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Military Railway Service in World War
LIEUTENANT
COLONEL JEFFERSON
H,
MYERS,
T, aJlspol iatioll
COI lIS
er
Instructor Command amI General Stuff School
al
T
HE
Iron
Horse
is
nut
dead
Again in time
of
war
in
theaters
of
operations round the world
the railroad has
proved
its
ability
to
haul large
volumes
of
men
and
supplies quickly
af d economically,
It
can
truthfully
hc
said,
"The
sun
never sets
on
American
railroad
troop";
they
are
scat
tered
round
the
WOl'il ."
OQ
pape,'
at
least,
tl1<
United
States
A
rmy has
had
a
Military
Railway
Service
~in e
World
War
I.
It
was
part
of
the
Corps
of
Eng'ineers
until
1942,
War
Department Geneml
Orde,'
No,
GO,
Hi
Nov 42,
transferred
it
to
the
newly formed
Transportation
Corps,
Let
us
review
briefly
the
organization
of
the
Military
Railway
Service
as
liescribed in
FM
55-50,
Our
Military Railway
Service' is org'anizcll
as
nearly
like
American
com
mercial
railroads as military
necessity
will
permit;
hence we find lllany
railroad titles
.
carried
ovcr
into
the
organization of
the
Military
Railway
Service. We lind a g'ooll
example of
t i~
l'ight
at
the
top-the
Com
manding'
General
of the Military
Railway
~ervice
is
better
known
as
Gene,
al
Manae;e,',
Military
Railway
Service, He
has
a
Head
quarters
and HeadquarterR
Company, Mili
tary
Railway
Service
which is
the
highe;;t
headquart('rs of the Military
Railway
Serv
ice
in
any
theater
of
operations
having
a
complete
military railroad
org'anization, Below
this
headquarters
we find
onL
01'
more
Headquarters
anll
Headquarters
Company,
Railway
Grand
Division,
ami
here
again
we
find
the
use
of
commercial
titles,
the
Colonel in
charge
being
called
General
Superintendent,
Railway
Grand
Division. In a
Railway
Grand
Division we find
two
or
more Railway
Divisions,
each
operated hy
a
Railway Operating Battalion
and
one
01'
more
Railway
Shop Battalions.
The
Lieu
tenant
Colonel
commanding
the
Railway
Op
erating
Battalion
holds
the
title,
Superintendent, Railway
Division,
The
Lieutenant
Colonel
commanding
the
Railway
Shop
Bat
talion
is
also
known
as
General
Shop
Superintendent,
Each
Railway Operating Bat-
 
talion
is
normally assigned from
nindy
~
In
150 miles-
of
main
line tracl{.
Its
foui'
com·
b
panics,
(Headquarters
and
Healiqntll'ters
It
Company,
Trunsportation
Company,
Jlain.
tenance of Way
Company,
and
Maintenance
of Equipment
Company)
are
capable
of
op·
el'ating
forty
tl'ains
pel'
day
(twenty
in
each
dit'ection),
maintaining
up to
150 miles
~
track
and
making
running'
repairs
to
lo ~
,motives
and
cal'S,
The
Shop Battalion
pro·
videi' foul' companies,
the
men
and
the
heav,
equipnH'nt
neces~al Y
to
make
major
repair;
to
locomotives
and
CUI'S,
This
is thp
or·
ganization of
the
Military Railway
S< >I vice,
Railroad
experience
cannot
he g'ained
in
a
day
01'
evell six
months,
How,
then,
were
expcrienced
railroad
men
ohtained
and
trained
for the Military Railway
Servil'c? A
rather
unique method
of
obtainin,o:
ex·
p<.>rienccd
railroad
personnel
was
put
into
ef·
fpct. A
II
of the
large
milway
systems
in
this
countl'Y
were
askell to
sponsor
onc
or
IllOI'P
opcl'llt.ing'
and
shop
hattalions,
Two
or
mul'(' sillall
railroads
werc
U1 g ell
to
sponsor
jointly an
operating'
01'
shop
haitalion,
The
sponSOl'
01'
sponsors
furnished
experi<.>ncec
pel'sonnel hoth
for
officers anll ('nlisted
men
;\1( n
from
regular
selective
s<.>l \>iec
channels made
up thc
bulk
of
the pdvat 's
especially in those
hnttalions activated
in
HJ4:l
and
lH,
Upon
activation,
a
unit
is g-iven tl'llining along'
the
u~ual
Illilitary
lines;
however,
its
t('ehnicul trainin< ,' is accomplishc(l in one
~j
.
