Railfanning in Iraq

These pics were taken when i was in the marines and spent some time in iraq. i was other there in 2003 for the beginning of operation iraqi freedom. i was in the third battalion , fifth marine regiment , first marine division. these pics were taken in the town known as al diwaniyah. this town was about sixty miles south of baghdad. when the war started our job as infantrymen was to clear all the roads to baghdad of enemy resistance. our first mission was to capture the ramalah oil fields in southern iraq, then it was a race to beat the army to baghdad. from what i hear the marines encountered more enemy resistance then the army did.
After we took baghdad we pushed north to samarra. in that same town on the same day there was a marine recon unit that rescued the american army pow's that were being held there. one of them was the black female pow , cant remember her name now, but i remember her face on news.
When president Bush declared major combat operations over we were sent south to al diwaniyah to do security missions and to protect this town. I was in India company and we were tasked with guarding an iraqi bank and doing foot patrols in the city. when we first arrived there the 82nd airborne was guarding the town, we relieved them and they pushed north on trucks. i was pretty happy with the compound they had for us cause there was an iraqi rail yard right outside our fenceline. i would take my foot patrols through there just for some fun and of course to do some railfanning. here is a pic of me on a flat car with a russian t-55 tank. the locomotive looked like an sd-9 but inside the cab it said it was made in west germany. the other equipment looked like sperry maintenance of way equipment. from what i remember the iraqis had pretty good track with concrete ties. i even got to see one train travel over the rails. it was one engine and about twenty covered hoppers. sorry no pics of the train. hope you all enjoy. one other neat thing was Trains magazine did an article on iraqi railroads and low and behold they had some pics of al diwaniya in the magazine. i cant remember when that magazine came out, it may have been in 2004.

 

heres the pics

 

heres the maintenance of way equipment

 

Neat Photos!!!!!!!

:tb-biggrin: :tb-biggrin: :tb-biggrin: :tb-biggrin:
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Dan, that was very interesting. They must have had some pretty modern equipment there as your photos show. Thank you for your service there, keeping us civilians safe.
:tb-biggrin:

 

Here is another pic of me. now this is not railroad related , this is just a pic of me sitting in a hole i dug waiting for the war to begin. This pic was taken about six hours before we crossed the line of departure and started the war.

 

Dan, Thank you for your service, and also for your photos. The former is admirable and commendable, the latter is just plain neat 'cause it's RR related. :thumbs_up:

 

Dan, I am struck by the fact that aside from it being a war zone this could be almost anywhere. I am glad that you were able to get some railfanning in in what must have been a terribly stressful situation. Thanks for sharing those!!

 

Thanks Dan

Dan
Thank You and the others with you for keeping the world a safer place. The Armed Forces personnel are America's BEST.
The photos are excellent. The locomotive looks to be an EMD export model possible G18

 

EMD export? I don't think so. The cab windows look similar, but the sides on standard EMD export units aren't tapered like that. I don't see any typical EMD carbody features. The lip on the hood ends also isn't EMD, but it's a clue. West Germany, you say? That's odd, because this reminds me very much of East Bloc hood units.

EDIT: There are West German-built EMD designs in Iraq... cowl units. http://emdexport.railfan.net/mideast/iraq.html

 

Heres one more. I really appreciate everyones nice comments. thank you . This was the squad i was assigned to and the vehicle i rode in. One other interesting thing was with all the boredom of this war : no tv, no stereo, no women, i did have a some enjoyment cause i had a railpace magazine stuffed in my flak jacket. i remember it had pics of the wheeling and lake erie and ohio central.

 

2004 sounds about right for the issue you were talking about. IIRC a former editor from Trains Magazine went to Iraq to help rebuild the railroad. Not sure what progress may have been made since.

Thank you for your service to our country. Thanks for posting the photos.

 

It looks like a CKD Praha loco. IRR numbers DES3101-3200, delivered in the early 1980s as a tropicalised variant of the T669.

http://www.hobbyseiten.de/T669/t669co.html has details.

There was an article about Iraqi Republic Railways by Mark Hemphill, senior railway consultant for the US Department of State’s Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, in the November 2006 issue of Railway Age magazine.

 

I want to echo the sentiments of the other guys in saying thanks to you and your comrades for making the world a safer place for me and mine. Note what it says at the bottom of my posts. Also, was wondering if the guys still over there would like some copies of Model Railroader and Model Railroad Craftsman that I probably wont look at again. Thanks again.

 

Apparently, this engine does have US descent. Not EMD. Not Alco or FM, like so many other East Bloc designs. Baldwin.