http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/data/VOLUME054-1915/page297-volume54-10thapril1915.pdf

 

THE PRINCESS CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL TRAIN,

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At Paddington Station on Monday morning last the Princess Christian Hospital Train was on view to representatives of the Press before being shipped to France. Earlier in the morning it was inspected by Princess Christian, who has raised the funds for the construction and equipment of the train, with Princess Victoria and Princess Marie Louise, Princess Henry of Battenberg, and a party of War Office officials.

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The train, which has been constructed from the design of Sir John Furley and Mr. William J. Fieldhouse, by the Birmingham Railway Carriage Co., is undoubtedly the most complete and convenient which has yet been built. It is constructed to carry 400 patients and complies with the requirements both of the British War Office and the French railway engineers. At present it consists of eight coaches, to which by request of the War Office four more, for fifty sitting up patients, are to be added when, with the two brake vans, it will be composed of fourteen vehicles, and be about 700 ft. in length. Outside it bears the symbol of the Red Cross, and on one coach it is notified that the coach is the gift of the Canadian Red Cross.

 

The Principal Medical Officer is Captain Heaton, R.A.M.C., and the staff will consist of four doctors, a Matron and three Sisters, and from thirty to forty orderlies. At the time of our going to press the appointment of Matron is unsettled.

 

The train, which has a broad central corridor running from end to end, and connecting the various departments, is really a complete hospital on wheels, which can remain stationary at any given point while operations are performed.

 

The first coach contains an office for the Quartermaster-Sergeant partitioned off from a ward of thirty beds. These wire-woven stretchers with a low rail keeping the mattress in position, are arranged, like the berths in a ship’s cabin, in three tiers. At the side of the patient an enamel rack will take feeder and glass if desirable. When not in use these stretcher beds with their mattresses * can be nested to form a comfortable couch. The fourth coach provides accommodation for twelve orderlies, and a fully equipped kitchen, in which every device has been employed to provide storage room and lighten labour. Beyond is a capacious linen store. The next coach provides sleeping accommodation for the nurses and doctors and nurses dining-rooms.

 

The surgery is completely equipped for its purpose. In the eighth coach, which contains beds for twelve orderlies, is also a kit store, with racks for clothes and rifles, and a small second kitchen. The train is lighted with gas and electricity, and Gimble candle lamps have been placed in each carriage.