two
ways:
Th<.>
Chief of
Transportation
ar·
rang'ps hy conU'act
actually
to place
the
unit
with
one
of
Oll '
commelTial I'ailr'onds where
the
at'my personnel
can
aetually
pel'form
various
railroad
duties
under the
g'uidance
of railroad
operating
pel'sonnel;
01'
a unit
may
hl'
sent
to operatl' the
arllly-owned
Claiborne
and
Polk
Hailroad,
known
to
mili,
tary
railway operating battalions round
the
world
as
"Old Crime and
Punishm<.>nt," and
said
"to
have
been
laid
out
in
the
dark
of
the
moon
by
I
cross-eyed
man
with
the
d.t's," The road
was built
by
the
711th
Op,
 
33
ILITARY
RAILWAY SERVICE
IN
WORLD
WAR
II
Personnel,
ma
road
could be
from
Whiteconstructed sought
their
OF
\
.~j
FIGURE 1
op.
let
of
o
1 0·
lV i
iI
or·
ce
~re
n~
~x·
~f·
in
or or
he
ed
~ s
ly
Battalion
with the
assistance
of
(ngineers
as
a
training
line
for
rail~
t
I
,lOPS;
all
the handicaps
and hazards nature
and man
could devise seemed
to
cOJwpntrated on
thi~
single-track railroad.
is ,.lid
that
railway
operating
battalions
tIll
C.
and
P.
with
a
sigh of
relief, know
P CIFIC
OCE N
OMINION
th
..
t
any
operating
problems
they
would
berta,
to
Fairbanks,
Alaska~
terial,
and
supplies
for this
moved
both
north
and south
horse.
The
town
was
also to be
the western terminus
of
a 450 mile
pipeline from
the
oB
wells
at
Norman,
up neal'
the
Arctic
Circle.
The
White Pass and
Yukon, in
l JOI
to serve
those who
C N DI
I
I
ld
tel'
overseas
would
be 'duck soup'
after
fortune
in
the
Klondike
gOlb
ru,h,
had
been
C.
and P.
So
much
for
the organization
operated
by a London
syridifate.
On 1 Octo
training
of
railway
units.
What
have her
194:.
the
line
was
taken
·over by
the
War
actually
done
in
this war?
Department. under
a
C01ltt·
uing
lease. By
the
easiest way to
nandle
this
terms
of
the
lease
the
Tra
sportation
Corps is
to
describe
the
work
of the
mili-
will
operate the
line
for
th
duration of the
railroad units
chronologically.
war
and
one
year
there
aft
r. The
first
military railway
unit
to
operate
Nevel'
equipped to
ope
ate as
a
heavy
railroad
was
the
railway operating
bat-
f (eight line
and always
h~l asSed
by
severe which
took
over
the operation and
winter operating
conditions
it was
physical
Elaml.cnance
of
the White
Pass
and Yukon ly
impossible
for
the
pri
ate
company
to
between
the
port
at
Skagway,
Alas-handle
the
suddenly
impose
war
load.
After
and Whitehorse,
near
the
headwaters
of
the
execution
of the
lease. n
operating bat
Yukon
River
(see
Figure
1).
In the
fall talion was
given
the
task
of
rehabilitating
942,
Whitehorse
suddenly became
a
focal
the
facilities and
providing adequate operat
of interest;
the
Alcan
Highway
was ing
personnel.
