Did anyone here work for the NW in the early eighties? It was when the debate was on whether to put the MX missles in silos or on trains. Got called for the Atomx train from New Haven to Chicago. All converted coaches with the windows whited out with a rider car on each end. Guys all were in suits, friendly but wouldn't discuss the train. Got stopped at every scanner, all the rollers were running hot. Originated on the NW at Buffalo and was going somewhere in Texas. I would say that this was the most unusual train I ever had.
Peacekeeper Rail Garrison. It was to be a more-survivable deployment option for the new PK ICBM's newly fielded in the US Air Force. It was thought that a missile in an underground silo was vulnerable, even though superhardened silos were built, the newest Russian SS-18 ICBM's had the accuracy or enough megatonnage to wipe out ICBM silos and thie stored weapons. The rail garrison was designed to make the missiles harder to track, detect, and destroy, by sending them out on the nation's rail network. When conditions warranted, the trains would be dispatched from their staging bases at Strategic Air Command (SAC) installations throughout the midwesat and western states. The trains would then roam the rails of the US, making them nearly impossible to track. The missiles were designed to be launched from their trains at a moment's notice. At any given moment, a train could be stopped, launch orders executed, and the missile could be launched when proper authority was given. The PK Rail Garrison was dropped in the late 80's/early 90's as the Iron Curtain fell, and the Cold War ended. The rail-mobile PK's were then deemed unnecessary, and the project abandoned. The Peacekeeper missiles already deployed stayed on continuous alert from 1986 to 2005. Godspeed, old warrior--'Mother SAC' awaits you... I plan to eventually build an N scale version of the PK RG... The trains were never built...
I do remember all that talk about this system. In the north western US, part of the survival plans included the many mountain RR tunnels. Boxcab E50
