Air Force train in Super 8

[bradhig]

I saw Super 8 last week. Early in the movie someone drives a pickup on to the tracks and causes an Air Force train to derail. The engine looked like an F40PH with container cars behind like. The trailer showed what looked like boxcars with the Air Force logo. Later in the movie the Air Force brought in containers on trucks that were red with three white spots. Anyone else seen the movie? I can't say I have ever heard of the Air Force sending anything by rail.

[BNSF1959]

http://movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/super-8/1810159189

Click on #2, 5, & 6. to get a better view of the train. Didn't get a clear view of the engine in the consist.

[conductorchris]

Yes, the air force ships or has shipped by rail. Otis AFB (On the Cape Cod route) used to receive regular shipments of coal (for their heating plant) and occasional shipments of all kinds of supplies (I recall 2 ATSF boxcars of mattresses). In earlier times jet fuel was brought in (I believe there are other large jet fuel movements in other places) by the New Haven Railroad and troop trains once ran onto the base. The air force has a fleet of switch engines which has included a 44Tonner (that was the kind used at Otis AFB), Baldwin switchers, EMD SW8's and many other varieties.

I have to say, driving a pickup truck into a train is like trying to stop a truck with a dog. It's unlikely to do much to the train, but it's unfortunate for the pickup truck.

[gilmoremd]

Baldwin S12 switcher, check the handrails

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=299073

A little quick search shows that both Nevada Northern & Orange Empire Rail Museum both have S12's

[inflammable]

The locomotive was difficult to see in those clips. Long Hood forward, so it can't be all bad.

The plug door boxcars looked a little modern for the late 1950's or so that the movie is supposed to be set in. I'm no expert, but I think that type came around in the seventies.

The containers weren't widely available in that time-frame, either. Sea-Land (who spear-headed the modern container system) was just getting started, were still just a convenient trucking/maritime company.

Most of the Air Force bases did at that time, and a few still do, have rail service. I think much of the traffic would have been inbound jet fuel, while aircraft maintenance depots would have received their bigger parts by rail. Weapons would have traveled by rail between the Ammunition manufacturers to storage/supply depots, to the bases where the planes were armed, or possibly to Naval Supply Bases for transport overseas.

Fallen Flags Take a look at the the small sample of Air Force Equipment on the Fallen Flags website.

Also, if you search around, there's a preserved 'Missile Garrison Car' at one of the museums in the Midwest. It looks like an oversize boxcar on eight axles, it carries an ICBM. It was intended to travel with a fleet of command and other passenger-ish cars in the event of an imminent nuclear exchange, as another method to 'covertly' transport a missile to a launching area.

James

[linkj]

Yes, the air force ships or has shipped by rail. Otis AFB (On the Cape Cod route) used to receive regular shipments of coal (for their heating plant) and occasional shipments of all kinds of supplies (I recall 2 ATSF boxcars of mattresses). In earlier times jet fuel was brought in (I believe there are other large jet fuel movements in other places) by the New Haven Railroad and troop trains once ran onto the base. The air force has a fleet of switch engines which has included a 44Tonner (that was the kind used at Otis AFB), Baldwin switchers, EMD SW8's and many other varieties.

The old Strategic Air Command also used to move B-52 and KC-135 flight simulators/trainers from base to base built into converted passenger cars...one used to visit the old Blytheville AFB AR regularly in the early 70s. It was more unusual for a Mainland US Air Force base to not have some sort of rail facility than for those that did have rail acccess and equipment.

Aloha, Jeff Link

[gilmoremd]

Here is a roster of some what/where of military locos, it is a bit old, but it does give you an idea http://military.railfan.net/roster/

[j2448fan]

I don't know if it's just the Air Force or the DoD, but the CSX yard here in Sumter receives 8-9 tank cars(marked DODX) full of jet fuel for Shaw Air Force Base( probably more this time of year because they are flying more). They drop them off at a nearby siding, then a GE 80 ton picks them up and takes them to the base.

[inflammable]

Shaw just happens to use an 80 ton. The military uses a wide assortment of power today. 65 and 80 ton GE's, Baldwin S-12's, RS4TC's, GP40's, SW8's, GG20B, things like that.

<off topic> Here are some interesting forum threads of DODX tankcars and unloading facilities at another forum: DODX Tank Cars Tank Car Terminals
</off topic>

They are small and inherently easy to model for MSTS, I've just never cared to do it.

James