I retired from being a locomotive engineer over four years ago (2018) after being in the railroad industry (Class 1 railroads) for over 37 years. I saw quite a few changes in railroad technology in those years. Freight train crews went from five people to two, especially road trains. Cabooses pretty much disappeared replaced with "hind end markers." Many switch engines working yard jobs now are operated by remote control by someone working on the ground. Scores of railroad clerk positions were replaced by computers. And look at all the railroad machinery that has replaced all those track laborers. My career in this industry has seen incredible efficiency through new technology. I suspect crewless trains could be next as it's easier to run a train down tracks by remote control than a truck (though I wonder if there'll always be a need for one person on a train for when something fails or goes wrong). Which leads me to the next threat to railroads, driverless trucks. Imagine replacing a 100 car grain train with trucks. Each railroad grain hopper car has the capacity to carry about 100 tons of grain. Put those 100 tons on a truck and you can imagine the amount of damage done to the nation's roads. You'd have to split the grain load amongst two or three trucks. Then imagine the additional traffic on our roads by trucks alone replacing a 100 car train with 200 -250 trucks driving themselves. What happens with all these trucks in a bad snowstorm or ice storm (not as great an issue for railroads)? What about driverless trucks having mechanical failures or flat tires? Imagine the bottlenecks on the roads. And then what about putting all the hazardous materials hauled by railroads on the nations highways? Nice to know now you'll have huge fleets of unmanned trucks running in competition with driverless automobiles through our town and city streets hauling massive amounts of everything from anhydrous ammonia to chlorine gas to flammable liquified petroleum gas. Yes, ultimately railroads may fall victim to trucks, but I'd hate to be going anywhere on the roads and interstates when that happens. Hey, thanks for your comments and sharing this vintage railroad film.

@hankaustin7091

4 жыл бұрын

would it be possible to type a Reader's Digest Condensed version of this?

@WAL_DC-6B

2 жыл бұрын

@@hankaustin7091 This IS the "Reader's Digest Condensed version of this." (Be glad I didn't write the whole draft!).

@joeKisonue

Жыл бұрын

Sir you completely forget that passenger travel will be done in flying cars soon and the self driving trucks will be all alone on roads with the very poor who will be getting around on carts made from old diesel vehicles running on re-liquefied petroleum products.

@yentrader

Жыл бұрын

I retired the same year as a conductor on the UP after 39 years. There was indeed incredible change in the industry in my years there.

@user-fl8lw7mb8y

9 ай бұрын

​@@hankaustin7091first off , u sound like a dick , and secondly , all this fantasy self driving trucks and flying cars is exactly that , a f. .king fantasy , hahaha 😂😂omg can u imagine all the money tht would cost ? Sry ain't no way our politicians are gonna rock that boat , they tell ppl what the Wana hear , nothin happens , move on. We're at the end as far as transporting stuff , fast as it can get.. so put that in your readers digest version and f..k off

I once did a consulting project in rail related property development. I had an opportunity to speak with the senior authorities of Japan Rail in Tokyo for this assignment. They painted a mind blowing picture of the development of rail in their context. As a relatively newly privatised organisation that desperately needed to think creatively to find profitable revenue sources to pay off a mindblowing debt of US$2trillion. . These guys went into the game of converting their stations into the world's biggest malls, then they evolved into running major stores in those malls and then they evolved their prepaid ticket cards into a full fledge bank system. . I think to me one of the most impressive business concepts they created was to use their trains to bring supplies and stock to their stores in their malls in the middle of the city. (oh yes and they supplied competitors stores too) . Think about it, using trains to directly supply stores in a city? . The only way to make all this possible, is to convert their train stations into the central economic activity hub of a city, in that way the rail track runs into the central hub of the city and the rail track is hence used to feed that economic hub. . I then come home and go down to Buffalo NY to pick up my dad at the train station. Can you believe it, Buffalo's train station is located in the middle of the sticks.... oh and central Buffalo is an economic waste land. Maybe we should be seriously learning from the Japanese.

From the history of precision to 'let's take a moment to appreciate the enormity of the national rail system' as a locomotive maintainer this warms my little cotton socks.

Most enjoyable look back at life in the 1950s. I grew up in that era and recognize a lot of the things shown here. The transition from steam to diesel, TV was new, heck we even got electricity on the farm in 1950!

@johnwow2646

Жыл бұрын

I agree !

The movie was as much a plea to keep the railroads private as it was a showcase of how important they are.

@MrMattumbo

5 жыл бұрын

I thought it was interesting how much they stressed their lack of government subsidy/funding, even said they paid over a billion in taxes every year! Seems like today every major industry is subsidized or reliant on public infrastructure and tax breaks. Poor railroads, totally got shafted in favor of the new shiny technology even though that new technology wasn't actually more efficient when the costs to taxpayers are factored in. (I'm looking at you long haul trucks, I can think of a million potholes and a billion metric tons of CO2 that demonstrate train superiority in long distance shipping.)

@NHindividualist

4 жыл бұрын

If trucking companies had to build their own ways, maintain them, and pay taxes on them as improved industrial property, trucks would only exist to deliver from the nearest railhead to the final destination.

@csxns

4 жыл бұрын

@@NHindividualist Trucking a 800 billion dollar a year industry they need to put more into roads.

@csxns

4 жыл бұрын

@@NHindividualist Trucking is a 800 billion dollar a year industry time for them to pay up.

