A Great Railroad at Work

[Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Applause] A great railroad at work is a title full of meaning. The mightiest machines produced by human ingenuity are indeed useless unless guided and serviced by the intelligence and skill of man. We are of course very proud of our mechanical equipment, but we are prouder still of the men who keep it running. The New Haven Railroad is more than just ties, rails, and rolling stock. It is primarily people. People whose skill, devotion, courage, and strict adherence to the finest railroad practices have made possible its record of safety, efficiency, and progress. >> Right, Mr. Palmer? And now, let's have motion pictures take us behind the scenes of a great railroad at work. We'll see two general phases, railroad operation and railroad maintenance. Trains are of two kinds, passenger and freight. Let's begin with the passenger, the locomotive backing into the yards to pick up the cars of the Yankee Clipper. [Music] The cars, meanwhile, have been made ready for the passengers, and having them clean and sanitary is rule A in the art of railroading. Repair shops. Here, passenger coaches, dining cars, and grill cars are brought to be repaired or rebuilt. They're put through the latest processes of cleaning and sanitation. There's an imposing background of work behind the picture of a smart modern car in a passenger train. [Music] the ceiling of car windows. And here we find a device of technical science to enable you to see better as you gaze at the scenery. Each streamline window consists of two panes of glass held apart by rubber spacers. These rubber spacers seal the inner surfaces of the glass against the outside air. [Music] Between the panes, dry nitrogen is forced to keep them from being fogged by condensing moisture. [Music] into the yards. Backs the locomotive to pick up the cars. [Music] Meanwhile, at the commissary, supplies of food and drink for the dining car are being allotted and checked. >> 10 baked beans, check. Port meals, check. Six barley, check. Six figs, check. One rhyme line, check. Two palm lines, check. 12 Manhattan, Jack. Go Martinez. [Music] >> Have some chicken frigy tonight. >> Yeah, that's very nice. The amount of groceries they can stow into the small pantry space that car dimensions permit would make a housewife think that it's all magic. But then, as the ponderous locomotive backs gently and is coupled to the cars, we may reflect that there is a lot of magic in a railroad. The clipper pulls out of the yards on its way to the station. Everything timed to the second. On this railroad, hundreds of passenger trains are made up every day. In addition to hundreds of freight trains, they operate through southern New England day and night with a magic of timing. [Music] Strange geometries of tracks in the yards and the number of switches there calls for deft and intricate manipulation [Music] into the station. The train can be controlled airbreed by the rear trainman as well as by the engineer in front. A large factor of safety. [Music] South Station in Boston. The old familiar scene and never without a thrill. Passengers going to a train. [Music] This is our little girl. She's going all >> You take good care of her. >> Certainly will, ma'am. Step right in. >> Bye, Mommy. >> Bye, darling. [Music] >> Hey, wait a minute. What? What? What? [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] A woman in Boston buying a bicycle for her nephew in New York. and he'll get it the next day. This takes us to the subject of freight trains. Shipments of freight are in two classes, car loads and less than car load lots. Delivered to the freight depot and recorded with a way bill, the boy's bicycle is stowed safely and securely for the trip. There's an art in stowing all sorts of freight securely in a car and also in switching the cars through the yard. The powerful diesel switcher is the last word in this type of modern mechanism. One of the busiest of workers in the realm of railroading. Practically a 24-hour a day worker. A new coordination of rail and highway transportation is seen as they load a trailer onto a flat car. The trailer has picked up packages from all over Boston to be distributed in New York. Ordinarily, the tractor pulling the trailer would have made the trip to New York by highway. But now, the trailer is securely fastened on the flat car and then carried to the metropolis. This avoids a truck trip to New York. A large saving of gasoline and of rubber tires. Mighty important in these days of wartime shortages with rubber tires rationed. [Music] The steam locomotive is coupled to the cars and the theme is industrial products of New England on their way. They represent the work and skill of New England factories. Transporting them is an equal task of work and skill. The mighty system of operations embodied in the speeding freight train. And the rhythm of the rails seems to sing. New England at work. New England on the move. [Music] A signal tower which trains to and from New York will pass. One of many sentinels of safety. Vigilant alertness 24 hours a day. When a train passes, the signalman flashes the report to division headquarters. >> Drotten west 177 by at 215. Engine 1404 with 13 cars. >> Line up on track one for the clippers. [Music] [Applause] [Music] The signals must be kept clean. These workers make sure that the red, yellow, and green eyes of railroad safety are always bright, clear, unded. The signal mechanism is as precise as the works of a watch. It is given constant care by technicians of safety. Here, signal mechanisms are brought periodically for inspection and overhauling. Passengers relax. They ride in the luxury of the lounge car. In another sense, they ride on a tide of intricate work, the labor of thousands, a mighty system of operations, all