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

[rixflix]

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 staff got me some whitefish from the river valley we had just traversed. Endless pine foests, silver and raging creeks way below the trestles. It was grand. Then people on horseback awaiting our train at lincoln log stations, right out of Roy Rodgers.
Does anyone remember a CB&G RDC from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Chicago??? Anyway I was on it amid (I swear) a bunch of sleeping passngers.
The magnetic force of family took hold in Chicago Union Sation and I slept all the way though the Alleghenies and somehow got to Reading and HOME!!!

Peace People
Captain Video aka Rixflix
God bless Jean Shepard in all His works

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Modelcar]

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...

[Anonymous]

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 steel cables tightened by turnbuckles. Then we'd board the sleeper, eat our C-rations, get drunk as a skunk, listen to jams on the portable 8-track player and smoke hash.
Our home station, Panzer Kaserne in Boeblingen, was 17km south of Stuttgart and at the end of the electric line. Expresses would roar thru town behind diesels without slowing down. Locals would change from electric to diesel or steam. The last 3 Prussian 4-6-0's were used on workday commuter jobs and sat idle on weekends. Off duty I rode alot of trains and took quite a few slides rail and otherwise. I wish I had done more. I have action shots of modern 2-6-2's but no roster shots. I have roster shots of 2-6-2T's but no action shots. I never caught the almost extinct 4-6-2's or saw them in steam; only in deadlines. There were other demands on my time: training, border patrols along the Iron Curtain, nuclear alerts, endless guard duty, chasing the local girls, and ordinary tourism. I occasionally got to attend meetings of an all-services model RR club.

[rixflix]

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

[Anonymous]

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

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by joekc6nlx

Stationed in Gaeta, Italy (60 miles north of Naples) on the Sixth Fleet Flagship (USS Albany CG10). Rode trains from Formia station to Naples and back. Round trip ticket was something like 5,000 lire or roughly $4.00. Going through tunnels in the mountains, sometimes the cars would lose power to the lights, so you're speeding along about 60 or so in almost total darkness. If you were lucky in 2nd class seating, you got a roomette (like you see in the movies), or, you might get to sit on church pews. If you got on an espresso, you usually made the trip to Piazza Garibaldi (downtown Naples) in about 45 minutes. If you were dumb enough to get on a locale, you would make the same trip in about 3 hours.

Actually, I thought the train service there was excellent. I met quite a few people on the trains, carried on conversations with them in my stumbling Italian and their rather excellent English. (Italian students must have a written understanding of English in order to graduate.) All in all, though, I had a great time there. Miss the food, miss the fun, and miss the carefree life I had then, even while in the Navy.

I made that ride once, only SIXTH Fleet was on the Belknap then, and she tried to kill me. And once up to Rome and the Alitalia shuttle over to the airport. I used to live down the Domitz from you in Lago Patria, albeit a few years later.

[Modelcar]

...Having just debarked from 17 days crossing the Pacific on a MSTS boat in Seattle....and an 8hr processing turnaround at Ft. Lewis, Wa. [1954],....we were informed those going east of the Mississippi would fly and I was one going to Ft. Meade, Md. to be separated from the service..so typical of the Army, we were herded to a troop train...and that didn't bother me as I was going to enjoy crossing the country via train so I made sure I pitched my duffle bag onto a lower bunk [one with windows], in the older Pullman car we were going to make the trip in...The ladies restroom was later filled with duffle bags which left one rest room on the car for about 28 men...During the middle of the night we all got the G I's from food we were not used to and 28 men had only one rest room available...! In a short time the car ran out of water....!!! And one can use your imagination to figure out what kind of problems that caused. I won't go into details but it should be obvious the situation was not a very nice one...But later the next day the situation did get remedied and after we got well....things did get better. From that point on I really enjoyed the 4 day journey across the country to Ft. Meade, Md for separation from the service and that I enjoyed even more after 16 mos. in the Pacific rim....