@nightster6378

3 жыл бұрын

@@NHindividualist Do trucking companies and truck owners get to use the road systems for free? Here in the UK, the companies or truck owners must pay a road tax as does the private car owner not forgetting the 80% tax paid on every gallon of fuel hence why a UK gallon of fuel today is £5.40 approx $7.63 also the private car owner must pay an average of £260 or $373 P.A.. The rail system though private is heavily subsidised by the Taxpayer.

A lot has been done with the railroads-especially in the intermodals and stack trains. Done right, trucks and trains, both together, are a transportation force.

@mauriciocameron2943

2 жыл бұрын

you probably dont care but does anyone know a trick to log back into an instagram account? I somehow lost my password. I appreciate any tricks you can give me.

@jaylendamari5451

2 жыл бұрын

@Mauricio Cameron instablaster =)

@mauriciocameron2943

2 жыл бұрын

@Jaylen Damari i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site on google and im in the hacking process now. Seems to take quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.

@mauriciocameron2943

2 жыл бұрын

@Jaylen Damari it worked and I now got access to my account again. I'm so happy! Thanks so much you saved my account :D

@jaylendamari5451

2 жыл бұрын

@Mauricio Cameron happy to help :D

It was a hoot to see James Gregory as "Bill" in this. He's a very recognizable character actor who did tons of work in the seventies and eighties. It was also interesting to see this movie that was made the same year that I was born. A *lot* has changed in my lifetime and it was interesting to see a glimpse of the past here.

@michaelglass4701

4 жыл бұрын

Lex Boegen , James Gregory was on the 5 season of That Girl, he was Donald's boss

@joeKisonue

Жыл бұрын

@@michaelglass4701 you're thinking of season 5 of "New Girl" and Veronica's uncle..

@captainmorgan757

Жыл бұрын

I liked him (James Gregory) best on the Barney Miller sitcom. I don't think anyone could play his character as well as he did.

What visual feasts these old films make. Thanks for making them available and easy to find and view!

I too, am a RailRoad history follower... go to Rail Museums when I travel. This was fun, and thanks for the good video. Railroads put small towns on the map, and as the film said; turned many of them into cities! Thanks!

I came to this channel because I was trying to figure out how my clutch worked on my motorcycle and now I can say with confidence that it is a pushrod that is controlled by a mechanical worm drive to relieve the clutch spring pressure via linear-actuation, thanks!

"all these songs are about trains!" " when you think about it, is there really anything else to talk about?"

@horacegentleman3296

3 жыл бұрын

Got that hot muddy late train comin' blues

The 1950's were the pinnacle of American society. In my opinion anyway. I was born in '56 and I can't say I remember much but the glimpses I get from documentaries like this make me wish time had stopped in the 50's.

When i was a boy thay still used steam engines i can still here the whi-sail a still blowing every night at about 12:AM and i was always in a good warm bed,mom turned out the lights and alas mom and dad and brother aunts all gone now i are the only one left of my whole family.Thank you god bless you and god bless America.......!

@michaelmccarthy4615

5 жыл бұрын

Keep an eye out for Big Boy it's getting ready to hit the rails again soon. Steam is vintage attraction now.

@krichardt

4 жыл бұрын

God bless

@stuffmorestuff6647

3 жыл бұрын

(Here's a spell checked version for easier reading) When I was a boy they still used steam engines, I can still here the whistle blowing every night at about 12am, I was always in a good warm bed and mom always turned out the lights. Alas my mom, dad and brother are all gone now, I'm the only one left of my whole family. Thank you, God bless you and God bless America!

@garychandler4296

3 жыл бұрын

Yup, me an mye sester onley wuns left too!

@steveshoemaker6347

3 жыл бұрын

@@garychandler4296 Sad kinda ain't it...!

25:37 - The unique "Skytop Lounge" car of the Milwaukee Road.

@achillejosserand8575

3 жыл бұрын

looks pretty bumpy in there

This is what’s known as a sponsored PR film. (There was a nice, solid Westinghouse air brake commercial about halfway in, and did you notice they were watching a Westinghouse TV set?) It was most likely distributed to program-hungry TV outlets, for general audiences. FOr it’s genre, and it’s time, it’s pretty well done. It’s easy to pick on stilted dialog, direction, and acting, but in the mid fifties, even Hollywood productions sounds like that. As for the sexual innuendos, I committed that error in a 1980s industrial video I produced. I thought it was cute. The women did not.

06:59 Nice. The film makes it looks like a model. What a perfect shot. I could sit there in the shade of the trees all day in the breeze watching trains. I hate growing up in this current era.

In total this is among the nicest comments strings I've seen on KZread. --Certainly as interesting as the excellent video itself, including the intro. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing this video! Having been born in '82 I never got to experience the peak of American railroads. I do, however, recreate this particular era on an HO scale 5x9 layout set in northeast Kansas.

Good film well produced and directed. I have been involved in model railroading most of my life and can tell you that the most popular era modeled is the mid-fifties for many reasons. 40ft boxcars make for more cars which make longer trains. It also was the transition era from steam to diesels, allowing more variety. As a boy, I lived on Long Island about a mile from the Long Island RR and still can remember the sounds late at night of steam whistles at grade crossings. My kid brother and I used to spend hours watching trains go bye, loving the scent of coal smoke and getting nauseous over the stink of bus-like diesel odors. The film glossed over the steam locos of the period, only showing one - the SP Daylight.

@s.marcus3669

2 жыл бұрын

Love your choice of a username!

@joeKisonue

Жыл бұрын

@@s.marcus3669 what do you think of mine?

@s.marcus3669

Жыл бұрын

@@joeKisonue Joe "Kiss on you"????

