Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1919 — ARMY TRANSPORT TRAIN TO GO ON A LONG TOUR. [ARTICLE]

ARMY TRANSPORT TRAIN TO GO ON A LONG TOUR.

By order of the war department a motor transportation train three miles long will leave Washington on July 7th and cross the continent to the Pacific coast, reaching San Francisco over the Lincoln highway. This long journey is to be made in sixty days. It will serve as a test of the efficiency of the army transport service, but what is considered more effective, will demonstrate to the nation the inestimable value of a system of national highways. The plans for the adventure have been completed by the war department. All equipment’ has been assembled and the personnel detail assigned. This transport train will be the heaviest in the history of any army. Lt will be even heavier than any single unit of the huge transport service used to keep the armies of the allies supplied along the French front. No motor transport train of any nation has ever before attempted a continuous journey of 3,000 miles in 60 days with full war equipment. The motor trucks will carry not only their own supplies to last the entire journey, but will carry supply and repair units, as well as full complements of men and officers. The marching orders call for an average of 75 miles a day. This schedule necessitates a speed of 15 miles an hour all the way from Washington to the coast, no matter how unfavorable | the weather or geographical conditions.