Shower trains or bathing trains were specialized trains or train cars used throughout Europe to provide bathing facilities to troops stationed along the battlefront during the First World War.

Switzerland

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The Swiss army shower train at a station.
 
Shower room in a Swiss train.

Shower trains (known as Armeebadezug) were used in Switzerland. Each train consisted of old rolling stock from private railway companies: a locomotive, a tank car and converted passenger cars, each with a shower room and two cloakrooms. The water was taken from the tank car and heated by the locomotive.

This train served the thousands of Swiss militia protecting Switzerland's borders.[1]

Imperial Russia

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Similar bathing trains were used in the Russian Empire in 1914.[2]

Notes

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  1. ^ "04 - Historische Bahn" [04 - Historic Path]. Drehscheibe Online (in German). 2013-03-24. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  2. ^ "Inauguration d'un train-bain à Petrograd [novembre 1914 ?] : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol]" [Opening ceremony of a bath train at Petrograd [November 1914?]: [Photography of the press] / [King Agency]]. BNF Gallica (in French). Retrieved 8 December 2013.