R. Tourret's "United States Army Transportation Corps Locomotives" (Book 2, 1977) gives extensive coverage to the S-160 class and notes the engines were plagued with crown sheet failures owing to "inherent weakness in the roof stays of the firebox at the point where they entered the inner firebox wrapper plate." Tourrent further notes that most S-160's in Europe were promptly scrapped after the war but the Italian State Railways kept theirs in service much longer and were obligated to make numerous improvements to the firebox arrangement including redesigned fusible plugs, stays, additional washouts, and heavier sheets.

Alan Maples

Because of how cheaply they were made does this hinder the possibility of seeing the 612 finding a home that could complete a restoration to service?

Related thread: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28736&p=135592&hilit=USA+611

In the type of service they would see in preservation, I would think restoration to operation would not be hindered by the building standards. They were not heavily worn during Fort Eustis service.
BTW, one of them is briefly glimpsed in the film, "The Sting", posing as the "20th Century Limited", at night, passing a hobo camp.

If you watch that scene, I think it is stock footage from another movie that featured an S-160. I believe the "20th Century Limited" in The Sting is Reader 1702, dressed as L&N 1702 for This Property is Condemned. The commuter type coaches in the train are the giveaway.

Don't know if this has been me mentioned yet but the 612 is for sale http://railswap.org/cb/cl/classifieds.c ... =retrieval

I believe the last time steam operated at Fort Eustis was when there was an open house on the occasion of the Army's birthday in 1975. The 714th Transportation Battalion (Railway) had been inactivated in June 1972, and the platoon-sized 1st Railway Detachment had been activated in its place to operate the post utility railway and train reservists as well as the relatively few active duty GIs involved with railway operations. Only #607 was still at the post by then, and it made three loops around the circular post railway before being taken out of service. I left the 1st Rail Det for Germany not long thereafter, but a friend who stayed longer with the unit tells me there were no further steam operations after that final occasion.

Please educate this swabby. How many men were in a transportation Battalion and how many in platoon?

Greg

Rail battalion authorized strengths have varied over the years, and according to one document I found at the US Army Center of Military History in Washington, DC, the 714th had an authorized strength of 635 in mid-1968. It's doubtful that it had that many personnel on hand as the Vietnam War effort was draining manpower from units elsewhere, leaving many in a skeletal status, plus Army Rail was simply not a priority by that point.

Only one rail battalion (the Reserve's 757th, with HQ in Milwaukee) remains today, and I believe its authorized strength is much less.

A platoon may have about 40 people in it, and I doubt the 1st Rail Det had quite that many. Like battalions, authorized strength can vary. For example, several years later I was in an Airborne platoon (non-TC) with an authorized strength of only 22.

Earlier posts mentioned S-160 locomotives in use during WW II with Army railway units. While most rail battalions soon turned operations over to host nation civilians and returned home after the war, the 790th Railway Operating Battalion used S-160s in post-war Korea, running trains out of the port of Pusan. This went on for several years after the war until the 790th was inactivated in 1948. During visits to Korea, I've seen no evidence that KORAIL preserved any of them, and it appears all of those in South Korea met the torch a long time ago.

From reading Don Ross' website; I learned the S-160s used in Korea had left hand drive for use on British railways, and thus were disliked by their crews. That may explain why they met their fate so quickly.

I know some of the "Russian Decapods" built for Russia were re-guaged and sent to North Korea; I don't know if any of the S-160s were either captured from South Korea, or shipped from China; and ended up in the North.

Does the 757th still have detachments in various parts of the country? We borrowed a couple of their members from a unit up north of NYC for a track inspection project we did 10-11 years ago at NWS Earle.

I hear that some reserves continue to put in weekends and more at Earle and Barstow as well as elsewhere.

Greg

Here's my most recent list of where the 757th is located and its authorized manning:

757th Transportation Battalion (Railway)
Milwaukee USARC
4850 West Silver Spring Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53218-3400
10 officers, 1 WO, 42 EM

226th Transportation Company (Railway Operating)
Westover Air Reserve Base
Chicopee, MA 01022
(I don't have manning numbers on the 226th, but they're probably identical to the other companies.)

1150th Transportation Company (Railway Operating)
Phillip H. Sheridan USARC
3155 Blackhawk Drive
Fort Sheridan, IL 60037-1289
5 officers, 117 EM

Det 1
Granite City USARC
Building 331
1230 First Street
Granite City, IL 62040-1801

1151st Transportation Company (Railway Operating)
Adrian B. Rhodes AFRC
2144 Lake Shore Drive
Wilmington, NC 28401-7297
3 officers, 43 EM

Det 1
Blue Grass Army Depot USARC
2091 Kingston Highway
Richmond, KY 40475-5001
1 officer, 43 EM

Det 2
MOTSU
Southport, NC 28461-7800
1 officer, 34 EM

1152nd Transportation Company (Railway Operating)
Milwaukee USARC
4850 West Silver Spring Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53218-3400
4 officers, 73 EM

Det 1
Fort McCoy Complex
2010 South 8th Street
Fort McCoy, WI 54656-5136

Prior to the inactivation of the small (approximately 50 personnel) 1205th Transportation Railway Operating Battalion in September 2006, the 226th was administratively assigned to the 1205th, which had its HQ in Middletown, CT. The 226th would have mobilized with the 757th; now it is directly assigned. The 1205th's mission was to augment civilian rail operations and MoW employees at Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, NC, while the 226th was organized for overseas deployment. Some 1205th and 226th personnel drilled at NWS Earle, NJ, on weekends, but I'm not sure how much of that still takes place today, given that the 1205th is gone. Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow - Yermo Annex in southern California sometimes saw rail reservists on temporary duty to support large workloads, but no part of either the 1205th or the 757th was close enough for anyone to drill there on weekends.

Well, that explains why i have records of them working at Crane IN too.

Sure wish one or more of those units were on the west coast. Could put them to work from time to time. Seems like the container terminal at Port Chicago would be a perfect fit for them.

I think the guys working at Barstow were there for 2 weeks. They came in and removed and straight-lined a bunch of turnouts I told the base to remove.

Greg

I've never been to Crane, but I've heard of the 757th being quite active there in the past, even conducting training classes for its troops on site.

Port Chicago later became NWS Concord and over a decade ago the Navy decided to vacate the site. It now sits dormant except for a portion on the north side that the Army acquired and keeps in caretaker status. I recall a TDY that included personnel from the 1205th and 226th and apparently they weren't familiar with local SOPs, such as chocking wheels, which I had noticed on an earlier visit. A crew set off a flat car without setting the hand brake or chocking the wheels, so the air bled off and eventually the car rolled away, going through several switches before slamming into some cars that, according to my source, were loaded with munitions. Reportedly the base commander was most unhappy, and I was glad not to have been on that trip.

I have visited MCLB Barstow on my own time but never had a TDY there. Those who went to support major exercises did not enjoy their time in the least and were not anxious to ever return, and I was grateful for having been spared from such trips myself.