Catching up on reading the Passenger train list today, the
Troop Train discussion from last month stimulated me to look for some of the
MAIN train advise messages that I had copied from the National Archives a few
years ago. I’m still looking for the folder
where I filed the images, but in so doing I ran across this nugget for the
freight car aficionado.
By Superx308 Jeffrey Jung email:superx308 at gmail.com - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4303820
The US Army exploited a lot of captured material during and
after WWII. Most of the armor and
artillery were shipped to Aberdeen Proving Grounds In Maryland for
testing. One such piece of foreign gear
was the German 280 mm railway gun, nicknamed Leopold. The Germans abandoned the gun in Italy during
their withdrawal northward from Anzio in 1944.
This gun was shipped from New York to Aberdeen via the Pennsylvania RR
on 28 July 1945 in MTX 60567 from Greenville Yards, NJ to Aberdeen, MD.
NARA RG 336 DeClassified
The train consist follows:
PRR 435341 F22 Flat & Gun, Steel Underframe
PRR 435390 F22 Flat & Gun, Steel Underframe
ATSF 91520 Ft-V 53’6
War Emergency Flat
PRR 363320 G30 Steel underframe, wood side drop end
Gondola
PRr 275221 Gr Steel underframe, wood side drop end
Gondola
PRR 356135 Gra Steel underframe, wood side drop end
Gondola
Cabin Car
They evidently loaded Leopold onto the three flats and three
gons to avoid compatibility issues with the German equipment.
John Barry
Lovettsville, VA
2020/3/13
