Armored trains

War History Online has an article about some unusual trains:

Now that the world has turned it’s attention on South-Western Poland in the hunt for the lost Nazi armored gold train (video above), let us take a look at armored trains that were used during World War One and World War Two:
Armored trains saw use during the nineteenth century in the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, and the First and Second Boer Wars.  During the Second Boer War, Winston Churchill, then a war-correspondent, was traveling aboard an armored train on 15 November 1899, when a Boer commando led by General Louis Botha ambushed the train. The Boers captured Churchill and many of the train’s contingent, but many others escaped, including wounded soldiers who had been carried on the train’s engine.

 

Early in the twentieth century, Russia used armored trains (photo, above) during the Russo-Japanese War. Armored trains went on to see use during the Mexican Revolution and World War One. The most intensive use of armored trains was during the Russian Civil War. The Spanish Civil War saw a little use of armored trains, though World War Two saw more. The French used them during the First Indochina War, and a number of countries had armored trains during the Cold War. The last combat use appears to have been during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.

An early Polish train, the Smialy (photo, above) is one of the most famous of the era. The rotating turret on the front helped clear anything that got in the way. It was captured by Poland in 1919, but was used in both wars by four different nations: Austria, Poland, the USSR, and Germany.
There was no job too big or too small. Anti-aircraft weaponry was common on many of these trains. Some of the cannons on the locomotives appear to be a size that would be more appropriate for a battleship. The main issue with these trains was that they ran on tracks. Derailments and fires were their Achilles’ heel.
During World War Two, the Germans derailed a Polish train with a bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe. It was deserted as the German soldiers neared.

 

The wartime role of trains has not been totally forgotten. Some remain in museums around the world (photo, above). 

The Krajina Express (photo, above) was an improvised armored train used by the Krajina Serb army during the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War, from 1991 to 1995. The main battle in which the train became involved was the siege of Bihać. The train’s crew also performed in combat in the role of infantry.

Towards the end of the Cold War, both superpowers began to develop railway-based ICBMs mounted on armored trains; the Soviets deployed the SS-24 missile (photo, above) in 1987, but budget costs and the changing international situation led to the cancellation of the program, with all remaining railway-based missiles were finally deactivated in 2005. 

Rico says some things are better not used...