@joeKisonue

Жыл бұрын

@@s.marcus3669 you must be great at those bottle cap "guess the phrase" games

I was born right at the end of this era and watched lots of movies like this in school and at home watching Disney on weekends.This brings back many fond memories, I love the 50's look and feel, thanks!

A very interesting movie. Growing up in the 1950s, our trucking company executive dad took us on trains for vacations. We rode Santa Fe's El Capitan from Pasadena to Chicago twice, the Milwaukee Road, California Zephyr , and Coast Starlight. When building a new trucking freight terminal in mid-50s, he ensured it had a rail siding. He encouraged the piggy-back system. This was a very nostalgic movie for me.

wonderful old train shots -- i saw the "classic" Santa Fe Super Chief engine that i had as a kid in my setup :D

That Southern Pacific GS-4 steam locomotive, pulling the "Daylight Express" at 29:00 alone, is worth watching the entire clip !!!

I love these kinds of things, and a little preface & context is always appreciated. Thanks.

Just stumbled across this "short" - and this channel. Very pleased to follow and watch!

Love this channel. There's a lot of intelligent, high-quality content here that I thoroughly enjoy. Also, just by reading the comments you can tell that even the subscribers are sharp people!

Your channel is the most interesting, informative, and entertaining one I have found in a loooong time. Keep up the content and Thanks!!!

@jonka1

5 жыл бұрын

I agree.

@isleofgreg

5 жыл бұрын

Agreed. Please don't stop. You haven't posted anything in several months now and I'm starting to get worried lol

There are many economic drivers, but two influential ones are intermodal transport and fuel economy. With intermodal containers, there's no re-loading from factory to ship to train to truck. That means "local" truckers and trains split gains from long-haul truckers and we see fewer local spurs. Containers can travel intact from wherever to wherever w/no reloading, so less damage and cheaper. It's interesting to see more intermodal tanks, implying fewer railroad tankers for a number of industrial fluids. Or that they're used more than tanker truck trailers. Fuel economy is brutal to long-haul trucking, even the future automated fleets if they stick to diesel. From what I've read, steamships get something like 1000 ton-miles/gallon, trains get 450+, semi-trucks get 130+, and but I don't know for local delivery trucks... Every dollar diesel goes up takes trucks off of highways.

@MrMattumbo

5 жыл бұрын

Don't forget the hidden costs of trucking, the majority of wear on our infrastructure comes from trucks who do exponentially more damage than a single car due to their weight. The taxpayer is subsidizing the trucking industry massively. I think with the shortage of long haul truckers now is the time to pivot back to rail, trucks acted as a sort of jobs program originally because you always needed more drivers for the same amount of cargo as a train might carry, but with a lack of labor today trains make way more sense than expensive automated trucks for long haul routes from an environmental and economical perspective.

@fatdad64able

3 жыл бұрын

You cannot be US. You're making too much sense.

You missed the point of the movie you were expertly commenting on. The US government has competed with the railroad industry for about 100 years: roads, air, and waterways. The government also subjected the industry to oppressive regulation for over 100 years, bankrupting every railroad company in the country at least once. When a Connie and a DC-7 found each other over the Grans Canyon in 1956, Air Traffic Control became a national emergency with virtually unlimited government funding, but the government has mandated railroad safety systems at railroad expense several times, including mandating that the industry invent one before implementing it. Rail transportation, steel wheels on a steel surface, requires substantially less energy than highway transportation and is substantially safer, yet railroads are at a competitive disadvantage. Railroads must pay 100% of roadway maintenance, trucks about 80%.

@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory

4 жыл бұрын

The government killed the railroad.

@STho205

4 жыл бұрын

Possibly, but the US and other governments spent the century before creating and facilitating railroads as a way to conquer territory, eliminate long sea voyages, gut the stage and teamster traffic... The US fought for the central west in the 1840s to eventually rail it. The US bought Alaska to make the Transcontinental and Trans Siberia railroads work in circumventing the Atlantic British controlled sea trade. The US government handed over vast right of ways to the UP/SP and other "private" companies. The US military used and paid the railroads heavily in every war since 1848. Railroads in 1955 did not want to cooperate with other sectors of transportation and cargo, as they were required to do in WWII. They wanted to return to Vanderbilt Robber Baron status of the 1920s. They seldom built yards or even trackage out to the new post war airports. As to passengers: Main Stations should have been moved to outer areas where the population was moving. Where large parking lots were possible for the convenience of travellers. ohhhh no, keep the 1925 station in a center city quickly becoming a dangerous slum. Where you have to slug through traffic and pay for parking to get to just to ride along at an average of 30mph trackspeed. Passenger service existed in 1955 to ride executives (who might see the efficient freight yards) and to carry mail for revenue. When the mail went elsewhere, the carriers all dropped passenger 1965 to 1969. Nobody made them do it. They just gambled wrong in trying to remain the only king of the hill.

@railroadmillion681

4 жыл бұрын

The government was fucked up in 1956, and they're fucked up in 2020. There's so much corruption and shit that it's fucked up the entire country and the only one who do well are the ones who have ties to the government.

@STho205

4 жыл бұрын

@@railroadmillion681 did they just not give you what you want. Good reason to curse people you don't know from 65 years ago. Most of whom spent their youth and lost friends trying to keep you from zig heiling a little German with a toothbrush mustache.

@railroadmillion681

4 жыл бұрын

S Tho true...

I'm enjoying your channel. Thanks for your time and effort. In this video you brought to my attention the term "industrial film". I knew that they existed but never thought of them as a genre. I've since reading your reference to 'industrial film' searched on KZread and find a wealth of wonderful videos and films available. So...many thanks.

