[PRCo] Re: Troop trains

[Herb Brannon]

In the Summer of 1964 I had a "seasonal" job with the City of Akron, Street
& Highway Dept, as a laborer on a McAdam paving crew. We had a three day
job, in mid-August, on a city street which ran along side the main east-west
railroad tracks. These tracks served the Eire-Lackawanna, Baltimore & Ohio
and the Pennsylvania railroads. Every day we worked on that street we saw
troop train after troop train headed westbound. All the trains used the
1930s Pullman cars you speak about. Just a few months later in April, 1965 I
departed, like your brother, on a TWA flight headed for BCT and AIT, as a
Combat Engineer, at Ft Leonard Wood, MO.



On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 22:52, Bob Rathke <bobrathke at comcast.net> wrote:

>
> A couple of follow-ups, Fred:
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> - In March, 1963 I took my brother to Greater Pittsburgh Airport where he
> boarded a TWA Constellation for his induction in the Army at Ft. Knox.
> Attached is a photo of my brother about to enter the door, looking back
> toward the camera.
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> By 1964-67, the Defense Department was sending a greater number of
> Pittsburgh inductees to basic training on trains from the PRR and P&LE
> stations.  I took photos of the 1930's Pullman cars kept in those stations
> for use on the inductee trains.
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> - Last Fall, my uncle told me about his rail trip to basic training in 1942
> (previously, he had never talked about his WWII experiences).  His dad
> accompanied him to the P&LE station that day where he boarded a B&O train to
> Washington, D.C., and then on to an Army base in the South. Hhe said his
> parents (my grandparents) didn't know that he enlisted in the Army - they
> always thought that he had been drafted.
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> Last Fall he talked freely about his experiences in the U.S. and Pacific
> 1942-45, and I furiously took notes on everything he said.
>
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>
> Bob
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> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: Sunday, May 8, 2011 10:40:38 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Pennsylvania RR Heritage Passenger Train
>
> Back on October 8th, 1958, I entered the army.   The local recruiter (yes,
> guys, RA stood for ragged ass) gave me a ticket to Harrisburg on the Pennsy.
>   My parents were on the station platform in Lancaster to say good-bye.
> And dad had one last picture of the train disappearing west with one of
> those Pennsy business cars on the rear end of number 25.
>
> That was one hellish long day.  Hours of processing and finally a bus to
> Philadelphia and another bus to Fort Dix. And then standing in formation for
> an hour.   Finally some a-hole sergeant comes out of a building and says,
> "Oh, you guys still here.   Well maybe we do something."  And he sent us to
> dinner at 11 PM for what was left over in the reception center.   Then to
> bed at 1 AM.   Then they woke us up again at 4 a.m. to tell us we were in
> the army now.
>
> Thanks Bob, for the memories.
>
>
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-- 
Herb Brannon
In Cuyahoga Valley National Park