FORT EUSTIS, Va. –
A 10,000-gallon tank car and a red caboose have a nice new resting place outside the U.S. Army Transportation Museum on base - but getting them in place was no easy feat.
It took nearly two dozen reservists from the Midwest almost three weeks to lay the 572 feet of railway in both directions to house some of the larger pieces donated or retired to the museum. It is the museum's fourth staging spur, and the second built by members of the 1152nd Transportation Company, 757th Railway Operating Battalion, out of Milwaukee and Fort McCoy, Wis.
James Atwater, Transportation Museum assistant curator, said the museum needed another staging spur for a World War II diesel locomotive donated by the Smithsonian Institution. The locomotive, which still needs to be refurbished, was used in Persia, present day Iran, where 30,000 U.S. Soldiers served during WW II.
The group, which included two reservists from the 226th Battalion in Massachusetts and the 1150th out of Chicago, also had to move a 60-ton switch locomotive 11 feet onto some carefully placed railroad ties to make way for the spur.
Staff Sgt. David Cibrario, project NCO in charge, said he was proud of his Soldiers and the job they completed.
He recently looked over the work and explained how a grassy swath of land 18 days ago became a working rail line, connecting into the base's main line although the museum pieces cannot be used on the working line.
Then the grueling work began - scraping the ground to lay 170 tons of rock for the road bed, laying 87 meticulously spaced, bulky railroad ties and then laying the track itself, the old-fashioned way - mostly by hand, except for some assistance with a crane, Bobcat and a 10,000-pound All-Terrain Lifter, Army System. Another group repainted two flat cars, which were later moved to another spur.
Even heat indexes topping out at 120 degrees two weeks ago didn't deter the contingent from the task at hand - and most of the hard work was done by hand - spreading rocks for the road bed, laying rail ties and driving spikes - like railroads have been built for more than150 years.
The group worked around the heat, Sergeant Cibrario said, by starting to work at 3 a.m. to avoid the most stifling, humid parts of the day.
They also drank a lot of water and paid attention to any warning signs their bodies were sending, said Sgt. Melissa Ramskugler, who also helped lay the museum's third rail spur several years ago, "when I was new to the Army," she said.
Sergeant Ramskugler and several other reservists reminisced about the job they completed.
They explained that spiking contests sprouted between the 1152nd, whose mission is to build, repair and inspect railroads
"When you have a big group of people, you just get spiking," she said.
"You get competitive," said Spc. Joe Fahrenkopf.
The group said there's already talk to come back next year to build a fifth spur for the museum. Maybe next year the weather won't be so brutal.