Isolated Strip of Railway found inside Wright-Patt AFB

Hey guys, I was working on base the other day, driving down a road I've been down many, many times.. and on this particular day , I happen to notice this small section of railroad tracks on a concrete pad. There's about 20 ft of the track intact, and why they are built on a pretty thick concrete pad seemed interesting to me.

Knowing the stories about some of the Roswell crash and how the material was said to be partially moved by train, I got a little excited. I cannot find any photo or map showing any railway leading into any WPAFB area, except for a coal power plant that sits right outside. I looked all the way back at pictures from the 40's, old Ohio railroad maps, nothing.

Now I know most of you are immediately thinking, where's the pictures??? Haha here you go.






Since the rails are inside of the fence line of a large substation, I'm thinking maybe these rails are used to roll insanely heavy transformers off of a truck, trailer to get it staged? Or an old stretch rails built to send engines down that got chopped up to make room for new buildings. Idk that's my best guess at debunking this.

By far the most intruiging part of this discovery, is that they sit behind building 23. Which sits between building 18, 18C and 18F.

Let me know what you guys think. Peace.

a reply to: JediMindTrek
I suspect that this is it

The base was adjacent to two mainline railroads, the Big Four and Erie, and the oldest parts of the bases were designed around railroad supply. Yet the more unusual transit connection is with interurban railroads.

The interurban line serving the base went under different names: Dayton, Springfield & Urbana, Ohio Electric, and Cincinnati & Lake Erie. This was the line used by the Wright Brothers to reach their flying field off the old Springfield Pike.

WWI era Patterson Field (at that time Wilbur Wright Field) and Fairfield Air Depot was served by Ohio Electric, which provided freight as well as passenger service to the base, actually coming on base via a branch line. Since the base was a flying school, presumably there was a lot of passenger traffic into Dayton when the student flyers had weekend leave.

The line was relocated along with Springfield Pike and the mainline steam railroads as part of the Conservancy district work on Huffman Dam, but remained in service up to 1940.

Source

See also this PDF for more history from the base itself. I didn't dig too much to see if any of the old rail roads matched the location you posted though, but I would imagine with your knowledge of the base, you might be able to do such with better ease.

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

Thanks, that's awesome I knew there had to be a railway running through the base at some point. Still though, why leave it?

a reply to: JediMindTrek

Why not? They haven't built anything there so why spend the money to tear it up? Hickam has hangers dating to WWII that until the early 2000s had the original ceilings. The only reason they were replaced was because they were cement, and it was crumbling.

Given the orientation of the road and the sub-station, it seems likely that your explanation is correct. This would be used to move something from the pavement outside to the station inside. And seeing how the tracks do not appear to connect with the road itself, whatever is to be moved is likely going to be unloaded from a truck that reverses itself up to the track. Why they would use a track, instead of just paving the thing, is beyond me. Once you get it inside the substation fence you are going to have to take it off the track anyway. But I don't really know, and that just seems likely given what I'm seeing. Also, I don't know what affiliation you have with the base, whether you're in the military or whatever, but you should probably be careful when it comes to sharing information from such a base. Obviously this is not a big deal where this thread is concerned, or if you signed no agreements, and perhaps you wouldn't share anything that is truly sensitive, but I just thought I would point that out. I was not even aware of all that I signed until I was debriefed upon leaving the military, lol.

An old rail line? Its too short. But where it is positioned just in and outside the fence makes me think it was a cart to transfer something heavy from a truck (from the road) to a waiting truck (inside the fence)

Like a conveyor belt. The cart or (whatever it was) is long gone and the rails remain.

Just my o.

First of all we're jumping to the conclusion that it's even railroad track. Or does someone see something I don't? Let's get that cleared up, and then go from that point.

the last duty station that i was at had several old rail lines. they were used when the based first opened. as time went on they changed the way certain things were moved and no longer used them. but some of if was useful for us because we used the rails and some of the terminals for training scenarios.

ETA: here is the bade now that it is closed, take the picture tour,they only show one rail line near the end.
Yellow Water Special Weapons Storage Facility Magazine once guarded by the United States Marine Corps.

Supposedly tracks are federally taxed, but if you use the track and maintain it, you get tax credits for the maintenace, which effectively undoes the tax. If you have track not being used and not likely to be ever used, you rip it out. [All second hand knowledge from a retired rail worker I know.]

Maybe on a federal land, they don't have the tax issue, so the rails are left alone. That said, I think the explanation of the rails being used to move something heavy is the correct explanation.

Many places in the US have old railroad grades without the tracks. That is, you rip up the rail, but nobody makes you restore the land to the original state.

a reply to: JediMindTrek

Pretty much every military base in the US has old derelict railroad tracks on it. Railroad used to be the main means of moving equipment, some bases still use them. But most no longer do.

A lot of it ends up being recycled but as was stated earlier, in a lot of cases it's not in the way so why spend money pulling it up?

a reply to: AreUKiddingMe

They are definitely railroad tracks, I work with all kinds of metal and these are not I beams, support beams anything like that.

a reply to: JiggyPotamus

I didn't take any pictures or anything, google did you could see these on a base tour.

a reply to: JediMindTrek

I just checked on historicaerials.com and even back to the 1930's it does not appear there was a rail spur at that location.

If these are indeed embedded rails they look like they were never connected to the national network.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: JediMindTrek
I just checked on historicaerials.com and even back to the 1930's it does not appear there was a rail spur at that location.

It's there in all that historic imagery, only it is not as discernible due to the capability of imaging at the time, color, and NIIRS quality (the black line in center of imagery from 1968 is that railroad section ...

originally posted by: JediMindTrek

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

It is still not a spur (which means it is connected to the national network) and I do not think that this is a piece of ROW.

If you use the Bing bird's eye you can see what possibly may be actual trackage leading from the small bay in front of the two white vehicles to the larger building at left. The one in question, when using the alternate view, appears to be a raised, concrete platform and not trackage.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: AllSourceIntel

It is still not a spur (which means it is connected to the national network) and I do not think that this is a piece of ROW.

Yes, it is connected to nothing, but at one point, it most likely was part of the national network and parts were used by the Wright Brothers ... see my first post, the section where this is located is the oldest part of the base.

originally posted by: AllSourceIntel

Yes, it is connected to nothing, but at one point, it most likely was part of the national network and parts were used by the Wright Brothers ... see my first post, the section where this is located is the oldest part of the base.

It was not connected as the object in the image in question is not even a piece of ROW. Use the bird's eye view, it is very apparent it is a raised platform.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus
I don't even know what ROW is other than right of way (enlighten me please), but I see what you are talking about... and it leads directly to that big transformer that could have been slid in

originally posted by: AllSourceIntel
I don't even know what ROW is other than right of way (enlighten me please), but I see what you are talking about... and it leads directly to that big transformer that could have been slid in

Right Of Way is correct and is railroad parlance for the trackage and surrounding railbed.

It could have been a section of track that was used as a test gauge for building their rocket sleds, back in the 50's.