Military Locos?

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Unfortunately the military rail operations at Brooklyn Naval Yard and NWS
Yorktown are just memories.  At the latter location, the GE centercab
switchers were loaded onto flats and shipped to Marine Corps Logistics
Base Barstow, CA, and at last report most of the track and old boxcars
remaining on base had been scrapped.

In the Norfolk area, it's highly unlikely that Navy locomotives would have
been allowed to venture out onto the main line of a civilian railroad to
facilitate any inter-base movements.  Instead, cars would have been
dropped at the interchange and moved by the connecting civilian railroad
to their destination.  The only remaining Navy rail activity in the area
is found at Naval Shipyard Norfolk in nearby Portsmouth, where two GE
80-tons operate.  The rail operations at NWS Yorktown, Cheatham Annex,
Saint Julien's Creek Annex, NAS Oceana and Naval Base Norfolk are all long
gone.

Fort Eustis still has a railway school, run with courses primarily for
reservists and civilian employees of the Army.  It has been staffed by two
civilian instructors, one of whom retired earlier this year.  His space
has been filled for a year by a reserve NCO from the 757th Transportation
Battalion (Railway), a reserve unit headquartered in Milwaukee, WI.  Fort
Eustis' Transportation School was selected by the recent BRAC to be moved
to Fort Lee near Petersburg, VA, so the future of the railway school at
the post is uncertain.  Fort Lee has a long spur but no in-house rail
network or motive power.

The Fort Eustis post railway was much larger than just three miles,
although it has been cut back considerably from when I first arrived in
1975, where there were about 30 miles.  Currently about 15 miles remain in
use.  Thirty years ago there was one flat car with a US coupler on one end
and European buffers and hook on the other.  This was used for coupling to
the very few European-style cars remaining.  During subsequent visits in
later years I didn't see these cars, and they are most likely long since
scrapped.  I know of no current training that focuses on anything but
US-made equipment.

The post museum features a German-made caboose and the nearby sign states
it was used for the crews on the nightly Frankfurt to Berlin "Duty Train."
  This is absolutely NOT correct.  The caboose was an escort car used by
MPs of the Berlin-based 287th MP Co when escorting US freight trains run
on an as-needed basis through East Germany, pulled by host nation motive
power.  Duty Train crewmembers rode at the end of their sleeper trains in
a car that was half passenger compartments and half baggage area.

The Carwell AFB railway at one time was one of the most heavily used in
the military, bringing fuel to the jet aircraft on the base.  By the time
I visited in late 1989, however, it was just a gravel trail, having been
replaced by a pipeline.  The mobile "classrooms" were possibly aircraft
simulator cars rebuilt from old WW II hospital train cars and moved
between various Strategic Air Command bases.  All are long gone from the
DOD inventory, and only a handful of air base railways remain today.

Tim Moriarty
==================
Almost all of the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy locomotives I ever saw were
being used within various bases and/or depots as switch engines.  I have
seen such locomotives at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Earle NJ Ammunition
Depot and the Yorktown, VA ammunition depot.  In the Norfolk, VA area, it
is certainly likely that from time to time a military locomotive moved
cars from one base to another because there are many facilities there.  I
recall a cousin telling me that the Marine Corps used to have fuel
delivered to the Cherry Point Air Station by tank car using a Navy loco.

For MANY years, the U.S. Army had a Railway Training Center at Fort
Eustis, VA. That base was home for the Army's rather extensive railroad
equipment, much of which was actually used in Europe.  Fort Eustis also
had a pretty extensive "training railroad" with about three miles of
track, sidings, bridges, etc. where they could simulate operation of a
real railroad.  Today, the Army Transportation Museum is at Fort Eustis
and exhibits a number of Army locomotives and cars. (I was there in July
of this year)

The Air Force had at least one locomotive (a small switcher, but I forget
what type) at Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth.  It was used to
move passenger car "classrooms" around the sprawling base.

Decades ago - probably before or during World War II -- the U.S. Coast
Guard had a steam loco (either an 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 - tank engine) at either
the CG Yard in Baltimore or at the CG Base in Boston (I've heard both
"stories" and could never confirm which) I had only seen one partial photo
of it.