Glad I found this channel - very fascinating!

I'd love it if one of those signs in the background listed the wi-fi password for the joint.

@dustjunky2000

3 жыл бұрын

Whoa there, Mac. Don't let Kelly hear you call it a joint. And tell Kelly I said hey!'

Happy I finally got around to watching this. Thanks.

When the credits rolled I was surprised to see that Bill Kennedy was in the movie. He played John O'Shea. Anyone my age who lived in the Detroit area recoginzes that name. Starting the the late 1950's Bill hosted a very popular show where he hosted movies, answered viewer mail and sometimes interview actors. He also showed distain for some of the movies that he was showing. He and the show were very popular.

@joeKisonue

Жыл бұрын

Another actor turned president

That old stone building at the onset of this film is located in Ann Arbor , Michigan . It is the old Michigan Central railroad passenger depot. The view is virtually the same today , tho' the building is now an upscale restaurant . I grew up near here and spent many enjoyable hours viewing the great steel fleet of both freight and passenger trains. The inside was as awesome as a church. Fond memories. thanks for posting this gem.

A marvellous look at life in the rear view mirror, many thanks for posting this historical jewel

5:43 I like how they put the Chicago Great Western and Chicago Northwestern logos side-by-side. They both later merged and the two mainlines of both railroads cross eachother.

Perish the thought today, but i used take the train to grammar school. Grades 1 thru 3. I remember when the Jersey Central trains switched from steam locomotive to diesel.. 35 cents from Asbury Park to Red Bank.

When they stopped writing songs about the railway, you knew they were done. Now even the Greyhound bus is done in most of Canada.

High production value. This reminds me of films I would see in elementary school as a kid in the 60s. I would not be surprised if schools were the target market for this film.

Thank you for uploading this. Glad you shared things for added context. Really enjoyed it.

Working railroads are why my family ended up where we’ve stayed for the last century. As I type this I’m 3 feet away from a 500 lbs anvil my great grandfather used in railroad construction and maintenance.

I truly enjoy your content.

I didn't know that Inspector Lugar worked for the railroad!

@flurng

5 жыл бұрын

When he wasn't busy railing Aganess...

@YJ0AUF

5 жыл бұрын

I remembered him from F-Troop. Looked him up on IMDB. 182 movie credits. Busy guy.

@markreeter6227

4 жыл бұрын

Railroad detective first before going into police work. Got two pensions that way.

@pilates68

4 жыл бұрын

Don’t forget him as Gorilla General Ursus from Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

@21stcenturyfossil7

3 жыл бұрын

Inspector Lugar could have prevented alot of trouble if only he would have arrested Paul Gagne (Shotgun wielding hitman from Bullitt) right on the spot.

Some people missed the sexual innuendo. The pencil is used as an arrow to draw the viewer's gaze to Kelly as she takes off her apron. Scotty says, "Now, figures don't lie..." and Kelly says, "Why, thank you, Scotty!" She thought he was complimenting her figure. It was all set up for that joke before the scene was shot.

@machinethinking

5 жыл бұрын

Finally someone who gets it

@adziuaoeu

5 жыл бұрын

I got that the sentence was being misunderstood, but now I think I don't understand the Americans... Sexual innuendo?

@JohnSmith-lf8ks

5 жыл бұрын

Spot on! Of course it was, not a big deal but it is what it is and it was no accident. Weather pencil was used as phallic symbol or not, that is debatable but it was definitely used to draw attention to Kelly's figure and set up the lame joke that did not really pay out. In an other lame joke in the film group of men are checking out the behind of a passing woman and an other woman tell tells the men to get back on track. So yes, definitely sexual references there, mild in this age when you let it all hang out but still there. So I'm with Machine Thinking, this is objectification and sexual innuendo. And, like I think Machine Thinking too, I say this in a rather neutral tone of voice, not a big deal just an objective observation. I might also add no-one should kid no one should kid themselves that something in a film is there by accident, that is very unlikely. Professional films/videos are so expensive to produce that everything is well thought out and planned. It is often said that a film is written three times: at scripting stage at filming stage and finally at the cutting/editing stage. So yes I think we are entitled to think that most details in a film have a meaning, sometimes hidden, sometimes explicit.

@bitfreakazoid

5 жыл бұрын

Pretty sure they didn't need a pencil for that when she is not only literally right beside him, but her body actually blocks us from being able to see all of him... And there is certainly nothing sexual innuendo about it.

@maoama

5 жыл бұрын

Ha at first i thought he said 'fingers dont lie' then i thought the length of the pencil and his hand in a fist was a dick n balls. Lmao

Jam Handy reminds you to keep your preserves in a convenient place.

i love this channel , and i share with you the same analytical vision toward things

27:41 Today’s Special: “Chicken in the Flat Car”. Sounds . . . um . . . interesting.

After watching hell on wheels, I’ve gotten interested in the history of it all. I’ve always had a fascination with trains. My grandfather on my moms side, was a real hobo. Picked oranges in Florida and beans up north. He only came to town a few times but I remember each time. He was a Marine, and full Crow Indian. Last time I seen him was 1984. His hair was so black is looked blue.

8:01 Old Broadway Bridge, looking n/w from the Michigan Central Station in beautiful Ann Arbor Michigan. Following scene is the front facade of the now, Gandy Dancer restaurant. Very cool.

love this channel. It's like if this old tony taught history. p.s. That film was meta AF

Loved the Westinghouse TV showing a railroad documentary inside a film about railroads, sponsored by Westinghouse Air Brakes.

