The German railway system helped Prussia win two wars in the nineteenth century: the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Austria nor France was prepared to move many troops and supplies along their railway systems: cars accumulated at railheads, troops were gathered, but without supplies and food, and other similar problems derived from scarce coordination between railway companies and the armies led both nations not to be ready when wars started.
