Santa Fe in World War II: Contributing to Victory

Softcover, 184 pages, 8.5 x 11 in., over 190 photographs and maps, 13 tables, appendices, bibliography, and index.

This small volume is designed to be of interest to several audiences. For the Santa Fe history buff, it tells the story of an important chapter in Santa Fe history. For the Santa Fe modeler it provides information critical for those wanting to model the Santa Fe in World War II. For the military historian it provides a case study of how one railroad contributed to the Allied victory in World War II.

The story of the Santa Fe in World War II includes Santa Fe served military installations, government installations and construction projects, industries that produce material for the military, and industries that support military production. The book then moves on to focus on the Santa Fe itself. It first examines the impact of the war on company assets such as personnel, equipment, and infrastructure explaining how the Santa Fe overcame personnel and equipment shortages and bottlenecks caused by its infrastructure.

The book then moves on to Santa Fe's traffic and operations. It examines the traffic challenges the Santa Fe overcame. It discusses the Santa Fe passenger train traffic which increased 12 fold over the prewar level and Santa Fe freight trains which quadrupled over prewar. Next it discusses the three types of military trains, the mixed troop train, passenger troop trains and hospital trains, and finally special trains are examined.