wwII military train

[MarcVanCleven]

I'm enjoying the conversation. I am modeling a number of WW II specific military/troop movement trains too.

I have two complete Army Hospital trains that Concor put together. They're the basis for modeling a more complete and accurate train. I'm in the process of building the correct cars taken from plans I found in old Model Railroader issues back in the '50s. I purchased the 70 Years DVD, and it is worth the price.

I have been slowly acquiring the freight cars (mostly flat cars) to create two to three sections (trains) transporting a full size Tank Battalion. The one I'm modeling is the 752nd Tank Battalion, which trained out west, and fought in Italy.  Unfortunately there was a website maintained by the veterans of that unit, and I suspect that there isn't anyone to do that anymore as it is now gone. It's a real shame.

I was fortunate to get the entire Organization and Equipment record of the battalion. These units often traveled in sections to avoid sabotage, at different times and on different railroads too. I made the decision to use 1/144 scale US Army vehicles as there is a greater selection available. Pullmans were used more often with field kitchens set-up in full baggage cars on troop trains with the boxcar troop and kitchens showing up later during the war.

There is an excellent website with numerous links: http://www.yeide.net/World_War_II_History/Links.html.

I also acquired an issue of Life Magazine dated June 28th, 1943. What a find... In that issue is a photo story titled, "Troop Train". If I could figure out how to attach them I would include a few scans showing guards on the train while traveling.

Marc in Madison WI

[eric220]

The PRR put out an ad during the war titled "what it takes to move a division". Food for thought:

http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/PRR/Ads/Move%20a%20Division.pdf

[OldEastRR]

It's not hard to make a 14-section sleeper out of a Atlas/Rivarossi/ConCor 12-1, and they have the clerestory roofs w/o A/C ducts.
The Atlas/RR streamlined baggage car was a hospital car conversion, so it might be able to rework it back into a hospital car.

[ljudice]

I have been slowly acquiring the freight cars (mostly flat cars) to create two to three sections (trains) transporting a full size Tank Battalion. The one I'm modeling is the 752nd Tank Battalion, which trained out west, and fought in Italy.  Unfortunately there was a website maintained by the veterans of that unit, and I suspect that there isn't anyone to do that anymore as it is now gone. It's a real shame.

Marc, you might try http://www.archive.org to see if the site was ever crawled and recorded.   There is no search, so you need the URL.  But usually the broken links
exist in other websites, which can be found in Google... 

[Pennsy]

Minifigs can still be bought from their native country

http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=1&CategoryID=1

The 12mm WWII & Modern armor are British N scale 1/156 so pretty close and better then 1/144. They are cast white metal and make for a heavy load.

TM-9-731AA Pg 382 - 383 shows two Sherman's on a single flat car and the load restraining blocks.

For more picss do a Google search on WW II trains and flat cars.

Jim

[elnscale]

Here are some of the KenRay models. I like the heavy weight of the flatbed cars. The come with MT trucks and MT body mount couplers and are weathered.



The mustang came with the tarp and tiedown details already installed. I have about 8 of their flatbeds in my military consist.

[Mark5]

Minifigs can still be bought from their native country

http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=1&CategoryID=1

Minifigs was based in Colorado (USA)

[Nato]

         The biggest mistake some people make is thinking that the military used their own locomotives to pull the train. Con Cor is responsible for this with their Army steam locomotive in the Hospital Train set. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Ike the BN Freak]

        The biggest mistake some people make is thinking that the military used their own locomotives to pull the train. Con Cor is responsible for this with their Army steam locomotive in the Hospital Train set. Nate Goodman (Nato).

However the military does have its own locos...used for switching on the bases/post they are assigned.

One of these days I'm going to take an GP40 and do this one,

[robert3985]

I noticed that some of the models of M4 Shermans had the turrets turned backwards like more modern tanks. This is incorrect. AFAIK, Shermans were shipped with turret forward and the barrel lowered to fit in the very visible barrel clamp between the hatches on the front of the tank.  As the war progressed and main guns with longer barrels were fitted, they were still shipped with barrel forward and lowered.

Also, the photos I've seen of them coming from the factories have them covered with canvas tarps.

I've also seen a few photos of troop trains with the troops hanging out of the windows, with big grins and chalked graffiti on the sides of the car such as "The Berlin Express", Berlin or Bust!" and "Here we come, Adolf!", or more local writings such as "San Antone AHA!" for troops coming home.  I've seen photos of US as well as New Zealand, Australian and German troops doing this with stuff chalked on their car.

[jnevis]

I have a book from Pictorial histories Publishing "America's Fighting Railroads" that has a lot of information and photos for the progression of the military trains in WW2.

There were some of the trains made up of streamline cars so it isn't unrealistic to use some non-heavyweights, including SP "Lark" and "Daylight" cars and CB&Q domes.  Anything available was put in military service.

BTW there is a pic of Shermans being loaded at Indio with the turrets facing aft on pg 49.  Ed's law applied.

[GN Fan]

The earlier version of the M-4 Sherman had the travel lock (the device that holds the barrel when in travel) on the front glacis Plate (the frontal plate armor on a tank).  Later on some versions had the travel lock on the rear deck.  So to very correct you need to be sure which version you are modeling.

Tom

[jmlaboda]

One of these days I'm going to take an GP40 and do this one,

Wow!!!  I have seen the Army red and yellow and the Navy's yellow but I have never seen an Air Force unit before.  Definitely an interesting unit!!!

[robert3985]

Having been cursed with the flu the last couple of days, I've spent some time browsing the web looking for photos and/or videos of Shermans in transit during WWII or before.  I've learned some interesting things about the tank and I've only located one photo of an unmodified Sherman with the turret pointed towards the rear in transit.  Everything else has the turret forward, with crates on the rear of the tank holding tools, extra parts and armament and the holes where the parts and small caliber guns would go covered over, along with covers on the muzzles of the main guns.

Most of the shots show the tanks without any insignia, almost looking white in the black and white photos due to the type of filter being used on the camera I'm sure.

Also, the tank weighed 33 tons fully fueled, crewed and armed...not 40, and I've seen several photos of flatcars with two loaded rather than one in the middle.  I suppose it depended on the flatcar available, but one per flat is the usual rule and most photos show the different loading arrangements intermixed in the same train.  Also, there are several shots of the blocking commonly used, which are of interest to those wanting to do more than just set the tank on a flatcar.

All in all, it's been a pleasant and informative task between trips to the bathroom.

However, photos and videos of the tanks in transit are hard to come by with the ratio of photos of tanks in action as opposed to M4's on trains being at least 100:1

[robert3985]

I'm enjoying the conversation. I am modeling a number of WW II specific military/troop movement trains too.

...I also acquired an issue of Life Magazine dated June 28th, 1943. What a find... In that issue is a photo story titled, "Troop Train". If I could figure out how to attach them I would include a few scans showing guards on the train while traveling.

Marc in Madison WI

Here's a link to a website that has digitized that issue of Life Magazine: http://books.google.com/books?id=SE4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA77&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

Of interest are the guards with older bolt-action O3A3 Springfield 30-06 rifles instead of semi-auto M1 Garands the men in the train are carrying with them, or even M1 Carbines.  I guess that means they really weren't all that concerned about seriously guarding the equipment and it was mostly ceremonial.  My first hunting rifle was an O3A3 built during WWII.  A fine rifle indeed, but not nearly as effective a battle rifle as the semi-auto Garand, or even the M1 Carbine (both of which I also have owned several of.)