14/07/2026
Fowler B5 Gun Carriage and Armoured Train Conversion
In my first book the Engineer's Perspective, I was the first history writer to dedicate a whole chapter to the Mobile or Moveable blockhouse. Of which the Fowler 5B Armoured Road Train is an interesting pre-cursor to. Here is the excerpt from the book where I mention there Im-theare canibalisation for use on the trucks for armoured trains. I recently came across an image of what the new installation looks line. Here they are on a carriage fitted to HMAT No.2 known as "Disturber", two wagons front and back, fitted with Fowler B4 road train wagon units (2 Fowler Wagons per long bed) with a maxim machine gun fore and aft!, a 12-pdr gun wagon. Also attached to this train was a 6-inch gun which saw action
here the expert from the book on page 117.
"The War Office ordered a total of seven Fowler B5s in January 1900 (Nos. 8894 to 8900) . The first two road trains (8894 & 8895) were delivered to Bloemfontein May and June, but their armour was removed from both engines and carriages and used to make armoured railway trains. By the end of 1901 the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Kimberley District asked for further trucks to be fitted with armour so that the troops needed for road-convoy es**rt duties could be reduced. The War Office was requested to supply two armoured trucks, however remembering that the first two sent had been stripped of their armour to make armoured railway trains, it is not surprising that the War Office did not meet this request. By the end of 1901 there were some 45 steam transport trains in service in theatre .
The remaining five traction engine trains arrived later in July, August, October (two) and December, and there is no evidence to suggest that these were used in any other theatre making them unique to South Africa. It is not known how they were disposed of after the war ended, as none seem to have survived. At least one standard Fowler B5 (No. 8726) was recovered and restored from a South African scrap yard. It used to reside in the North of England in the Vintage Vehicle Museum in Shildon, County Durham, but this closed to the public in 2012 . Others may have remained in South African and put to work on the mines, possibly in the Springs area, and one more at least made it back to the UK where Fowler 8894 was sold as a wreck at auction in 2012".
Copyright Reserved ©
