Rail facilities at BAOR and RAF bases

Don't know, would have made logical sense for them to go to REME but can't expect these people to work with logic

Les

Did they not transfer to the RAOC as Pet Ops?

Certainly not REME, believe RAOC to be correct

I suppose another possibility is that those trades were done away with and the work farmed out to the
civilian sector as with so much else.

Bye the way. BobG I see you werein Duisburg - was that with 4 Inf Wksps or the Technical training school, I was in Glamorgan Bks in 1953/4,

Thanks for the replies,

Cliffo

Indeed was RAOC as Pet Ops, with RE help if building a large Pet Farm (levelling ground etc) Basicallyly all supply functions went to the RAOC and POL is classed as Combat Supplies

Cliffo, I was in Duisburg in 77 with 4 Div Tpt Regt Wksp. I was there earlier when I did a number of courses at the REME Tech Trg School in the period 1958 - 60.

Tim,
I can help you with information about railheads in BAOR that were used by Ambulance Trains between 1980 and 1994 during which period I commanded the Ambulance Train Squadron RAMC(V). I am at present trying to write up my archive as so much of what we did and where we did it has been forgotten and sites re-developed.

To answer your specific query we used rail served Army and RAF Bases including:-

Arsbeck
RAF Bruggen
RAF Gutersloh
Hohne
Munster Coerde
Sennelager
Willich
Moenchengladbach

Although we never took Ambulance Trains there RAF Wildrenrath was also rail served.
Because operationally Ambulance Trains would not have used railheads that were handling armour or ammunition, in order to preserve our protected status under the Geneva Convention, there were many more rail served depots in BAOR that greater experts in the RLC will know better than I.

Hope this helps a little,

Brian
Colonel (retd) L/RAMC

I've been part of troop movements where our entire regiment (armoured cavalry) were entrained at different locations and delivered to the railhead at Rheinsalen Camp. There was also an old railhead at York Kaserne, Muenster. All tracks were gone by the time I arrived and I suspect that one was part of the Luftwaffe setup.

Hussar100 wrote:

I've been part of troop movements where our entire regiment (armoured cavalry) were entrained at different locations and delivered to the railhead at Rheinsalen Camp. There was also an old railhead at York Kaserne, Muenster. All tracks were gone by the time I arrived and I suspect that one was part of the Luftwaffe setup.

Rail trucks loaded with armoured vehicles could be seen by the side of the road between York Barracks and the railway bridge in the 80s.Not strictly a Military rail facility.

Chemist wrote:

Hussar100 wrote:

I've been part of troop movements where our entire regiment (armoured cavalry) were entrained at different locations and delivered to the railhead at Rheinsalen Camp. There was also an old railhead at York Kaserne, Muenster. All tracks were gone by the time I arrived and I suspect that one was part of the Luftwaffe setup.

Rail trucks loaded with armoured vehicles could be seen by the side of the road between York Barracks and the railway bridge in the 80s.Not strictly a Military rail facility.

Shows you how the memory fails then. I have absolutely no recollection of a railway line being anywhere close to York Kaserne at all.

There was a railway line as I recall from two years there in 52/54, but cannot remember seeing a 'railhead' in the vicinity. The 17/21 Lancers Centurions were brought in on transporters.

Len (Ciphers)

ciphers wrote:

There was a railway line as I recall from two years there in 52/54, but cannot remember seeing a 'railhead' in the vicinity. The 17/21 Lancers Centurions were brought in on transporters.

Len (Ciphers)

The old railhead I'm referring to was at what was the back gate to York Kaserne, across from POL. There was some evidence as to it being a railhead but no trackbed remaining.

The railhead at Rheinsalen was still in use in my time. I certainly remember trooping from the UK as part of Crusader 80, having the entire regiment put on flats at Zeebrugge after exiting the DFDS Dana Futura (or Dana Hafnia - both ships were used for outbound and return journeys, I just can't remember in what order).

