Union Pacific Military Tank Train - 8/3/11

I saw this train while I was on Metro Gold Line, on my way to catching a Southwest Chief train #3 with Heritage IV(AMTK 184). I decided to change my plan instead of catching the train #3. I was pretty lucky that this M1 Abrams tank train was about to leave and I made it to there right on time.
Union Pacific Military Tank Train at Main street bridge in Los Angeles, California on 8/3/11. UP 4768

[@Cnw8701]

I live at Ft. Bliss, TX and see various cargo and vehicles loaded and unloaded from the nearby railyard which connects to a UP secondary line!

[@PyR0Star]

RAIL FAN GOLD! GJ!!!! MADE NATIONAL NEWS!

[@archangel1221]

Tanks are transported around the US by rail pretty regularly (because you really can't move them long distances over roads). I see many trains like this every year coming and going out of the Yermo rail yard (near Barstow CA). They are coming to Ft Irwin for training. A single Brigade (one per month at Ft Irwin) will have about 30 trains of tanks, bradleys, M-88's, howitzers, and rolling stock.

[@chessiesystemrailfanman3741]

AWESOME, JUST AWESOME, SOME OF OUR COUNTRIES GREAT ATTRIBUTES, RAILROADS AND MILITARY. I LOVE THIS STUFF. GREAT VIDEO, KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.!!

[@BastiaanBlinksma]

That is lucky indeed, great trainspotting,..

[@igc4lifecuzz]

thanks for posting this it took me bacc to my childhood growing up in fort stewart ga

[@Condor1970]

There's just something soothing about tanks on trains.

[@trainkid16]

What a cool view!

[@MrWhizzer22]

yea, "tanks" for letting me see this train

[@MrDbates135]

I like it at the end when the Train curves

[@LBroderickWestCountyHawkWatch]

awesome, great camera angle, nice work. like it.

[@Seazer009]

Was watching a military train pass through the passenger station in Florence SC one day while I was on duty with the Railroad and about middle way the train was a soldier standing up inside the terret of his tank . I guess he was onboard to keep a watch out on things but he sure had a good ride no doubt .

[@SYVRRy]

Love the widescreen HD and your ground level camera position. Great Job! singwith.

[@msbeard57]

Almost all M1's are returned to Lima Ohio where the hull and turret are separated, and everything is removed before sandblasting. They are all upgraded to the latest versions with all upgrades installed and returned to duty better than new. They haven't built "new" in years so we recycle them as needed.

[@LDEGM]

Good shot!

[@UPDetector]

I really need to get one of those solid tank trains sooner or later. Awesome catch Snuffy

[@NoFear2473651]

Amazing!

[@tehnoob1n629]

TANKS a lot for the video. i believe I have been ARMORED with this knowledge.

[@davemax4394]

***** Lets not derail the comments section please!

[@jaisutton3855]

Dave Max hopefully we can get back on track.

[@davemax4394]

Jai Sutton Dunno, it's getting as loose as a caboose!

[@jaisutton3855]

Dave Max We both may need to learn to Conduct our puns better!

[@davemax4394]

Yes, a miss carriage of good punning.

[@RyanAnggoro]

Tanks for our Country + Union Pasific = Epic

[@ramairgto72]

This is one train I would hop no matter where it was going!

[@jmdhintz]

great catch. UP's been moving tanks like they're going out of style. I've seen several come through Bakersfield this month. They make it a nightmare to get authority to cross their mainline at Oil Junction!

[@53bigmikejones]

Army has many times a year out by Yermo tank trains and assorted hardware bound for NTC at FT Irwin. Awesome to see all those M1's moving .

[@PonyVisation]

So..beautiful camera skills and train... That UP logo never fails me

[@2005wenlu]

Great video!!

[@LumityCanon4131]

amazing lash up snuffy.

[@JRCoolDude412]

Good Video, Good Quality.

[@rnrailproductions5049]

Love that K3LA horn!!!

[@gottlosnomade]

Nice catch! That is the LAPD heliport. It can be seen quite a bit in the movie "Blue Thunder".

[@JonRailVideos2011-1]

Awesome Cath Snuffy!

[@eyesonmedia]

Very woodsy feel to the decor.

[@heroduothe2nd]

i had one go by today,it stopped in town and picked up scrapped fright cars and it to the train to make it look like a mix train.it had 27 tanks that looked just like these

[@hermannurdiyanto6597]

Awesome tanks

[@archangel1221]

These here are M1A1's, and all look like they are straight out of some sort of refurbishment (paint is pristine, and they don't have any unit markings). Almost all active duty units now use M1A2's, which are slightly different in the fittings.

