WW2 Hospital Trains

[Resmoroh]

Hello All,
I have searched your excellent site for “Hospital Trains”, but with no success (perhaps I was not looking in the right places?).
At some stage during WW2 (I was born in 1936) I have a memory of seeing a Hospital Train parked at Peterborough. My bedroom was upstairs (at GE 52.579320 -0.255042) facing east (the current buildings between the back fence and the railways were not there in those days). Directly opposite, on the far side of the various tracks, was a cattle siding (GE 52.579916 -0.251755) in fairly regular use. One morning, when I got up, there was a Hospital Train in those sidings. It was made up of carriages (sorry, type not known – but they looked ‘regular’ LNER) that had been painted dark green all over (including the windows – the glass of which may have been removed?) and on the side at each end of each carriage was a very large white square with a red cross on it. These were also present on the roofs. A few days later it had gone.
I remember there were Hospital Trains. I never knew what had been done to convert ordinary pax carriages into wards/op-theatres? I knew there were two likely periods when this might/could have happened. One was around the Dunkirk/Battle-of-Britain time, and the second around D-Day. I would have been 4 for the former, but 8 for the latter (and, thus, a more likely memory?).
Sorry to have ‘gone on a bit’ but this memory has been bugging me for many years.
Can anyone (a) confirm what I remember, and (b) if so, where can I read the detail?
TIA
Resmoroh
PS You came up trumps on my post re-B17/West Ham United – hope you can do the same for this one!!

[sawdust]

There is an album of official photographs of Gresley vehicles so converted at the NRM at York. A copy of the LNER rolling stock index there has the numbers of the carriages so used marked in red pencil, including LNERCA's BTO 43567.

Sawdust.

[Kestrel]

Here's some pics

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hospi ... CqIQsAQILA

[Resmoroh]

Hello All,
Thankyou for the pointers – much appreciated. The pix of the carriage interiors is very much as I had imagined they would be (I was in/with the RAF for most of my career). What I had not known was that they (CET?) were on stand-by for the UK civilian population at the height of the blitz. I had assumed that they were, primarily, for military use. So one learns – which is, after all, one of the good things about expert fora such as this. I am still no nearer in working out a likely date, but I would go for D-Day preparations. The D-Day Planners had envisaged a very much greater number of casualties than actually occurred. There would have been Hospital Trains waiting at the UK ports for the cas. As they were used then there would have been a flow of replacement Hospital Trains (backed up as far as Peterborough?) waiting to be used. Once a significant bridgehead had been established in Normandy it seems that, provided motive power was available, they ‘made it up as they went along’ with such local carriages as could be found? Exporting UK Hospital Trains would have been quite difficult. Having worked on the Harwich-Hook train ferries immediately post-war I know they were a bit cumbersome?!!
I thank you for time/effort.
If ever I can be of assistance in meteorological matters then do not hesitate to contact me! For example, when I first joined the Met Office they used to issue Strong Westerly Wind Warnings to the LMS. If the winds were very strong from the west, up the east coast London>Glasgow route, the train was blown against the rails more strongly. Increased friction, increased coal consumption! I’m told they used to try to cram as much coal on board as possible in those situations!
Rgds
Resmoroh