It seems both the USSR and the US had missile trains. Russia has managed to preserve an entire train. I think there is a lone Peacekeeper Rail Garrison car at the USAF Museum in Ohio. I wonder if our Peacekeeper Rail Garrison was ever really ready to go, I think maybe the cold war ended before it was fully developed. The Russian ones looks like it was ready for business that never needed to take place. There are so many components to railroad history.

http://www.mapability.com/blogs/travel/ ... s---2.html

Wow, I had no idea the Russians preserved an entire ICBM train like that.
The USAF never had a complete train to preserve at all. They built the one test car that is now at Dayton, and I think maybe another one but I’m not sure if it was ever completed. They didn’t build some of the key cars they’d need (guard and LCC cars). There was going to be 25 total trains with two missiles each. At one point the USAF was seriously considering painting fake road names and even fake rust (I’m not kidding, it was quite a source of humor at the time), basing them on a large field at FE Warren AFB at Cheyenne, where the rest of the Peacekeeper ICBMs were controlled out of. I found a artist conception of the train leaving its hardened shelter: http://fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/icbm/rgmx_01.jpg I have several of the patches they made for the overall program, which I bought from clothing sales at Warren AFB, knowing it would unlikely ever be fielded and might be collector’s items someday but I think lots of others did the same. I found a good photo of one of these online: http://www.usafpatches.com/photo/displa ... pos=-28849
My brother was a Peacekeeper launch officer with the 400th Squadron at the time, and even got to turn keys on a live test launch (just inert test warheads, of course) at Vandenberg AFB soon afterward. Naturally, the Rail Garrison program never went very far. As the Russians were terrified of the Peacekeeper due to its 10 warheads (each with very serious yields) and accuracy, the idea of them being mobile scared the socks off of them and naturally they were included in the first rounds of negotiations after the word got out. This is about the time the USAF lost all of its mobile nuclear deterrent, as the Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) program was axed, too.

I liked how the Soviet MX missile train had a car equipped with "trolley cutters" to "push the catenary out of the way" which... I'm not seeing how that would work, seems like the gadget would really be to cut it down. Don't think you can just "push aside" trolley with 4000 pounds of tension on it...

Hmm... I was just having a conversation with a friend about those trains. Apparently he was railfanning in Shenendoah, and saw a short freight train that seemed unnatural. The freight cars were like normal freight cars, but they were clean! And absent any graffiti! Also the reporting marks were DODX.

Now, being a chum of the local crews, he hiked up to the train, only to be greeted by folks with M-16s that he didn't recognize as local crew. They told him in no uncertain terms, "Take your pictures FROM THE ROAD." Then he went to the local watering-hole where the crews hang out, and asked them about the train. They pretty much said "They don't tell us nothin', and we don't ask. But those guys with the AK's, they don't ever leave the train."

They coulda handled the graffiti problem by parking the train in west Oakland for a night...

The Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Missle Launch Car (MLC) Engineering Model 1 was outshopped by Westinghouse Electric Corp's Marine Division in Sunnyvale, CA Jan 5, 1990. It headed south on the SP Coast Line to undergo "erection tests of the cannister contained inside..." in Hudson, Colorado, and then performance testing at the AAR test center in Pueblo. (Quote taken from the Westinghouse employee newsletter) I don't know about later in life, but upon leaving Westinghouse, it carried the reporting marks WECX 1001. It departed along with two SP bay window cabooses which housed 3 Westinghouse employees and one railroad official for the entire trip to Colorado. The Westinghouse folks later reported that the winter trip in two drafty cabooses was less than enjoyable. I checked the website for the National Air Force Museum, and yes, that's the same car I saw leaving the Marine Division that day in January. I don't know what if any other components of the train were ever constructed, but I do know that WECX 1001 was the only MLC constructed at the Marine Division.
The Westinghouse newsletter article concludes with the following, "Peacekeeper Missles will be placed in the 89-foot MLCs, which will weigh 550,000 lbs with the 200,000 pound missle on board and resemble conventional high-cube box cars." Except, as has been pointed out, for the graffitti!

Hi,

As I recall, the USAF missile train was never completed.

I do recall having seen a box car traveling through Atlanta many years ago. I do not recall the reporting marks, but the first thing I noticed was that unlike most box cars, there were four trucks under it instead of the usual two.

A buddy of mine had seen the the car the same day (different location up the line) and he commented that the best way for the Soviets to keep track of the missile train was to get into the railfan network. We'd know right where it was at all times.

