Military railways

Military use of railways is based on its ability to move troops or materiel rapidly and, less usually, on its use as a platform for military systems, like armoured trains, in their own right. Railways have been employed for military purposes since the Crimean War in the 1850s, although improvements in other forms of transport have rendered railways less useful to the military since the end of World War II and the Cold War. Due to the expense and time required to build specifically military railway networks, military use of railways is usually based on a pre-existing civilian railway network rather than a military-owned one. However, specialized military types of rolling stock have frequently been used.