National Guard Train

[stfdbeeker]

I saw this on Youtube today did anybody else get some pics of this coming off the Midland sub?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FikM1SnkO0

[~Z~]

Some guys mentioned seeing it go by the Fostoria OH webcam the other day...but hadn't heard any mention of it through MI before now.

[stfdbeeker]

Yeah I have some good pictures when CSX still owned the line of this "spring training" move. I wondered if it kept the CSX power on it or they added the 2 GE's off the coal train power waitning in the yard after it came into Saginaw like they occasionally do. I can only recall seing a few GE's on the Midland sub but that was the late 90's mostly on q 330 when it still terminated in Midland prior to being cut back to Saginaw.

[AARR]

I did not know the National Guard stuff went through Midland. It usually comes down the Mac Sub and is interchanged either in CMGN or LSRC yard.

Someone said the train in Fostoria was not from Grayling yet it looks like the same train to me

[GTW6401]

The military train came out of Grayling. I can remember seeing military convoys each summer that were a couple miles long heading north on I-75. The Ohio national guard also has trained at Grayling in the past so there is enough to justify shipping the equipment by rail.

The CSX power was likely added in Saginaw or Essexville, since the 6 axle power wouldn't have gone over the swing bridge onto the SBS.

[amtrak1007]

Its kinda like a POTUS move, no one says anything until after the event, and then its all free game...

[pbmaxno15]

When I was a kid, the Guard units would overnight in the parking lot at the middle school in St. Louis. They used the lockerrooms at the school to shower and clean up. They would arrive late afternoon/early evening, and then head out at sunrise the next morning. What a wake-up call! Over an hour of diesel power grinding up the little hill, out of the parking lot, and down the street, and then back out to what was then US-27(now US-127) to finish their trip north. These units were from Indiana and Ohio. It always seemed funny to me that they would stop in St. Louis when they were only a couple of hours away from Grayling.

[conrailmike]

I knew it would come down sooner or later, just didn't know when. Those empty flats went north over a month ago behind a KCS unit. I had a feeling they would come back south in the cover of darkness...dang.

[M.D.Bentley]

Loading the trains is part of the deployment exersize for the Transportation Corp's. Weight, how many will fit on each car, order of need/use at the destination all come into play. And i am sure it would cost all of us (tax $$$$) alot to fuel up all of those vehicles. I too have seen military movements in the wee hours of the morning on I-75 heading south, was a convoy of military and U Haul vehicles with explosive placard all over them, about 20 total. Makes you kinda wonder what they are hauling, or maybe its better not to.

[AC60CW]

Still probably will save the tax payers money by shipping by rail. Instead of driving them. If the empties cane up with KCS engines...wonder where they actually are headed to.

[AARR]

I had no idea Grayling sent out unit trains. In all my years all I have ever seen were small to mid-sized blocks of 3-15ish cars go in/out of there, usually tanks. I am impressed!

[conrailmike]

Still probably will save the tax payers money by shipping by rail. Instead of driving them. If the empties cane up with KCS engines...wonder where they actually are headed to.

Let me clarify...it was one KCS and one BNSF. A few days later those two units headed back on Q321 if I remember correctly.

[AC60CW]

Could it possibly be a unit being deployed as well. I have read there are a couple of units in Michigan being deployed soon. That could very well be also. I am thinking this might be it because wouldn't they be sending equipment north in the spring for training? I don't think they do any training in Grayling in the winter months.

[sd70accsxt700]

Hauled a lot of these through the years working in Saginaw. Some went to Midland, for the Guard, I was told and the rest to Grayling. Strangest move was the night I had 30 flats of tanks on the head end of Q296. Those must have been some hot tanks to be on the head end of a hot rack train.

[DLM]

So do they roll up the windows and lock the doors or do they just leave the keys in them?

[Raildudes dad]

So do they roll up the windows and lock the doors or do they just leave the keys in them?

From my experience with the NG in the windstorm of 98, no keys to start, just the push botton. Security is provided by a locked chain thru the steering wheel. We fueled them up overnight by starting the trucks, backing them into the clear, pumping fuel into them from a 100 gallon tank in a pickup, then pulling them back into the parking slot and shutting them back off. (I guess 24/7 security behind our locked fence wasn't secure enough to leave them unlocked so we could drive them to the fuel pumps )

[MIGN-Todd]

Ok, just to help out- NO! Military vehicles do not have keys (except for leased commercial vehicles). Tanks only have locks on their hatches and wheeled vehicles have locks on their steering wheels. Explosives are never carried inside any vehicles unless they are attended (placards saying "explosives" are left on some vehicles if they will be used to carry them). Anything shipped via Rail will be empty of any ammo or explosives. These items are supplied up in Grayling at the ASP.

Every year, Michigan National Guard Soldiers do their three week training at Grayling as well as most of the State of Ohio. Indiana and Illinois use it also at times. Also, Canadian troops are seen quite regularly there as some of there bases do not even come close to the capabilities of what Grayling has to offer. Tanks in large numbers aren't stored up in Grayling anymore . The tanks that are there belong to Ohio more than likely and since Grayling has the area and gun ranges- they keep them there. Most of which is there now is Artillery and Engineer heavy equipment. Just prior to a States annual training, their heavy stuff will be shipped in if it isn't already there and staged for pick up at the airfield (where it is watched).

As for shipping tanks via rail- it SUCKS! I've done it overseas and here in the States and it is a pain. Four chock blocks plus four NATO chocks (to prevent side to side slipping) and twelve heavy chains front and back. Deustche Bundesbahn were VERY picky but not as much as Union Pacific! Rest assured, if you see a Military train go by- those troops worked their tail off to get it that far.

[AC60CW]

Todd, from my impression these were headed south...not north. Can someone correct me if I am wrong please. The guard trains in the summer. So, if the train (noted in previous post) was empty headed north a little bit ago. Then seen loaded headed south. They weren't shipped up north for training. Thats why I wonder if it wasn't a unit that is going to be deployed soon. The equipment is usually cataloged and rigged for shipping. Then shipped ahead of the troops. This is from my experiences at least. Usually the equipment is prepared and loaded by a logistics guard unit for training purposes. Everything from what I have seen dealing with the guard seems to involved getting as much training for different units as they can.

[sd70accsxt700]

Tanks are not staged up there forever, hence the loaded train going back south. At some point they have to recever matanance more then can be provided up there.

[conrailmike]

Todd, from my impression these were headed south...not north. Can someone correct me if I am wrong please.

Yes, they were headed south.