I read some books about military railroad transports of US Army, Bundeswehr and NVA/GSSD.
Do our dear British members here have any insights on transports of Rhine Army equipment on German railroads?
TIA
The unit was 79 Railway Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport as was then (prior to 1965 Royal Army Service Corps); I think they operated from Nicholson Barracks in Moenchengladbach - I can’t quite remember Somewhere along the line (pun intended!) I believe they must have been responsible for the Berlin Military Train.
Anyway, the unit title should enable some further Googling(!)
Thanks Brian!
They also operated an ambulance train; see here at roughly 2.20:
Aachen West, Montzen Depot, Moresnet Viaduct 2007
This link, and others, are from the Army Rumour Service site aka “ARRSE” - link at the bottom, containing some 6 pages of discourse from 2017. Some of the links within are now dead, but still some useful stuff perhaps:
And apparently, the mythical (and much longed for on the BAOR and others’ social circuit, bus full of nurses - QARANC) - mostly Territorial Army - did exist:
The ARRSE link:
79 Railway Squadron - BAOR Ambulance Train | Army Rumour Service
Reference my last.
And finally this from 2016 - some useful stuff here perhaps:
Commander of last British Ambulance train speaks - National Railway Museum blog
I could kick myself in the ass for never taking photographs of the duty train in and out of Berlin. I was on the Berlin wrestling team and we took it almost every Saturday for a time. There would have been nothing stopping me while we were boarding in either Frankfurt or Berlin, so I’m not sure why I didn’t. Cameras were not allowed inside:
But outside?
A few related pics in this Flickr album…
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34148515@N03/albums/72157632427239520/
H.P.
To get through the Workers’ Paradise on the Duty Train, you had to have flag orders. The flag obviously depending on whose Army you were with, I managed to save a few:
Where the hospital trains were parked, in the 70s, was Ayrshire south, my dad used to go and look around, every now and then being a Train enthusiast, my primary school was in Ayrshire North, just off the main Rd, picture attached, now part of the the football ground for Borussia Moenchengladbach.
And the football/ playing field was just behind the air raid bunker across from the building.
Brian, I should have been more precise. I was looking for images of tanks and AFV´s transported on trains. Or did the British Army don´t do any tank transports with Bundesbahn?
A Chally 1 on a Ssym Flachwagen would be interesting.
Here’s a Chieftain. I’m sure they were transported to Berlin by rail - it’s the only way the Soviets would have allowed it
Thanks Rob, one more reason to buy a Flachwagen kit.
I took a walkaround on a Flachwagen on saturday.
The museum also has an example of a Verbrennungstriebwagen used by top brass of USAREUR.
The Flachwagen you photographed is very similar to the one in the first Chieftain photo - just not quite as angular on the end. I don’t think it would make much difference as long as the era is correct.
I’ve got several in my collection in HO scale like your photo I think - most are stored away with my Piko stuff.