I was driving a Chieftain at that time and I remember well the delicate process of negotating along dozens of flatbed carriages before being shackled in place. Our trackbed exceeded the width of the carriages by some inches which meant we had an overhang on each side.

After much stopping and starting and about 24 hours on the passenger carriages we finished up in Rheinsalen. Must have been some length of a train.

When I was in the Railway Squadron I can remember:

Rheindahlen Holts 1 & 2
Raf Bruggen
RAF Wildenwrath
Arsbeck
Sennerlager
154 FAD Wulfen
3 BAD Bracht
Willich
Wetter
RAF Gutersloh
Hohne Railhead

There were more, but my memory is a bit fuzzy. There were lots of railheads which were not a MOD Depot, but local sidings, DB owned with loading facilities (ramp etc) and of course, we owned that railway intrument of torture, the Ramp Wagon for when there wasn't a ramp.

A former OC started a website to list all the former Depots that were owned operated by us, but it appears to have fallen by the way side.

Regards

Nige

Hussar100 wrote:

ciphers wrote:

There was a railway line as I recall from two years there in 52/54, but cannot remember seeing a 'railhead' in the vicinity. The 17/21 Lancers Centurions were brought in on transporters.

Len (Ciphers)

The old railhead I'm referring to was at what was the back gate to York Kaserne, across from POL. There was some evidence as to it being a railhead but no trackbed remaining.

The railhead at Rheinsalen was still in use in my time. I certainly remember trooping from the UK as part of Crusader 80, having the entire regiment put on flats at Zeebrugge after exiting the DFDS Dana Futura (or Dana Hafnia - both ships were used for outbound and return journeys, I just can't remember in what order).

I was driving a Chieftain at that time and I remember well the delicate process of negotiating along dozens of flatbed carriages before being shackled in place. Our trackbed exceeded the width of the carriages by some inches which meant we had an overhang on each side.

After much stopping and starting and about 24 hours on the passenger carriages we finished up in Rheinsalen. Must have been some length of a train.

Rheinsalen, now that brings back a memory or two. 1 SSM Bty RCA often encamped there. Remember centurions being off loaded (64-68). If I remember correctly a WO 1 was the camp commander. We had to man the switch board when there. It still had the swastika markings on the equipment, but was modernized some time in 67-68. There was herd of sheep running around, glider clubs and remote airplane fans use the area on weekends. Also remember a taxi showed up with a working girl, 2i/c went bonkers trying to track it down and get it off the area.

The WO1 was the Camp RSM who briefed all incoming exercising units on Fire Drill etc, the showers were the original from the days that the Camp was a Luftwaffe base, the shower heads were the size of dinner plates. The Headquarters building is now a hotel:-


http://www.hotel.info/Hotel/Detail?gclid=CMuIw5LpnLcCFdDJtAod2DQABQ&hs_hmid=127528&cpn=1640&cpnll=1847



In the 60s a van would arrive from Hamburg and, for a price, dispense magazines of a certain genre. (So I was told)

Not to mention the toilet facilities. Thunderboxes! Lines of benches with holes cut in them. Great for a communal get together but the stench, my goodness, you could have cut it with a knife.

Shelldrake wrote:

The WO1 was the Camp RSM who briefed all incoming exercising units on Fire Drill etc, the showers were the original from the days that the Camp was a Luftwaffe base, the shower heads were the size of dinner plates. The Headquarters building is now a hotel:-


http://www.hotel.info/Hotel/Detail?gclid=CMuIw5LpnLcCFdDJtAod2DQABQ&hs_hmid=127528&cpn=1640&cpnll=1847



In the 60s a van would arrive from Hamburg and, for a price, dispense magazines of a certain genre. (So I was told)

This bit on Reinsehlen has stirred up a s**t load of memories. The SSM Bty was a bit of a bastard unit and we always seemed to be stuck out in Reinsehlen all the time. Those toilets..... We had a fella in our section get nipped on his dingle danglies by a rat when he was using them.