Crazy cool cast including Paul Genge of "Bullit" fame and James Gregory of Barney Miller and dozens of films and the actor Cliff Hall who was Scotty in the film I recognize from The Honeymooners.

One of your best yet.

Thanks so much for posting this video. It reminds me of my childhood watching these kind of documentaries on television. Keep up the good work You Tube needs more intelligent programming rather than another Bubba teaching us how to build a rocket stove!

Thank you for this!

Railroads are a miracle of precision, as relevant to industry as classical music to the soul and as critical to our economy as blood is to our body. When the great thundering steel comes roaring down the tracks there is a reverence..a stillness and gravity of such proportion that all eyes turn, all ears perk towards the melody of the whistle all activity ceases until the master of efficiency and rushing grace cascades into and then out of our consciousness. They are rarely present as we go about our business but ubiquitous in the imagination of almost every living soul. In college I lived in a dorm near the rails that stretched across Canada’s farmlands from coast to coast. Before the whistle would sound at 1:30AM I woke up, slipped on a jacket and stepped outside to watch the mile long snake of cars wind across the edge of campus. The moon shining on the painted cars, the diesel smoke belching out the shaking of the ground near the tracks. I couldn’t go back inside until the last whistle and caboose trailed into the distance. Like the ocean..it’s somehow part of our DNA. . No battery operated truck will ever be more beautiful or efficient pound for pound, mile for mile.

@jessstone7486

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! this is wonderful. Spoken like a true railfan. 'preciate-cha! :)

What Joe public does not realise is that roads are provided basically free by the tax payers. A loaded semitrailer does the same damage as about 6000 cars and do they pay 6000 times more in taxes and charges? B-doubles (multi-trailer trucks) do many times more damage. But railway companies have to pay for thier right of way and maintenance. So good luck making that maths work and turning a profit.

@galenwarren3579

5 жыл бұрын

Well, you might want to look at the special treatment railroads have gotten from day one..Eminent Domain was declared so they could lay tracks anywhere they wanted. Railroads, like some teachers, pay into their own retirement accounts and do not HAVE to contribute to SS. What they do is contribute to one until they approach retirement, then pay into SS just long enough to get full benefits. Double dipping if they want. An Engineer can work a few days every six weeks and still get full pay. IF the clock runs out (as they have limits like truck drivers) on their continuous hours clock, the train comes to a halt to change Engineers....no matter where the train is. Their profits are still, today, so immense that only in the last 10 years or so have they applied predictive maintenance tools to improve the reliability of engines. When I visited the rebuild shop in Topeka some 8 years ago, they confessed that their new Diesel Generator driven locomotives ran for less than 200 hours before they suffered a failure that reduced the capability of the locomotive. Imagine if your car was like that. Federal subsidies first saved train companies from total collapse, and now make them profitable regardless of how badly they do business.

@davidhancock7656

5 жыл бұрын

But one engineer (driver) can haul a train with over 100 lorry loads equivalent. 1 wage vs 100.

@jameswyatt1304

5 жыл бұрын

While railroad employees don't pay-into SS, they don't receive SS. (Though folks who work in other fields part of their career do pay in and get some out of SS.) I know dozens of folks like myself who don't expect SS when we retire. I've been paying-in for decades, so don't I deserve promised returns from RR? Not sure where you're getting the double-dipping assertion from, but I just don't see how it could apply to the vast majority of career railroaders. But, I'm listening... The locomotives, like jet aircraft and large combine harvesters, are huge, complex investments and you usually don't do maintenance not in the legal contracts or you can forfeit a lot. The railroads aren't going to skip maintenance that would strand a train and disrupt service. Locomotive maintenance isn't about profit, it's about loss; you keep them running or you lose a lot. They are both capital and service-intensive, so it takes a lot of net profit to cover that expense. Can you imagine how much a new, extra 1-2% of diesel fuel-economy is worth over the lifetime of the asset? New freight locomotive models equipped w/PTC have a lot of complexity added in the last decade and there are bugs being worked-out. If you required the same system of freight tractors (18-wheeler trucks), we'd see sidelined trucks too. Trucks will never be held to the safety standards of the railroads until they're as automated. More complexity (thus some failure) comes from newer-generation diesel engine tech as well as the high-power AC inverters used to power the traction motors. Nothing on a loco is cheap, ever.

@playaspec

5 жыл бұрын

I did a bit of fact checking as I watched this video. You're right about trucks not paying their fair share. It's estimated that they only pay for 80% of what they should for the damage they cause. Across the board, fuel taxes haven't kept up with road, bridge, and tunnel repair costs. No wonder our infrastructure is crumbling.

@jameswyatt1304

5 жыл бұрын

My understanding from reading civil engineering summaries is that road wear "is roughly proportional to the fourth power of the weight", so 2x weight is 16x wear. Fuel isn't the only cost "driver"; tolls are usually closer to per-axle than per-ton. As a motorcycle commuter, my toll is 2-axles, so same as a loaded F350 truck.

very nice content,.. subscribing definitively

Isn't it nice to watch that freight train from 1956 roll down the track without ugly GRAFFITI on every car?

@thedamnyankee1

5 жыл бұрын

I like the cabooses.

@jameswyatt1304

5 жыл бұрын

Well, the ones in the movies anyway. You can tell the experienced graffiti work because it never crosses car markings (carrier, number, load specs, etc); anything covers those requires re-stenciling. Otherwise, it's not worth taking the car offline and just extra paint. I figure if the car owners don't care, I don't and occasionally it's artistic, though there's a lot of junky/ugly tags. I engineered a distributed digital camera system in the mid-90s (yay X.25!) that collected images and AEI tag information from about a dozen states. It replaced local infrared-camera VCR systems and it was amazing to see the variety on the cars. I wish I'd been able to keep some of the images, but the file format was completely non-standard.

