CRIMEA 1855: How Britain built a railway to besiege Sevastopol By Colin Kay

The world’s first military railway was built in 1855 during the invasion of Crimea by Great Britain and France, known subsequently as ‘Grand Central Crimean Railway’.

Growing to 17 miles of track, its purpose was to supply ammunition and provisions to Allied soldiers engaged in the highly engineered siege of Sevastopol. While the invasion of Crimea is widely regarded as a disaster, this was a case of logistics undertaken by experts who knew exactly what they were doing and how to do it.