[rixflix]

Rixflix is back and now in Europe, fall of 1966. but.no one there seemed to notice .Landed in Frankfurt (Rhein -Main) early in the morning. An army bus picked us up and paralleled a streetcar line for a while near the zoo. I was beginning to like this!!!It was cold and raining when we rode into a grim chunk of brown masonry called (if memory serves) the 21st Replacement Company.we were processed there and forwarded that night to the haupt bahnhof where we boarded the all stops Ulm local. High speed and short station stops behind STEAM!!! With whistle shrieking we hurtled pell-mell through the night. Our sergeant didn't have to wake me when we alighted at Wertheim am Main. Peden Barracks was high up on a hill, had a small airfield, and turned out to be a former Stuka base with an underground (but sealed) takeoff strip.The Wertheim bahnhof had an enginehouse, a turntable and a small stud of large 2-6-2 or 2-8-2 tank engines. Very compact and fairly busy.
In July 1967 a friend and I went on r&r. destination Dubrovnik via Paris and Rome. Paris on Bastille Day was a thrill and so was the Metro. Especially the huge elevator that took us from deep below the Seine at Ile de la Cite' up io Notre Dame cathedral. At Gare de Lyon we boarded a train for Marseilles. where my war-bride mother grew up. As we looked for an empty compartment, we went too far back in the train and wound up getting switched off at Lyon in the middle of the night. In the morning the scenery looked awfully like the Alpine foothills and sure enough the end of the line was Besancon. We then backtracked on an almost all glass auto-railer through terrific scenery and down through Veynes and a backdoor entrance to Aix and Marseilles.
It was night when we arrived at le Gare St. Charles and the son et lumiere' fountain display in front of the station was dazzling. We quickly found a fleabag hotel on Rue d'Angeline where the ladies of the evening seemed to be doing a brisk business.The Melina Mercouri look was in fashion.. Marseilles was so much fun and the food so excellent, that we stayed a week and knew we'd never complete our itinerary We did get to Nice however, passing the large roundhouse at Arcangel. Some big French steam there but it might have been on static display In Nice we ran out of money but we had left some in reserve back in Germany. They were supposed to have wired it to us in Nice but somehow sent it to Paris.Eventually (we couldn't even leave our hotel because we would have had to pay the bill), we went to the U.S. Consulate where they had an emergency fund for hapless travellers like us
The best part of the trip back was descending into Belfort on a steep grade, in the fog and smog of this Pittsburgh type town.

Next.....Viet Nam

"Goodbye and Gawd bless" as Red Skelton used to say

Captain Video aka Rixflix

[Anonymous]

Stationed in Gaeta, Italy (60 miles north of Naples) on the Sixth Fleet Flagship (USS Albany CG10). Rode trains from Formia station to Naples and back. Round trip ticket was something like 5,000 lire or roughly $4.00. Going through tunnels in the mountains, sometimes the cars would lose power to the lights, so you're speeding along about 60 or so in almost total darkness. If you were lucky in 2nd class seating, you got a roomette (like you see in the movies), or, you might get to sit on church pews. If you got on an espresso, you usually made the trip to Piazza Garibaldi (downtown Naples) in about 45 minutes. If you were dumb enough to get on a locale, you would make the same trip in about 3 hours.

Actually, I thought the train service there was excellent. I met quite a few people on the trains, carried on conversations with them in my stumbling Italian and their rather excellent English. (Italian students must have a written understanding of English in order to graduate.) All in all, though, I had a great time there. Miss the food, miss the fun, and miss the carefree life I had then, even while in the Navy.

[rixflix]

Joseph2:, it was "The Marathon Run of Lonesome Ernie, the Arkansas Traveler", from
the "A Fistful of Fig Newtons" anthology.
Let's see::
IN GOD WE TRUST all others pay cash
WANDA HICKEY'S NIGHT OF GOLDEN MEMORIES and other disasters
A FISTFUL OF FIG NEWTONS
THE FERRARI IN THE BEDROOM

Anything else in print???
Sometimes I close my eyes, turn off the noise, and tune in to WOR radio circa 1959.. Remember Long John Nebel, John Doremus et al.? Later it was Larry Glick on WBZ Boston.
Nobody does radio like that today
It required that you interact with the narrator and let him paint the pictures in your head, full of inflection and nuance. It was just grand, n'est pas?

Rixflix

[joseph2]

Rixflix,one of Jean Shepards books has a story about a troop train he traveled on back in WWII.Very funny story but I can't remember the title. Joe G.

