[1] By the late summer of 1854 the British, led by Lord Raglan, with their French and Turkish allies decided that a siege of the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, held by the Russians, would be the best method of forcing an end to the war.

[3] During the early part of October, the British troops with their supplies and artillery made their way with difficulty up the road to prepare for the siege.

The British were running out of ammunition and supplies, winter was approaching and with the onset of bad weather the road became virtually impassable.

Supplies were arriving at the crowded port of Balaclava but it was impossible to convey them to the besieging troops who were increasingly suffering from disease, frostbite and malnutrition.

[4] News of these conditions was relayed to Britain, mainly by William Howard Russell, special correspondent of The Times.

The offer was accepted and the contractors began to obtain supplies, to purchase or hire ships, and to recruit the men, who included specialists and navvies.

The material consisted of 1800 tons of rails and fastenings, 6000 sleepers, 600 loads timber, and about 3000 tons of other material and machinery, consisting of fixed engines, cranes, pile engines, trucks, wagons, barrows, blocks, chain- falls, wire-rope, picks, bars, capstans, crabs, and a variety of other plant and tools; besides sawing machines, forges, carpenters' and smiths' tools, &c. This material was distributed over the different vessels in such a manner that should any one or two vessels be lost disabled, it will not endanger the efficiency of the whole.

[8] Meanwhile, James Beatty, who had played an important part in working with Peto's partnership to build the European and North American Railway, was recruited as chief engineer.

[15] Also during this time, Colonel William McMurdo had been appointed to be in charge of a new department of the army, the Land Transport Corps.

[16] Felix Wakefield was given the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel and he arrived to take command of the Army Works Corps employed on the project.

[18] The existence of the railway meant that sufficient supplies and armaments had been transported to the plateau for the allies to resume their attack.

[19] Following a period of stalemate, Allied forces cut off one of the main Russian supply lines at Kerch on May 24.

The Sixth Bombardment was followed by a successful Allied attack on September 8,[24] bringing the siege to an end two days later.

[25] During the summer, further surveys had been carried out with the intention of supplying not just the British forces, but also their French and Sardinian allies (Sardinia had joined the war towards the end of 1854)[26] by rail from Balaclava.

At this time electric telegraphy by underwater cable was first used in warfare, connecting the Crimea to the Allies' base at Varna in Bulgaria.

Alliance and Victory were two small 0-6-0 saddle tanks built by E. B. Wilson & Co of Leeds in 1854/5; two from the London & North Western Railway, Nos 13 and 50, were 2-2-0 Bury-type passenger engines built by Benjamin Hick & Son of Bolton in 1838 and 1840; the fifth locomotive was Swan from the St Helens Canal & Railway Co, but its details remain obscure.

[29] James Beatty left the Crimea in November to return to England, a sick man, and Donald Campbell took over.

[30] Earlier in September Her Majesty's Floating Factory Chasseur arrived at Balaclava to provide an engineering service under the direction of Robert Frazer.

[36] A now-discounted popular legend[37] claims that two steam engines from the Crimean line went on to a new life on the newly started Buenos Ayres Western Railway in Argentina.

[40] Their dimensions and characteristics would have been unsuitable for the steep gradients in Balaclava,[40] and technical considerations would have prevented their conversion from standard to broad gauge.