Photograph of the railway yard at Balaklava. There are a number of tracks with building materials and stones on the ground around them. On one track there is a wooden cart piled with sacks. Three men, blurred through movement, are working in the middle of the yard and a man stands to the left looking at the camera. Beyond the yard there are a number of buildings at the foot of a hill.
The Crimean War was among the first conflicts to utilise railways. A rail track was built by a partnership of English railway contractors to bring ammunition and supplies to allied troops engaged in the Siege of Sevastopol, who were stationed between the towns of Balaklava and Sevastopol. The railway was a major factor in the success of the siege.