Military Railway Service

[tredhed2]

Another one of my favorite areas of collecting insterest is the Military Railway Service MRS) Not as sexy as TD, airborne, etc, (unless u also love steam trains) still a valuable role in America's war effort.

In the 1940s, the most efficient way to move large quantities of anything was via railroads (RR). Civilian RR have their own communications, construction, rights-of-way, and repair facilities. As the US entered WW 2, the War Department began executing its pre-war plan - activating MRS units from pre-war cadres.

If u were an engineer for the Union Pacific, and you were drafted or enlisted, you could volunteer for one of the MRS battalions and be an engineer there. Same was true if your were a fireman or brakeman, or worked in major repairs. You kept your specific civilian occupation in the MRS - for the most part (it wasn't necessarily true in the Railway Grand Divisions). There were two types of battalions - Railway Operating Bns (ROB), and Railway Shop Bns (RSB). A RGD, an admin unit of approx 100 men, directed the activitesi fo 4-5 ROBs and 1-2 RSBs. The 800+ battalions were the heart and soul of America's Transportation Corps. Each ROB had 4 companies - HQ (sometimes H & S), A, B, and C (some had D companies if they were running on electric lines, but that's getting ahead of the story). HQ/H & S ran dispatch offices, telegraphers, and the yard; Co A had trrack plts and a bridge plt; Co B was the shop company for minor repairs, Co C provided the train crews.

The RSBs also had 4 companies - H & S (same jobs as for the ROBs); Co A which had the lathes; Co B which did the boiler repairs, and Co C which had the foundries (to repair wheels, bearings, add brakes). The RSBs did the major overhauls - adding brakes to rolling stock which usually had none (nooo kidding!); built refrigerator cars, hospital cars, repaired/restored damaged locomotives and passenger cars, etc.

Some 351,000 men who had worked for America's RR prior to the war joined all branches of the service, and 44,000 joined the MRS. Most had basic at Camp Harrahan, in New Orleans. After basic, they moved to civilian RR sites for further training (no pun intended).

Once overseas, they started moving everything that had been in storage, due to, well, let's say, "contractual problems with foreign RRs". The first deployments went to Alaska and then to Iran, for the Persian Gulf Service Command.

Many of the bns had advance parties which went in on amphibious landings in the 2nd or 3rd waves....Torhc, Husky, D-Day. They surveyed damaged rail facilities, contacted engineer combat and construction units, coordinated with them, and got repairs done and supplies running on the rails again.

In the CBI, the MRS ROBs carried more cargo than the AAF flew over the Hump; they got the materials out of the ports and on the rails in greater tonnages than the Red Ball Express could run. Most of the MRS was concentrated in N. Africa, MTO, and ETOs. Not much rail activity existed in the islands of the SWPTO, except for in the Philippines.

MRS units took over war damaged RRs and got them running, restoring damaged stock, locomotives, etc under difficult circumstances. They dodged V-1 and V-2 rockets in Belgium, German offensives in N. Africa and the ETO, and sometimes operated foreign equipment at great risk to the personnel. Once the war was over, the men returned to home life, only to be recalled when the KW broke out in 1950. But that's another thread.

Many of the ROBs and RSBs had DIs, and a few had SSI. In fact, my favorite patch in my collection is depicted here - the 758th RSB, followed by the 725th ROB. Yes, the 758th RSB is a Disney design. It's inked on leather, and I obtained it from the vet who was the bn artist, and drew them up on leather for those men who wanted one.....

[tredhed2]

and here is the 748th ROB, probably their signals section, followed by the 709th RGD.

[tredhed2]

and my last WW II MRS patch, the 701st RGD.

[Daniel Griffin]

Hello Dave,
Really great patches! Thanks for posting them.

[R MICHAEL]

Thank you for posting that informative bit of information. My Grandfather was an engineer in the 711th ROB. Only have a few photos from him but I picked up a nice 711th ROB photo album a while back on ebay. I will have to get it out and look to see the company the soldier served in.

Many thanks! Mike

[-Ray-]

These abstract collections are most interesing and unique. Not the normal run of the mill, thats what makes them enlightening.

There are a lot of kodachrome pictures of the WW II military railroad service about. I have a nice train magazine back home dedicated to this subject with these colorful illustrations

-Ray-

[tredhed2]

oops

[tredhed2]

Funny you should mention the photos. Here is my favorite WW 2 MRS photo - the elephant was jokingly known in the yard as a "coalless switcher". Courtesy T-5 John Daoutis, 725th ROB, in the yard at Lalmanirhat, site of the bn HQ.

Note the freight cars have only 4 wheels - very frustrating for the crews, as 4 wheels stock does not do well on curves - and they rarely had brakes. More than one locomotive engineer told me going up and down grades was like operating a slinky. 4 wheel cars were common in the ETO, too. Our cars w. 8 wheels, 4 to a truck, were much much better - and all of them had brakes from the factories.

Co B and the men at the 758th RSB did a tremendous job adding brakes to so much rolling stock.

[Bill D.]

Dave, a really fascinating subject and some awesome items!!!!

Thanks for posting all of this!!!

[tredhed2]

You are all welcome.

My only regret is that I got started too late on the MRS. Most men were in their late 20s to mid 30s when they joined the service, so too many were gone by the time I started researching and writing.

Will start a thread in the KW section, as by then it was the TMRS. The T was for Transportation.