Hi,
I’ve just recently purchased 2 boxcars lettered for the US Army transportation corps, for use on my 1950s switching layout. I’m assuming that if these boxcars were loaded with munitions, that they would be handled the same way as other hazardous materials - switched into the middle of the train, etc. Is this correct, or is there another way that these types of loads were handled?
Thanks in advance,
tbdanny
If they were loaded woth munitions, they would be handled just like any other explosive load.
However, there’s no reason to assume they would be munitions loads. It would be just as likely to see them loaded with blankets, spare uniforms or ‘C’ rations (the WWII equivlent of todays MRE.)
Interestingly, a carload of rifle cartridges would get appropriate placards and handling, but a carload of rifles wouldn’t. An unloaded rifle is just a rather expensive, oddly shaped club.
Chuck (Retired MSGT, USAF, modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Very little of military shipping is “pointy” stuff. The vast majority of it is everyday commodities (food, clothing, building materials) and non-lethal vehicles like jeeps, trucks, cranes, bulldozers, etc.
I don’t live very far from Naval weapons station EARL which is one of the main supply depots for the Atlantic fleet. I had been out on the pier pre 9-11 only once and never saw a munitions train per say but say quite a few cars behind a SW1500 switcher if memory serves me correct.The cars get off loaded on a pier to waiting cargo and war ships
I have only seen what I perceived to be a the munitions train that crosses over Hwy36 only once. The main ammo bunkers are kept inland far away from sight for obvious reasons. There were maybe 3 or 4 cars at the most if that. I suspect the reason for that is if in the event of an accident and things did go boom they wouldn’t take out a half the township.
These USN box cars (there are scores of them) at the Concord/Port Chicago Naval Weapons Depot (CA) carried munitions within the depot, between bunkers and ships.
If you want to see a view of switchback “heaven,” take a look at Google satellite map, south of Hwy 4 and alongside Willow Pass Road, immediately northeast of Concord, CA…
Mark
I think you’d be more likely to see cars lettered for the military being used to move equipment or supplies between points within a large military or naval base, or perhaps as part of a troop train or other all-military train carrying tanks or artillery pieces or whatever, rather than a car here or there in general freight service. I think if the military were getting a shipment of something from a private company (food processing plant, arms dealer etc.) it would be more likely to be loaded into standard railroad boxcars (Santa Fe, New York Central, whoever) rather than in a car marked for the military.
WARNING: THIS RESPONSE IS COMPLETELY BEREFT OF SUBSTANCE AND LACKS ANY MEANINGFUL AND INFORMATIVE CONTENT.
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
There is an old Godfrey Cambridge routine which goes thusly:
Question: Where is the best place to be in the event of a nuclear explosion?
Answer: Someplace where you can say, “What-in-the-hell was that?”
Munitions should always be handled in the same way!
Ammunition bunkers, Concord, CA:
Did a Google image search for “ammunition port chicago”. I found three pictures taken there during WWII that had freight cars in them. One was a steel 40’ SP boxcar, one was a single-sheathed C&NW 40’ boxcar, one was a double-sheathed 40’ boxcar apparently lettered for NP. Or so it appears to me. Hardly scientific, but it’s info.
Ed
I’ve seen a photo of a ammo move at Clearing House yard during WWII, cars so loaded were identified by a huge white X painted across the entire door, no doubt to serve notice to handle with care when switching.
Dave
I remember reading in one of my PRR books about the munitions trains of WW2. They started out painting a large white X on the car sides. About the same time the infiltrators were caught the white X cars were replaced with standard painted steel sheathed cars. All wood side house cars were cut from ammo duty. Only shippers and train employees were to know what was in the cars. They had do not hump signs on the sides. After a few years into the war effort the rail roads broke up full munition trains and distributed loaded munition house cars amongst other trains. It would not be uncommon to have a few house cars mixed into a coal train but never close to the locomotive and cabin cars.
Pete
Ya we tend to forget that sabotage was a major concern during WW2 on the home front, putting a big X on cars carrying military ammo wasn’t a good idea. In the book “The Railroaders” one of the guys interviewed said that sabotage was a much bigger problem then people generally knew, usually small stuff but still a problem.
Actually, the “obvious reasons” for keeping the ammo bunkers away from population centers are mostly for safety - if there were to be an explosion, the public would not be endangered. Handling explosives can be dangerous! The security issues are secondary. At the former Naval Weapons Station Concord, for example, State Route 4 passes right through the station, and right next to a lab. Willow Pass Road actually passes right through the storage areas. The public can view anything within sight. All these factors are taken into account at the headquarters level, and every exception to maintaining explosive safety quantity-distance arcs is reviewed periodically to be sure the public isn’t endangered unnecessarily.
The ammo bunkers are separated by distance and limited in capacity so that the damage and consequences of a single bunker explosion are contained. Which is why you see so many bunkers scattered over a vast area.
Fred W
Texas City Disaster 1947 link.
The History Channel had an hour show about it back a couple of years.
When the German saboteurs landed by submarine on Long Island during WWII, their objective was to travel to Horseshoe Curve and blow it up. But, they were caught on the shores of LI before they got anywhere.
Yeah…I have actually looked for the plans of what they were supposed to do, and haven’t found any. Anyone know of the actual plan?
really if your putting real bullets on your train
1 record your car numbers in a notebook
2 have appropriate placards on your cars 1.4 explosive would be appropriate as well as the two on the shotgun boxes(if you cut them out from the boxes u can double stick tape them to use as placards also you can get placards out of a dmv CDL guide on the back)
3 know exactly what items are on what cars
4 keep your doors shut prying eyes out and limit info to a need to know basis basically you dont tell your neighbor jim down the street your hauling hazmat but you would tell fire/ems if they ask.
5 know your cargo and the risks of storage movement and degrade/decay effects
6 always have a fire extinguisher handy
7 constantly take notes for your notebook of each cars movements to/from including if switched from one junction to the other.
8 be smart have a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector on fully charged and working.
9 keep a first aid kit by you.
10 know emergency numbers have them written down next to your controller
11 make sure your placards are legible even if their out of scale
12 if you have a track scale us it weigh emepty weigh full periodically reweigh id recommend after a month of storage and record all weights
hope this helps you remember placards should be visible and clear of all other posted signage on the train like the weight limits and stuff
besides on number 4 its none of jim bobs buisness how much boom boom your baby rolls down the track
and by keep your doors shut i ment boxcar doors