Trains Go to War

Welcome to TRAINS GO TO WAR, the latest special edition from CLASSIC TRAINS. On the following pages you’ll find 14 articles drawn from past issues of TRAINS and CLASSIC TRAINS magazines, including seven originally published in the 1940s. The stories cover railroading during five major conflicts in which the United States was involved: the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Some of the articles focus on rail operations in combat areas, while others chronicle the important role the railroads played on the home front. As the most far-reaching and consequential conflict the globe has ever seen — one that took place during the heyday of America’s railroads — World War II accounts for about half of this issue’s content, spanning from…

Ask the average person “How was the American Civil War different from any conflict that preceded it?” and you will probably get as many different answers as the number of people you ask. But pitch your question to a military historian and you may hear this: “Railroads for the first time became a weapon. That is, they were used as a logistical arm of fighting forces. Northern superiority in rolling stock and trackage was a major factor in Union victory.” There has been a considerable amount of writing on this aspect of “the war that never ends.” From the Library of Congress and the National Archives I have come up with additional evidence that the railroad not only was a new means of getting there “fustest with the mostest” —…

The railroad is an important part of war. Experience in World War I outlines this, and even the high degree of motorization in World War II still leaves a big job for army railroads. In times of peace, War Department transportation is a matter of purchase or supply. It is arranged for by the Quartermaster Department in the same manner as the purchase of equipment. The War Department is not necessarily concerned in the details of this transportation except as to departure and arrival time. In time of war, transportation in the rear areas is still a supply problem, but the War Department is concerned to a greater degree. But in the theater of operations, transportation becomes a part of army operations and ceases to be a matter of supply.…

Uncle Sam is not often cast in the role of steam locomotive designer, but he proved when the call came that he could swiftly design as neat a Mikado as ever clanked a side rod. Indeed, he blueprinted a whole family of engines — a dozen types in eight wheel arrangements — that were produced for years after the emergency that prompted their creation and which served the nation’s railroads until the end of steam. This unorthodox occurrence stemmed from the impact of World War I. On December 28, 1917, eight months after the United States entered the war, the railroads of our country were put under the control of the United States Railroad Administration, headed by Director General William Gibbs McAdoo. This action made good sense at the time…

Many a GI has taken a ride on an Italian railroad. Perhaps the comfort couldn’t be compared to the good old American tradition, but the fact that he reaches his destination safely is a tribute to the Military Railway Service. The MRS has taken over complete operation of standard Italian railroad lines, and since October 1943 has pounded and welded wrecked equipment back into shape by veritable trainloads. Giant re-electrification programs have been started. Interlocking systems have been rebuilt. Italian locomotives have been overhauled right down to the last rivet and shrapnel hole, and hundreds of burntout cars are now back in service. The MRS is composed of many outfits, broken down into various units such as diesel maintenance, track repair, shop, crew operating, and dispatching. The military railroad is…

The past few years have seen so many “last trips” on America’s narrow-gauge railroads that it is refreshing to find a three-foot line with not only a splendid past but a booming present and a future far from gloomy. Although 2,200 miles out in the Pacific, this finely operated railway is very much American and very much a part of the war effort. The official title is the Oahu Railway & Land Co., but the rolling stock is lettered only oahu railway. The main line runs west, north, and east along the coast of Oahu Island, Hawaii, from Honolulu to Kahuku, a distance of about 70 rail miles. A P-47 flying a straight course between the two cities would travel only 25 miles. Branch lines and second track bring the…