Wilmington and Western RR's locomotive No. 98 was loaned to the Army at Camp Shelby, Mississippi for use in training soldier railroaders. I have done a fair bit of work researching US Army Railway units as part of my work researching No. 98 for my upcoming book. The information on Camp Shelby's railway units that I have turned up has been passed on to this excellent website. You will not only find the stuff I've submitted but a great deal of really good information on our railway units. If any of you have anything related Nancy is always looking to add content.

http://militaryrailwayservice.blogspot.com/

I'm always on the lookout for stories and photos of No. 98. If any of you have anything that might be helpful please let me know.

Thanks,

Cool. I have stacks of paperwork and tech manuals for RR ops from WW2 (cross hobby interests), I need to send them some shots of some of that...

The person that runs the site Mr. Gears mentions has been great in putting me into contact with the families of veterans of the 728th Railway Operating Battalion. Back in college, I wrote a history of the 728th as my Honors Thesis.

Thanks to these people and others contacting me, I've filled in my research and a preliminary version of the thesis has been accepted for publication. This winter, I'm going to finish re-writing it and adding photographs.

The 728th was sponsored by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co., and had the distinction of operating the SCNF system out of Cherbourg. If you've ever seen the photo of the S-160 2-8-0 decked out as the "Toot Sweet Special" that was taken in Cherbourg and those are members of the 728th in the foreground.

Curiosity satisfied....
Courtesy http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Logistics2/USA-E-Logistics2-15.html

That is the pic. The officer, who is turned sideways is Car Love, who was the commander of the 728th. Upon return after the war, he was promoted to the post of General Superintendent of the L&N.

The version of the photo I have has the crane and other items, save for the locomotive, train and crew, "touched out" as part of wartime censorship.

The Alaska Railroad had an interesting relationship with the Army during WWII. The railroad civilian workforce was augmented by soldiers and both worked side-by-side. I have an accident report where one of the USATC Consolidations, ARR #553, had a head on with ARR Pacific #901. Both locomotives were nearly stopped at impact and there we no major injuries, but 553 was damaged beyond repair. #901 had an all civilian crew, but #553 had an Army sergeant as engineer, a private as brakeman, and civilian conductor, second brakeman and fireman. The engineer was assigned to the 714th Railway Operating Battalion. Blame was assessed to the engineer and conductor of 901. The Army engineer was barred from further engine service on the ARR and the conductor was dismissed.

p51 - Is any of your paperwork specific to operation and maintenance of the War Department Consolidations (unofficially designation S160)? If so, could you share scans that we could add to the library of materials that we are using for our restoration? We already have a couple of general tech manuals on rail and cranes and on the organization for rail operations.

There is information on the unit and its Alaska operations at http://www.alaskarails.org/historical/Freshour/

Sorry, Dick, but the info I have is quite generalized for operations and not specific to the type of locomotive you're working on, other than a general rolling stock guide from 1942 I recently obtained. If I find anything that could help you on AAR 577, I'll be sure you get it scanned and sent right away.

Thanks!