Military Locos?

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

To those of us who actually served with the 714th TBROS&DE, this string of 
emails brought back a lot of memories  We've talked about this before, but 
as many of you will remember, the 714th built the Alaskan Railroad in WWII 
and then reformed at Ft. Eustis to train mostly reservists in the 60's and 
70's.  I do recall this derailment and would like to think it was during my 
stay there before going to RVN in August 1970.  As I was a HHC 2LT who had 
the most important responsibilities of signing morning reports for the 
battalion and observing my cadre of clerks, cooks and bottle washers in 
action I missed out on all the action of C Company (operations), A Company 
(signal maintenance, B Company (locomotive maintenance) and D Company (car 
maintenance).  In my vaunted postion I did get to push a hand car around the 
track on more than one occasion (any of you who have done this know that the 
old movies and cartoons have it all wrong - it is a TON of work) and ride 
the "kiddie train" around the post on Wednesday afternnoons.

Also recently have ridden the narrow gauge Sakhalin (Russia) Railway system 
from Yuzhno to Nogliki on more than one occasion.  You haven't lived until 
you've had one minute to catch a train in 2 foot deep snow and the engineer 
has stopped about 50 yards from where you're standing.  They have plans to 
convert to standard gauge but the cost is prohibitive.  The railway was 
built by the Japanese in WWII and the track is still in pretty good shape.  
Many of the bridges have been replaced but still able to support passenger 
and freight operation the length of the island.

Thanks for all the notes.

Ed Svitil



>From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

>Reply-To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

>Subject: Re: Military Locos?

>Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 23:03:07 EDT

>

>

>To the best of my knowledge, locos owned by branches of the military, in  

>the

>U.S., only were operated on military posts except under extraordinary

>circumstances.

>

>One possible exception that I'm aware of is a derailment the C&O had at  

>Lee

>Hall, VA near where they interchanged with the Ft. Eustis (Army) rail

>connection.  The 714th Railway Operating Battalion owned a heavy duty  

>wrecking

>crane, which assisted the C&O in cleaning up.  I suspect one  of the Army 

>locos

>brought it out.  I don't remember the exact date of the  incident, so 

>anyone who

>does please chime in.

>

>There may have been other exceptions to the general rule, of course.

>

>Dave Phelps

>

>In a message dated 8/15/2005 10:23:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

>nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

>

>Several manufacturers have released loco model with U.S.  Army lettering.

>Does anyone know if any USA locos would have been used on the  country's

>mainlines or would they have been used only around army  bases?

>

>I would think that each road would want to use their own motive  power for

>military movements, but I've never seen anything written about  them.

>Jimmy Lisle

>

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