@noneofyourconcern3276

5 жыл бұрын

Nope not just the movies - All of them pretty much, because No Spray paint sold at every corner yet. It's like why the dumps only became so horrible after they invented the disposable diaper.

@jameswyatt1304

5 жыл бұрын

www.minnpost.com/stroll/2012/07/train-graffiti-and-its-long-strange-thoroughly-american-lineage/ www.widewalls.ch/train-graffiti/ It's been going on a lot longer than you might think, though the first times I can find documentation are early 70s. Like any aspect of train history, there are historians and websites covering it. Doesn't make it right, but it can be interesting.

@dewiz9596

5 жыл бұрын

Is that Joseph Cotton?

I've been a fan of railroads since 1957 when I saw the first steam engine when I was three years old when my parents left New York City and moved to Cleveland. In 1959, my parents bought a new house in Brookpark, a suburb of Cleveland by the airport. I got my first HO train set around 1962 and another one a year later. I've been a fan of railroads and a model railroader for most of my life. I did see this movie before. The only advantage of semi-trucks over railroads is they deliver directly to the receiver. However, railroads are more efficient at transporting more tons of freight over long distances than semi-trucks. Even the trucking industry saw that and started working with the railroads by moving many semi-trailers at once on a train across the country. It was also more cost efficient for a truck driver to pick up a loaded trailer at a rail yard and deliver the load, instead of a cross country drive.

12:17 Who's the city boy, Bill? Asks one of the attendees at the Brooklyn Accent Convention.

I appreciated the work you are putting in to this channel. For those who say that railroads did not receive government aid checkout the massive land grants associated with the transcontinental railroad. As for the decline in passenger service that was a mostly self inflicted wound on the part of the railroads. I can remember waiting for hours at a small town depot for always late passenger trains. (~1960). The cars were typically badly maintained and generally shabby. The actual crew, conductors and porters were typically very nice (to a 9 yo boy at least) but they could see the writing on the wall. This was in the period leading up to Amtrak (~1971) where the railroads were trying to get out of passenger service since it was (at least the way they were running it) a money losing endeavor. I really had to chuckle where they were touting the railroad express service, for those who don't know it was basically the UPS of the day combining local pickup and delivery with long distance transport by rail. My last experience with them was having a broken trunk of belongings dumped on the lawn in front of my freshman college dorm instead of inside delivery as specified and paid for. Complaints were laughed off or totally ignored. From a Wikipedia entry: In November 1975, REA Express terminated operations and filed for bankruptcy. During the strike in October 1974, the first Altair 8800 microcomputer was lost, as it had been shipped from Albuquerque to New York heading for Popular Electronics magazine a few weeks earlier via REA and never arrived

@Englishkin

3 жыл бұрын

Government mandates were responsible for most of the failures you cite about the railroads. By the 1960s, government had achieved their coup d' grace on the railroads. That's what it took to destroy inherently efficient railroading so that Big Oil could then addict the public to their 40,000-something lives butchered on U.S. highways by amateurish personal driving (not to mention today's oil wars, environmental destruction and health detriments of driving everywhere we go. The existing railroads today do, however, ruin the capacity for private companies to get into the rail passenger service business by the Association of American Railroads' rule prohibiting advertisements on board rail cars. That very pro-business stream of revenue would utterly subsidize any shortfalls of passenger revenue by only charging a low fare for each informative ad displayed, making passenger fares low in the process. The railroads would have lots of revenue business pulling the passenger cars of other companies on the host railroads' tracks.

AMAZING. Cheers from Hamilton "Steel City, Canada

I watched this years back and it set me to learn what modern developments will do to this world. My computer was then a bigin. A hundred and twenty K of RAM and an amazing five meg hard disc.

The actor James Gregory who played the part of Scott Ritter, was a well known actor of many movies. His presence added a good deal of credibility and seriousness to this movie. I think that the introduction of trains into our Society affected probably every city and little town across the whole Nation. It made it a lot easier for people to get around, move away from being stuck in one area, travel to and from nearby towns & cities much faster and reliable than the horse & buggy or by river boat. And of course it helped commerce and businesses thrive. But progress cannot be denied; at least not for very long. Maybe one day in the far future we will have the Stat Trek transporter ability and be able to transport just about anything to anywhere. When that happens, or maybe even long before, our modern transportation systems of trucking & planes & trains & ocean containers might just become old fashioned...or at least some of it, and be replaced by methods that we haven't thought of. The future will always surprise us.

@deadfreightwest5956

5 жыл бұрын

James Gregory was the consummate character actor: he disappeared into his roles. I remember him as Inspector Luger in the TV sitcom "Barney Miller." Fun fact: Barney Miller was played by Hal Linden. Hal had a long career on Broadway. In 1964 he was the lead singer in an obscure album called, "A Thousand Miles of Mountains" - the centenary celebration of the Northern Pacific Railway.

@scotshabalam2432

5 жыл бұрын

If there were transporters there would also eventually be Freejacking, that would be cool.

@dhm7815

5 жыл бұрын

His last film was "Soylent Green". He played a businessman who got a conscience about the oceans dying and recycling people as food so his partners killed him.

Congratulations! This channel is informative and thoughtful, above all ACCURATE and delivered without grammatical howlers (although you could work on your pronunciation of Lavoisier). I look forward to any further postings.

