In order to get the railways of Burma in working condition a company of Indian Engineers salvages rolling stock damaged by the retreating Japanese and by bombing and shelling by the British near Alon (near Monywa); they improvise a locomotive by using converted jeeps.

Railway rolling stock, consisting of four freight wagons, lie tipped on their side by a railway line. The bogeys have been knocked off one of the cars. The locomotive lies on one side, wheels upturned. An Indian soldier inspects axles. The engineers climb over the overturned locomotive. A large hook and chain is attached to the back of a truck in order to pull out a carriage chassis which has been left in a hollow. Jacks are placed under the chassis and a combination of the truck pulling and man power drags it out of the hollow. The jacks are carried to the carriage again. A tank transporter pulling a low-loader drives past with a chassis on board. A chassis is traverse jacked onto the rails. Indian engineers check and service axles; they take apart bushings and file them smooth. A wooden block is chiseled to fit where a spring has been taken away. Buffers are salvaged from badly damaged rolling stock and fitted to the refurbished chassis. Two wagons are hooked together. General view of the metal workshop. Brake handles are fitted to each wagon. As they are to be pulled by converted jeeps and the brakes on the jeeps are not strong enough to stop the train each wagon must be manned with a brakeman. The flooring of the wagons is finished and each wagon is numbered with a stencil and paint. Two wagons are pulled by rope and man power off a low-loader and down an improvised slipway made of two rails. A jeep has rail wheels fitted. The pneumatic tyres are taken off and replaced by metal rail wheels. Four men turn a jeep by hand on an improvised turntable (the first shot is out of focus). The jeep rolls past the camera on the rails. The jeep pulls several wagons each with a brakeman onboard. Two jeeps together pull several wagons past camera.

Notes

The dopesheet provides the following background information: 'In preparation for the push south from Mandalay and Meiktila rolling stock is being recovered at Alon near Monywa by a railway operating company of the Indian Engineers. These men, who by army trades are engine drivers, firemen, guards, shunters and other functionaries have turned for the time being into fitters and blacksmiths and carpenters: rerailing wagons which the enemy had attempted to destroy, bringing more from sites as far distant as Shwebo and Myingu by tank transporter, they set about making them fit to run again. Later this stock will be taken by river ferry to Myingyan on the Irrawaddy and there used on the railway through Meiktila to the south. As in Northern Burma, until locomotives arrive from India jeeps will be used to pull trains. These pictures show the damage done to rolling stock by the retreating Jap, the various stages of recovery and repair, and the adaption of a jeep to haul an experimental train'.