This
battali
n
has
moved
the
constructed
from
near
Edmonton, Al-
largest
tonnage
in
the
1'0
d's
history with
 
 4
MILIT RY REVIEW
surprising
regularity
over
the
famous White Pass. The
government-owned
Alaska
Railroad
between
Seward and
Fairbanks
found
itself
confronted
by
heavy
war
traffic
and
a
criti
 I
\
~ ~
~ a::
~
\
r --\
I .
I
N
FIGURE
2
cal
manpowel' hhol'tag'e.
The
management
of the
milo'oael
suhmitted
a
request to the
War
Department
for
assistance.
A
railway
bat
.
ialion
was immediately
sent to
supplement
the
railroad's
civilian personnel.
From
Alaska
to New Caledonia in
the
Southwest
Pacific
i,;
a
jump nearly
a
third
around the wodd, hut
here
we
next
find
Americans
operating
a
railroad. This time
we
find a
railway
operating
company
largely recruited
from American
troops
in
the area, operating
the
thirty-two-mile
narrow-gauge
railroad
on
the
island.
In the Southwest
Pacific we find
the
Aus
tralian
Railways
adeqllately
operated
by
their
own
managements,
but
we also
find
American railway
experts
from
Transporta
tion Corps
studying the rail
problems,
the
greatest
of
which
is
the
differences
in
rail
way
gauges
throughout Australia.
The
Middle
East
was
the
next
theater
to
see
American
railway troops
in
operatiol
r
From
the
two principal
ports
on
the
Persian
8
Gulf,
Bandar Shahpur
and
Khurramshal
standard
gauge railway
lines
run
northw ~
:
to join
at
Ahwaz
ami
from there
on
to
the
0
capital
at
Teheran,
some 400 miles from
tn
r
Gulf
(see
Figure 2).
At
Teheran
one
line
00
of
railroad
I?xtends
in
a
northeasterly
dill .
:E
tion to
thc Caspian
seaport
of Bandar
Shah.
CI
A sccoml line
constructed
to
the
northwest
b
was
intended
eventually
to connect with
the
)
Russian
railways
at
Tabriz.
The
Trans.
~
Iranian
Railway was constructed by
BrilIsb
and American engineers
for the
Iranian
go
•.
1 i
crnment.
The
work
was
begun in
1928
and
~
wa~
practically
completed
in
1939.
After
the
~
Ollll
d etat
in 1941,
the
British
took
ove
t=
the
operation
of
the
lines
from
Teheran
I
south;
while
the Russian sphere
of
intluenc
i
controlled
all operations
North
of the
capl-
:
tal.
The
Russian
National
Railroads
ex
:
tending south
through
the
Caucasus
an
Armenia terminate
at
Tabriz. These
are
fi
foot
gauge.
The
unfinished
gap
between
tn
Persian
Railroad
and the
Russian
lines i
approximately
eighty
miles,
over
which a
supplies
are transported
by
truck. At
th
close
of
1942,
arrangements
were
Ilia
whereby
the
operation
of
the
lines
betwee
the
gulf and
the capital
were
turned
overt
E
the
American
Persian
Gulf
Command.
unde
the
immediate
direction of the
:vIilitary
Rail
:
way
Service. By
the
middle
of
January
1943
I
the
opel'ations
of
this railroad
were
in
th
1
hands
of American
military
railway
uni
~
under
supervision of
a
grand
division
head
:
quarters.
Three
operating
battalions
and ' Diesel shop
battalion
were assigned
to
In
I
railroad. In addition
to the
power
on
han
Y when
the
Americans
took over, a
consider
1':
able
number
of
oil-burning
locomotives
0
a
the
2-8-2
type
and
also
1,OOO.horsepow
1
Diesel locomotives
of
the
0-6-6-0
type
we
brought
over
from
the
United
States. The
operations
in
Iran
will
make
an
inte
e
esting chapter
in
the
history
of. Americ
railroading. Stories
of
mixed
train
cre
with
absolutely
no
understanding of
eae
other's language,
have
been
told
freq~entl
f
it
were not
for the
fact
that
all
are
r
v

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