[@cscwgm]

Dont overthink it. Those are M1A1 heading for a rebuild to M1A2 standards. No big deal. In fact, they appear to be the tanks shipped from ROK, as they have completed thier transition to A2.

[@Mike-tg7dj]

Railhead I've been there and done that. Back in the good old days we had to ride with our vehicles of course that was 30 years ago and it was Germany. Traveling in Germany was like crossing Oregon with a climate like Washington state. We would button up everything inside the turret lock t up chock block it off, tie it off, and board the train. It was fun like the time we left the Stuttgart area heading east with no. snow or bad weather only to arrive in Nuremberg with 4 feet of snow on the ground with more expected. Nothing like disembarking into a blizzard only to have to hurry up and wait. Oh the good old days.

[@bplmedia]

Awesome Catch!

[@melindaclark1428]

J

[@K-Effect]

That was the most expensive train I have ever seen

[@ElliottWolcott]

thats looks awsome.

[@KarlDahlquist]

That is Hooper Heliport in the background, where LAPD stores a lot of the helicopters.

[@gatewaysolo104]

lovely sd70m

[@AC_WILDCARD]

Great video of a military train! I don't see but one about once every couple of years, but being from Lawton/Ft. Sill, Oklahoma I am very familiar with them! We have a railhead on base with about 8 track loading spurs, altogether in a 24 hour time period an entire brigade of either armor or artillery can be loaded and on its way anywhere in the U.S. Often Fort Sill's newspaper will post articles about it.

[@Cnw8701]

I see these every other day where I live! LOL

[@SkateboarderRobley]

Man, that's too bad I missed this train. I would of caught it this train, but Chirstain was barrowing my CAM for editing one of my videos. Any way, loved the video, though. =P

[@phildur]

Wow ! Impressive. I could stop the vid and look at the defined weight painted on the carriages : LD LMT : 301 000 and LD WT 93 500 (lbs ?) it differs slightly from carriage to carriage (some are ATSF carriages). I guess with 2 M1 on a carriage it must be very close to the max. They are probably empty and with just enough fuel for loading and unloading. I did not manage to count them all, but the total load must be quite impressive. In Europe the max load per axsel is 21 metric t, what is the north american standard ? What is the speed limit for such a train ? Anyway a very instructive vidéo. Thanks for sharing

[@traindude32]

@Mahbu Well they're on flatbeds that can hold anything,plus it's probaly heavy but no matter what I think 2 front EMD units will do the job

[@JRCoolDude412]

I'll NEVER see that many Tanks anywhere else. With me NOT being in the military.

[@Cnw8701]

Yep!

[@Crazy8Tube]

You are correct sir'!

[@BigHappysPlace]

All forst camo. Possible heading for a repaint for deployment? Thanks doe the vid. It's pretty sweet to see that much rolling thunder.

[@pablof59]

3 axles boogies, this tanks are really heavy !

[@Justin.....]

Those were 2 nice union pacific SD70MACS

[@jasquarles]

@singwith No they don't use security on trains. The tanks are locked up and left as is until they get to wherever they are going. If headed north, and being they are the older M1A1's probably headed to Camp Roberts off hwy 101 near Paso Robles. I was a tanker for 14 years. When we railhead the tanks its a lot of fun, as you can see they hang over a full track pad on each side and with the weight bounce like three feet moving from car to car.

[@BradleyTM14]

So powerfull train, cool

[@ph11p3540]

It's the christmas train bearing toys for all the good boys

[@nkdfun]

Nice catch. It would have been nice to get some stand-up shots to see how the chains are attached to the flat car.

[@MRBIG-lg9zl]

Boy, good call on the camo paint jobs....

[@UPDetector]

We've only had one solid tank train come through here I think in terms of special the most popular one we've seen of any military special is explosive container specials and those are probably more missiles for the aircraft/s to use at our Scott Air Force Base if not I have no idea where they'd be going. BTW when you gonna get 96 leading IDULB up?

[@robertgift]

Nice catch! Well done video! Like the ground views and also the end going away. Why sounding the horn before the (o)T(o) start? The motion detector is to start the (o)T(o) 25 seconds before train arrival at the crossing.

good video

[@tnakai1971jp]

So, the railways are still valued as efficient in the US, it seems. We in Japan tend to support the idea of electrification. The US is a vast country and when it comes to careful econometrics, non-electrified system is most probably more cost effective.

