A hospital train at Deir Senid, Palestine, c.1917 (b/w photo)

A hospital train at Deir Senid, Palestine, 1917 circa. Photograph, World War One, Middle East (1914-1918), Palestine, 1917 circa. Image caption states: ‘Deir Senid Palestine: Hospital train about to leave for Kantara- Atlantic type of Yankee engine’. The locomotive is an ‘American’ type, a designation relating to its wheel arrangement. Dier Senid was a Jewish settlement north-east of Gaza. Construction began on the desert railway began in February 1916. It eventually spanned hundreds of miles across the Sinai peninsula, providing troops and supplies to the front line. El Qantara, known by the Allies as Kantara was a supply depot on the Suez Canal in Egypt. It marked the start of the desert railway and had a hospital centre and distribution warehouse to support units taking part in the Sinai and Palestine Campaigns. From a collection of photographs taken by Corporal Joseph Egerton, Shropshire Yeomanry in Sinai and Palestine