DSchmitt softail86mark Beale AFB, Marysville (Linda), California still uses rail. U2 base. Do they still use rail? Looked at Google Earth. Spotted one tank car in 2013 photo on a spur (no where near a place it could not be unloaded). Same car at same place in 2011 photo. What appears to be same car at end of track in 2010 photo just ouside (a warehouse?), the only place where track is covered. I think they no longer have a locomotive on the base. Didn't see any. Oldest photos 1993 (poor quality). No sign of rail activity on them or the 1998 )poor quality) photos either.
softail86mark Beale AFB, Marysville (Linda), California still uses rail. U2 base.
Do they still use rail?
Looked at Google Earth. Spotted one tank car in 2013 photo on a spur (no where near a place it could not be unloaded). Same car at same place in 2011 photo. What appears to be same car at end of track in 2010 photo just ouside (a warehouse?), the only place where track is covered. I think they no longer have a locomotive on the base. Didn't see any.
Oldest photos 1993 (poor quality). No sign of rail activity on them or the 1998 )poor quality) photos either.
Schmitt,
You're probably right. I was headed to Wheatland and saw a UP crew switching that spur and just assumed. They could have just been using that spot for storage. I'll Google map it myself and look.
BTW, where are you?
Mark C.
WP Lives
Shaw AFB uses it's railroad for delivery of fuel to the 20th Fighter Wing. My father was stationed down there (I was born on the base's hospital) and didn't realize that the railroad was still running.
It rosters 2 GE 80 tonners
http://www.rrpicturearchives.netshowPicture.aspx?id=3190681,
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3190684
and a Whitcomb RS-4-TC
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1510876
__________________________________________________________________
Mike Kieran
Port Able Railway
I just do what the majority of the voices in my head vote on.
I don't know why there's no reply button.
Ravenna Arsenal in Ravenna Ohio still has tracks leading to it. Not sure if they are active (certainly not much)
The old DeLorme Gazzetter had shown the tracks in trhe aresenal, not sure if newer ones stilldo.
Wikimaps could give a satellite view.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
Oh, I almost forgot an extremely interesting prototype for this topic! When I was a contractor I did some work at NSWC (Naval Surface Warfare Center) Crane, which is located, obviously, in Indiana. So those of you who like to model the midwest but also like the Navy can have both!
Google that bad boy, and you can see tracks, and tracks and tracks, and tracks... I think just about every storage facility on that place had a spur. Don't remember who ran the trains back in the early 90s when I visited, but it looks like they are still running.
Seriously. A LOT of track.
Sean
HO Scale CSX Modeler
Back in the late 80's and until the mid 90's, I did some civilian engineering contract electronics work at Fort Eustis, Va. As already mentioned, it is the army's transportation training center. During those years, but mostly in the early 90's, on two speparate occasions, I observed Steam engine activity. (consolidation) hustling a car or two along their track on post.
Amazed, I asked about it and, yes, they still trained a few at that time on steam engine operation in case they had to operate in theater where that was still in use. Made sense, too. I bet that is no longer done, but couldn't say for sure.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
Right now I'm reading a book called "The History of the Ravenna Arsenal", and it goes into some detail about the railroad operations at Ravenna. It was built in 1940-42 using narrow guage track taken from a tunnel-building job in Pennsylvania. After the arsenal got into operation, they tore that out and installed many miles of standard guage track. Some of the storage bunkers were only accessible by rail.
A great book, LOTS of photos.
Today, most military depots still have extensive rail operations to move stuff. I was just looking at a GoogleEarth shot of the McAlester Depot in Oklahoma. Lots of track there.
I was at Lackland AFB TX, Chanute AFB IL, James Connolly AFB TX, Bergstrom AFB TX, and Cam Ranh Bay AB Vietnam in the last half of the 60's, but don't recall much railroad activity at any of those. They are all gone now.
Lackland AFB TX is still around. As a training center it doesn't surprise me that it did not have railroad activity. Kelly AFB did have siginificant actitvity since it was a logistical center. It had numerous warehouses with railroad spurs.
The former arsenal in downtown San Antonio, which dated back to the mid nineteenth century, was rail served. Ft. Sam Houston, east of downtown and on the Sunset Route, had an extensive system of rail lines to serve various warehouses and facilitate the loading and unloading of troops. Those are all gone, removed about 1981.
Camp Stanley and Camp Bullis north of San Antonio were rail served with tracks leading to ammunition bunkers. Those were last used during the 1991 Gulf War and finally removed around 2003.
I was born and raised in Hawthorne, NV and visit there once or twice a year. I also worked on the base for a few years. My last visit I seen a small switcher and an unknown diesel still working the rails on the base. The locomotive shop is still there but used only for loco storage and light maintaince. Major loco maintaince is done at the Tooele, UT Army Depot. There's around 200 miles of track inside the base. The original Mina branch was an SP line, which was once the Carson Colorado narrow gauge, but is now operated by the government and the tracks from Hawthorne to Mina have been removed. The base is an ammunition storage, maintaince, disposal, and a training center.