[rixflix]

Back to Washington DC for a moment. I guess it was probably not a good idea to have an 18 for beer and wine policy in a town with 6 universities back in '65.. I know it contributed to my (one semester and out) academic demise.
Well back to the Silver Whatever. I slept through Richmond, Petersbug etc. and awoke a few times as we tore over trestles over tidal inlets. Black land and silver water under a large moon. And the loopy palmetto's and long straightaways started to appear.This was all exotic to your faithful Pennsylvanian
What amused the Pennsylvania bumpkin 'cruits however, was the porter bell. "Watch what happens!", they would say as they pressed the porter button. A black person showed up twice in my cubicle before the porters decided to ignore us. There was a crew or engine change in Hamlet or Hamden? The stations had a green and white motif. Was it ACL or SAL? Anyway we were besieged by the local beer vendors who transacted business over the dutch doors, saying "Get your ice cold beer 52cents a can". That phrase could still be heard two weeks into basic training.
From Columbia SC we hooked left to Fort jackson and (it was only June) 90 degree heat. Heat was wanted in the barracks however, for shower water, and it was soon discovered that I was the only fireman in the immediate area. We had anthracite heat back home and they had concrete anthracite bins here for every company area. Apparently a lot of these guys didn"t believe rocks could burnI Wound up firing 4 barrack buildings and the NCO quarters and got to skip some of the more onerous training sessions Once at the NCO barracks an old sergeant was watching me start 'er up and said "Nah, kid here"s how you start a fire". He went to an adjacent gas pump and returned with a #10 butt can of gas. Just as I had backed WAY up, he tossed the gas in the general direction of the coal. Knocked him on his *** and all his hair was now white ash and shorter. It was rumored that those wood buidings (they were more paint than wood) could burn to the ground in 4 minutes, and he might have succeeded.
I assembled and weathered a P&R 1900 reefer from a Central Valley kit during the evenings on the barracks' steps. Brought along Ambroid and Goo and oh, those beautiful CV archbar trucks. I'm looking at it right now.
After basic I had a week of home leave before AIT at Fort Sill. Rode north on a (I swear)
Jersey Central un-air conditioned, grimy windowed day coach. Went to Sill on Trailways, passing one of the King Ranches.3? rail fences for miles!!! Fort Sill to Fort Dix by Plane and then.....
Coming next......Europe!!!

Close Station March Order aka Cut The S..t and Move Out

Captain Video aka Rixflix
Blessed be Jean Shepard in all His works

[mvlandsw]

I wonder if I was on the same train as rixflix out of Washington DC. I started off in 1966 in a roomette out of Pittsburgh on the B&O to DC. This was my first ride over the line I would eventually work on. After the layover in DC we left on the RF&P riding extra coaches on the back of a regular SAL train. At the first stop some of the Army people mooned the station as we pulled out. At the next stop several MPs boarded the train. I'm not sure how they identified the guilty bodies. At a later stop I got to walk to the head end and found some of the SAL light green slant nose E units. After a few days at Fort Jackson I got a bus ride to Fort Gordan. I remember taking picture of the Georgia RR steamer on display in Augusta. I spent three years in the Army and rode trains whenever I could, for a total of about 30,000 miles in the US and Australia. Probably the most unusual was riding in a circle around Ft. Eustis on the military training railroad. Driving an armored personel carrier down the tracks in Vietnam was different too.

[Anonymous]

My first ride on an airplane was to Basic Training too. And the Air Force considered sending me to Ft. Lost In The Woods for some additional training for my AFSC but I ended up @ Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX instead.

[daveklepper]

While at Ft. Monmouth in summer of 1951, I had to go to Princeton U. Little Silver Station was at the back gate of Fort Monmouth, and I expected a doodlebug (former PRR gas electric converterd to diesel electric) to get me to Princeton Jc. after coming off guard duty a 6AM. What showed up was an E-6 Altantic, P-54 coach (shorty, no diaphragms) and matching combine. Then the Princeton Junction and back 2-car MP-54 mu to Princeton, and a buddy Fulton Clarke Douglass picked me up in the afternoon for a visit to New York by auto, although I'd planned to go by train. Doug Riddell wrote up my experiences at Fort Bragg 1954-1956, mostly Florida trains to and from New York, with dinner in the diner with my favorite Maitre-d' John Masters (ACL), with Fayetteville the depot for Fort Bragg. Used the Seabord when I wanted a get away at 1AM, leave time starting at midnight, from Southern Pines, since I could board one of the Silver trains at that time. Then there was the case of the parachute droppable loudspeaker under test landing on the SCL main line, and I hope someday TRAINS prints the story. Dave Klepper

[jeaton]

In '63 the normal spot for basic for Wisconsin guys was Leonard Wood, MO. That would be a bus from Milwaukee and IC-St Louis -Frisco on a through Pullman.So Leonard Wood is full and they decide to send us to Ft Jackson on regular commercial air service. If the hop from Milwaukee to O'Hare (my first airplane ride ever) had been something beside a DC3, I would have never forgiven the Army. Jackson was also full, so they rode us down the road to Ft Gordon. There I learned that December and January in Georgia is a lot better than same in Missouri.

