The modern day 79 Railway Squadron is part of the 17 Port and Maritime Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps

Royal Logistic Corps

The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army, comprising around 17% of its strength...

 of the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

. They are responsible for maintaining and providing the British Army with its railway transportation requirements.

Originally, the Railway Squadron started life in the Royal Engineers

Royal Engineers

The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

 at Longmoor Military Camp

Longmoor Military Camp

Longmoor Military Camp is a British Army training camp and training area on the A3 road between Liss and Liphook in Hampshire, England. The village of Greatham lies to the south....

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

. They were known as the Longmoor Military Railway

Longmoor Military Railway

The Longmoor Military Railway was a British military railway in Hampshire, built by the Royal Engineers from 1903 in order to train soldiers on railway construction and operations.-Route:...

 and operated steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

s. The Squadron eventually moved to Monchengladbach

Mönchengladbach

Mönchengladbach , formerly known as Münchengladbach, is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine half way between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border....

 in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 and in the fullness of time became 79 Railway Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport

Royal Corps of Transport

The Royal Corps of Transport was a British Army Corps formed in 1965 from the transport elements of the Royal Army Service Corps and the movement control element of the Royal Engineers . The depot was Buller Barracks in Aldershot...

. The locomotives were all diesel

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

 and for a while the future of the squadron seemed uncertain until 1983, when a multi-million pound makeover was begun. New locomotives started to arrive and the operating yard at Monchengladbach got a makeover.