Posted 1:51 am Saturday, May 29, 2010
Military Armaments Train In WWII Battle Re-Enactment
By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer
A military armaments train will chug along Texas State Railroad tracks to a created German village where passengers will see a battle between Germans and Americans in a two-day Memorial Day weekend event.
Staff Writer
A military armaments train will chug along Texas State Railroad tracks to a created German village where passengers will see a battle between Germans and Americans in a two-day Memorial Day weekend event.
No one had staged for a public show a World War II battle with a moving train in the middle of it, except the movie business, until individuals in Palestine and Rusk did using the TSR, as far as organizers know.
No one had assembled a World War II military armament train, except in Belgium in the 1950s, and it had never been done in this country, until one was put together on the TSR, said Tom Townsend of Rusk.
"We made history the first time we did it two years ago," said Townsend, a member of a small, unnamed group of veterans and sons and daughters of veterans committed to paying tribute to the armed forces by putting on the Memorial Day celebration at the TSR.
The re-enactment will be staged again today and Sunday, with the train leaving TSR's Palestine depot at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. as a main attraction of Memorial Day weekend events at TSR.
The train will consist of a 1952 U.S. diesel engine and three flatcars loaded with military vehicles owned by Townsend and used as props in the movie industry.
RE-ENACTMENT: A re-production of the office in Gen. George S. Patton’s headquarters car can be seen during Texas State Railroad’s re-enactment event.
Also on the train will be an old post office baggage freight car that Robert Gore, a TSR locomotive engineer from Palestine, turned into a model of Gen. George Patton's private railway car and headquarters. Other organizers of the event are Bob Poinsette and Ann Coleman.
Besides the re-enactment train rides today and Sunday to the Jarvis Wye from Palestine, $15 per person, there will be living history exhibits from 1776 to the present, displays of military equipment, UH-1E Huey helicopter rides provided by the Collins Foundation and extreme scale remote-controlled tank models from the collection of Dave "The Tank Man" Schultz. A ceremony and 21-gun salute will be at noon Sunday.
On Monday, a train excursion 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. will go to Maydelle for a barbecue cookout and picnic and to see the engine turn on a turntable and re-hook up to the train. Veterans and anyone holding a current military identification will ride free on Monday. For others, tickets are $36.50 for persons 12 and over and $19 for children, ages 3 to 11, in coach and open-air seating. There is an additional charge for climate-controlled seating. Park-ing will be $5, collected at the entrance all weekend.
The Memorial Day weekend festivities are "our way to honor men and women in service uniforms, past and present, and to get them together and thank them, show them how much we appreciate what they've done for our nation," Gore said.
About 100 re-enactors are expected from across the country to man the World War II armaments train, portray Patton and his wife, and to wage the World War II battle at the German village of Rinehausen, dressed in military attire.
No live ammunition will fire, but the blanks and propane oxygen simulators, commonly used in the movies, will sound like machine guns and make big flashes and a lot of noise.
When the re-enactment train arrives at the village, pock-marked with shell holes, passengers will initially see Germans attacking a smaller force of Americans, who will be re-enforced by a larger force and win the battle. A 30-calber Browning machine gun from 1918 will fire from the train into the battle.
Tanks on the scene will look like German tanks and there will be a kubelwagon, a German bucket car, which was an early Volkswagen used by the Germans in World War II. The largest operation vehicle will be a six-wheel armored car with a 50-caliber machine gun.
Passengers will be able to walk through Gen. Patton's private car, first seeing a radio room equipped with real military memorabilia.
Then they will step into Patton's private headquarters, where they will see an authentic map board with real World War II maps, a secretary table with a typewriter, papers and orders. It has a comfortable lounge area with a couple of chairs, photos of Patton and his family and a picture of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the wall.
The sleeping quarters has six bunks made up in the military manner with army blankets and pillows and personal belongings of soldiers. The next room is a supply and weapons room with machine guns and ammunition crates, water cans, fuel cans, food and K-rations.
Organizers of the Memorial Day weekend festivities at TSR say they spend their own money and receive community support from food establishments and local merchants to provide food and beverages for re-enactment actors.
Vietnam Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars and "friends" of the railroad also contribute cash for a special account to help fund expenditures.
