Army MRS railway round chrome badges, WW2...

[willysmb44]

I just scored this off eBay, I have another exactly like it, but marked as Conductor:

MRS stands for Military Railway Service. Agent would have likely been a soldier processing freight or maybe handling passengers.

Railway Operating Battalions had a structure with pretty much everyone a civilian railroad would have.

I've looked through a LOT of railway soldier photos over the years, but only ever found two photos of these being worn, both by soldiers of the 727th Railway Operating Battalion during WW2 before they headed to embarkation ports.

Does anyone have any others of these? I'd love to know how many others they made. I can't imagine many exist today.

When I was at the Army Transportation Museum at Ft Eustis right before the pandemic, I asked if they had any of these or had a clue what they were. No answers there.

 

[willysmb44]

Here's the conductor one in the bottom corner:

Here are photos from the only set where I've seen them worn, by members of the 727th ROB:

 

Surely among all these insignia collectors, I can't be the only one who has any of these?