713th Railway Operating Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia 

At the outbreak of World War II the Army needed experts who could handle certain missions without extensive additional training. Most of the early Army railroad units were therefore composed of men who worked for specific Railroad companies. The 713th Railway Operating Battalion was formed on March 12, 1942, and consisted entirely of men who worked for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. Their job was to clear, repair, and build military railways as well as operate the trains. 

The 713th, known as the “Santa Fe Battalion”, formed at Camp Clovis, New Mexico, and after initial military training was sent to Camp Dix, New Jersey, on January 21, 1943. The unit was first sent to North Africa where in seven months they transported 500,000 tons of cargo in 47,255 rail cars. The 713th went from North Africa to Italy and then on to Southern France. They ended the war in 1945 serving in Western Germany.

Insignia Military Railway Service by Nancy on Scribd

Friend of the blog Tim writes:
 That's the unit crest ("distinctive unit insignia" -- DUI) worn by the Transportation Center & School, formerly at Fort Eustis (now Joint Base Langley-Eustis) and now at Fort Lee, VA, where Transportation, Quartermaster, and Ordnance training has been consolidated.
See: LINK
 I first saw this insignia in early 1975 when I was right out of basic training and assigned to the 1st Railway Detachment at Fort Eustis. My unit, however, didn't wear this insignia. Instead, we wore the TRADOC (Training & Doctrine Command) DUI seen here: Link Our shoulder patch was the diamond-shaped TC school insignia. I would have preferred to wear the TC&S insignia because it had railroad tracks on it. Unfortunately nothing we wore gave any hint that we were members of a railway unit.
By that point our little detachment was the last active duty rail unit in the Army and a year later our MOSs would be eliminated and limited only to the Army Reserve, and at the end of September 1978 the little 1st Rail Det disappeared for good.
Thanks to Greg for sending photo and question and for working on our Facebook page visit it and 'like' it today. https://www.facebook.com/militaryrailwayservice/

thanks Greg

Steve [sb4(at)msn.com] wrote that his father-in-law, James W. Belcher, who was assigned to B Company, 341st Infantry Regiment of the 86th Infantry Division collected and traded for patches while in Europe during the war and they were later used to create this great quilt. Some of these are railroad units .. if you recognize any get in touch with Steve.

I received this email from James and he would like any info...

I served in Iraq in 2003 and this was a unit patch we had and were told it dated to a rail transport unit of WW2 African Theater, would you be able to ID it for me?

email him at James Airey [jamesairey (at ) mac.com]

397th MP Battalion

thanks George !