translated into the convenience of a railroad trip. >> Are you enjoying your ride? >> Yes, thank you. >> I'll bet you're going to have fun in New York. >> My grandmother's going to take me shopping and we're going to Radio City and I'll be allowed to stay up every night until 9:00. The freight angle intervenes for railroads. Two categories, passenger and freight, are another form of life's two divisions, people and things. South America is the destination of this large and intricate machine. Carefully created, it will go by ship, but first it must be taken by rail down New England to the harbor. An export angle of freight service. Industrial New England is of historic importance in the foreign trade of this nation. Passenger service takes plenty of account of passengers appetites. The grill car is for the less formal meal than the diner provides. [Music] >> Thank you. Items 1 2 3 and four correspond to those up on the board. >> Do you suppose I can have that roast beef rare? >> Certainly. >> All right. Then I'd like rare roast beef with mashed potatoes and peas. >> Would you like something to drink? >> Yes. Tea with lemon. >> Tea with lemon. Thank you. [Music] The dining car is a place of leisurely luxury, regaining yourself while the passing scenery provides entertainment. One poor Boston squad and the squad is very nice today. One French fried potato, one lettuce and tomato salad, one coffee, one apple pie. How's the boss of straw? French fried potatoes. Coming up [Music] on the boss sc. [Music] Thank you, chef. [Music] >> Please. [Music] The menus are in keeping with the Yankee Railroad. They specialize in the art of the New England kitchen. Such things as scra, Boston baked beans, kotouid oysters, and Indian pudding. Yes, you know you're traveling in New England. This classification yard shows us an ingenious angle of freight transportation. It has a sort of hill which they call the hump. This hill is a key factor in what we'll see the classification of freight cars. They are oiled while on the move on their way up the hump. They go on to the top of the slope. The purpose of all this is to classify incoming trains so they can be reassembled as other trains each to go to a different destination. [Music] The yard master directs the switching. The car is to be switched to various tracks. >> And on your second sheet, the 22 to 24, 43 to 33, 48 to 13. At the top of the hump, cars are uncoupled and they roll down by gravity. Some cars would get up too much speed if it weren't for the retarder, a device for checking their speed. >> One 26 car >> in the retarding tower. The speed is governed, electrically controlled. Switches direct the cars to the right tracks where they join other cars to make new trains for other destinations. >> Call 34. >> We see the crate of machinery for South America going over the hump. The train in which this car arrived consists of cars bound for different destinations. In the classification yard, it will join a train going to the harbor. Less than car load lots are reclassified at this LCL transfer. Just as whole trains must be rearranged with reference to the destinations of the cars, so must individual consignments of merchandise in a car be rearranged with reference to their destinations. And this is done here. The car is unloaded and the merchandise is reassembled in other cars. These cars are then attached to trains bound for many many places. The engine house where running repairs are made. We see another phase of railroading maintenance of equipment. There are light repairs made at many points on the railroad. And there are heavy repairs which are made in a grade locomotive shop. Here's [Music] a ponderous fantasy of fire and steel. The mighty forge of a modern Vulcan. All locomotives are overhauled periodically. Each one after going from 120,000 to 400,000 mi is sent to the shop for a complete overhauling. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] The slip track is an oil track where overhauled locomotives get final tests. They can be driven many miles at all speeds forward and backward on a track that simulates conditions of speed. A monster locomotive thoroughly overhauled is a symbol of that factor so vital in all mechanics, all industry maintenance. A mechanized army, for example, is as good as its maintenance, and so is a railroad. A locomotive must be serviced and that occurs at many places along the line. It requires, for example, sand to give the big drive wheels traction when the rails are wet and slippery and coal to be blown automatically into the firebox. The fireman just operates a lever. The coal pile is a mountain. Countless tons of the black fuel stored against any emergency, anything that might cause a shortage. The coal pile tells us that a railroad is not only a mover of things, it is also a buyer of things. [Music] This we see vividly at one of the warehouses docked with shovels, brooms, locomotive and car replacement parts, tools for track, shop and building maintenance, signal equipment, and countless other miscellaneous items a railroad needs. Ties go with rails as ham with eggs. As in the case of coal, the stocks of railroad ties are immense, a matter of acres. It takes more than 3,000 ties to make just one mile of standard railroad track, lumber to hold up steel, and oil for fuel for every sort of lubrication and for paint. Salvage is a large activity. Everything possible is saved and put away for future use. Railroad economy [Music] laboratory tests for all vital materials purchased by the railroad. Metals, for example, are subjected to exacting tests. In the chemical laboratories, the magic of modern alchemy is applied to the checking of the materials in the interest of safety, efficiency, and economy. And there's research here to find new things, new combinations, new ways of applying