Doug vV

He almost certainly saw a escort car for nuclear casks or spent fuel rods going somewhere. I live right along the Puget Sound and Pacific RR, which runs up to the Bangor Sub base in the Puget Sound. I’ve seen a few of these trains go through over the years but never caught photos of one. In 2006, I caught a spent fuel rod car at the siding at Chehalis, WA, no doubt headed to Bangor as it had no guards and the guard car was empty (and wedged between the building and another row of cars so I never got a good shot of it). If it was coming back and loaded, it wouldn’t have been in such a spot:

They used to run what locals called “the white trains” often back in the day. Some say they also carried MRV warheads, but I truly doubt that. They usually use armored trucks (with lots of escort SUVs) for that. Someday I’ll tell the story of recognizing one of these on a highway on Pennsylvania and what happened when the folks in the black SUVs saw me pointing out what it was to my passengers...
They actually addressed this at the time, knowing full well that railroad fans would notice the trains. That’s why they wanted to paint fake road names and rust and I recall reading a memo once that mentioned that there were people who liked trains who would notice even the smallest details. That’s us. But they DID take that into account, even early on.

It's true that the MX Rail Garrison program was never fully deployed. I was in the Air Force at the time and recall that it was being developed by the Ballistics Missile Office at the now-closed Norton AFB, CA. The program was still under development when Congress pulled the plug, and initially the plan was to fully develop it before shutting it down. (Apparently the funding for development was still in the budget.) Congress said no, don't waste money (I know, shocking - Congress doing something NOT to waste money) on something that won't be deployed, so it was shut down completely.

As for those odd cars some of you have seen, those are usually tied up between runs, along with their escort DODX cabooses, at Naval Support Activity Mechanicsburg, PA. The Navy also has a pair of yellow GE 80-ton centercabs to move cars around on base. These two are, unfortunately, typically locked up inside the enginehouse when not in service.

The October 1988 TRAINS magazine carried a five-page article on page 36, followed by a two-page article in the September 1990 issue. The program was to use GP40 locomotives, and four went to the Army at Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, near Southport, NC, while two went to the Air Force at Eielson AFB, AK.

Some of the cars themselves went to Alaska to be part of the "Alternate Command Post" (ALCOP) and refitted for a new mission. Read more about it here:
http://www.alaskarails.org/historical/c ... index.html

Be sure to check out the link at the bottom of the page. Alas, I recall reading some years about the ALCOP mission being terminated and the rail cars being sold for scrap.

I assume the equipment has already been scrapped.

It would have been nice to have kept one of the 4-truck box cars for historical purposes.

It reminds me of the Lionel minute man train. This was a "model" some 48 times larger than the prototype.

Doug vV

I am quite certain that maybe the engines were ID'd and sent elsehwere (probably existing on the DoD prperty book even before being earmarked for Rail MX use), the train you mention going to Alaska had nothing to do with Peacekeeper Rail garrison. If you read through your links and might be familiar with the differing roles, you'll see the two have nothing tod owith each other.

There is an interesting story about the re-utilization of the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison test facility at Vandenberg AFB, California.

During the mid 1990s, Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) and the U.S. Air Force wanted to store Titan IV-B solid-fuel rocket-motor segments in the Peacekeeper test silo at Vandenberg AFB. Several DODX 38000-series 6-axle flatcars (with Buckeye trucks, converted to roller bearings) from the Pueblo Depot Activity (PDA) were retrofitted with special cradles to accommodate the segment handling rings. A "sacrificial" prototype flatcar was instrumented and tested at Transportation Test Center, utilizing simulated weights. Tests included roll tests (on undulating test track), curve tests (in which the car actually derailed at 15 MPH) and a 4-, 6- and 8-MPH bi-directional impact test utilizing decommissioned UP GP35 No. 749 as the battering ram. It was a very interesting test process, to ensure that the overloaded flatcars could safely be used as mobile "storage chocks" for the 200-ton segments (the DODX flatcars were originally built in the 1950s to haul two army tanks each). The flatcars were modified at Rocky Mountain Railcar in Hudson, CO.

