Re: The guns are neat, but look at that stack...

The engine pictured above is very similar in style to the Huckleberry 152 discussed in another thread, which in an older picture is lettered for the US Army (although one is a 2-6-0 and the other a 4-6-0). Was the Huckleberry engine a former Army engine? I did a little googling and it was interesting to learn much to my surprise that the Coast Artillery had narrow gauge rail mounted guns in both Hawaii and the Philippines. Apparently they were all originally constructed 36" gauge, and the ones that when to the Philippines had to be converted to 42" gauge. Apparently the Philippine guns were actually deployed to counter the Japanese invasion, but most were destroyed enroute by air attack. One survivor was moved to Corregidor but never fired. Railroad mounted big guns seem to be one of those interesting ideas into which a lot of effort was expended by several countries but I have never heard of the technology being particularly useful in any actual battle. The only situation that seems to get much historical note was the German use of a railway mounted big gun to shell Paris in the First World War, but the value seems to have been more psychological than real.

JBWX