Thanks to son Mark... Mark writes ....Harold Shaughnessy was born in Huntington, Indiana, in 1914 and died suddenly in 1976 in Hornell, NY. His father was Chief Trainmaster in Hornell in the 1930s and 40s. In his early 20s, Harold started working for the Erie Railroad in Hornell as a brakeman, then conductor, and after attending Cornell University, on to their Cleveland, OH, offices as their safety engineer. (The Erie became the Erie-Lackawanna, then Con-Rail)
In 1941-42 he served in the US Naval Reserves aboard the USS Wichita and was in the North Atlantic. He then served in the US Army with the 745th Railway Operating Battalion as a conductor and was stationed in India for all of 1943 and most of 1944. His job was handling trains full of military equipment, supplies and troops.
After arriving home from India he developed complications from the malaria and dysentery he had while stationed there and was placed in an Army hospital in NY State. While there, he met a kind Army nurse and married her 6 months later. They then had seven kids from 1947 until 1963 of which I am one.

The 745th Railway Operating Battalion was formed in May of 1943 by the U.S. Army Transportation Corps. Although it was sponsored by the CB & Q (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad), it was composed of men from 63 different railroads who worked in 42 different states. The 745th went to Camp Harahan, Louisiana, for basic training and completed their technical training in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On or about December 6, 1943, they departed from San Francisco on the USS Mariposa, which was once a luxury liner but was converted for wartime use. They made a stop in Wilmington/Long Beach, California, and then headed for India. On board were the 721st, 725th, 726th, 745th, 748th and 758th railroad and shop battalions. They reached Bombay, India, on or about January 10, 1944, after stops at Hobart, Tasmania....Wellington, New Zealand....and Melbourne, Australia. Once in India, the 745th operated a 110 mile stretch of the Bengal & Assam Railway from Lumding to Mariani carrying troops, equipment and supplies. There was a U.S. military base in Jorhat which was about 10 miles N-W of Mariani. On October, 2, 1945, the 745th departed Calcutta, India, on the USS General Hugh L. Scott. On board were an odd mix of military personnel including the First Tactical Air Communications Squadron, the 23rd Fighter Control Squadron, the 725th Railway Operating Battalion, the 427th Night Fighter Squadron, the Army Airways Communications System, and intelligence agents from five OSS units (Office of Strategic Services). The USS Hugh L. Scott refueled at Colombo, Ceylon, on Oct. 6th. Entered Gulf of Aden on Oct. 10th. Entered Red Sea on Oct. 11th. And then through the Suez Canal, across the Mediterranean sea, across the Atlantic Ocean to Pier 88, NY City. Then to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. (This is where and when the 745th group photo on this blog was taken. My dad is 5th from the right and looks ragged from bouts of malaria.)

Rail Birds Issue 1

Rail Birds Issue 1 - Copy


Rail Birds 7
Rail Birds 7 - Copy

Thanks to Mark for these great newsletters -other ROBs are mentioned.

Mark writes ....My dad was a conductor in the 745th ROB and I have some bits of info and a few wartime pics. I also attended the 55th reunion of the 745th in 2001.

Your site is great! I did all of my research in 2000-01 and many links were dead and few were interested, especially in the 'forgotten theater of war'.....China-Burma-India.

For starters, I have info on the ships & routes the 745th took to get to India and when they left. In storage I have newsletters they self-published while en route.

Thank you, Mark Shaughnessy

Rail Birds Issue 3

Rail Birds 3 - Copy

Rail Birds 8

Rail Birds 8 - Copy

Rail Bird 10

Rail Birds 10 by Nancy Cunningham

Hospital Trains:

