Military equipment was loaded on railcars for shipment Feb. 7, 2018, at the Fort McCoy, Wis., rail yard as part of a cold-weather railcar loading exercise.
The exercise, held Feb. 5-8 at the rail yard near building 2100 on the cantonment area, was an opportunity to take a regular rail-loading operation and turn it into training for Soldiers with the 397th Engineer Battalion at Eau Claire, Wis., and the 983rd Engineer Battalion of Monclova, Ohio, said Fort McCoy Transportation Officer D.J. Eckland with the Logistics Readiness Center Transportation Division.
A classroom session began the training Feb. 5 with 89 people attending. The classroom portion was taught by a Marine Corps mobile training team from Barstow, Calif.
Over the course of three days, service members with each unit took turns loading their equipment on railcars. The 397th loaded 36 railcars with 65 pieces of equipment and nine 20-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) containers. The 983rd loaded 30 railcars with more than 80 pieces of equipment and four TEU containers.