Sunday, February 24, 2019

RBS.

This is coolbert:

Never knew such a thing even existed. Radar Bomb Scoring I was familiar with.

Radar Bomb Scoring as done by military railroad train I was not familiar with.

From that era of the Cold War the RBS Express quite active.

"RBS Express railroad trains were 3 mobile United States Air Force radar stations for . . . Radar Bomb Scoring (RBS) of Strategic Air Command bomber crews beginning in March 1961 . . . the trains were temporarily used at various rail sites (e.g., sidings) with the radar attennae emplaced using hoists built onto flatcars. Pulled by a 'contracted locomotive' that left the train at the site (e.g., for 45 days), and a North American B-25 Mitchell was used for calibration of the radar station."

"Each train used 'existing U.S. Army stock' . . .  and each train's 21 cars (17 support and 4 radar cars) included 'a generator car, two box cars (one for radar equipment maintenance, and one for support maintenance) [a] dining car, two day-room cars, supply cars, admin car, and 4 Pullman sleepers.'


A RBS Express train in position. Click on image to see an enlarged view and read caption. An autonomous and self-contained apparatus and unit able to function wherever you have a railroad siding.

The military railroad unit a thing of the past and for some time now. Six months at a particular location as parked. I hope personnel were able to go to town once in a while!

coolbert.


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