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Originally Posted by Legbreaker
Yes, of course the military would be using rail when and were possible, just as they've done almost since the first railway track was laid. This again will likely have an impact on other areas with rolling stock tied up for shifting tanks, etc rather than raw materials and finished goods.
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Short-term, this is good for the railroads, that's a lot of traffic that they wouldn't have had prior to 1995. I'm sure they've long had plans gathering dust on how to move military cargos (and they would have had practice in the 2nd Gulf War, 1990-91). That could have shown whatever shortcomings were existent after the recovery of the 1980s.
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If the war was expected to drag on then yes, investment would have been made in transport infrastructure,
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Were I in Wall Street, rail is one place I would be sure to invest in in 1995-96, pumping money into infrastructure improvements.
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as the books state the units held back in the US were there because of a lack of available shipping, not rolling stock.
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Agreed. I attended a lecture once comparing US rail performance in WW1 (an embarrassment at best, nearly screwed the war effort at worst) to WW2 (came through with flying colors). Lessons were learned, and I don't think that would be too far gone, again with the example of 1990-91 available.
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It's very unlikely any shipping would have been completed though before November stopped everything.
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Ah, steel production. Now we're hitting at a weak spot in the US economy in the 1990s-- not all of it's gone overseas, but I bet a lot sure did. (I don't live in the Rust Belt, but near it, so it was hard to miss that in the news.) Prices and availability for rolling stock and rails get hit, and it all goes pear-shaped after the TDM, anyway.
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However, the points I've made above about pressures on manpower and resources apply equally to all nations around the world, although the Soviets may have been in a slightly better position as they'd been at war a bit longer and their economy was already on a war footing.
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I'd think they might have been in a slightly worse position, as their network (IMO) had less slack in it to cover for the wear & tear of extra-ordinary usage, especially wastage as so much stuff had to go longer distances to get to the Far Eastern Fronts.