Trains With Tanks & Stuff
Photo By: Cpl. Aaron Henson
FORT STEWART, Ga. – An M1A1 Abrams tank with 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division engages a target during semi-annual qualifications as part of a deployment for training exercise at Fort Stewart, Ga., Feb. 13, 2018. The DFT provides the opportunity to overcome home station range limitations as well as exercise the battalion’s capability to deploy equipment and personnel. – Photo courtesy USMC
It’s a drizzly, chilly day outside and not much going on. So it looks like it’s tanks and humvees and APCs and stuff on trains again. Pop some popcorn and chill the beverages, get comfy in your chair.
Here’s a shot of the 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd MarDiv loading heavy equipment onto flatcars.
These videos next should keep you equipment counters happy and satisfy API’s hankering for trains, too, right ? These are videos of tanks and other equipment being transported by rail in CONUS.
Train coming out of Flagstaff, AZ. Some comments are priceless (WWIII is happenin’!) 2018 video by Mini Monster Truck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S8mhy11l9E&feature=youtube
Military transport train near Warren AFB, Cheyenne, WY. 2017 video by Mark Starr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXb2uCcldqc
Snuffy’s Cat Productions brings us a BSNF haul of military equipment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmz5_xmsobQ
Military equipment transport train pulling in for new locomotive after one Union Pacific engine had a fire. Rescue by CSX. Video by Wide World of Trains.
Interesting video – worth the watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tovqEDOfIgU
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Marine Corps
Yeah, I can’t help but LMAO at some of the comments on military and civilian trains, one thread had a kook screeching about how auto transport cars were mobile prison cars for FEMA camps! You’ll always have a “that guy” out there just like the ones who screech that Martial Law is right around the corner after seeing a National Guard or Reserve Unit convoy out on the highway.
Enjoy the videos, API!!!
The same totally ept FEMA that couldn’t lockdown New Orleans, this nations 50th largest city by area at 169.4 sqmi even with Soldiers from the 82nd?
This is me shaking in my boots.
Haven’t most, if not all, of us worked for The Gubmint?
Yep, the same U. S. Gum’mint that couldn’t even successfully run a whorehouse!
Glad I put the mug of tea down before I read that, Roh-Dog.
I remember hearing War Stories of 82nd Airborne Troops getting “Jacked” by hoodlums after Hurricane Andrew because AD Troops are forbidden from carrying on US Soil because of the Posse Comitatus law while NG Troops DO carry after Natural Disasters.
Watch starting at 0:46 of the trailer – a train scene:
Trains, the preferred way to move tracked vehicles any significant distance. The only thing is it really a PITA loading and unloading them. We used to do it twice a year in the old 509th in Germany. as we were both mechanized and airborne. And no, we didn’t airdrop any M113’s. Two separate TOE’s and means of operating. It was a struggle to stay proficient in both.
Rail load in Germany is a piece of cake compared to rail ops in CONUS.
Even if it is just an M1A1 (once you’ve rolled on an M1A2, you can never go back), words cannot begin to describe the feeling of lazing, pulling the trigger, feeling the blast, hearing the aft cap eject, and watching that 120mm round go downrange.
LOL.
Easy there DAT ! Calm down your breathing and wipe off the keyboard !
Didn’t hear the harmonica lead in…Train, train, take me on outa this place….Midnight train to Georgia?
I like trains…and stuff that goes boom. Put ’em together….wooooooooooodie!
Had a BNSF rolling with 300 cars of coal destined for the Juliette Power Plant in GA catch up to and pass me while I was doing near 80 mph on I 29 thru IOWA a few years backs. They were not half stepping. 3 upfront locos, 2 in the middle and 3 more pushing.
Impressive! Tanks for the linkies, Mi’Lady!
I remember getting passed by an Amtrak train like I was sitting still while doing 70+ on I-95 through Baltimore and a diesel locomotive was pulling it!
Ah, Fort Stewart. I rather enjoyed that place.
Ya-mean “Camp Swampy”?
My son was involved in that exercise and had a pretty good time.
Try rail loading a mech brigade out starting at midnight in a blizzard in the FRG with a bahnmeister who looked like Rasputin. Oh, forgot me and my assistant were running a 102 temp when we started. Used tons of salt cause the rail cars and ramps were frozen over. On a positive note, by 0800 the next morning our sickness had departed, probably because we were too stupid to be a good host.
I was stationed for four years at Ft. Stewart with the 2-9 Cav.
I liked it there.
Tanks for the nice post EX.
You’re welcome, Jeff. I have more like this coming up.
2018 (DJI Phantom 4 Drone) footage of a Union Pacific train entering San Luis Obispo, CA after military training at Camp Roberts, CA. Train carrying Stryker Fighting Vehicles and other equipment from Fort Lewis, WA.
NICE video, A great catch on the motive power, both KCS “Southern Belle” as well as UP and an almost all-EMD consist which is a rarity these days!
API, is EMD even building locomotive power these days?
Around these parts, all we see is CSX GEs.