperenberg, were also the brigade's large training grounds, for the wartime employment of which the small Berlin grounds were no longer sufficient. Today our trip goes to inspect them" (pp. 39-40).