It's interesting to note, of all the rail companies shown in the opening sequence, only [edit: 4] exist today under their original name.

@mikecowen6507

5 жыл бұрын

Hunter deja Whoops! I missed CN. So 3 exist. UP, CN & KCS.

@gregh9975

5 жыл бұрын

Canadian Pacific

@andrewarmstrong7310

5 жыл бұрын

BNSF is short for Burlington Northern and Santa Fe railway, and a lot easier to say.

@gregh9975

5 жыл бұрын

Lol....I think so.....those names were moving across the screen pretty quickly......saw KCS, UP, CN, & CP . There was once well over 100 RRs in this country...now all boiled down to just a big few, plus the short lines. Cheers.

@cpufreak101

5 жыл бұрын

@@andrewarmstrong7310 this was filmed before they merged though, they were two different companies

I don’t understand a young guy trying to explain this classic from the 50’s unless you don’t understand basic principles of transportation this should come pretty easy for you. I’m a railroad historian and the need for rail transportation has grown exponentially. We haul more freight today then during WW2 which was an amazing feat of ingenuity and true determination by the USRA. The SF was but to a bigger extent the SP hauled more freight than any other class one except Pennsylvania and New York Central during the War effort. However the most important lines were the Great Lakes lines providing raw materials for the war effort with the DM&IR and BLE leading the way both owned by USS. Anyways it’s good to see young people taking a interest in Railroads and Industry in general.

@beckywatt5048

5 жыл бұрын

Chad Peterson They pulled up so much track around where I live ,I don't understand how what you say is true ,and I'm not biased I'm a truck/heavy equip.Mech When I first started out I got quite an education on the icc and the war between trucks and trains ,my first boss used to expound on the financial aspects between trucks and trains ,and there was no comparison.

@cdp200442

5 жыл бұрын

They over built lines that went to every small town in every Eastern state. After deregulation that the government had put on railroads to provide service they could streamline business. Intermodal trains today carry 225 containers per train which intern are distributed out of the hubs to those cities. Also they have huge grain facilities across the Midwest with run around tracks so it’s a continuous operation. We had 75 trains a day on the northern transcon with 200 each day on the mid continent route. We have 50% bigger cars than in the 50% plus trains are way longer . So yes growth is through the roof and is the backbone of the economy.

@thedave7760

5 жыл бұрын

OMG this film contains female objectification!! how dare the men admire a nicely dressed young woman whom they might like to marry and have a family with. Good thing women didn't objectify men in the 50s or ever since time began.

@beckywatt5048

5 жыл бұрын

Chad Peterson I live in Michigan, there were rails and Spurs everywhere, every small town , and I mean every one had an elevator and many siloes, all connected to rail, pennies per ton per mile ,or thereabouts, versus lt least 1.25 to 2.00$ a mile plus the destruction of the roads.

@edp2260

5 жыл бұрын

I have been noticing a bit of a 'Rail Renaissance' in the US. Bigger trains, more freight. There is even an increase in passenger service, mainly on short to mid distance. In the bay area of California, and abandoned line has been put back into service for commuter trains. I was amazed to see that!

I was born in 1952 and clearly remember my grandmother loading me onto a train to go shopping in a city only twenty miles away. In my little New England home town, that was when there was a 50-50 chance of being pulled by steam or diesel...although diesel 'Buddliners' quickly took over. Sadly, passenger train service gradually faded away, replaced by bus service. Thirty-five years later, I was privileged to put my military electronics training to use in assisting a local rail carrier to improve their communications systems, but smaller railroads were fewer and fewer and many struggled to survive. Although advances in technology have been of distinct advantage in many ways (and my career has certainly depended on some of it), watching this old film has to make you wonder if we've moved 'too much, too fast' in many areas. In many ways, we've become spoiled and demand instant gratification, where in years past we waited patiently for goods, and passengers, to reach their destinations. The quicker service that we now receive via air and truck has us running at a pace that takes a toll. I could easily go on at length about how that faster pace, and the prices we pay for it, has not necessarily accomplished what it was intended to. You can't turn the clock back (much as I'd like to!), but you have to wonder how different, and perhaps simpler, our lives would be if all of this so-called convenience had not been made available.

@Southernshaker

5 жыл бұрын

You mean you rode on the cannonball?

@normjacques6853

5 жыл бұрын

Honestly, Bert, I'm not sure! I was awfully young (6 or 7 years old when I first accompanied my grandmother). I do remember, though, that the new diesel engine, known as the 'Buddliner,' was a big deal and considered the latest advance in rail travel, back in the late fifties. At first, though, we were more likely to be pulled by a coal-fired steam engine! The little town I grew up in (Webster, MA) was home to some 35-40 factories, mostly woolen mills, shoe shops, and machine shops. Most were located along the French River (a CT river tributary), as was the house I grew up in. Next to the river, alongside the factories, was a rail system that I wish I knew more about. As a little guy, I remember the acrid aroma of coal smoke hanging in the air, and coal cinders being used as makeshift (off street) paving, in less affluent neighborhoods...like mine! A local 'right of passage,' as a kid, was walking across a huge (rail only) trestle that hung over the river, and hoping you could do it before one of those big, black, smoke-belching monsters came along! There were stories of a few kids that didn't make it, and I had one childhood friend that lost a leg to a steam engine!! It wasn't exactly the 'golden age of rail,' but trains were an ever-present part of life back then.

3:29 That is how you travel in style...

Love that Baldwin Centipede. A very rare clip of an unusual locomotive.

Fantastic movie/clip

Europe and Asia seem to have progressed, and invested in their technology. Over 100 mph on smooth welded tracks.

