Over 50 tanks seen today on a train to where?

Originally posted by double_frick
reply to post by Ventessa

 

when i see things like this i always wonder if this happens all the time and just goes unnoticed...so when someone notices its quite freaky (and it is) since it seems like it rarely happens...but how else would they transport these vehicles when not in use?

i mean, is there an explanation for this?
(not to mention the numerous other reports of things VERY similar to this in these past weeks)

I agree..... moving tanks by train is just normal. So they can be shipped abroad by cargo plane for another war. Or vice-versa.

[edit on 30-7-2009 by john124]

i spent a month in Oklahoman in march of 08, when i was there i lived right by the main rail tracks that went from Texas north threw Oklahoma, (god it sucked), one day i heard one of the trains going by and looked out the window, it had about 3-4 times as many tanks as in that first video.

my uncle said he see's it all the time down there, so it may be the norm, but i don't know...

my girlfriend while she has been in OH saw a train go by her grandparents house near west jefferson, the whole train was loaded with tanks..

reply to post by fleabit


Hence the "youtube comment above" bit

I'm an ex-tanker. No unit numbers mean they haven't been given to anyone yet.

Tanks are very bad on any road that is not concrete. If you drive a tank on an asphalt road, it will tear up the road big time. I don't mean a little pot hole, I mean the tank will eat the road up all the way down to the base where the dirt and gravel is.

On bases they have tank trails. And you are only allowed to drive tanks on those roads. They are full concrete and able to withstand the weight and forces.

Always put them on trains to travel. Someone mentioned Ft Irwin Ca and NTC. If you see tanks with unit numbers on them heading west, that is probably where they are heading. NTC is the desert training area, and it's a practice desert deploy exercise. So rather than keeping training tanks on the base, every unit who goes to NTC has to ship all their own equipment etc. It's a pain in the butt loading up tanks on trains etc. But it's all to practice deploying.

Back in the 90's, you went to NTC every other year, and there is constant training going on there. Back and forth trains travel to it. So it's actually not a rare thing at all, although I suppose rare to actually see one.

I doubt they worry too much about anyone stealing one. They would never be able to get it off the train in working order really. Tanks are pretty tough, but they are generally over-hyped in the movies. You can't actually do alot of things you see in them without tearing up. Tracks come off, they get stuck in the mud all the time and so forth.

They never keep any ammo or weapons on the tank at all. NEVER. Those are all kept locked away seperately. While the bulk of the main gun is "there", they do not have a firing pin in them so they won't shoot at all. Ammo is always kept in a guarded area etc. And you rarely have more than 1/4 tank of gas, even when on base unless you are out in the field training or whatever. In those times, you get gas twice a day because it uses so much.

What that guy did when he stole that m60 and went driving all crazy is about as bad as it gets in that area. And I was surprised that tank held up as long as it did the way he was driving. Those tracks come off pretty easy if not taken care of properly. The M1 can actually reach speeds of 70 mph, but they have a govern on them that reduces that to about 40mph, because it's not pretty when a track is thrown at those speeds.

Plus, tanks are vunerable in city warfare. They are more for open areas against heavy targets. I could easily take a tank out in an urban environment since I know the weakpoints. If they was going to be somekind of domestic thing going on, they wouldn't be using all that many tanks.

So really nothing out of the ordinary or anything to worry about here.

Originally posted by Alaskan Man
i spent a month in Oklahoman in march of 08, when i was there i lived right by the main rail tracks that went from Texas north threw Oklahoma, (god it sucked), one day i heard one of the trains going by and looked out the window, it had about 3-4 times as many tanks as in that first video.

my uncle said he see's it all the time down there, so it may be the norm, but i don't know...

Yeah, FT Hood in Texas is one of the rapid deployment bases for tanks. They are well taken care of and get priority on things because of that. Ft Stewart in Georgia is the other one. Ft Knox is just a training base, and tanks at other bases are lucky if they even have a full crew.

So like when the A2's first came out, Ft Hood would have gotten them first before anyone else and so on.

The second vid was scary, because it had wheeled vehicles and a lot of supplies, like it was heading somewhere to possibly go into battle, not just a bunch of new tanks getting delivered.

If it was going into battle somewhere in the US, well that would not be good.

i do not like this.

Especially since the train exercise started on Monday and is supposed to end tomorrow.

I remember watching the vid about the FEMA camps awhile ago, this guy was saying the train carriages were been set up to carry humans. Its was BS the guy was overly paranoid, u gotta remember there's a war going on and the troops need new equipment. What u saw was new equipment.....

Another possibility that nobody has mentioned yet is that they could be going back to their units from being refurbished. Sometimes units going over to Iraq or Afghanistan will use their own vehicles (sometimes they can use the vehicles of the unit they will be replacing. When those units get back home if they are taking their vehicles with them they will get sent off to have everything checked out. Civilians will take everything apart, replace anything that needs to be replaced and give the vehicle a new paint job.

