Stoat
Posts: 40
Joined: 9/20/2011
From: Toronto, Canada
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Cool, thanks for the book feedback!  This feldgrau.com article is a not-too-long, accessible read with interesting commentary on the DR but and also has a few things to say directly comparing it to the Soviet rail network:
http://www.feldgrau.com/dreichsbahn.html
What it does say about the Soviet rail network:
1) the primitiveness of the Soviet interior
2) Only three important industrial or urban centers contained a dense network of rail lines; the Donets industrial region, Leningrad and Moscow. Moscow was in fact a key hub; cut off Moscow and the entire Soviet rail network would be seriously crippled
3) Signals and rail safety efforts were primitive when compared to German or western European standards
4) Only the Kharkhov to Moscow double track line was placed onto a proper bed. The rest of the soviet rail network was placed onto sandy beds, or the ties were simply tapped lightly into the existing ground. The lower the engineering standard of the railway bed, the lower the amount of weight which could traverse same
5) Many of the existing railroad bridges of European Russia were in fact temporary structures... of no value for the heavier trains
6) Soviet coal was not of optimal quality (sic) locomotives even by Soviet standards
7) only 20% of all of Germany's "winterized" locomotives were operationally available in late 1941... Conversely, Soviet (and ex-Imperial Russian) locomotives seemed to be in their natural element during the winter months
8) The best year for the German rail system was during the summer of 1943... despite an increase in Soviet partisan activities in central Russia, German train schedules were affected very little... attributed to the extensive network the Germans had built up in Russia
9) Since taking the advice of an American railway engineer in the mid 1800's, the rail gauge of Czarist Russia and ... the Soviet Union, has been in the wide gauge. The theory being that an attacker would encounter more operational and supply problems if he were forced to convert a wider gauge rail line to "his" gauge (back in the mid 1800's, it was assumed that Germany was going to be the aggressor)
10) The 1938 Soviet five-year plan called for the Soviet rail line system to be expanded to approximately 62.000 miles (100.000km). For the most part, the Soviets were able meet their construction goals
11) As of 01 January 1943, 22.000 miles (35.000km) of the Soviet rail network were under German control
12) Although the Germans were able to "capture" large quantities of Soviet rolling stock and railway construction materials, the captured items were for the most part substandard in quality or antiquated
13) poor Soviet construction standards... Soviet rails were almost always sitting only on a bed of sand covered occasionally with rocks... the vast majority of the Soviet rail ties were made of untreated pine... their weight capacity fell way below German railway norms (38kg/m for Soviet lines vs. 49kg/m in Germany)
14) Soviet rail ties were also placed further apart than American and German norms... This too added to a lower overall transportation capacity of the Soviet rail line
15) Because of the Soviet rail line construction technique, Soviet cargo and weight capacities were often reduced way below the official allowances
16) larger Soviet trains could cover larger distances before they needed to re-water and re-coal. German trains, required more frequent servicing
17) Soviet Union, railway personnel ... (were) skilled and dedicated... they also knew how to mess things up for the Germans. However, once the Germans occupied a region, many "Soviet" railway experts stepped forward and willingly helped the German cause (stoat note: ahh Hee Wees, is there anything they can't do?)
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I have to say, after reading this article, I'm starting to wonder whether the in-game Soviet rail cap shouldn't be about 1/5th the united Axis rail cap rather than about 5x as it is! Given the numerous deficiencies and shortcomings of the Soviet rail network, it's amazing they were able to pick up their heavy industry, lock stock & barrel, as easily as GGWitE shows they were able to do!
Of course these limitations do not seem to have affected their ability to transport lighter loads, e.g. to smartly deploy rifle divisions fresh off the unceasing Bolshevik conveyor belt from Central Asia, and it must be acknowledge that their purported ability to offer reliable service throughout the winter (when the Germans could not) was a great advantage.
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GGWitE = GröKAZ ("Greatest Wargame of All Time") - thx to GG, Company & Community for continuing to make it even better!
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