[jeaton]

Rick-Spent the better part of two years on the Beach at Ft Story. In a month TDY at Eustis, never saw any action at the rail bat. It was '65.

Best train ride was on the point of the Panama Limited between Champaign and Chicago. Leaving about 45 minutes late, we hit up to 97 MPH for a stretch. (About 18 over the limit). I was working for the IC on the Suburban Line, but it was still not authorized. The Fireman was a friend. The Engineer was an old head that didn't mind but had me duck out of sight when southbound Uof Illinois football specials went past. He didn't want any questions from bosses that might have been on the specials. That was back so far that if that engine crew is still around they're way to old to give a rat's.... Ooops, sorry, you said while in service. OK, I was in TRAIN service.

In another service, my ride to Nam was three weeks on the sunny Pacific, courtesy of the US Navy and the SS Breckinridge. One reason I never complain about a late train.

[rixflix]

I was drafted in 1966.Had gone to architecture school at Catholic University in Washingyon DC, but flunked out due to neglecting english. history. calculus.etc. in favor of architectural design, which I aced. I was sucked into the biggest draft of the war, it was in January 1966, it was 125000 I think). Well I wasn't too eager to get dead so early in life, so I volunteered for three years to get construction surveying and Germany. I got artillery surveying and Germany and THEN Viet Nam, but that's another story. Then it was off to New Cumberland PA to get inspected.detected, rejected (thanks Arlo!!!). Remember *bend over and spread 'em" and "cough"? There I learned that not all men are created equal!!!
After that they packed us into a bus for Harrisburg's Pennsylvania station for the trip south to Fort jackson SC. We rode behind Pennsy E's through York {street running) and Baltimore and into Washington DC, my college town. There was to be a three hour layover there before being attached to a southbound train, so I led my group over to the "Mail and Rail", a beer joint on North Capitol s Street. It was there that I learned the first lesson of soldiering... SKATE. When we were boardimg our Silver Something , with a few choice friends (funny how you make them in times of short necessity in the service), i watched everyone else board and then went to a roomette while the masses got fold-down in the aisles.From previous experience, i knew what to do next.. With shade drawn I undressed and with light off and shade up, I mooned the platform when we pulled out!!!

Next.... palmetto's and the trip south

yer skate buddy, rixflix
over and out
Next... the trip south.

[Anonymous]

Billeted @ Albrook Air Station in Panama but worked @ Howard Air Force Base on the other side of the Canal. Convinced the Sergeant to stop at the Panama Railroad depot on the way to Howard. We stopped and I got out to take pictures of an Alco RSC3. I was met by a security guard (with shotgun!!) who didn't have much of a sense of humor or any desire to let me photograph the engine. I got in the back of the truck and got a couple of shots as we headed towards HAFB.

[Modelcar]

....If your talking about r & r's too...Have one with riding a C-47, I believe it was at 13,000' elev. between Japan and Korea on Thanksgiving and had a turkey sandwich to celebrate it...It was pretty cold in that thing too....So was the sandwich but it was pretty good.[8D]

[rixflix]

I'm talk[ng about:


Military Tranportation Corps, USO, tdy's, r&r's, Fort Eustis. troop trains, Merchant Marine. The works.Have fun!!!

Captain Video aka rixflix

[rixflix]

BOTH lc.
I guess if you were train crew you've got some stories about us scruffy bastards!!!

[Anonymous]

Rixflix-

You talking about military service or RR service, or both?

LC

[Modelcar]

....Rode steam train from Inchon, Korea to points north sleeping on the dirty floor and had corned beef hash [cold], out of my C-ration can for breakfast...Oh, that was really fun.....Through a tunnel too with windows open.

[rixflix]

I've got several!!!