@cpufreak101

5 жыл бұрын

While the US let their rail system stagnate in the 50's which led to the bankruptcy's of the 70's that nearly destroyed the railroad industry here completely. If it weren't for the formation of Conrail in '74 we'd have a lot of miles of empty track. We're in the process of recovering and catching up though (for example Japan Rail is assisting with a High Speed Rail Project in Texas of a 400kmh train built to a Shinkansen standard. Construction is set to start soon, right of way is already purchased

@HarryBalzak

5 жыл бұрын

America has a train infrastructure Bulgaria would be ashamed of...

@cpufreak101

5 жыл бұрын

@@HarryBalzak idk, if Bulgaria was able to move freight by rail as efficiently as us they'd proclaim that proudly. that's kinda the thing with American rail. it's been optimized since the 60's for freight service, and as a result it's now the 2nd most efficient way to transport cargo, only behind cargo ships.

@HarryBalzak

5 жыл бұрын

@@cpufreak101 I was quoting a lecture I saw, but only vaguely remember. The speaker was talking somewhat in jest when he said that. It was hyperbolic to express his disdain with the crumbling (rail and other)infrastructures in the US.

@cpufreak101

5 жыл бұрын

@@HarryBalzak ah. wonder if it was from the 70's then, because back then the railroads were seriously crumbling lol

Nice caboose @ 3:17 .

"Ok, let's do another take. But this time, Scotty, when you point your pencil at Kelly, I need you to make it look more phallic. "Yeeess, just like that!" It's all in your head, young man.

@machinethinking

5 жыл бұрын

“Figures don’t lie” *points at her figure*

@rus0004

5 жыл бұрын

@@machinethinking Look again. He points at the wall. She then makes the play on words.

@robwilde855

5 жыл бұрын

@@machinethinking No - that's just a coincidence, happening because of the chance positioning of the camera. Her play on words doesn't need a pointing pencil to be added to the reference about figures.

@JohnSmith-lf8ks

5 жыл бұрын

@@robwilde855 Very few things in a movie are a 'just coincidence' and things like camera and actors positioning are not left to chance. Most shots are taken multiple times and every detail scrutinised on stage and at the cutting room. Weather the pencil was phallic or not is debatable but it was there definitely to draw attention to her figure.

@JohnSmith-lf8ks

5 жыл бұрын

The author of this channel did not say or suggest that the pencil was a phallic symbol: it is all in your head, old man. The fact that many comments here are mentioning the phallic motive sort proves the point of the author that there was sexual innuendo.

Another gem!

Old FAA training videos are essentially fully scripted feature films. It’s wild.

If you liked this film, I can really recommend a BBC documentary called 'night mail' - very famous I believe. Really good! :)

I love the vintage videos and I love trains. Great combo. Thanks for sharing! By the way, according to the copywrite date, it's 1954, not 56. MCMLIV is 1954. Thank you again!

@johntapp1411

4 жыл бұрын

Doug Chittum what’s the difference? 1954, 1955, 1956, and early 1957 were one and the same years-just like an immediate postwar years 1945, years 1946, 1947, 1948, and 1949.

Addendum ;. I noticed the line about railroads remaining "private businesses," if I recall there was talk in the 1950's about nationalizing them!

This is really cool.

Where I work we can get a truck load of sugar in six hours, the train delivers on Mondays, and if its Friday, you'll get it a week from Monday. The sugar plant is only a couple hours away. Trains just take to long.

Great vid! Cheers from the GTA.

Interesting seeing James Gregory, one of those classic character actors you would see a lot of, but would never know his name unless you paid close attention to credits.

I was made in 1956 too!!

I don't believe the pencil is an inuendo. Remember, Freud once said "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". I have no idea if Freud ever really said that.

@zekiah2

3 жыл бұрын

I also don’t understand the pencil inuendo

I feel like the 75+ railroad companies listed for just one country might be a big part of the reason rail in the US failed to survive the highway revolution. Imagine trying to route goods or people across that. Imagine the co-ordination required and the inefficiencies of multiplied scheduling. Imagine if you had to pay a different company for every state your truck crossed into.

Amazing!

ah these vintage videos put the class in classy

Several years ago, the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper celebrated 175 years of publication with 175 articles that were eventually issued as a tabletop book. Its page on the railroads in the late 1940's/early 1950's (especially the 8 still serving passengers in New Orleans at the time), and the Union Station for all eight railroads opened in 1954, is quite interesting. It also mentioned that in 1957 - the year after "At This Moment" was released - airline traffic surpassed rail traffic for the first time. Today, well, at least it still has the train called the "City of New Orleans" :)

Back when people revered private tax paying industry.

@21stcenturyfossil7

3 жыл бұрын

There used to be a modest amount of anti-trust protection, too.

@squee222

3 жыл бұрын

you really had to stretch for that take didn't ya? You know these are actors - right?

I guess this proves that nothing's better since 1956.

It’s absolutely fascinating to see how this country industry runs

So this where James Gregory (actor in the Manchurian Candidate, 1961) got his start.

@johnsprenger3124

5 жыл бұрын

He was a well-known television personality, appearing in numerous Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes and the like in the mid 50's.

The guy smoking the pipe left of James Gregory later on was one of the hitmen in Bullitt.

GREAT CHANNEL JUST SUBSCRIBED !! EVER GET THE MIC. FINISHED ??

this is a masterpiece

hauling freight by rail is the most sensible way less pollution and less cost,and a permanently held work crew

6:53 Illinois Central electric and Chicago South Shore and South Bend tracks in Chicago.