WAR STORIES...share your rides while in service.

I was stationed in the FRG (West Germany) in the late seventies, in Augsburg. An old girlfriend invited me up for a weekend in Nuremburg, so, armed with two weeks of Headstart German, lots of marks, I took the “strass” (trolley) down to the Hauptbahnhof. I should have bought einer Ruckfahrkarten (a round trip ticket) but my German was sehr schlecht (really poor). I managed to buy einer Erste Klass (first class) ticket- one way. I got to Nuremburg OK. As it so happened, there was a bierfest in town and as the weekend drew to a close my girlfriend’s fiance (surprise!) and I hoisted a couple of liter mugs on my way back to the Nuremburg Hauptbahnhof. I got a ticket back to Augsburg and settled in to a very nice Erste Klass seat. In came the Wagonfuhrer (conductor) who noticed I had a Dreite Klass (second class) ticket. He spoke in sentences, paragraphs, nay, literal books of German at a pace faster than the train was going. All I could think of, after careful thought, was “Bitte, Haben sie hier ein Anglischen sprechen Wagonfuhrer?” (Please, do you have an English speaking conductor here?") I got one of those looks of contempt conductors give to no account, ne’er do well, drunken, soldiers and der Wagonfuhrer spat out a “Nein!”. He got another Wagonfuhrer into the compartment and more German followed. There was talk of “militarischen polizei” which did not bode well for me. I watched as one of the conductors did rapid calculations on the back of a ticket. I figured out he wanted four and a half marks for the upgraded ticket. He got a handful of change, some German, mostly American (I had been very busy enhancing the Nuremburg economy that weekend). Lucky me! I ended up with a single token to take the strassenbahn (streetcar) back to Flak Kaserne, otherwise it would have been a VERY long walk. I’ve often wondered if passenger conductors in the USA would be able to do the same thing if they met, say, a German corporal riding the rails…

Erik

I guess I’ll do Viet Nam this weekend, but I’d like to hear from some older guys before you croak, Troop trains, US Military Railroad, Railroad Battalions, special movements, hush-hush, mix-ups, box lunches, languge difficulties,etc.
My Dad is a '42 to '45 army vet, I’m pumping him now for North Africa-Corsica-South France stories.But hell, he was fooling around with Pershing at Mt. Gretna PA (pre-Indiantown Gap) in the '20’s!!!
toodle-ooo

Captain Video aka Rixflix

Mainline steam ended in the late 1950’s in the US, but in West Germany it lasted until 1977. Considering that until the Cold War ended, we usually had 250,000 to 500,000 troops in Germany, that made for the biggest undocumented steam excursion for Americans. Most of the troops were not railfans, but some were. I noticed that most Stars and Stripes newsstands carried 5 copies of MR each month, usually 1 month behind. Units in Germany were stationed in battalion or brigade-sized kaserns with little in the way of local training facilities beyond a rifle range and some woods to play in. For heavy weapons gunnery, tactical training, REFORGER maneuvers, unit relocations, and deployment to the East German or Czech borders most units moved by rail if they were going 50 miles or more. My unit, C Troop 1/4 Cav 1st Infantry Division did all the above.
In 1972-74 my armored cavalry unit made 15 rail moves in 29 months. The main lines were all electrified, but secondary lines had diesels and about 1000 active steamers, about 3/4’s of which were modern 2-10-0’s. On my first trip behind a class 050 Decapod, I pulled down the window right after I woke up and discovered what cinders were! I headed for the restroom at the front of the car to wash out my eyes and saw we were coupled right behind the tender. Then I put on my tanker’s goggles and continued to railfan. Only about 3 or 4 of my troop trains never had any steam power. On most trips we changed engines several times, and usually I had to sweep off cinders that piled up in the nooks and crannies on my tank. Troop trains consisted of 1 or 2 coaches or sleepers and enough flatcars or convertible gondolas to hold all the armored vehicles. In those days an armored cav troop had 9 M551 Sheridan light tanks, 15 M114 scout tracks, 3 M113 APC’s for the grunts, 3 M107 4.2’’ mortar tracks, and the all-important recovery vehicle. Each vehicle had to be centered on the car, secured with wooden chock blocks spiked to the wooden deck, and tied down with ste

Rix…I am older than you but not quite the age of your father…My story of coming from the Pacific rim…was in fact…Korea. But just a one or two liner here this morning…Coming through from Ft. Meade to Camp Breckinridge on a troop train and on the main line of the Pennsy at some places…they would bring a big pot of coffee through the car and we could grab some from that pot…but the way the fellows kept it from spilling out over the edge as they moved through the train was…They had a 2 by 4 piece of wood floating in it to help keep it steady…and who cared what it tasted like…

During the winter of '44-'45 (i was 4 years old) my family made several train trips from Steubenville Ohio to Atlantic City to visit an uncle who was recovering from one of Adolph’s gernades. On one return trip as we were crossing the Pennsy’s Ohio River brige at Weirton WV my father has us go to the vestibule for detraining in Steubenville. The conductor met us and asked why we were there. My father explained our situation then the conductor said we were on section 2, which did not stop in Steubenville and the next stop was 70 miles down the line. My father put his hand on the emergency brake line and said when he saw the Steubenville plackard pass he would stop the train, abeit one block past the station. The conductor said he would stop the train, not us. It slowed to a crawl and we stepped off. The conductor gave the highball to the engineer and he hit the steam. Within one minute the engine of the third section was pulling into the station. We got home safe and sound that cold snowy night.

In early 1968 while waiting for my connection for New London, Conn. at Chicago’s O’hare airport, I was accosted by 5 punks who took exception to my uniform. Things started to look a bit grim until 2 absolute strangers stood up with me. By the time the police arrived, well, I can assure you at least 3 of the 5 would have had a hard time siring children. I still thank you both from the bottom of my heart.

Back to 1968!!! Always the smart-*** E-3, I was shipped to the World for fifty days’s leave and then Viet Nam. I probably seemed pretty exotic to the folks in Reading with European LP’s from the Beatles, Spencer Davia, Cream and Jimi Hendrix. They hadn’t heard of Hendrix yet and Euro albums had a couple of more tunes than the US releases. Because I wanted to make a couple of stops en route I took Trailways to Fort Lewis. Ah. those beautiful Silver and Golden Eagles with their green tinted clerestory windows, Skated through Lewis, missing KP duty and almost my flight to 'Nam. That would have been trouble!!!
Cam Ranh to Phu Cat airbase and saw my first M-16. The M-14’s were so heavy and these were cool. On the civilian side of Phu Cat there was a remnant of the old French railway, steel crossties and all, with a Whitcomb type diesel switcher.Its crew resisted my pleas for a ride for securitiy reasons or because of my bad French. And then it was up-counttry to LZ Uplift where I was regrerettably too busy surviving the war or escaping it (with Bong Son Blue weed) to railfan much. We were at the top of a narrow pass above an electric green rice paddy delta. Highway 1 and blown up rails were northward. Our water supply was 40 Kms north at LZ English and there were blown up railroad bridges and (I think) a mikado or a decapod rusting away.
Then back to the States. I stuffed everything Army, saucer hat, AG’s. etc. into a trash can at King Steet Seattle. Saved my discharge papers and got into civvies that had been in the bottom of my duffel bag for a lonnnnng time. They didn’t fit too well (the Army fed you!!!) but I fit right into a roomette on GN’s Western Star. Had some rough edges from the war that I wanted to smooth before seeing the family, and GN did it!!! Morning saw a breakfast of bacon and eggs and the sta