[@petruha69]

Did you count the tanks?? I do not know why, but I am enjoying these (from the first look poinless) videos tougether with my 2-years old boy :) Thanks!

[@dvm590]

@ElectroMecca Remember that dude who stole a tank from a base in Florida, it took the luck of a jersy barrier to get the tank stuck. Other wise this guy was not stopping for anything.

[@kabeiganteng]

cool, i wish i can see something like this in my country

[@Condor1970]

Dear Santa!

[@GloucesterCountyNJFire]

that is a lot of tanks where were they going

[@MultiPurposeReviewer]

Huh. Never thought I'd see THAT kind of tank car. Ba-doom KSSHH!

[@Adamlovesmedal]

ive seen one of these before at night but i was norfolk southern and it came through lebanon pa

[@RadicalAwesomeness]

Damn.. that's a lot of M1A1's

[@MrUp8444]

If it went to Oxnard. That would mean it had to take the Coast Sub Right?

[@indie1361]

There's probably a Marine detachment hiding in one of the SD-70's!

[@josephwhitney257]

How do they get the tanks into the rail cars?

[@ExpoLineFan]

M1 Abrams tank is Made at the GDLS-operated Lima Army Tank Plant in Lima, Ohio

[@bkriegel95]

A shit ton of fire power on the train

[@micheljourdain1277]

yes hello j have had the same thoughts as you and here there are only tanks then I imagine the budget for the army stopped the good j c is too big for me thank you

[@MrUp8444]

@singwith Got it. Thanks..

[@offroadingisgood]

Those are M1A1's. At 2:28 you can see the tanks have no CITV. Hope that clears up any confusion. I have been a tanker since 2009 and you can check my vids to see an M1A2 Sep v2 firing off if you would like.

[@MrJarrod1989]

I'm going to say this is worth a like and a subscribe :)

[@imaghostbuster36]

how heavy r those wagons each with 2 tanks on them? cos its 2 tanks 2 each wagon so weight of tank and weight of wagon tht wuld b??

[@micheljourdain1277]

when you know the price of a Abrams there is a sacred fortune on this train

[@petediaz2752]

The markings on the 6 axle flatcars read "DODX". Are those cars owned by the Dept of Defense? Curious.

[@pumices9844]

That is a lot of tonnage.

[@mfee2079]

Lots of M1's My guess is heading to that big training base in California.

[@MoorishWanderer]

For the past few years or recently? They have woodland camo.

[@fixedgearpsycho]

way off subject but how powerful are those UP Engines?

[@ObamaTookMyCat]

that....is alot of abrams tanks!

[@JHNBHN]

Damn thats alot of tanks..

[@lisekSL]

@singwith I have not too, but it explain why the last wagons are empty :]

[@maalaea]

what kind of camera? nice footage. Are those the Abrams tanks?

[@mario63ist]

@wacher8 well tan is for deserts and dry places, green is for forests and wet places makes sense dosent it -.-

[@chechnya]

I used to think that way.. until I realized war does nothing but make millions suffer, directly and indirectly, around the world.

[@ElliottWolcott]

your welcome.

[@THEATREofPAIN270]

Really nice post. Only fitting the lead loco have an American Flag on it.

[@sparks1504]

where was this at ?

[@CA1CWilliams]

thats alot of tanks!

[@MrRuffy39]

I remember back in Russia where I used to live we had tank regiment base...and instead of M1A1s we had T90s....that was sick

[@TheTeMaRuS]

where are those tanks going?

[@michlo3393]

A bunch of M1A1's, notice the APU on the bustle rack, M1A2's don't have the APU, instead they have 6 more batteries. A much easier tank to work on than the M1A2 which gives up the robust simplicity of the A1 for more sensitive (and fragile) electronics! They are all probably going to Reset over at Anniston Depot to get that much needed overhaul ;)

[@tbob8212]

I went to MP School for 2 months at Fort McClellan back in 1994. We drove our Humvees past the Anniston Depot and I took pictures of the rows of M1 Abrams stored beyond the perimeter fence. Semper Fi

[@minsterkiller123]

I live in Oxnard we have a few military bases so if you see a train with heavy armor or army vehicles

[@nutbagbrew102]

these tanks have been rebuilt in barstow ca - going back to afgan

[@thenoobfactor]

@Giselle76502 Maybe about 5000 operational tanks. Estimated 4000 more in storage, maintenance or sold to other countries.