At Vandenberg, the motor segments were transferred from the DRGW 80000-series "white whales" (80010 through 80016, which transported 200-ton segments from Hercules, Inc. (now ATK Launch Systems) near Salt Lake City to the test and launch sites at Edwards AFB, Vandenberg AFB and Cape Canaveral AFS) to the storage flatcars, utilizing a gantry-type transfer stand. Photo of DRGW 80014:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetai ... otoID=9816

The Vandenberg Rail Garrison facility was very impressive, and included an engine house (with a refurbished 80-ton General Electric and a "Shuttle Wagon" car-mover), a "test loop" (136-lb welded rail and portions of overhead catenary, if I recall correctly) and the storage igloo (with the "pop out" roof).

My involvement with the Titan IV-B program ended in 1995, after the first "live" segment shipment was completed to Cape Canaveral (my last cross-continent caboose ride). The development of the segment-transportation system began in 1988, with car and restraint-system design and construction at Thrall Car Mfg. Co. in Chicago Heights, IL, and with construction of the environmental covers at Utility Trailer of Salt Lake. My duties included training of railroad special agents and contractor personnel (e.g. Pacific Fruit Express, Fruit Growers Express, etc.) on maintenance of log books and care and feeding of the refrigeration system (used for humidity control). This was most easily done by riding the trains in DODX cabooses (equipped like RVs) and visiting with personnel at the various terminals. Routing to Phillips Lab (Edwards AFB) was DRGW to Ogden, SP to Bakersfield via Roseville, ATSF to Boron. Vandenberg AFB was through Oakland to South Vandenberg (SP). Eastbound was DRGW via Tennessee Pass to Pueblo, Mopac to Herington, KS, SP to Kansas City. We had the option of taking NS through St. Louis to Louisville, and then through the "Rat Hole" to Chattanooga, Atlanta and Jacksonville, or via KCS over Rich Hill to New Orleans, and then across to Jacksonville. We then took FEC FROM Jacksonville to Titusville, where the Kennedy Space Center Railway took the loads to the Air Force solid-motor processing facility. The trips generally lasted 3 days to the West Coast and 10 days to the Cape -- a long trip in a caboose! DODX 1490 is shown with a DRGW "TARVAN" rocket-motor piggyback shipment:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=205556

This successful program continued after my reassignment to other rocket-motor programs, with the final Titan IV-B launches at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg taking place in 2005. The covers and restraint systems from the seven 200-ton DRGW canopy flatcars were eventually disposed of as government surplus and the 8-axle cars themselves were returned to Union Pacific. I left ATK Launch Systems in 1997 for my current position at the Heber Valley Railroad. When the Heber Valley Railroad purchased Great Western No. 75 and 10 cars in 1999, the MX launch canisters and test slugs were still resting on the ground at the former Rocky Mountain Railcar facility in Hudson, CO.

Craig Lacey
former Manufacturing Engineer/Project Manager,
Titan IV-B Transportation

[the train you mention going to Alaska had nothing to do with Peacekeeper Rail garrison.]

Let's see what the text of "An Ace in the Hole" from the 11th ACW history office says.