Hardrations wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

The WO1 was the Camp RSM who briefed all incoming exercising units on Fire Drill etc, the showers were the original from the days that the Camp was a Luftwaffe base, the shower heads were the size of dinner plates. The Headquarters building is now a hotel:-


http://www.hotel.info/Hotel/Detail?gclid=CMuIw5LpnLcCFdDJtAod2DQABQ&hs_hmid=127528&cpn=1640&cpnll=1847



In the 60s a van would arrive from Hamburg and, for a price, dispense magazines of a certain genre. (So I was told)

This bit on Reinsehlen has stirred up a s**t load of memories. The SSM Bty was a bit of a bastard unit and we always seemed to be stuck out in Reihselen all the time. Those toilets..... We had a fella in our section get nipped on his dingle danglies by a rat when he was using them.

They built a new toilet block sometime in the late 70's and put 4 cubicles in it then we turned up with the entire 7th Armd Bde on Crusader. The queue was hundreds of yards long and the stench would have suffocated you. I was touching cloth after weeks on compo and had no choice but to use the slighty more fragrant thunderboxes.

Oh, and a dropshort saluted me when I was on my way to the EFI tent! Laugh, I nearly paid my sqn tab!

Was there a boozer in Schneverdingen called The swartze Cat? Seems to pull a few memory strings and that it was out of bounds. I also seem to remember an incident during the 66 world cup when some young officer type fired a 120mm blank from a centurion into a pub due to some difference of opinion. Urban myth?

steve1226 wrote:

Was there a boozer in Schneverdingen called The swartze Cat? Seems to pull a few memory strings and that it was out of bounds. I also seem to remember an incident during the 66 world cup when some young officer type fired a 120mm blank from a centurion into a pub due to some difference of opinion. Urban myth?

I'm sure I've been in Die Schwarze Kat.  Long time ago though.

The urban myth about Cents firing blanks into pubs permeated the entire army but I've never actually spoken to anyone who was there when it happened.  There's something about Urban Myths elsewhere on the site I'm sure.

EDIT: Try in here https://bfg-locations.editboard.com/t1828-urban-myths

Yar, we had that urban myth in the Cdn. Brigade to about it being an UK unit that did it. I think it was making the rounds in 67.

steve1226 wrote:

young officer type fired a 120mm blank from a centurion

I don't recall the Cent having a 120mm gun, 105mm mayhap?

steve1226 wrote:

Was there a boozer in Schneverdingen called The swartze Cat? Seems to pull a few memory strings and that it was out of bounds.

One bleak, cold and rainy day, we came off the ranges to get set up on Reinsehlen.
We were surprised to find that the regiment that had been there had gone, there were a few raggy tents, flapping forlornly in the cold wind and that was it.
It turned out that a bunch of blokes had gone boozing in Schneverdingen and, in the best tradition of the British Army, had smashed the place up. The local Brig, on hearing of this, ordered the regiment back onto the ranges.
I don't recall its name but that could well be the reason why the pub was verboten, steve.

brum wrote:

steve1226 wrote:

Was there a boozer in Schneverdingen called The swartze Cat? Seems to pull a few memory strings and that it was out of bounds.

One bleak, cold and rainy day, we came off the ranges to get set up on Reinsehlen.
We were surprised to find that the regiment that had been there had gone, there were a few raggy tents, flapping forlornly in the cold wind and that was it.
It turned out that a bunch of blokes had gone boozing in Schneverdingen and, in the best tradition of the British Army, had smashed the place up. The local Brig, on hearing of this, ordered the regiment back onto the ranges.
I don't recall its name but that could well be the reason why the pub was verboten, steve.

I do hope that it wasn't a Gunner regiment!!    

Funny you should bring that up.
I seem to remember it was 40 Fd - a regiment blessed with a preponderance of, (dare I say it ?), Jocks in its ranks.