Nostalgia & History > Household Appliances

The thread about the white train http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3160439 reminded me of another bunch of absurdly secret military trains that BN handled in those years.

The navy had some sort of super-secret mini-sub that they were testing in Cocolalla Lake [ID]. Like the White Trains, we got them from MRL at Sandpoint. Like the White Trains, they were secret, just not as big of a secret. We were allowed to put them on lineups, put out figures, put out call figures, etc.

Each train consisted of a dozen or so cars with DODX (Deprtment of Defense) reporting marks, including a DODX caboose ahead of the BN caboose (for the guards). This sounds like it would be pretty visible, but it was ok because they cleverly disguised the movement by listing the contents of each car as HHAPP (household appliances).

TAW

Tom

Read your post on the "White Trains". I was working out of Spokane in the Pasco pool when we still ran west on the old SP&S. We were call for a junker to Pasco. When we all got to Yardley we were taken into the back room and were told just what type of train it really was and asked if we still wanted to go. We all said yes and when the train pulled to a stop in front of the yard office it must have been the fastest crew change in history. We then pulled down to Spokane Depot and headed into one of the depot tracks so they could resupply the train. Have never seen so many people carrying rifles,shotguns and pistols in my life.

We left the depot headed for Pasco and headed into a siding in the canyon (can't remember which one) and there we spent the day as they didn't want to arrive in Pasco until after dark. On the bright side there was a private car on the rear and we were all invited to have lunch on board. Fancy linen and real Great Northern silverware plus excellent food served by real waiters.

DHF

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The thread about the white train reminded me of
> another bunch of absurdly secret military trains
> that BN handled in those years.
>
> The navy had some sort of super-secret mini-sub
> that they were testing in Cocolalla Lake . Like
> the White Trains, we got them from MRL at
> Sandpoint. Like the White Trains, they were
> secret, just not as big of a secret. We were
> allowed to put them on lineups, put out figures,
> put out call figures, etc.
>
> Each train consisted of a dozen or so cars with
> DODX (Deprtment of Defense) reporting marks,
> including a DODX caboose ahead of the BN caboose
> (for the guards). This sounds like it would be
> pretty visible, but it was ok because they
> cleverly disguised the movement by listing the
> contents of each car as HHAPP (household
> appliances).
>
> TAW


During WWII a similar "disguised" movement occurred on the CB&Q
and GN.... labeled "berry specials" by the railroad ...supposedly
"strawberries", in fact, fissile material (uranium) was hauled in 18
heavyweight baggage cars. A friend of mine, now deceased, rode one of the
trains as a railroad representative. He told me that the trains were
pulled by CB&Q 4000 an S4 Hudson to St.Paul, and by GN 2600s (mountain-types)
from there to Hanford with minimal service. The "strawberries" were in concrete
cases about two feet square placed directly over the center sills of the
cars (due to uranium's extreme density and weight).... the car doors were
locked and an armed guard was placed in the vestibule area between cars
on a stool. They rode long distances there without any breaks. The
trains ran between Oak Ridge, TN and Hanford, WA. I do not know who handled
the trains from Oak Ridge to Chicago or Galesburg. Any one else know?

The submarine work they do there is quite interesting; its located on a small part of the old Camp Farragut Naval Training Base (now a state park)near Athol, ID. There was a NP spur at one time.
Roger Beckett

Lake Pend Oreille
Acoustic Research Detachment
Bayview, Idaho

Bayview, Idaho is home to a small Navy base involved in research and development of methods to make ships and subs operate more quietly. There are approximately 100 employees and. contractors at the base, most commute from the surrounding areas.

Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced - Pond-o-ray) provides a deep (1150 ft), quiet body of water where a free-field ocean-like environment is available without the attendant problems and costs of open ocean operations. Unique experimental hardware and floating platforms have been developed to support a wide variety of R&D programs ranging from the measurement of flow induced boundary layer fluctuations on sonar domes to the calibrations of full-scale surface ship sonar transducers. Detachment personnel supporting the experiments form a versatile resident core of highly skilled labor. They work closely with transient project scientists, engineers and technicians from the Division and other Navy and private organizations, to plan and conduct operations on the lake

Fascinating post!!

Heavyweight baggage cars have vestibules?

That Idaho Navy base reminds me of the young man who had seen the "Join the Navy and See the World" recruiting posters. So he enlisted and expected to see all kinds of exotic foreign lands (and maybe foreign ladies) while sailing on one of Uncle Sam's "yachts". Well, after finished boot camp, he went off to specialized training, and the Navy found that he was really good at a certain specialty. The only catch was, this particular talent got him assigned to the Naval facility in Norman, Oklahoma for the rest of his Navy career. The only salt water he saw was the sweat when he went outdoors in the Oklahoma summertime, and the closest he got to anything "foreign" was the Chinese restaurant in town.

And the use of false identifications for "sensitive" material reminds me of the story from World War I about how armored combat vehicles with tractor treads became known as "tanks". When these new examples of mechanized warfare were being transported to the war zone, the crates were marked "TANK" in an effort to fool enemy spies into thinking the contents were large containers for various liquids. (this may be a "land story", the on-shore counterpart of a "sea story")