Excerpt:
In September 1991, the tank car was retired when it failed to pass a standard pressure test. So, when word came of the likely possibility that the mobile Peacekeeper MX Missile program would be terminated, the 11 ACW immediately expressed an interest in acquiring six of the sixteen Peacekeeper Rail Garrison railcars.
Rail Garrison
The Peacekeeper railcars were the original prototype research and development and test bed railcars designed to transport and operate the mobile MX missile. Called Rail Garrison, the idea was to garrison the train with the MX missile and command and control cars until needed or exercised. When needed, the train would leave its garrison and travel along many possible routes of commercial rail lines in an attempt to prevent targeting by an enemy.
After the Rail Garrison program was canceled on 27 September 1991, the wing reaffirmed its interest in acquiring six of the railcars from HQ Ballistic Missile Office (BMO) at Norton AFB, California, the agency in charge of the program. Personnel from Eielson AFB were also interested in getting two locomotives from the program for transporting coal to their base power plant.
In a 7 October 1991 letter to BMO, Colonel Harry J. Kieling Jr., 11 ACW commander, reemphasized the interest in six of these cars, should they become available. He noted the Air Force's capital investment of $20.55 million for the six cars: 2 Security Cars at $4 million; 2 Launch Control Cars at $6 million; a Maintenance Car at $500,000; and a tank car at $50,000 each.
Transportation costs in shipping the cars from Vandenberg AFB, California to Anchorage was approximately $18,000 to 25,000 per car, or $115,000 to $150,000 for the package. The replacement costs for the existing ACE/ALCOP using "used" cars: $15,000 to $20,000 for a tank car; $15,000 for the maintenance box car; and $124,000 each for the command, messing, and berthing cars.
On 21-22 November 1991, Colonel George A. Pahls, 11 ACW Deputy Command for Operations, Lt Col Steven P. Hockett, 11 ACW Deputy Command for Logistics, and MSgt Gregory Hall (ACE/ALCOP NCOIC) traveled to Norton and Vandenberg AFBs for the purpose of assessing first hand the feasibility of replacing the existing ACE/ALCOP railcars with the Peacekeepers.
The men came away from their visit convinced that no other railcars could be obtained elsewhere that could be so easily modified to support the ACE/ALCOP requirements at the low cost of $70,000 to transport them to Alaska. MSgt Hall concluded in his trip report:
...These cars were engineered for mobile C3 in a hostile environment. As a mobile C3 platform, their structural designs meet or exceed stated needs for the ACE/ALCOP mission in the NORAD Statement of Requirement (NSOR), and alleviate discrepancies identified in the Executive Summary Alaskan Command C3 Architecture. Additionally, these railcars will provide continuity in maintaining a mobile C3 platform for theater training and test-bed programs.... The bottom line is no other railroad cars can be obtained elsewhere and modified to support existing stated requirements, at a lesser cost.
Other Replacement Ideas
While MSgt Hall was working to gain approval for the Rail Garrison railcars, several other proposals to replace the ACE/ALCOP were revisited and studied. One proposal was a fixed facility at Fort Greely. In a conventional scenario it would probably be survivable. However, the costs of arctic construction and MILCON restrictions would prevent it from becoming a reality. Another proposal was to convert the ACE/ALCOP to a road mobile configuration. This option called for the use of converted trailer or container vans or buses. However, the penalties of all weather operations and deployability was limited.
With the drawdown of the Ground Launch Cruise Missile (GLCM) force in Europe, another possible replacement for the railcars existed--the acquisition of the GLCM Launch Control Centers (LCC). The LCC was an armored box mounted on a trailer and contained built-in communications systems (HF, VHF and UHF SATCOM). The system included its own tractor and could move over highways, roads and off-road as necessary for dispersal. However, acquiring these vans posed problems with possible violations of the INF treaty and was dropped.
Pressure from PACAF
On 2 January 1992, Lt Gen Malcolm Armstrong, PACAF Vice Commander, questioned the need for continued operation of the railcars and acquisition of Rail Garrison assets in light of the assumed "threat" and budgetary constraints. His message to Lt Gen Thomas G. McInerney, 11 AF Commander stated:

Recent dynamic world events force us to continually reevaluate our previously held operational concepts. Redundant systems that provide for continuity of operations must be scaled appropriately. The ANR alternate command and control functions are satisfied by the Alternate Command Element who would work from a complex of railroad cars and by the NORAD Airborne Battlestaff on board a designated E-3. [You] identified railcars from the peacekeeper program that could possibly be used to upgrade the ACE rail facilities. Although the cost to transport, reconfigure and maintain appears to be small, maybe the time has come to walk away from the capability that this option provides. Suggest consideration be given to reliance on only one back-up, the NABS on board the E-3.

The wing responded to the message to Lt General McInerney by stressing "the validity of the ACE/ALCOP requirement [is] based on the perceived absence of the threat in the face of recent dynamic world events. It is precisely that dynamism that should make us wary of forsaking a capability in which so much is invested (approximately $895,000) and which can be maintained for so little." (About $25,000 annually). The wing convinced Lt Gen McInerney that current ACE/ALCOP concept was still valid and Rail Garrison replacement cars were the best solution to replacing the existing railcars. In his 30 January 1992 message to the Lt Gen Armstrong, Lt Gen McInerney stressed four major reasons he wanted to keep the ACE/ALCOP with Rail Garrison assets, he noted:
-The existing railcars are enduring, survivable and mobile but are nearing the end of their useful service life. The Peacekeeper Rail Garrison cars would extend the life of the ACE/ALCOP and are also hardened against high impact electromagnetic pulse damage.
-The NABS (NORAD Airborne Battle Staff) on board the E-3 is important to support daily contingency operations. However, with only one of the Elmendorf based E-3s available, the E-3 platform itself does not provide adequate sustainability.

