Proposed Base Closures-What btype of Rail Service?

I hope the knowledge base here can assist me in this.

The BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission, not the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks!) has recommended closing the bases on the following list.

Can anyone tell me what rail service, rail yards, car capacities, etc. are contained on the following bases?

Army bases at:

Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant, CA

Fort Gillem, GA

Fort McPherson, GA

Newport Chemical Deport, IN

Kansas Army Ammunition Plant, KS

Selfridge Army Activity, MI

Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant, MS

Fort Monmouth, NJ

Umatilla Chemical Deport, OR

Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, TX

Deseret Chemical Deport, UT

Fort Monroe, VA

Navy bases:
Naval Air Station Atlanta, GA

Naval Station Pascagoula, MS

Naval Air Station Willow Grove, PA

Naval Station Ingleside, TX

Naval Air Station Brunswick, ME

Air Force bases at:

Onizuka Air Force Station, CA

Brooks City Base, TX

Cannon Air Force Base, NM

Ft Monmouth hasn't had rail service in a very long time. They used to have one or two simple sidings off the New Jersey Coast Line.

None of the bases you listed have DoD owned locomtives.

Several have RS4TCs that the contractor picked up after the army retired them; they never left the base, but are no longer DoD owned. Riverbank AAP and Kansas AAP are 2 examples of this.

Selfridge has closed its rail operations, but the MTM - Michigan Transit Museum - picked up the RS4TC 4040, and still runs excursion trains around the post with it.

Hope this helps!

Army
Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant, CA
- At last report a 7-ton car spotter took care of any rail needs at the plant.

Fort Gillem, GA
- There is rail access to the base and I believe vehicle loading onto autoracks takes place here, but the GE 80-ton once assigned is long gone, as are the spurs going to warehouses.

Fort McPherson, GA
- There's a civilian rail yard nearby but there does not appear to be any spur into the post.

Newport Chemical Depot, IN
- No known rail activity. Base info here:
www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/newport.htm

Kansas Army Ammunition Plant, KS
- The rail system is inactive and the locomotives, a pair of RS4TCs, have been excessed.

Selfridge Army Activity, MI
- Addressed by an earlier post, Selfridge Air National Guard base had an RS4TC that left the military roster some time ago.

Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant, MS
- Base is inactive and the locomotive, an RS4TC, was excessed.

Fort Monmouth, NJ
- New Jersey Transit runs along the eastern edget of the post and there's an unused spur and loading ramp there, but with the departure long ago of any deployable units, the only rail action has been passing NJT trains.

Umatilla Chemical Deport, OR
- Rail inactive and reportedly torn up, locos (RS4TCs) excessed.

Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, TX
- Addressed in an earlier post.

Deseret Chemical Depot, UT
- No military locomotive or known rail operation. More base info here:
www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/deseret.htm

Fort Monroe, VA
- Rail to the post was torn out many years ago. The Washington Chapter, NRHS, sponsored a visit here many decades ago, and between the world wars the 52nd Coast Artillery Regiment (Railway Gun) spent time here.

Navy
Naval Air Station Atlanta, GA
Naval Station Pascagoula, MS
Naval Air Station Willow Grove, PA
- No known rail activity or locomotives at these locations.

Naval Station Ingleside, TX
- A personal visit showed no rail anywhere near the base.

Naval Air Station Brunswick, ME
- No known rail activity or locomotives at this location.

Air Force
Onizuka Air Force Station, CA
- No rail.

Brooks City Base, TX
- No rail activity. It's a largely a medical base with little need for rail.

Cannon Air Force Base, NM
- The spur was torn out years ago.

Aberdeen Proving Grounds has or had an extensive rail network on
base. But the Army said the cost to upgrade the track was not worth it and
has since mothballed all operations. I spotted one of their EMD SW's in transit on a flat car at Bayview Yard. Destination unknown.

Willow Grove NAS never had any rail lines or connections on the property.
The nearest rail lines (RDG New Hope Branch and the PRR Trenton Cut-off)were several miles away/

Aberdeen Proving Ground's last SW8 departed on a flat in June 2005 to the railroad museum in Sacramento, CA. Remaining rail movements are now handled by a car mover/trackmobile. Apparently it's stored within the restricted area when not in use, and the enginehouse is now used for heavy equipment. An APG employee stated that on-post movements include impact testing as well as rail cars carrying damaged vehicles from Iraq being tested to determine why their armor failed.

Check out the German 11" railway gun spotted on a now-disconnected spur right outside the Ordnance Museum building. The Germans called it Leopold, but it was known to the Americans as Anzio Annie.

Talk about a trophy of war!!! That K-5(E) railway gun is really something, and to think the Germans had even bigger railway guns, such as "Schwere Gustav", the 800mm railway gun that they used to destroy the Soviet fortifications at Sevastopol in 1942....That had to be assembled at the firing point, and ran on two sets of parallel tracks. It was commanded by the German equivalent of a two-star, and had a crew of 1500.....

Naval Air Station Brunswick, ME
- No known rail activity or locomotives at this location.

There used to be a spur that ran off of the Maine Central Rockland branch in BNAS. Inside the base there were several spurs. I don't know when the trackage was torn up, but I think it was a while back. The spur crossed what is now busy US Route 1 that hugs the Mid-Maine coast.

You can see the spur on this 1957 Topo Map.

http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=ME

Brooks

This 1980 topo map portrays another spur that went further south into the base to the right of the runway, paralleling a pipeline.

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T ... ck%7cme%7c

[quote="Spartan Phalanx"]Talk about a trophy of war!!! That K-5(E) railway gun is really something, and to think the Germans had even bigger railway guns, such as "Schwere Gustav", the [b]800mm[/b] railway gun that they used to destroy the Soviet fortifications at Sevastopol in 1942....That had to be assembled at the firing point, and ran on two sets of parallel tracks. It was commanded by the German equivalent of a two-star, and had a crew of 1500.....[/quote]

The [i]Schwere Gustav[/i] was one unique piece of work. It's only combat action was the aforementioned siege of Sevastapol. Following that, it was broken down and never again fired in anger. As I recall, it took 45 minutes or so between firings -- the projectiles were enormous and extremely heavy. It was moved in its specially-dug firing ravine by two diesel locomotives. (Later on, some genius drew up plans for a land-based, tracked version of the gun; fortunately for the [i]Wehrmacht[/i], nothing came of this. It would have been a sitting duck of a target for the Allies.)

Spartan Phalanx wrote:Talk about a trophy of war!!! That K-5(E) railway gun is really something, and to think the Germans had even bigger railway guns, such as "Schwere Gustav", the 800mm railway gun that they used to destroy the Soviet fortifications at Sevastopol in 1942....That had to be assembled at the firing point, and ran on two sets of parallel tracks. It was commanded by the German equivalent of a two-star, and had a crew of 1500.....

The Schwere Gustav was one unique piece of work. It's only combat action was the aforementioned siege of Sevastapol. Following that, it was broken down and never again fired in anger. As I recall, it took 45 minutes or so between firings -- the projectiles were enormous and extremely heavy. It was moved in its specially-dug firing ravine by two diesel locomotives. (Later on, some genius drew up plans for a land-based, tracked version of the gun; fortunately for the Wehrmacht, nothing came of this. It would have been a sitting duck of a target for the Allies.)