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US NAVY has ordered NEW, Armor-plated Cabooses 1st one is VWXX800

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, March 18, 2021 1:37 PM

SeeYou190
I doubt the caboose has much offensive potential at all.

Strictly defensive -- and probably intended to act as area-denial should any high level of force come to be used.  Closest thing to an offensive weapons system a caboose like this would be involved in would be something like an updated Peacekeeper Rail Garrison system -- for you model railroaders, here's some idea how to run one:

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/d1/da/43/5a110157fdee67/US4896580.pdf

but, as you might expect, even easily man- or drone-portable PGM could easily toast it within seconds...

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, March 18, 2021 1:37 PM

SeeYou190
I doubt the caboose has much offensive potential at all.

Strictly defensive -- and probably intended to act as area-denial should any high level of force come to be used.  Closest thing to an offensive weapons system a caboose like this would be involved in would be something like an updated Peacekeeper Rail Garrison system -- for you model railroaders, here's some idea how to run one:

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/d1/da/43/5a110157fdee67/US4896580.pdf

but, as you might expect, even easily man-portable PGM could easily toast it within seconds...

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, March 18, 2021 1:02 PM

I doubt the caboose has much offensive potential at all.

Much more effective, if fighting capacity was a goal, would be a heavily armoured short open topped fighting platform with several mortar tubes... but even that is silly.

All offensive support will be from the helicopter or two operating just over the horizon.

-Kevin

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 12, 2021 12:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

[/quote]

Overmod
Now where did I put that hand-crank mount for the twin 10-22s? 

A surplus ammunition dealer we knew had one of those!  He also had some .22 caliber tracer  ammunition the military used for training purposes.  He told us using that twin 10-22 hand-crank mount with the tracers was spectacular beyond belief!  Laugh

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 12, 2021 12:52 PM

54light15
he asked me to see about a .22 Thompson

If I remember correctly (It's been a lot of years) the .22 Thompson shot accurately but wasn't that reliable. 

By the way, the drum mag for the .45 Thompson (the repro) wasn't that reliable either.  Unless it came with the whole package we advised our customers not to bother with it. 

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 12, 2021 8:23 AM

Backshop
There's a company called Standard Manufacturing that makes a slightly scaled down version of the Thompson in .22LR.

If I recall correctly Guns & Ammo said it was about half the size, and the receiver is aluminum so much less weight.

One thing in common, though: at 50yd. even the worst group with .22LR was under 2".

Now where did I put that hand-crank mount for the twin 10-22s? Big Smile

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Posted by Backshop on Friday, March 12, 2021 7:51 AM

There's a company called Standard Manufacturing that makes a slightly scaled down version of the Thompson in .22LR.  It's quite a bit more than $500, though.

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, March 11, 2021 9:42 PM

My old man, when he was in the USAAF back in Big Two said that once you got used to a Thompson, you could shoot it one-handed like a pistol. I went to West Hurley Arms as he asked me to see about a .22 Thompson that he heard they were selling for about 500 bucks. Sadly, they were out of production and no longer available. Hell, even if they were semi-autos I would have loved to have used one! Got to be a hell of a lot of fun! 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, March 11, 2021 5:01 PM

54light15

Thompson submachine guns? Still being made!

https://www.auto-ordnance.com/ 

http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=224 -I've been to West Hurley Arms about 25 years ago- It's like walking into a firearms museum. They had more Lee-Enfield .303s than I ever saw in one place. A lot of them had Arabic phrases carved into the stock. A bunch of WW1 Mausers, too. 

 

Oh , those Auto-Ordnance/Numrich Thompsons!  I remember them well!  Not quite the same at the ones from the 20's, these were semi-auto only and with extended barrels.  The finishes weren't quite as good as the old ones (the ones from the 20's were gorgeous, I've seen 'em!) but good enough.

But man, did those Auto-Ordnance Thompsons shoot!  A fellow gun club member had one, it would put all the shots through ONE hole at 25 yards and darn near all through one hole at 50! 

I never made it up to Numrich, but I did get to a place called Sarco, another surplus arms dealer.  Very impressive showroom full of stuff, but they weren't giving it away, if you know what I mean. Expensive place.

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, March 11, 2021 3:12 PM

Thompson submachine guns? Still being made!

https://www.auto-ordnance.com/ 

http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=224 -I've been to West Hurley Arms about 25 years ago- It's like walking into a firearms museum. They had more Lee-Enfield .303s than I ever saw in one place. A lot of them had Arabic phrases carved into the stock. A bunch of WW1 Mausers, too. 

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, March 11, 2021 3:09 PM

deleted- duplicated below. 

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, March 11, 2021 10:09 AM

samfp1943
Sort of interesting, that in 2021, the Government is going to build  several(?) armored caboose(s)?  After almost 40 or so years of saying they were not needed? 

Once they switch-on the implanted vaccine chips,  the importance for these cabooses will become more obvious.

