Subject:
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Re: United States Army Rail
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sun, 21 Sep 2003 04:53:21 GMT
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Viewed:
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1782 times
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In lugnet.trains, Brian Williams wrote:
> Ken, do each of the armed services operate their own railroads, and what are the
> differences between them in terms of operation, location, color schemes, etc.?
> I'm very familiar with the 60cm gauge railways that the army operated during
> WWI. It looks like today's equipment is a little larger.
>
> - BMW
I have seen yellow Navy locomotives and dark blue Air Force locomotives. I'm
not positive but I don't think they have any military operators left, they hire
civilians as needed. Their operations mostly involve cargo transfer between the
civilian rail and off loading at various bases and ports.
Only the Army has had rail units expected to operate in combat areas. As with
many Army units many of the most heroic operations were in WWII where crews were
close enough to the front to hear the bullits they delivered being shot off.
Lost amoung some even more grand exploits were rail crews that had to sneek
across enemy lines to retrive equipment lost as the battle lines shifted.
Durring the cold war the Army was responsible for the "Berlin Duty Train"
making scheduled runs in and out of West Berlin through Soviet checkpoints.
(Insert your favorite spy story here). Rail units have been involved in most
every conflict since. Granada and Hati being a couple of exceptions. Soldiers
from my unit are currently vacationing somewhere warm. You'll forgive me If I
don't go into detail. Loose lips sink locomotives. (or something like that).
The equipment it's self has evolved much the same as civillian railroads.
WWII was steam powered. Locomotives were constructed for the area that they were
used including narrow guage equipment for Japan and parts of Africa. The Berin
Duty Train which ran from 1945 until the fall of the Berlin wall. So it was
witness to the birth and evolution of diesle-electric and on parts of the run
electric.
The Army then developed it's own equipment with multi-guage trucks that could
be adjusted from (American) Standard guage of 56.5 inches to the 66 inches of
India and and various European guages inbetween. The USA1811 on my real world
page is an example of this.
Current Army rail operations involve taking over native equipment (in some
parts of the world this could mean steam). In all but the worst case the
civilian rail workers would still be involved with the degree of millitary
control dictated by the intensity of the conflict.
The future of Army rail looks to be an increased operational roll with a
major down sizing in troop strength, but such is the fate of most military
units. -Ken
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: United States Army Rail
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| (...) Ken, do each of the armed services operate their own railroads, and what are the differences between them in terms of operation, location, color schemes, etc.? I'm very familiar with the 60cm gauge railways that the army operated during WWI. (...) (21 years ago, 19-Sep-03, to lugnet.trains)
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