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Several other items that you might check out: In 1944, Kip Farrington wrote a generally definitive book that may still be available in many large libraries, called Railroads at War. Very good because it was right in the middle of the fight. Don DeNevi's American Fighting Railroads also has some good info and a lot of (mostly) accurate photos. It also has good statistics lifted from Railway Age and reproductions of wartime RR ads (another good source of those is Nat'l Geographic). And great pix of big coastal guns in shipment. Stan Cohen's Rails Across the Tundra has an interesting section about wartime railroading in AK, including a nice piece on the Whittier Cutoff, built by the Army to access Whitier, an ice-free port on the submarine-free Inside Passage. Definitely worth a look. Any major public library will likely have a photo collection running back to WWII, and may have some local oral and written histories as well. And cjm89 has it absolutely right--everything moved by rail unless it was on a protected (from subs) waterway. The u-boats had a field day sinking ships off the coasts. So the railroads pressed everything into service, and converted what they needed to convert to make it all work. Everything was put to use. Examples: Lounge cars were not allowed--they could be on the train but the seats had to be sold. C&O took a bunch of baggage cars and literally turned them into makeshift diners--not kitchen cars, that's another matter--for troop train service, complete with fold-up tables. Bizarre looking from the outside, with only a kitchen door and kitchen windows--written up in Railway Age if you have access to an archive (usually in a depository at a major university). Everything was controlled by the War Production Board, who told you what you could make and from what you had to make it. Hence composite wood-steel freight cars, because steel was a strategic material and wood wasn't. And lots of interesting circumventions and definition-bending: SP changed the class definition of their GS Daylight locos from "Golden State" to "General Service" in order to convince WPB to let Lima build more to keep up with demand (they got away with it, but they were produced in basic black with no shrouding except the skyline casing). Mothballed Pullman tourist cars (in dead lines dating from the Depression) immediately came back in troop service (with the berths) and in hospital train service (stripped with 3-deep litter racks installed). Drawing room and compartment doors on troop service Pullmans were removed or welded open, and the Army slept 2 per lower and 1 in the upper. The crowds were immense--my mother tells me of her and her sister traveling from Dallas to Colorado Springs to visit her brother in law on leave, and having to sit on their suitcases the entire 2-day trip, and this is not an unusual story. Lots of good stuff out there. Happy hunting! Always happy to help a student who wants to learn!
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