Quote:
Originally Posted by Gotthard Heinrici
They did indeed Cyberia but they had huge problems once they entered Russia because the Railway gauges changed once inside Soviet Territory. Huge headache from a logisitics point of view.
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It was more than just the gauge of the track that caused a problem for the
Deutsche Reichsbahn. Track construction itself was not up to German standards in terms of spacing of ties and the mechanism by which rail was attached to the ties. This resulted in reduced speed and payloads. There were also issues with the quality of Soviet coal for the locomotives and water for the boilers. Germany did make some use of captured Soviet rolling stock, but it was of dubious quality. What they used, they first had to re-wheel for narrow gauge use.
Of course the Soviets had their own track (re)building issues as they advanced and had to re-widen the gauge on track as they re-took their own territory, and widen the existing narrow gauge track as they advanced into the Baltics, Poland, Hungary, Germany, etc.