European Railroad Discussion > US Army Duty Train - Berlin

While serving with the US military in the mid to late 1980's I had occassion to ride the Duty Train from Frankfurt Main to Berlin. From what I remember it ran mostly at night, departing Frankfurt around 2000 hours. Does anyone have 1980's photos of the Duty Train or is there a web site I can go to for information and photos.

Attached are images of the US Army Duty Train pass folder that was issued to passengers.

Thank you,

JMW

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This is the inside of the folder -

JMW

This is the "Flag Order" a US military member had to get before being granted passage to Berlin.

JMW

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Talk about seeing things from the past! I have one of those flag order folders dated August 14th, 1971. Was leaving home to join the navy. Took the train to Frankfurt, W. Germany and flew from Rhein-Main to McGuire AFB, NJ, shuttle to Philadephia, flight to Great Lakes Naval Training Center, and it was all down hill from there...

Dirck Harris

A commentary on the "cold war" is that the Soviet's could create all kinds of difficulty for passengers on the train. This mainly took the form of nit picking the documents for any form of error. No errors would be allowed or the documents would be rejected and transit refused until they were corrected. If your ID card showed you having a rank of SP4 E4 and you had been promoted to SGT E5, you needed a new ID card although US regulations did not require it. If you had a moustache, it had to be on the ID card or shaved off. No strikeovers on the Flag Orders, no extra spaces. A real pain in the behind for Clerk Typists.

Mike

For me there was an overwhelming feeling of seriousness that came over me when I boarded the Duty Train. Everything had to be exact - from schedules down to the last letter on the last piece of paperwork each soldier had to carry. When I got on the train I wasn't sure I could even talk to anyone because it didn't specifically state that in the train's rules. I remember peering through a slit in the window shades as we skirted across East Germany to wards Berlin. I felt that I couldn't open the shade without getting into some kind of trouble from either side.

JMW

WOW, Have not heard anyone talk about that in years. Tried mightily to get passage on it in the late winter of 86 while on leave from Turkey. Ended up on Pan AM into Tegel and then an illegal [I found out later] ride on the U-BAHN line that skirted through East Berlin to get to Tempelhof. What a memory to dig up. Saw duty train laying over near Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, or at least thought so since there was a strng of DB equipment with the stars and stripes.

Thanks