Sam Clarke R&D
Kadee Quality Products
MJ4562 Lackland AFB TX is still around. As a training center it doesn't surprise me that it did not have railroad activity. Kelly AFB did have siginificant actitvity since it was a logistical center. It had numerous warehouses with railroad spurs. The former arsenal in downtown San Antonio, which dated back to the mid nineteenth century, was rail served. Ft. Sam Houston, east of downtown and on the Sunset Route, had an extensive system of rail lines to serve various warehouses and facilitate the loading and unloading of troops. Those are all gone, removed about 1981. Camp Stanley and Camp Bullis north of San Antonio were rail served with tracks leading to ammunition bunkers. Those were last used during the 1991 Gulf War and finally removed around 2003. In 1970, Lackland was still had an active rail line which connected to the SP main at (I believe) a junction named "Cadet". The power was a nicely-maintained GE center-cab diesel with USAF markings in blue and white. I got some pictures but, like a few other things in the last 45 years, they've been misplaced. Two former bases in California which had some rail: MCAS El Toro in Orange County (now closed) had warehouses and sidings right next to the LA-San Diego ATSF main. Norton AFB (MAC) in San Bernardino had lots of track around. When it closed, the Orange Empire Railway Museum was allowed to harvest truckloads of rails for its use in nearby Riverside County.
In 1970, Lackland was still had an active rail line which connected to the SP main at (I believe) a junction named "Cadet". The power was a nicely-maintained GE center-cab diesel with USAF markings in blue and white. I got some pictures but, like a few other things in the last 45 years, they've been misplaced.
Two former bases in California which had some rail:
MCAS El Toro in Orange County (now closed) had warehouses and sidings right next to the LA-San Diego ATSF main.
Norton AFB (MAC) in San Bernardino had lots of track around. When it closed, the Orange Empire Railway Museum was allowed to harvest truckloads of rails for its use in nearby Riverside County.
garylaIn 1970, Lackland was still had an active rail line which connected to the SP main at (I believe) a junction named "Cadet". The power was a nicely-maintained GE center-cab diesel with USAF markings in blue and white. I got some pictures but, like a few other things in the last 45 years, they've been misplaced.
I just took his word for it so I had to look it up on a topo map and YEP, you are correct. There was a spur off the SP mainline head due north into the base. Looks like one spur line leading to the warehouses along Military Drive West. If you manage to dig up those pictures I would love to see them.
I was stationed at Fort Eustis in the little 1st Railway Detachment in the spring of 1975 and during that time members of our unit got the steam locomotive running in time for an open house for the Army's birthday. The locomotive made three trips around the loop before being replaced by a diesel. Not long thereafter I went to Germany and from friends who remained in the unit I learned that, following that last performance, the steam locomotive was put in the museum and never ran again. It remains there to this day. The 1st Rail Det was inactivated at the end of September 1978, putting an end to active duty railroaders in the Army. There were still rail reservists for many years to come, but they became increasingly rare. After the departure of active duty railroaders, civilian employees operating the post utility railway.
For a long time I was away from military rail matters but kept up with what was going on, and in 1994 I joined one of the last Army Reserve railway units, which included attending training courses at Fort Eustis. The steam locomotive was still in the museum at that time, and it still is today. I never heard of it ever operating again after 1975, and had that happened I'm pretty sure I would have heard about it.
Training Army railroaders (only reservists after 1978) on steam operations was pretty much just a fantasy. Given that reservists only drill one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer (and much of that time was devoted to non-rail activities -- this is, after all, the Army, not a railway company), it was all a unit could do just to keep reservists current with diesel operations.
There are some big reasons why using steam locomotives overseas wouldn't work. One is that very few, if any, reservists had any knowledge of how to operate or maintain them, and no one in uniform was being trained on steam locomotives. Another is that there was no logistical support for steam locomotives anymore. Where would the spare parts come from? It would make much more sense to deploy with diesels, which the Army last did during the Korean War when it used newly-built SW8s.
After 1975 a steam locomotive could be seen on post at Fort Eustis, but that was just the one parked in the museum next to the main road going into the post. If someone told a visitor that a steam locomotive was fired up and being used for switching operations or training railway soldiers (and there were only reservists after 1978, and they weren't based there), he was enjoying an opportunity to pull someone's leg.
I remember seeing track around the now defunct El Toro Marine Base.
DaryllS Right now I'm reading a book called "The History of the Ravenna Arsenal", and it goes into some detail about the railroad operations at Ravenna. It was built in 1940-42 using narrow guage track taken from a tunnel-building job in Pennsylvania. After the arsenal got into operation, they tore that out and installed many miles of standard guage track. Some of the storage bunkers were only accessible by rail.
The tunnel project was probably for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The tunnels were originally dug for Vanderbilts South Pennsylvania Railroad.
Back in the 1960's/early 1980's, SAC Simulators (Modified Passenger Cars) were on base also.
Do you have more information about these Simulator cars? I would like to model them. If you have pics or info I would appreciate it?