In observance of Armed Forces Day, Today's Train of Though features a solitary engine hauling a pair of tank-laden flatcars on the former Baltimore & Ohio Sand Patch line through Western Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania. Railpictures.net contributor Tom Mugnano snapped CSX Transportation SD50 #8632 making good time through Garrett, PA before dusk on October 19, 2007.Ever since the Civil War, it's not unusual for military equipment to move by rail. Even in peacetime, the US Army will deploy domestically to places like Ft. Irwin (just outside of Barstow, CA) or Ft. Polk (in western Louisiana) for training, with tanks, armored fighting vehicles, trucks, hummers, trailers and generators being shipped by rail for the deployment [take it from somebody who's chained down many a Bradley or Abrams to a flatcar- NANESB!]. This smaller train, however, is a little unusual and I could only guess the equipment is en route to a smaller National Guard facility.
Those are not tanks. They are M88A2 HERCULES Armoured recovery vehicles coming out of BAE Systems York, PA manufacturing plant. Probably going to Red River Army Depot for processing.
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