The United States Army Transportation Corp (USATC)  came into being in July 1942. Its railway section was organized into Military Railway Service (MRS). The 1st MRS was in charge of railway operations in N. Africa and, later on, in Italy and Southern France. The 2nd MRS covered the remaining part of Europe that USATC was responsible for. Under MRS were Railway Grand Divisions (RGD), each RGD had four or five Railway Operating Battalions (ROB) and one Railway Shop Battalion (RSB). These units (RGD, ROB and RSB) were assigned numbers in 7xx series. Each division and battalion was sponsored by a railroad company. The military personnel were mostly recruited from the sponsoring railroad.