Train Bunkers

[eTraxx]

Train Bunkers, Concord, California. Evidently these are train bunkers for railcars carrying ammunition. Pretty cool

 

[kz9]

Looks like there used to be a few of them in that area.....

 

[MGWSY]

Looks like they are still used to store cars.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...23,-122.008184&spn=0.003043,0.007655&t=h&z=18

 

[Motley]

Whaaaat? I had no idea they could do this, that is really cool.

I wonder if they had the same thing during the cold war with missels?

 

[bigB]

There are a bunch of these just south of the Long Beach,CA airport. I thought that storing ammo particularly for the old Navy base there was what they were for. Now I know, thanks...

 

[Chris Roy]

I'm surprised by the proximity of those bunkers to neighborhoods - I bet there are a few people living near by that are totally oblivious to the amount of firepower stored just a few hundred yards away.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...985149,-121.992665&spn=0.002913,0.006866&z=18

 

[MGWSY]

I'm surprised by the proximity of those bunkers to neighborhoods - I bet there are a few people living near by that are totally oblivious to the amount of firepower stored just a few hundred yards away.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...985149,-121.992665&spn=0.002913,0.006866&z=18

Those are not used any more as that part of the base is shut down but the ones at the port are still in use.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...051302,-122.028365&spn=0.012166,0.022445&z=16

 

[KCSSport]

Ah the ideas... Pretty sure those would raise some questions by visitors to a layout

 

[eTraxx]

The Army just doesn't stick munitions anyplace. They have very precise charts of Quality Distance etc. from roads, rail lines etc etc .. that have to be followed very carefully.

 

[UP2CSX]

Those are part of the Concord Naval Weapons Station. They are in what's known as the "Inland Area", which is now closed and subject to a reuse plan. Those things with the tracks leading into them are ammunition magazines, where ammunition was stored on delivery. When the munitions were to be loaded on ships, the magazine was emptied into boxcars and taken to the port loading area. The base had 56 miles of track but most of it fell into disuse by the late 1080's, with trucks used to transfer munitions.

There was a massive explosion there in 1944 during an ammunition loading operation at the docks. It killed over 200 men and broke windows as far as eight miles away. The weapons station was pretty much in the middle of nowhere when it was established in 1942, but the city of Concord has grown right up to the base limits, one of the factors that led to the shutdown of most of the munitions storage and transfer activities.

 

[2-8-1]

That's wild!

 

[Larry]

In 1962 during the Cuba missle crisis the Army built bunkers around the tracks going into Hialeah at Amelia Airheart field. These things were huge & if a missle ever exploded I don't think these bunkers would contain it. To be a true bunker it has to be reinforced concrete a certain thickness. The bunkers back then were only dirt. You could see the missles aimed at Cuba above the sides of the bunkers. There was a bar right across the street that I use to go to all the time & the servicemen & women would tell us a lot of stories about the not-so-trueness of their bunkers.

 

[V&AL]

I remember reading a while back about how the Air Force had special "nuke trains" designed with the same concept as the B-52's on air alert and the boomer nuke subs. These trains were supposed to roam the US rail system in consist with standard freights and in the even of a war would launch from where ever the train was... they were housed when not on the rails in bunkers like those...

 

[UP2CSX]

Nope, never happened here. There was a concept called the Mobile Minuteman Program that was worked up to prototype stage in 1960 but the program was killed off due to cost by President Kennedy. They were never supposed to be used mixed in with a regular freight train, but would travel as extras in 10 car trains, with three missile cars and seven support cars that were refurbished Pullman cars. The missile cars were designed to look like standard 80 foot baggage cars to disguise them from satellite recon. The Russian actually did have 36 missile trains, the last being decommisioned in 2005.

 

[vato loco]

Nope, never happened here. There was a concept called the Mobile Minuteman Program that was worked up to prototype stage in 1960 but the program was killed off due to cost by President Kennedy. They were never supposed to be used mixed in with a regular freight train, but would travel as extras in 10 car trains, with three missile cars and seven support cars that were refurbished Pullman cars. The missile cars were designed to look like standard 80 foot baggage cars to disguise them from satellite recon. The Russian actually did have 36 missile trains, the last being decommisioned in 2005.

JMO...I don't know if i would say for fact, "Nope, Never Happend Here." There is a lot of things our government does and knows that we don't know about or think we know about. The only way we continue on with our happy little lives with little worry as possible in this country is that, "We don't ever know how close we are everyday to the danger of getting killed."

As for the train Bunkers, thats cool! I could see how having mobile Missles on rail could be harder to track. Or at least a mobile command base romming the rails camoed up to look like a common amtrak passenger train?

 

[AyTrane]

What an interesting track plan. Anyone else follow the tracks to all of the bunkers and magazines?

 

[eTraxx]

Adam asked if anyone had followed the tracks. I looked around .. and found something interesting ..

Here is a view of the area. Notice the part I indicated by a black arrow ..

Zooming in to the area I indicated by the black arrow .. you find that there is a section of track that is completely cut off ... and what I found interesting indicated by the numbers 1, 2 and 3 ...

1 - This close-up of the left side you can see how the track ends short of the road ..

2 - Right side close up .. again .. the track ends

and in the middle? Here is #3 .. and sitting by what looks like a loading dock ....

 

[AyTrane]

Oops...


The cars are probably only scrap worthy anyway.

 

[eTraxx]

Can't tell. That's desert so they could be well preserved.

I was more interested in WHAT they were. Those are not modern cars.

 

[AyTrane]

Looks like a couple old 50' boxcars.