ON AN AMBULANCE TRAIN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2371, 29 January 1915, Page 6

ON AN AMBULANCE TRAIN

CARING FOR THE SICK SPLENDID ORGANISATION AUSTRALIANS TAKEN TO CAIRO (Melbourne "Age" Correspondent.) Alexandria, December 9. Through the courtesy of an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps I have been able to board one of the three ambulance trains that have been provided by the military authorities and equipped by the Egyptian State railways for the comfort of the sick and wounded soldiers who are being conveyed from point to point in Egypt. Nobody could have failed to notice when we first landed at Alexandria' this white train standing on the rails by the wharf. There were nine long white coaches, and on each was painted in red a crescent and a star. Instead of being numbered the letters from A to I were used to identify the carriages. After my visit on this train it is with confidence that I can tell you 'that the Australian troops are receiving every medical attention that it is possible to give, and that their comfort in being transferred from the transports to the infectious hospital at Alexandria or to the magnificent base hospital at Mena Camp is being closely studied. We are fortunate in having such an excellent medical staff. At the wharf, to board each transport as it arrives from its long journey, is Lieutenant-Colonel Howse, V.C., a physician who has seen service in South Africa; LieutenantColonel Marshall, sanitary officer, and Captain Lewers. The patients who are fit to travel are at once sent on to Mena base hospital,' where they are received by Colonel Ryan, principal medical officer of the division, -and Major Bird, who are associated with a large staff of English physicians and .surgeons, and have at. their disposal also 40 of the nurses who have come from Australia. The Ambulance Train. To us the ambulance train is something quite apart from any organisation that we have had in the Commonwealth. For the make up of the ambulance train tho first-class cars have been stripped of all their interior fittings and completely renovated throughout. They havo only just come from the workshops at Cairo and smell still of.new enamel. The railway gauge I mu6t preface my letter by saying is 4ft. B|in., and rail travelling is by no means pleasant, for the desert 6and flies up into the carriages. _ The first-class carriages on the longer journeys are equal to the second-class found on the MelbourneSydney express, while the second-class are only slightly less comfortable. The natives, the fellaheen, the Arabs, and the _ Nubians _ all travel third-class, in carriages which are similar to the old Hobson's Bay Company's coaches. In these carriages the troops have been taken to Cairo. From the exterior tho white carriages seem much broader than they really are, being, I should say, lather more than 9ft. wide. The train one may divide up into three sections. Nearest to the engino are the sleeping berths for the army medical corps who travel on the train, and for the train crew, of about 30 altogether.. In this section, too, may be counted the dining oar for the corps and the operating theatre and lavatory. These occupy three coaches. The four coaches in the centre are the actual ambulance cars, and then on the third section are the quarters for the officer in charge, storeroom, and a fitting-room, and a smaller car, with extra sleeping accommodation. No Superfluous Fittings. One is struck in walking along the trains at every point by the'absence of any superfluous fittings, and the simplicity of the whole' design of the coaches. Everything' is reduced'to a minimum. The rear car is used solely by the officer in charge. and his personal staff. All his meals are cooked at this end of the train, and so have not to be brought through the hospital wards. It is an ordinary sleeping car and dining car combined, with a kitchen and lavatory in the centre; All the lighting is by electricity, and- the same power is largely used for the cooking of the food. From these cars f.ne passes directly into the wards. The corridor is in the' centre, and the beds run parallel to the rails down the side of each coach. There are 40 beds in each —two rows with 10 beds on each side. An iron framework has been used, and the hair mattresses rest on the ordinary iron. The interior of the whole car ,is white. Except for the electric, light globes, which aro attached to i) rackets on tho one side of the celling, there are no other fittings whatsoever in the car As the beds are 2 feet 6 inches or 3 feet wide, there is a fine wide passage-way, which . is covered with a dark linoleum, for the staff to move along. I was particularly struck with the loftiness of the carriages and the excellent means of lighting and airing them. One of the coaches was already occupied by some of the men who had just come off the voyage. They had their arms bound up or a hand or a leg in a sling, mostly the results of kicks from horses. In the spartan surroundings thoy were quite comfortable', but itching to get back to their comrades and the horses. I learned that a number of casM had already been sent on to Cairo by another train after the first ships had been berthed in the harbour. There wero four of these wards, but only one occupied when we were .on the train. Beyond we come to the operating chamber. The corridor runs along tho right hand side of the train. The theatre is about 15ft. long by 7ft. wide. The table stands in the centro, and on the opposite side of the car were large double doors to enable patients to be admitted direct from the platforms or ambulance wagons. At one end of the room stands a glasstopped table for instruments with a shelf or two, ,and at the other all the wash-basins and water supply, a large quantity of water being carried on this coach. Adjacent to this room is a dispensary, with sinks and cupboards. The next car was the dining saloon for the train crew. It was the only coach that was not painted, white in the interior. The kitchen was adjacent, and quarters for the cooks. The car nearest the engino was occupied by tho Army Medical Corps, two men occupying each compartment. Officers have assured me that it has been the means of saving life and limb to have a train available such as this. Great speed is not developed on the journeys, but then it is not necessary, for the nicest operations can he performed in this operating theatre, and the train can always be side-tracked, and brought to a short halt if an urgent case requires treatment. Electric fans havo been installed throughout the ambulance coaches and in the operating chamber, and care has been taken in constructing the ventilators to make on lines best calculated to exclude the dust which arises from the desert. One of the trains has been stationed'at Suez, and was available for use at the time of the raid in the Sinai Peninsula by the Bedouins, to the east of the Canal, shortly before the Australian convoy passed through. There is now always a train either at Port Snid or Suez, a three hours' journey only separating each place. All the patients would lie brought to Cairo, where there are several hospitals.