Another view, 80 ton GE used by the National Guard, seen at Valley RR, Essex, Ct.

Update by another member;
This is not a National Guard engine, but an Army Reserve Engine belonging to a unit based in Cheshire, CT. At the time it was one of only two railroad units left in the Army, both in the Reserve. The 76th Division insignia is just below the windows of the cab. The 76th Division was headquartered in West Hartford, CT and had units in all six New England States and Willow Grove, PA. I was a member of the 76th Division from 1972-1988. I forget the railroad unit's number, but I served as the assistant provost marshal for physical security from 1982 to 1986 and inspected the unit twice. They were based in an old Nike base in Cheshire and I remember that they had a HO model of their duty station in North Carolina and that they would practice setting out cars to unload ammunition (the model was about 20 feet on a side.) The point was to line up the doors to 40 ' and 50' cars so that they could drive a forklift through an entire line of cars onto the ammunition ship. There were maybe
15 to 20 parallel tracks in the yard. Many of the unit members were professional railroad. After 1988 I was assigned to Fort Devens and lost track of the unit. The 76th Division was consolidated with the 98th Division after the Gulf War and I'll bet the two railroad units were retired at the same time. They had the engine you photographed at the Valley RR for weekend drills (and I think one or two more at the Pioneer Valley RR.) They all disappeared in the '90's.

Elliott Hoffman LTC USAR (very retired)

Photographed by Raymond Williams, 1982.
Added to the photo archive by Raymond Williams, September 21, 2011.
Railroad: United States Army.

Raymond Williams's awards:

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