The US shipped a lot of railroad equipment to Viet Nam in the 1960s and 70s. Is there an inventory of this equipment? Is any of it still in use?

Try these:

http://www.railwaysinvietnam.com/D9E.html

http://www.railwaysinvietnam.com/firstD10H.html

In the may 1974 issue of the defunct Rail Classics Magazine there is an interesting article on the railways of South Vietnam. Quite the time capsule in retrospect.

Wasn't there a narrow gauge line (Meter) from China to Hanoi? Also is the majority of the Viet Nam Railways still meter gauge? At one time I had read that China was rebuilding the lines to standard gauge to connect with the CNR system. Meter gauge is left over from the French Colonial days. Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, Cambodia all were meter gauge.

Dale Brown

According to "The Man in Seat 61", there is through sleeper service between Hanoi and Beijing via Nanning, which implies a standard gauge connection across the border:

http://seat61.com/Vietnam.htm#Beijing-Hanoi-by-train

(I have a couple of close friends who are currently working as expats in Nanning, so this may be an excuse for a visit someday -- if I can find the money for airfare that is.)

-Philip Marshall

Unfortunately when I was there I did not possess a great amount amount of free time which could be devoted to railfanning and I have few if any surviving snapshots which include rail equipment. My memory is that most of the US equipment which I saw were primarily GE diesels (U6b or thereabouts) and left over War Department foreign service freight cars. I do remember some of the the standard GI improvisations such as rail mounted jeeps handling freight cars and being used for track patrol.

We did have some Briitsh-built armoured railcars (Wickham) which had been brought from Indonesia. I suspect that any of these which survived left with the British.

GME

Here's another article on rail operations from about 50 years ago:

http://grambo.us/railops/railops2.htm

For years, there was a standard gauge line in from China that stopped north and east of Hanoi. It served a coal-fired power plant. I was there once when a train pulled in. Hundreds of workers with shovels ran out to unload the coal.

The line that went north and then east out of Hanoi was meter-gauge. There was talk of standard gauging northward to connect to China. At the time, passenger trains swapped trucks or equipment at the border.

During the late 1990s, steam was still running on lines out of the Hanoi area. However, none were U.S.-made. There was some U.S. equipment seen around the system - lots of small locomotives and some freight cars.

The September 1963 National Geographic has a story on the railways of South Vietnam. Rather interesting look at the people side of the railway in conflict. There is a picture of the Wickham trolley.

Here is what I could find on the track gauges used in Vietnam.

1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) (2,169 km (1,348 mi))
1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge, 178 km (111 mi))
1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) and 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) (dual gauge, 253 km (157 mi))

At least one Orton wrecking crane was shipped there. Any details on it? This photo shows the Orton's boom and another wrecker:
http://vietnamnews.vn/society/267419/ac ... ction.html

Here is a better shot of the Orton at the same wreck.
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-quang- ... 26790.html

Hey John T
Did you notice in the picture of the wreck the modern hydraulic locomotive crane on its side without its counterweight attached and no outriggers deployed ? Someone must have been in too much of a hurry to properly set up that crane for a lift. That older Orton is probably a heavier crane to start with which would give it an edge over the tipped crane in lifting capacity with or without outriggers set. Those long boomed hydraulic lightweights just don't cut it.

If you look closely at that pic with the tipped over crane... you can see the cribbing they stacked on the ground for the outriggers... so they must have been out at one time.

Good catch but they don't seem to be out either side at the moment of tipping. Check out the picture of the smashed truck loaded into the semi's bed. Behind it you can see the boom tip of the hydraulic locomotive crane with a spreader bar hanging on its hook looking like it's in position for a lift. Also were the heck is the crane operator's cab ? We're probably gonna get chastised for getting off of subject which I think is Hilliers #20.