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RBS Express
Portable railway-based radar stations From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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RBS Express railroad trains were 3 mobile United States Air Force radar stations for 1CEVG Radar Bomb Scoring (RBS) of Strategic Air Command bomber crews beginning in March 1961.[31][32] Electronic equipment included the "MSQ-39, TLQ-11, MPS-9, and the IFF/SIF for the MSQ-39"[33] along with support railcars ("work train"), and the trains were temporarily used at various rail sites (e.g., sidings) with the radar antennas emplaced using hoists built onto flatcars.[34] Pulled by a "contracted locomotive" that left the train at the site[35] (e.g., for 45 days),[1] and a North American B-25 Mitchell was used for calibration of the radar station.[36]
RBS Express sites
1961 Mar 1 (1st): Milan, Tennessee[1]
1961 (11th RBS): Rhame, North Dakota[2]
tbd: Bowman, North Dakota[3]
1961: McAlester, Oklahoma[4]
1961 December (#2): Hawthorne, Nevada[5]
1962 January: Greenville, Texas[6]
1962 April: Athens, Georgia [7]
1962 May: Jalapa, South Carolina[8][9]
1962 June: Barksdale AFB, Louisiana [10]
1963 Jan: Worthington, Minnesota [11]
1963 Mar-May: Deeth, Nevada[12]
1963 (# "III"): Jalapa, South Carolina[13][14]
1963 May-Jun (1st): depot[15]
1963 June (1st): Minnesota [16]
tbd: Corsicana, Texas[17]
1964 Jan: Emhouse, Texas [18]
1964 Jan-Mar: Thoreau, New Mexico[2]
tbd: Crane, Indiana[3]
1964 Sep: Moulton, Iowa [19]
1965: Scott City, Kansas[2]
1965 Apr-Sep: Newport, Arkansas (3rd time)[20][21]
1966 Oct: Wendell, Idaho [22]
1966-67:[23] Rion, South Carolina[24]
1968 February (w/ MSQ-39): Wellsville, Missouri[24]
1968 May: Naicom, Saskatchewan[25][26]
1968-9: Ritzville, Washington[27]
1969: Lawen, Oregon[24]
1970 May: Saskatoon, Canada[28][29]
1970-1: "Green River Site", Utah[30]
Each train used "existing U.S. Army stock" from Ogden General Depot,[6] 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 [crew sleeping cars]."[35] Depot maintenance for the trains was at the Tooele Army Depot[37] southwest of Salt Lake City ("Army Rail Shops").[15] Major Eugene R. Butler was the 1st commander of the "First RBS Express",[38] and each 1CEVG squadron's detachments manned a train[2] (after the 1965 discontinuation of RBS squadrons,[39] RBS detachments continued operating trains.) Butler's command had 60 11th RBS airmen: 15 from the Joplin Bomb Plot and others from the bomb plots at La Junta CO, Bismarck ND, Minneapolis MN, Salt Lake City UT, St Louis MO, and Little Rock AR.[1]
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