The photographer of this beautiful photo postcard, showing the 8002 in a great 3/4 engineer's side view which was taken in Alexandria, Virginia on March 21, 1920 may have been the late, great Joseph Lavelle, then of Winfield, Long Island, New York, who was one of America's earliest railroad photographers and collectors.


This engine was built as a five foot gauge locomotive for the Imperial Russian Railways by American Locomotive Company Richmond Works in March, 1918, winding up, instead as U. S. Army property. The Army and Navy photos are all 2 3/4" x 4 1/4" and while we do not know who the photographer was the date and location are on the border below each photo.

 The Army photos are: US Air Force 7050 at Maguire Air Force Base, Oct, 1957; Army 1674 switching at Fort Dix, New Jersey, engine house on right, May, 1970; Army 7172 at Fort Dix, 10-57; Army 1674 close-up, Fort Dix, 5-1970; line up of at least nine center cab diesel locomotives at Fort Holabird, Maryland, Jan '57, 1217 closest to camera; great side view of unnumbered diesel at Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, 9-69. I THINK Tobyhanna was a weapons depot. The two Navy images, both at White Plains, MD, both Dec 1958: caboose between freight car and diesel, can not read number and center cab diesel USN 65-00348.

712th Railway Operating Battalion Locomotive, Hanau Germany Switch Yard '45

713th in Italy.pdf by Nancy

744th back on job.docx by Nancy

cherbour.pdf by Nancy

Sunny Lynn, James W. McUne's daughter writes .... My father served in WWII and I just found his discharge paperwork. He served in Northern France and the "Rhineland" from 1944 until 1946. He was in CO A 733 RAILWAY OPERATING BN. My father ran away from home at age 16 and joined the Army when he was underage under a fictitious name. The day before D-Day he confessed to a chaplain. He didn't talk much about the war but he said that he worked on the railroad in France. After the war they kept my father in Paris because he did not have a wife or children. He said he never had so much fun in his life than after the war. I can only imagine. He set up banquets for all of the dignitaries in Paris during the post-war period. My father was from Indianapolis, IN and he joined the Army in Chicago IL on July 14, 1943. He was discharged in March 1946. I would love to find out any information that I can on my dad's unit and what they did and where they were on D-Day.

Unit Changes June 1945 b by Nancy

Transportation Corps, Vol VI Historical Report Part III (Jan-Mar 1945) by Nancy

Military Units on Continent Dec 1944 b by Nancy