-...Excess Peacekeeper Rail Garrison railcars as [are] a low cost replacement for the aging ACE/ALCOP railcars. With full understanding of the shrinking budget, any effort to reconfigure the new cars would be performed using very limited self help resources.

-Current budgetary limitations notwithstanding, it is my intention to maintain the existing railcars in their indoor garrison location, in a non-use status and at no cost, pending higher headquarters tasking for exercise participation. If for no other reason, it is prudent to maintain the existing cars to serve as a deployable command and control platform to support the JTF-AK commander in times of emergency or natural disasters.

By March 1992, HQ BMO had offered to absorb the cost of transporting the railcars to Elmendorf. However, on 6 April 1992, HQ PACAF again attempted to sway Lt General McInerney's opinion on the ACE/ALCOP. The PACAF Vice Commander suggested that in lieu of an E-3 being designated the primary ACE/ALCOP, a plan be developed using an organic C-130 aircraft with appropriate communications. The Vice Commander felt "such a plan would greatly increase the flexibility, survivability, and reconstitution responsibilities...." Again, General McInerney restated his position and General Jimmie V. Adams, CINCPACAF, remarked "Uncle. I give in. Let them have the train but tell them there is no additional money."
The wing was cleared to obtain the railcars for the ACE/ALCOP on 31 March 1992. However, Brigader General Iverson, Deputy Commander for Operations, HQ PACAF, placed stipulations that rehabilitation of the cars for the ACE/ALCOP would be done with the use of self-help and existing resources and with no additional O&M funding on the 11 ACW. At that point, final disposition of the Peacekeeper railcars rested with the Air Staff.
Back on track
On 19 June 1992, Major Paul S. Curtis, Chief, Operations Division at BMO notified the 11 ACW that the Air Staff gave them permission to ship six Rail Garrison railcars to Alaska. The six cars were shipped by rail to Seattle where they were weighed by Burlington Northern personnel prior to loading on a railcar barge. The weight of the six cars was 1,762,400 pounds and took up 73,837 cubic feet of space on the barge.
Each car's value was listed on the requisition and invoice/shipping document and totalled $19,958,553.00. Individually the cars were valued as follows: (1) Maintenance Car TBCX90050 = $371,276; (2) Security Car DAFX0004 = $2,280,460; (3) Security Car EMS2 DAFX0003 = 2,280,460; (4) Fuel Car TBCX90001 = $93,163; (5) Launch Control Car DAFX0002 = $7,466,597; and (6) Launch Control Car DAFX0006 = $7,466,597.
The Rail Garrison cars arrived at Whittier, Alaska on 5 August 1992. Due to bad weather, the cars weren't off-loaded until the 6th. MSgt Hall met the barge at Whittier and rode the train back to the ARR railroad yard in Anchorage. On 7 August 1992 the cars arrived at Elmendorf after almost a year of work on the project. The cars remained at Elmendorf and, as planned, would be time phased modified and outfitted to operational status in two to three years when the existing railcars reached the end of their fifty year service life.

Long text (above), but it appears some cars from the missile program did indeed reach Alaska but apparently were never put into service on the ALCOP before being scrapped. (There was a lot of similar action taking place all over DOD at the end of the Cold War. Equipment purchased and numerous facilities recently constructed at significant expense were soon shuttered as the need suddenly no longer existed.)

I recall seeing two of the locomotives from the terminated missile program at Fort Eustis in mid-1992 during the post's 50-year celebration of the founding of the Transportation Corps. They were still painted dark blue and marked TBCX 4900 and 4901, and were used that day to move passengers in a single car (one locomotive on each end) back and forth over the straight track in front of the post HQ. It wasn't long before they left Fort Eustis for Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, NC, where they now wear red paint and the markings US Army 4646 and 4647. Also at Fort Eustis were box car TBCX 90051 and tank car TBCX 90002. I haven't seen the tank car for some time, but the box car is reportedly used to store MoW track tools for training classes held for rail reservists. The car can be moved to wherever the hands-on portion of a class is held on the post railway.

TBCX = The Boeing Co.

The MX train was planned to launch missles only from certain locations with proper track conditions and lack of obstructions. A questionare was sent out to the railroads to map which locations met these requirements. I have seen the locations for the Burlington Northern in Washington State and some were very near residential areas. But by the time these would have launched we would have been in a very bad position.

Rich

Without meaning to sound disparaging of the idea of rail based missile systems, this reminds me of Howard Hugh's Spruce Goose. A good idea who's need disappeared before it was completed.