HOSP TRAIN No. 1 – 8 Feb 44 England – ETO Rhineland - Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 3 – 20 Apr 44 Wales – 19 May 44 England – ETO Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 4 – 2 Feb 44 England – 23 Apr 44 Scotland - ETO Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 5 – 7 Mar 44 England – 23 Apr 44 Scotland
HOSP TRAIN No. 6 – 7 Mar 44 England
HOSP TRAIN No. 7 – 3 Jun 43 England – ETO Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 8 – 13 Mar 44 England
HOSP TRAIN No. 9 – ETO 31 Oct 45 Northern France - Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 10 – ETO Normandy – Northern France
HOSP TRAIN No. 11 – 31 May 44 England – ETO 4 Aug 44 Normandy – Northern France – Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace (first improvised HOSP TRAIN, consisting of French freight cars fitted with litter brackets, ran between St. Lô and Cherbourg, 4 Aug 44)
HOSP TRAIN No. 12 – 21 May 44 England – ETO Normandy – Northern France - Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 13 – 21 May 44 England – 24 May 44 Wales - ETO Normandy – Northern France (later redesignated 7th Hospital Train)
HOSP TRAIN No. 14 – 21 May 44 England - ETO Northern France – Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 15 – 30 May 44 Wales – ETO Northern France – Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace – Central Europe
HOSP TRAIN No. 16 – 7 May 44 England – 30 May 44 Wales – ETO Northern France – Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 17 – ETO Northern France – Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 18 – 26 Mar 44 England – 10 Jun 44 Scotland – 8 Sep 44 Wales – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 20 – 30 May 44 Wales – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 21 – 24 Oct 44 England – Wales - ETO Northern France – Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 22 – 30 May 44 Wales – 15 Jun 44 England – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 23 – 14 Sep 43 England – 24 Mar 44 Scotland – ETO Sep 44 France -Central Europe (partly destroyed by German bombing, at the Gare St. Lazare, Paris, 26 Dec 44)
HOSP TRAIN No. 24 – 14 Sep 43 England – ETO 29 Sep 44 Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace – Central Europe
HOSP TRAIN No. 25 – 6 Jul 44 England – 25 Jul 44 Scotland – ETO Northern France – Rhineland – Central Europe
HOSP TRAIN No. 26 – 6 Jul 44 England – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace – Central Europe (inactivated 10 Sep 45)
HOSP TRAIN No. 27 – ETO 14 Aug 44 France (FIRST Hospital Train to reach the continent, disembarked in France 14 Aug 44, carrying the 43d GEN HOSP on board, also the very FIRST one to reach Paris 2 Sep 44, with part of the 203d GEN HOSP)
HOSP TRAIN No. 31– ETO 5 Jul 45 Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace – Central Europe
HOSP TRAIN No. 34 – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 37 – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 38 – ETO Oct 44 Belgium
HOSP TRAIN No. 41 – MTO Naples-Foggia – Rome-Arno – North Apennines - ETO Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 42 – MTO Rome-Arno – Southern France - ETO 10 Sep 44 Rhineland – Central Europe
HOSP TRAIN No. 43 – 11 Mar 43 England - ETO 14 Aug 44 Northern France – Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 44 – 13 Nov 43 Northern Ireland - 17 May 44 England - ETO Northern France - Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 45 – 26 Jun 43 England - ETO Northern France – Rhineland – Central Europe
HOSP TRAIN No. 47 – 6 Apr 44 Scotland – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 49 – 6 Apr 44 Scotland
HOSP TRAIN No. 55 – 27 Jul 44 England – 2 Aug 44 Wales - ETO Northern France – Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 56 – ETO 20 May 45 Rhineland – Central Europe
HOSP TRAIN No. 57 – 25 Feb 44 England (inactivated 12 Nov 45)
HOSP TRAIN No. 58 – 25 Nov 44 England
HOSP TRAIN No. 59 – 6 Sep 44 England
HOSP TRAIN No. 73 – ETO Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 74 – ETO Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 76 – ETO Rhineland – Central Europe
HOSP TRAIN No. 77 – ETO Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 79 – ETO Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 80– ETO Rhineland
HOSP TRAIN No. 82 – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace
HOSP TRAIN No. 83 – ETO Rhineland – Ardennes-Alsace

**updated 4/15/2012

Cranes Us Army

We salute all those who serve and have served and thank them for their service.
It's so important that we keep the history of their accomplishments alive and that's the reason for this blog.

The vets and increasingly their children and grandchildren help keep the efforts of our WWII, Korea and other wars/conflicts soldiers alive by contributing to this blog!

Please if you have a photos, letters, document or other information that adds to our knowledge of the service of our Military Railway soldiers, please contact me and I will help you share it with others.

I get emails every week from someone who learned about a father's,  grandfathers, uncle's service from information they found here. Quite frequently,  I get emails saying that someone  saw a previously unknown photo of their relative here ..

Please help me keep this going...

Email me today if you have something to share ... I also buy what documents and books  I can so it all doesn't all go into the hands of private collectors and I scan and publish for all to see,  everything I buy and you can also help with that effort by donating here you can also donate your  items to me.

Thanks, Nancy Cunningham  cunningb2@gmail.com