Great Western Railway continental ambulance trains operated in the Nord Pas de Calais, Picardy and Normandy. Their function was to pick up sick and wounded soldiers from casualty clearing stations behind the lines and take them to hospitals. This 1:12 inch scale model is based on Train No. 19, which entered service in France in February 1916, under the command of Major J.P. Brown. During its three years in France, it visited over 100 stations; it was attacked by enemy aircraft on 17 November 1916 and on 23 March 1918 bombs were dropped near the train.

The train was decommissioned in 1919.