The logistics of moving wounded World War II soldiers across the US by rail were staggeringly complex

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Now largely a remnant of the past (at least in the U.S.), hospital trains were an important element of American military operations for nearly a century. They were first used during the Civil War, then again during World War I. But during World War II, that familiarity didn’t save the Army and the Office of the Surgeon General from needing to undertake a laborious revamp of the system that very nearly stretched to the end of the conflict in 1945.

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The setup “presented some problems because obviously [the commercial cars] weren’t designed for that” purpose, says Robert S. Gillespie, a Houston-based nephrologist and amateur historian who runs RailwaySurgery.org, a website dedicated to the history of hospital trains.

pleasantly surprised, though I probably shouldn't be, that "guy who's really into the history of hospital trains" is a thing