What seemed odd to me with these tanks is that most of them appear to have mounts (for 50. cal / MK19) on them. This leads me to believe that maybe they are not new? Somebody correct me if I am wrong but I didn't think mounts came pre-installed; it could be possible that it's how the abrams come out of the factory. After looking at the video a second time, it seems like some have the mounts up and others might not but I might not have been able to see them due to the angle of the camera.

I also wanted to add that tanks could be used for some sort of population crack down. They would most likely be used as a show of force and they wouldn't be doing all that much with them.

I only had a chance to read through the first page, so i don't know if this has been said, but it could be that they were just off the assembly line as they weren't painted yet, they looked to be the stock grayish color.. like cars off an assembly line. I don't think its a big deal..

On a side note- that was damn impressive.. wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of their war path.

I have no doubt that in the next nine months to a year that we'll see more of this sort of brainless paranoia on Utube and other places. I mean seriously, the only reason this sort of stuff is even 'noticed' is because folks are letting their paranoia get the best off them. This sort of thing occurs -all the time-, nothing to see there other than the 'oh shiny' factor of new tanks.


M.

Probably tanks just through with overhaul and on the way to distribution. The General Dynamics M1 overhaul facility is in Lima, Ohio. Fresh paint, no identification...just ready to get banged up & dirty.

willyclem

Uhh..

hmm....perhaps the OP needs to do a bit more investigating. Like someone said in the comment section on the first youtube video...the military does business just like...well, any other business.

I wouldn't be too worried here...it's called transporting military ware.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
For a while I lived in Maryland they had the Aberdeen firing range we would see them ship in Tanks all the time.

I live near Yuma Proving Grounds. See stuff all the time.

There is one thing that I'm pretty sure of, and thats our military will not oppress the citizens when it comes right down to it. I know too many enlisted men and women to know that they and their supperiors will never go against the American public and in the end the administration knows that too.

reply to post by Rockstrongo37


Yeah, what the h3ll is all this talk that our armed forces are just going to turn into bots and suddenly begin locking up the American people?? I see this on other forums throughout ATS and abroad.

Why the fear about these tanks? Could you imagine what this site would be like if every time there was a shipment of new tanks, planes or helio's moved from the factory to another destination?

Does anyone actually believe that the men and women of the US Armed Forces will follow the commands to hoard the US citizens into cattle cars and take them to FEMA camps? If you do, please provide why you believe this. I'm not saying there is no possible way they would, but I just don't see how. Because of some sort of outbreak, natural disaster(s), Red Dawn style take-over?? Instead of working together to help one another the government will instead establish marshal law and have the citizens killed? Really?

Again, I am open minded which is the reason I joined ATS and I look forward to reading the responses of those that offer up any insight into why the US Gov would do this. Thanks in advance for your "mature" responses.

**If this hijacks the thread, my apologies and I will retract it. I posted this only because I was curious if those that find the tanks scary believe there is really a more in depth plan for us citizens.

[edit on 30-7-2009 by Roadblockx]

Originally posted by Styki
What seemed odd to me with these tanks is that most of them appear to have mounts (for 50. cal / MK19) on them. This leads me to believe that maybe they are not new? Somebody correct me if I am wrong but I didn't think mounts came pre-installed; it could be possible that it's how the abrams come out of the factory. After looking at the video a second time, it seems like some have the mounts up and others might not but I might not have been able to see them due to the angle of the camera.

I'm honestly not sure how they come new. I never got a new one, or seen anyone get a new one. But every tank I've ever seen had mounts and such, and I would honestly think they would have to come installed, because on the .50 cal especially it's tied into things that already exist in the tank. The loader side, I suppose it could come not installed, but I wouldn't see the point in it.

But the actual weapons themselves, those wouldn't come installed. You don't even keep them installed unless you are deploying. They stay locked up elsewhere. And you don't have them installed when you transport them either usually from my experience.

I really don't know how they come new though, I could be wrong. I can tell you how new parts come lol. They blow engines and transmissions(call them a pack) like crazy.

I also wanted to add that tanks could be used for some sort of population crack down. They would most likely be used as a show of force and they wouldn't be doing all that much with them.

Believe it or not, but infantry are more dangerous to people than a tank is. And people can be a bigger threat to a tank than other things.

reply to post by Roadblockx


Maybe the U.S. Military, Army, etc. wouldn't...but what about foreign troops? They obviously have troops from other countries on our soil as we speak. Would THEY have a problem taking U.S. citizens down? Probably not.
Btw, I know plenty of men and women fighting for us over seas, and I trust that they would not turn on us. They are good people.
I'm not sure what to make of all this talk about the H1N1 virus, and all the military activity, and the news stating the military is going to get involved with the whole mess, etc. I just know that it makes me very uneasy and suspicious.

Originally posted by MAB19
wow this reminds me of those movies when the ppl see this and think nothing of it and the screen cuts to black and says 2 months later when the tanks are rolling down the street from walmart

what movie is that?? Sounds cool.

OP when nothing happens, will you be less alarmist the next time you hear tell of something like this??