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, March 11, 2021 8:58 AM

SALfan
Or the turret from an Abrams main battle tank with the quad .50's mounted concentrically around the big gun, in lieu of the cupola.

Fire that big gun at any angle there's an actual threat and be prepared for a surprise.  Especially if you mount that turret up there on top and your trucks are standard-gauge and suspended as pictured... DunceSmile

Seriously, PGM self-propelled munitions are a far better answer than a gun, even if you use your smoothbore gun tube to aim them initially and guide the initial launch.  The problem is that you'd have to slew the tube to put it on target, whereupon the guy on the other side puts a TOW or something between caboose and turret...

Better to launch a swarm straight up, form to loiter, and engage targets as appropriate or designated.  You can recover most of the expensive hardware afterward, too...

If you look at the work converging the autonomous-swarm and loyal-wingman programs you will begin to appreciate how the actual defense-in-depth will be best conducted, including recovery of nuclear material actually taken in, say, a massive chemical-weapons exploit.  The actual force to be used will be carefully hidden until the actual time it comes to be used -- unlike nuclear weapons themselves there is little point in advertising 'deterrence' beyond casual dissuasion of the 'protected by Smith and Wesson' bumper-sticker kind.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, March 11, 2021 8:38 AM

Victrola1
The coach was self contained with bunks, a refrigerator, stove, etc. The coach was reportedly also well stocked with firearms, including Thompson sub machine guns, and ammunition. 

Well someone had fine taste in firearms!  Aside from their size and weight Thompsons can still hold their own with any submachine gun around today.

Pretty impressive for a design that's 100 years old!

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, March 11, 2021 1:02 AM

Backshop
Unless they're running under caternary, I doubt there would be enough extra electricity to power any of those weapons.

MegaGen, baby!

And COIL and THEL are hypergolic.

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Posted by SALfan on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 10:07 PM

Flintlock76

They haven't gone far enough.

It'd be a LOT more impressive with some quad-.50's mounted fore and aft of the cupola!   

THAT'D make the bad guys think twice!   Captain

 

Or the turret from an Abrams main battle tank with the quad .50's mounted concentrically around the big gun, in lieu of the cupola.

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Posted by seppburgh2 on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 9:13 PM
So where does the Phalanx and 5 incher get mounted? Reminds me of the Lionel rocket launcher and the exploding box cars. But on a side note, what ever happen to Regan's traveling nuke trains?
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Posted by rixflix on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 8:07 PM

After reading the entire "The Drive" link, I thought of the end of the movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai", where the doctor says simply, "Madness". 

Rick 

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Posted by Victrola1 on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 6:03 PM

Over 50 years ago nuclear weapons were made at the Iowa Army Ammunition plant at Middletown, IA, just west of Burlilngton. There was an old passenger coach with steel plates over the windows. The coach was parked by the ammunition plant roundhouse. 

The coach would occasionally be seen tacked to the rear end of a short freight train passing through Burlington. Years later retired security personal at the ammuntion plant told of riding the coach when nuclear weapons were shipped by rail. 

The coach was self contained with bunks, a refrigerator, stove, etc. The coach was reportedly also well stocked with firearms, including Thompson sub machine guns, and ammunition. 

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Posted by Backshop on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 5:45 PM

Unless they're running under caternary, I doubt there would be enough extra electricity to power any of those weapons.

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 3:11 PM

Backshop
Quad .50's are so World War Two.  Nowadays, miniguns are where it's at.

Miniguns are so Viet Nam.  Railguns, polyspectral lasers, and brilliant munitions are more likely where it's at...

Not that I have anything against chain guns.  Or chain printers.

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Posted by Backshop on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 3:03 PM

Quad .50's are so World War Two.  Nowadays, miniguns are where it's at.

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 2:59 PM

Torpedo tubes...

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Posted by SD70Dude on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 2:49 PM

Flintlock76

Now, where's the torpedo tubes?

On the head end.  They're going to resurrect some really old GE's to pull it.  They don't have any electrical gear worthy of the name so they should be able to survive an EMP.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 2:38 PM

If they tried a little harder they could make it look like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztkKJUQB4rU  

 

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 11:50 AM

zugmann

 

 
tree68
Maybe they're built to pop up when needed...

 

Hopefully they won't be under catenary at the time. 

 

Thumbs Up

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Posted by zugmann on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 9:31 AM

tree68
Maybe they're built to pop up when needed...

Hopefully they won't be under catenary at the time. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 8:52 AM

tree68

 

 
Flintlock76
It'd be a LOT more impressive with some quad-.50's mounted fore and aft of the cupola!   

 

Maybe they're built to pop up when needed...

 

Good point!  Never thought of that!

Now, where's the torpedo tubes?

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 8:50 AM

Flintlock76
It'd be a LOT more impressive with some quad-.50's mounted fore and aft of the cupola!   

Maybe they're built to pop up when needed...

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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