A Minuteman Mobility Test Train was a
Cold War train for
Strategic Air Command testing before deployment of planned trains for launching
Minuteman missile
The LGM-30 Minuteman is an American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in service with the Air Force Global Strike Command. , the LGM-30G Minuteman III version is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States and re ...
s which were to allow periodic movement for security from targeting by the Soviet missile force. At the time, the trains had the heaviest railroad cars used on regular rail routes, and
rail siding
A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch line, or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end. Sidings often have lighte ...
s were surveyed during the trains' 1960 Operation Big Star (surveyed sites were subsequently used in 1961 by
different SAC trains for evaluating bomber accuracy.)
Operation Big Star
Operation Big Star was a series of US military exercises using 4 trains (of 6 planned) from the
Hill Air Force Base rail terminal over "21 railroads in the Northwest and Midwest" during summer 1960.
The US
Air Force Ballistic Missile Division
Space Systems Command (SSC) is the United States Space Force's research and development, space development, Military acquisition, acquisition, space launch, launch, and Military logistics, logistics field command. It is headquartered at Los An ...
conducted the tests while SAC had operational control of the trains with a "SAC task force" in Utah and on the train, military personnel and "civilian engineering, maintenance and logistic representatives" (the last 3 of the 6 planned trains were to leave from
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
).
;June 21–27 train: The 1st train of 14 cars left Hill AFB for routes "over trackage of
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...
,
Western Pacific and
Denver & Rio Grande
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...
railroads".
;2nd train: The 2nd test train with Col. Carleton V. Hansen again as "train commander" had 31 SAC "airmen and officers and 11 civilian engineering, maintenance and logistic representatives" when it left the Hill AFB rail terminal (Col. Lucion N Powell was also on the train as commander of the SAC "task force at Hill Field".)
;July 26 train: The 3rd train had an additional flatcar with maintenance v
holding a 3rd stage Hercules
solid rocket motor, SRM, as well as the 1st "pre-prototype" launch car with special shock absorbers ("three-way stretch" syste
transporting a simulated missile load using tank & steel compartments (with sand & concrete) for a total of 13 cars that left Hill on July 26. The 3rd train was planned for a 3000 mile, 14 day trip over 7 railroads (UP, SP, WP, GN, SP&S, Milwaukee, & NP)--the 1st train's route was and the 2nd was 2300 (10 days), both using 11 cars. The 3rd train was near Spokane on August 6, Personnel included 35 SAC & BMD military and 13 civilians.
;4th train: The commander of the August 1960 train was Lt. Col. James F. Lambert
By November 16, ""no operational date
adbeen set for the missile train
and on December 13, 1960, a "full-scale mockup of a Minuteman train
asin a big hangar at the
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...
Airplane Co. plant" (in 1959, the "assembly and recycle plant" had been planned "on the western end of Hill Air Force Base
Ogden_Air_Material_Area">/nowiki>Ogden_Air_Material_Area.html" ;"title="Ogden_Air_Material_Area.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Ogden Air Material Area">/nowiki>Ogden Air Material Area">Ogden_Air_Material_Area.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Ogden Air Material Area">/nowiki>Ogden Air Material Areain the section formerly known as Ogden Ordnance Depot" and next to the Thiokol plant. Minuteman trains were cancelled on 14 December 1960.[ ]
Minuteman train fleet
For the operational Minuteman trains planned with "five of the 10 cars orliving and working quarters for the missilemen, including a control section where two launch officers ould Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames.
Notable p ...
sit at duplicate panels…separated by bullet-proof glass", the Hill Air Material Area personnel were to rebuild existing Army-owned rail "cars to handle crews and equipment" ("missile launch cars would be specially built at Utah General Depot.") On January 27, 1961, a train was in Chicago "testing switching facilities" with "launching cars weigh 127 tons, equipped with four extra wheels to bear the weight of the 30 ton Minuteman, and a set of 12 hydraulic jacks to secure the missile in firing position" (the 1st operational train was planned for June 1962.)
The planned deployment with "Minuteman trains cost ngmore than silo sites" was for wide-ranging operations to require the enemy's use of "more than 10,000 missiles against railroad trackage to immobilize the minuteman train fleet" of 150 missiles using of the US's of tracks by 1963. American Machine and Foundry
American Machine and Foundry (known after 1970 as AMF, Inc.) was one of the United States' largest recreational equipment companies, with diversified products as disparate as garden equipment, atomic reactors, and yachts.
The company was founde ...
and American Car and Foundry
ACF Industries, originally the American Car and Foundry Company (abbreviated as ACF), is an American manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. One of its subsidiaries was once (1925–54) a manufacturer of motor coaches and trolley coaches und ...
were to develop the special railroad cars, and the plan in December 1960 included use of a "radio-launch…network of antennae buried a few feet underground adjacent to each control tower."
The plan for Minuteman trains "had been shelved temporarily" by May 19, 1961, and on December 14, 1961, the Pentagon ended the rail program due to cost.
The 1st Utah-made Minuteman was shipped to a silo field from Air Force-Boeing Plant No. 77 in July 1962 in a "transport-erector vehicle" on a "special-built 85-foot flatbed railroad car", and a Peacekeeper Rail Garrison
The Peacekeeper Rail Garrison was a railcar-launched ICBM that was developed by the United States Air Force during the 1980s as part of a plan to place fifty MGM-118A Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles on the rail network of the Unit ...
plan was announced by the Reagan Administration
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...
in 1986.
References
{{Reflist , refs=
[{{Cite news , title=Minuteman ICBM Train Concept Displayed in Model , url=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0kdzimQRrZ4/U3J1N7n42SI/AAAAAAAAMLc/5hHUeQ6mNk0/s1600/AWST_19600620_p81_Minuteman_railcar_lr.jpg , forma]
image used on TrainWatchersJournal.com webpage
, accessdate=2014-05-23 , quote=scheduled to leave Hill AFB, Utah, today (June 2x) over trackage of Union Pacific, Western Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande railroads. … First test train will consist of 14 cars… Strategic Air Command will be in operational control and USAF's Ballistic Missile Division will be test conductor.
[{{Cite news , date=July 26, 1960 , title=Minuteman Run Begins From Hill Air Base , url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19600726&id=LakuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hUgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6895,5094641 , format=Google News Archive , newspaper=Deseret News , accessdate=2014-05-25]
Military history of Utah
Railway weapons
Equipment of Strategic Air Command