**This is a colorized AI version of image 

Two B And M Railroad Men Operate Army Trains In France

Richards, Baldwin Receive Promotions

T/4 Cecil E. Richards, son of Mr. and Mrs. Cecil H. Richards of 16 Concord Street, is one of two Boston and Maine Railroad men serving with 724th Railway Operating Battalion of the Army in France. Sergeant Richards, who before he entered the Army was a fireman on the B. & M.’s Portland Division, has been promoted to engineman and is now operating trains loaded with supplies and ammunition to the advancing Allied armies.

Conductor in charge of Richards’ train is Sgt. Herbert L. Baldwin, Jr., who before he entered the Army was a switchtender on the Portland Division of the B. & M. Baldwin has recently been promoted to engineman and is now assigned to the Railway Transportation Corps. He is the son of the publicity manager of the Boston and Maine and Maine Central Railroads.

The 724th Railway Operating Battalion at the present time is operating and supervising more miles of track than any other battalion in the ETO. Originally one of the books to operate the Paris terminal on double track, the scope of its organization has doubled since the fall of the German capital and now includes a larger jurisdiction, having recently taken over the recovery of three additional lines, operating two roundhouses, a terminal in the Paris area, and operating on the longest segment of single track in the world.

T/4 Richards’ father is an engineman on the B. and Boston and Maine system. He and Sergeant Richards, Jr. reside at 16 Concord Street.

Caption under photo:
T/4 Cecil E. Richards of Portland (in cab) gets orders from Sgt. Herbert L. Baldwin, Jr. (Official U.S. Army Photo, passed by Censor.)

 

  

 **This is an AI clean up and colorization of the terrible newspaper image  

YORKER IN RAILWAY BATTALION— Sgt. Gordon Stover, 734 W. 178th street, third from right in front row, with several of the members of the 724th Railway Operating Battalion. The men are members of an outfit that carry men and materiel to employment centers. Taken in the Assembly area; near Camp Detroit, France.

 

Aug 02, 1945, page 9 - The Gazette and Daily - York, Pennsylvania 

Poole, Walter L. Co. C

War time editions of N.Y. Central Railroad Headlight are a goldmine and this edition includes mentions of soldiers in the units: 

CH September 1945

• 718^th, 721^st, 736^th, 737^th ROB
• 753^rd RSB
• 701^st RGD
• All NYC Battalions go to reserves Post War.
• 718^th ROB – first train across Rhine Guilfoil
• 2^nd MRS piper cubs doing reconnaissance- telegraph line
• 748^th ROB Truden
• 724^th ROB Brearton
• MRS Ital
• MRS Burma
• MRS #years of experience
• 706^th RGD
• 713^th ROB
• 721^st ROB Voights India
• MRS operated 12 RR lines in Germany
• 718^th ROB Merit Plaque
• 726^th Padula India
• Double Turntable at Cologne in Germany
• 2^nd MRS Elmes 

 

 

Elmer G. Piker Mar 1945 38233465 Co A 732d Railway Operating Battalion

Walter L. Poole Jul 1945 34888800 Co C 724 Railway Operating Battalion John E. Frazier Aug 1945 35768924 735th Railway Operating Battalion

 

 

Evening Star  24 Jan 1945 

Evening Star Fri Feb 23 1945 

The Evening Sun_13_Feb_1945

Amarillo Daily News Fri Jul 13 1945 

Crestline_Advocate Thu Jun 21 1945

The Bradenton Herald Tue Jan 23 1945

Ft Worth Star Telegram Feb_23_1945

 Dick is researching his mother's first husband TEC4 Brasfield. He was killed in France, less than a month before VE Day. Does anyone know anything of him. Thanks, ,Dick Flippo TEC4 Roy H. Brasfield | dflippo@juno.com 

 Roy Harmon Brasfield, TEC/4 of the 724th Railway Operating Bn, USA. Killed when he ran over a 1000 lb bomb, on 11 April 1945, near Chevres (?), France. Engineering Engine 3563, part of the "Toot Sweet Express"

SOUDERTON — As neighbors and family members came out to join in the celebration, Souderton, Telford and Franconia police vehicles led the way for other vehicles taking part in the June 6 drive-by celebration of Highland Avenue resident Mark Limbert's 101st birthday.

Limbert, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, volunteered for military duty in April of 1941, eight months before Pearl Harbor. “On April 6th 1943, Mark traveled from Fort Benning Georgia to Washington D.C.

He was commissioned a 1st lieutenant in the morning and married Dorothy in the afternoon, they spent the night together and then went their separate ways. Mark and Dorothy were married for 73 years until her passing in June 2016,” daughter-in-law Nancy Frei wrote in information about Limbert's military service. “Mark then shipped out to England then on to France where he was assigned to the shipping supplies to the front and wounded back.

The 724th drove the first train into Paris after liberation,” she wrote. Limbert was released from military duty on February 1, 1946 and settled into life in Souderton, she wrote. On September 14, 1950, he was called back into service and sent to Korea where he served in the Adjutant General's office, she wrote. “Mark was released from his Army duty at Ft. Indiantown Gap on June 7th 1952,” Frei wrote. “Records indicate he was given $576.70 upon separation.”

724th James Bell Memories by Nancy on Scribd

1945 Well Done Washington DC Southern Railway System Trains ROBs by Nancy