WWI Railroad Unit in New England

If you live in New England and would like to learn about the WW I railroaders, there is a new re-enactment group forming to portray the 14th Engineers (narrow gauge). They were the New England railroaders that worked on and ran the 2' gauge trench railroads durring the war on both War Department lines in England and the Combat Railway Operations sectors in France.
The command is working with a railroad in New England now to have a date for a training event in the spring. We don't provide the uniforms, but they can be purchased on line. No, we don't have an engine, the only one that I know of left here in the states is the Davenport (2-6-2T) at Ft. Benning still owned by the Army. If anyone is interested in being part of the unit, please let us know via P.M. or on the thread here. I will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have or point you in the direction of someone who can.

No reenactors out there at all? That's too bad. Don't know what you're missing. It's a lot of fun.

I once had a friend ask me if I wanted to take part in a re-enactment of Lexington on the green....

I thought like George Carlin did....please use LIVE ammunition.....

But, as an older and wiser individual....I would certainly come with my camera....this is something

unique...I don't know about the participation aspect though.....but I bet it would be fun

Check out http://great-war-assoc.org/

also a quick surch of you tube will bring up some of the events. If you want to bring a Camera reader, we'll have to get you a period one....

Any type of participation would be great though, if you wanted to be the unit shutter bug, I think I could do some convincing. We're hard up for track guys and operating crews. (all of these of course will be tought....no experiance needed)

this is a great web site, but it fails to tell you where they are form, I assume they are form the VA area?? also where in New England are they talking about doing the re-enactment?? I might be interested somewhere down the road,but I am not really intested in travelin gall teh way to VA.

thaks in advance

Capt bill

Bill,
The GWA is based in Newville, PA. Training sessions in New England are going to roatate around to different railroads that will have us....once we get a good idea about how many people there may be in the unit, we can make some anouncements for next spring training.

Unit is stood up everyone, we now have 8 people on the rolls. Still looking for anyone who would like to reenact as an army railroader.

I have links to uniform suppliers and such if anyone is interested.....Hack hack Cosmo Hack hack.....

(Is that RICE I smell burning?) We'll see, we'll SEE! Right now I got so many irons in the fire it aint funny.

How many reenactors have ever bothered to serve in the real military? You can't quit when the weekend is over and the blood is real. BTW, my wife and I both put in 30 years as Army officers: you can't pay me enough to watch someone play soldier.

@ewh,
A lot of us have and still are. A large number of us like to see what it was like "back in the day". There are whole reenacting units that are made up of just currently serving people. It's about the experiance of the time period. My French & Indian unit was all vets. It wasn't a rule that we didn't take non military people, but that's the kind of people that we attracted. It's about the comrodery, and getting away from everything for a weekend or two. Some people fish, some people chase trains, and some people put on WWI uniforms....run trains....and shoot at the Bosh. It's all in what you enjoy Sir! Hooah!

ewh wrote:How many reenactors have ever bothered to serve in the real military? You can't quit when the weekend is over and the blood is real. BTW, my wife and I both put in 30 years as Army officers: you can't pay me enough to watch someone play soldier.

Sometimes it's just about remembering those who went before us and honoring their sacrifice and service by bringing their unit back to life for a day or two.

I have not nor do I now participate in any reenactment or historical unit but I see a great deal of value in bringing them to light.

Obscurity is the shadow of the darkness of ignorance.

I would have just hit the like button if there was one.

There is now a web site up about these guys.

www.armyrailroader.org

Nice site. Is that film footage of the 14th or just generic stock?

George,
It's film footage of the 14th, 12th, and 21st Engineers (Light Railway). There is really no good way to "cut it up" so as just to be the 14th. The footage from Ft Benning is what became of the railroads after the war. They were used to transport troops around a few of the big bases until after WWII. I'm not sure which operating company that is....if anyone knows I would appreciate the heads up. I was not able to find any information on them....