yes they are considered high and wide and no there is no speed restriction on them, we run them at 50 mph , and they may be on ttx cars they dont always load on dod cars in fact the last 3 military moves have been on regular flats. i cant remeber the last dod cars i have had in militarry moves. most military moves never go over 1/2 mile
We had a bunch of DOD 6 axle depressed flats mixed with the civilian stuff on the MP line prior to Iraq. CSX was power on those southbound trains at the time. This was about 2003, so I know they are out there somewhere. I bet Transport Command in St Louis would know where to find them.
Very well shot! From one photographer to another, great detail on the locomotive and nice perspective of the whole train!
I’ll tell ya two places those M1s aren’t going, Iraq and Afghanistan that paint is US Army Standard M81 Woodland, which was standard on uniforms from 1981 up until the release of the new digital UCP in 2005. The pattern on those tanks was designed for use in the NATO European Theater (mostly Germany) during the Cold War against the Soviets. It’s still used on vehicles, but not those that operate in deserts, or arid mountains. The army did breifly use that pattern in Iraq before they could repaint everything but got the job done by early 2005.
The tanks they have in reserve at bases around the US though are largely still painted in that pattern so it’s logical to think that these are tanks that were in the reserve fleet and are either being moved to a new base, or moved for refitting for active duty.
Cheers!
~METRO
IIRC the BNSF Railfan program (whatever it’s called) specifically states that railfans shouldn’t take pictures of military moves. I know this is on the NS, but that’s just for the [2c]
‘Tanks’ for posting this.[;)]
I think that this weapons system has many years left. I fear that demands of training, war, upgrades and repairs will take it’s toll.
Someone somewhere in the Pentagon must be asking this question: How are we going to replace this aging system?
Whatever the answer is, it must always fit inside European Clearances which I understand to be much tighter than US ones.
I had thought about taking some photos of the 1041st National Guard moving out in 2003 when they were deployed. They brought in a whole mess of TTX flats and parked them on the branch line and one day movedd al lthe machinery the mile to the tracks and parked it, left it there for a day or two, and then the followng morning, everything was gone. I believe they went to Ft. Polk, but never had to go overseas. Until last year that is.
Oh, And leave it to Zardoz to make the joke we all held back… [:P]
FCS:
https://www.fcs.army.mil/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Systems
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/ic/fcs/bia/
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05442t.pdf
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/71xx/doc7122/04-04-FutureCombatSystems.pdf
Think I saw these being loaded, but if that’s the case, I’m surprised they’re on NS as CSX serves us. The way they were tied down, the car is going as a unit with the tank if something goes haywire.