Army Operation Of The Rail Transportation Systems

This manual, “Army Rail Operations,” describes the organizations, processes, procedures, and systems involved in the rail operations across the military spectrum. The focus of this manual is for the reader to gain an understanding of the Army rail system and how it functions. Rail transport operations in developed nations are considered to be a HN-provided service. In contingency areas, US rail units may have to be employed to support the theater of operations. This Field Manual sets forth transportation rail doctrine and organizational structure. It is written to explain the functions of rail transport operations service in a theater of operations. It provides basic information for commanders and staffs of supporting units and for staff officers of high HQ. It is also intended to serve as a text for student instruction and training of rail unit personnel. There are found primary functions of rail transport operations for military and commercial railways. These include train operation, maintenance of way, maintenance of equipment and train control.

To rapidly deploy its forces in wartime, the Army depends on the rail system to transport its equipment from installations to ports of embarkation. The rail facilities and loading operations at Army mobilization stations are therefore focal points for deployment, and they are expected to become increasingly critical as Army units in Germany, Korea, and other locations return to the United States. At the six mobilization stations GAO visited, the Army transported unit equipment to ports as scheduled during the 6-month period covered by Operation Desert Shield, but deteriorated rail facilities at some mobilization stations constrained loading operations. Future conflicts could easily require the deployment of even great numbers of U.S. forces during shorter periods of time. The Army began a program in fiscal year 1986 to repair rail facilities, but the effort's effectiveness has been severely hampered by program management problems. Also, the Pentagon and the Army have not corrected many deployment problems that GAO identified in 1987.

"The Rise of Rail-power in War and Conquest, 1833-1914" by Edwin A. Pratt is a book about transportation and the military. The time has not yet come for telling all that the railways have thus far done during the war which has still to be fought out. That story, in the words of a railwayman concerned therein, is at present "a sealed book." Meanwhile, however, it is desirable that the position as defined in the second of the two considerations given should be fully realized, in order that what the railways and, so far as they have been aided by them, the combatants, have accomplished or are likely to accomplish may be better understood when the sealed book becomes an open one.

This manual describes the organizations, processes, procedures, and systems involved in the rail operations across the military spectrum. The focus of this manual is for the reader to gain an understanding of the Army rail system and how it functions. Rail transport operations in developed nations are considered to be a HN provided service. In contingency areas, US rail units may have to be employed to support the theater of operations. This FM sets forth transportation rail doctrine and organizational structure. It is written to explain the functions of rail transport operations service in a theater of operations. It provides basic information for commanders and staffs of supporting units and for staff officers of higher HQ. It is also intended to serve as a text for student instruction and training of rail unit personnel.