A jeep railway is operated by men of 36th Division near Sahmaw in northern Burma.

A jeep, fitted with railway wheels, stands parked on a railway line with a wagon behind. A number of men carry a girder onto the wagon while a Douglas Dakota transport aircraft passes in the background. The girder is placed on the wagon. A man pulls a lever to change the points. The jeep-train, heavily laden with men, passes camera; the men include British, Indian and American troops. The jeep-train drives away from camera; wrecked rolling stock lies by the wayside. The train is unloaded. The jeep is turned around on a swivel; the jeep's grille has been bashed in and the bumper is marked with the overlapping rings insignia of 36th Division. Wide shot showing British engineers (probably of 236th Field Company) many standing knee-deep in a river, rebuilding a bridge (this section appears to have suffered some emulsion damage). Two shots of a large group of sappers erecting a large wooden frame. Major-General Francis Festing arrives by jeep-train; men salute him as he passes. The jeep-train, laden with supplies and men, crosses a repaired bridge. Indian engineers repairing a small railway bridge. A small railway cart is pushed along the tracks.

Notes

During this period 36th Division was part of the multinational Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC), which included American and Chinese forces, operating in northern Burma. 36th Division formed the right flank of NCAC's push southwards and advanced through an area known as the Railway Corridor. This corridor was the area either side of the metre-gauge railway line that runs between Myitkyina and Indaw. Japanese sabotage had systematically wrecked the rolling stock on this line but these improvised jeep-trains enabled a degree of mobility on this line to be restored.