[Railway reconstruction Italy 1943-1946 published by Royal Engineers, 1946]

Chapter I
ORGANISATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION EFFORT

Section III.
Stores Supply

1. - General.

It is not proposed to discuss this subject at any length as it is mainly the concern of the Stores Department. It is however necessary to make some reference to the subject as the provisioning and supply of stores more often than not governed the completion date for a job. The physical act of provisioning and supply is the responsibility of the Stores Department, but in order that the Stores Department may carry out these functions, it is necessary that the Construction Department keep them very fully advised as to what the requirements of Construction are likely to be. In order that Construction may get the best service from Stores, it is essential that all officers, and particularly those on the Staff, train themselves to be Stores minded. For example in Italy the time lag between ordering stores from U.K. or U.S.A. and receiving them into depots was somewhere in the region of six months. This meant, not only that Construction officers had to be on the alert to detect any tendencies which might affect the rate of stores consumption six months ahead, but also that any projects under consideration had to be reviewed in the light of existing stocks in depots and advised of impending deliveries.

[Railway reconstruction Italy 1943-1946 published by Royal Engineers, 1946]

Alessandro Tuzza