The modern-day 79 Railway Squadron was part of the

17 Port and Maritime Regiment 17 Port and Maritime Regiment is a regiment of the British Army's Royal Logistic Corps. The unit is the Army's only regular Port & Maritime capability, though it is twinned with 165 Port and Maritime Regiment RLC, of the Army Reserve. History T ...

The Royal Logistic Corps The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army. History The Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) was formed on 5 April 1993, by the union of five British Army corps: * Royal Engine ...

, of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. They were responsible for maintaining and providing the British Army with its railway transportation requirements. Originally, the Railway Squadron started life in the Royal Engineers at

Longmoor Military Camp Bordon and Longmoor Military Camps are British Army training camps close to the A3 road, A3 and A325 road, A325 roads in and around the settlements of Bordon, Longmoor, Hampshire, Longmoor, Liss (England), Liss and Liphook in Hampshire, England. T ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. They were known as the

Longmoor Military Railway The Longmoor Military Railway (LMR) was a British military railway in Hampshire, built by the Royal Engineers from 1903 in order to train soldiers on railway construction and operations. The railway ceased operation on 31 October 1969. Route ...

and operated steam locomotives. The squadron eventually moved to

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, the territory of Mönchengladbac ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and in the fullness of time became 79 Railway Squadron,

Royal Corps of Transport The Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) was a British Army Corps established to manage all matters in relation to the transport of men and material for the Army and the wider Defence community. It was formed in 1965 and disbanded in 1993; its units and ...

. The locomotives were all

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

and for a while the future of the squadron seemed uncertain until 1983, when a multimillion-pound makeover was begun. New locomotives started to arrive, and the operating yard at Mönchengladbach got a makeover. The squadron was relocated to Marchwood, near Southampton, in 1999. It was taken under command of 17 Port & Maritime Regiment RLC, and renamed 79 Port Enabling Squadron, with the addition of a troop of Vehicle Support Specialist (VSS) personnel. The squadron was disbanded at

Marchwood Marchwood is a village and civil parish located in Hampshire, England, United Kingdom. It lies between Totton and Hythe on the western shore of Southampton Water and directly east of the New Forest. The population of the village in the 201 ...

on 13 May 2012. The Vehicle Support Specialists were resubordinated elsewhere in the regiment, and the Military Railways capability ultimately lost on the disbandment of the remaining Territorial Army unit, 275 Railway Troop, in 2014.

References

{{Reflist Squadrons of the Royal Logistic Corps Military units and formations disestablished in 2012 2012 disestablishments in the United Kingdom