Well, some people are interested in learning new things. It could be that such people would find it interesting to look at a modelable track configuration for a small military camp, or interesting to learn that Camp Ripley still occationally has military rail movements, or interesting to learn that rail movements of military equipemtn also include other stuff than armored vehicles.
Other people are more concerned with walking around with a chip on their shoulder, looking for something to take offense from.
Up to you what kind of person you want to be.
Grin,
Stein, who has only passed Camp Ripley 30 times or so
Miehman - its more of a “oh shit” factor if the govt were to take over the rails but as you pointed out, private railroads proved they could do it better than the govt (go figure). As far as removing rail, yes at small bases and ones without large (brigade and up plus depending on what type) units they remove rail as trucking meets requirements of the times. Large bases that require movement of heavy or standard equipment will always have rail. I talked about it before but the Army’s attempt to conduct new troop movements via rail were axed this last year with budget cuts. Going with the buses instead…its ok…we can pack 2x the number of soldiers into one then people think hahaha
I have the Army Manual titled Application of Blocling, Bracing And Tiedown Materials. .It shows how to tie down variousl military loads I also have the DOd Tiesown Handbook. If you would like them pleae email me at igoldberg1@embarqmail.com and I will send it to you
The Army has a lot of rail equipment. In todays modern army they have schools to train soldiers. The Army Transportation command in Fort Eustus Virginia is the home of all the schools. Here are a couple of pictures taken this year.
We get a pile of “Iraq - Afghanistan” vehicles moving through here to be loaded onto transport at Blount Island. Recently, I saw about 200 uber Humvees outbound. A few years back, a long string of battle worn tanks on those TTX type flatcars. I know Ft. Stewart, GA (Hindsville on the former ACL main) still receives numerous rail shipments.
I love to watch those cars with eqpt roll by. I scratch built my 40,000 series heavy duty 68" 140 ton flat car. Andersley in the UK was making a kit, but they’re no longer around. You can certainly modify some TTX flats. But I will say scratchbuilding these was a great time. Here is some info on military flats from a 2003 DOD document:
There are approximately 1,500 flat cars in the total DODX fleet. These DODX flat cars are unevenly divided into four car series:
I can’t say for sure, but I recall reading where they transported the barrel of a large german rail gun from the Aberdeen Maryland proving ground ordinance museum to another location. I believe that they are (or already have) closing the museum. The rail gun in question might be this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krupp_K5
I grew up along the Sunset Line just NE of San Antonio and saw many military movements. I recall seeing a C-50-4 (Espee standard issue bay window caboose) at the end of one of the trains with soldiers in BDUs hanging out on the rear platform. If I recall this movement was in support of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. If you are an Espee guy, that is another reason to get one of those new Genesis models.
As far as my own military rail car favorites go, I really love the hospital cars and the SAC cars that were used as KC-135 simulators and B-52 target scoring.
I have a small military installation on our HO layout. It’s set during the mid to late 1950s.
Interestingly Ft. Irwin was mentioned above. I’m calling my military base Camp Irwin. That’s what Ft. Irwin was called during my layout era.
Roco Minitanks (now manufactured by Herpa) is the best for HO scale military equipment. They have loads of US military vehicles for various eras. Some come decorated, but most need paint and decals. Most of my military vehicles are by Roco/Herpa. I also have a few made by Busch and Classic Metal Works.
I’m using Santa Fe flat cars for my military train.
Here are some photos of the progressing Camp Irwin section on our HO layout with the most recent photo on top:
The pictures look exactly like what I saw and even fit the date (I looked on my phone and I have a text I sent my brother on April 11th), but the route it took and where I saw it are incompatible.
Makes me wish I knew someone at CSX that knew a thing or two. I can name a date, time, and location for what I saw!
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