chemical science to railroading. The micro metalligraph camera analyzes many materials for railroading with ultraodern science. Vast amount of technology research experimentation is embodied for example in these exceedingly modern diesel road locomotives which are capable of being used with equal effectiveness in either passenger or freight [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] The ponderous power of steam and steel. Taking a treasure store of New England merchandise into the night. The night crate calls our attention to an element of time. The bright time of day. And here's the dark time of night. Railroading is on a 24-hour schedule. Despite the elements and never mind the weather, be it fair or stormy, hail, sleet or snow, the night freight must go through. [Music] The conductor in the caboose keeps a record of all the cars. And the night freight seems to sing a song of work. A song with the refrain every day, 24 hours a day. Track laying, the first work of railroad building, is likewise a number one task of railroad maintenance. And this is track laying in the latest fashion, mechanized with the newest of mechanical devices. It's all very different from the way the first transcontinental tracks were laid across the Wild West more than 3/4 of a century ago. That epic of track laying had elements of blood and thunder adventure. This has the faultless routine of a smooth working system of industrial maintenance. The tracks of this New England railroad are relayed according to a regular schedule of constant renewal of tracks for safety. >> All right. [Music] The Yankee Clipper, meanwhile, arrives at New Haven and this brings a transformation from steam to electricity, from coal and fire to boats and ampers. The steam locomotive leaves the train from Boston and from Springfield to New Haven. The motive power is provided by superheated steam. [Music] Then for the remainder of the run, the energy to drive the wheels is provided by dynamos. The electric locomotive is a thing of streamlined efficiency, a monarch of high tension. Electricity has been a comparatively recent story in American railroading. It began in 1895 on the New Haven Railroad, which pioneered in overhead high tension lines. And now the Clipper goes speeding under electrical power. We're in a new world of railroading. A realm where a 100 thunderbolts of Jupiter are harnessed to turn the wheels of trains. [Music] The sources of electric power are coal and steam. And at this railroad owned powerhouse, the boilers are 60 ft high. The heat meters register 2,000°, generating steam with a pressure of 300 lb to the square inch. Powdered coal blown into the furnace and burning in suspension in the air. The turbo generators hum at 1500 revolutions per minute to produce in a single year over 100 million kowatts of electricity. The nerve center of the powerhouse, the main control room with its elaborate equipment. Here. Watch the lies. Check the surge of power through the overhead lines. Railroad power. A masterpiece of roaded construction and maintenance is this four track electrified right of way. Over it pass between 6 and 700 trains a day. Electrical railroading takes us to another realm of maintenance. Here the locomotives that run on current come for their own particular kind of overhauling. It involves a technique all its own. [Music] [Music] [Music] The Yankee Clipper now electrified, approaching the environs of New York, which means it will soon go underground because the tracks for miles proceed beneath traffic and beneath buildings of the metropolis. We pass into a subterranean world, a signal tower underground. Here, more than 600 trains a day are guided in and out over the 107 tracks of Grand Central Terminal. 28 up. 28 up. 18 out. 18 out. 84 up. 84 up. 23. 302. >> Put them on the outbound. See >> 29 up. 23 to a D. >> 23 to the way a D. >> Track G to track 40 with the Clipper to 40 with the clipper. [Music] on time as the train board indicates. Here she comes, the Yankee Clever. It's coming on the upper level. There are two levels of underground tracks for the trains that carry 42 million passengers in and out of Grand Central Terminal every year. [Music] the concourse at Grand Central where you'll see almost anybody in the world walking through if you'll wait long enough. The New Haven Travel Bureau will advise you about that visit to historic New England. take a pilgrim tour or they'll arrange your summer vacation or in winter a snowasion. You'll be interested to know that they have a new trail at Stow named the Ski Meister trail. It's >> I want a lower birth to Boston on the owl tonight. on train 21 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning December 6 to Boston on 2736 >> lower 7 104 train 2 12:30 a.m. to Boston Saturday December the 6th ticket 2736 >> I have lower 7 in car 104 and train 2 12:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. >> Thank you. >> A lower birth for Boston on the owl and the ticket places at this young lady's disposal the great organization that you've been seeing in action so that she'll travel comfortably and sleep well. The Pullman Service makes sure of that. There's our boxed machine bound for Rio. From the flat car that brought it to New York, the railroad delivers the consignment on a lighter to its birth aboard the ship. The railroad owns 42 of those ungainainely barges with the big der. They're strong and sturdy. Some of them can be loaded with 500 tons of freight. [Music] [Applause] [Music] What about the tugboat? It's also railroad owned. The railroad owns 13 tugs. They're famous throughout New York Harbor. The railroad owns and operates many other pieces of marine equipment. And so the case of machinery is on its way to be stowed aboard ship and then south into the tropics past the equator to be put into service in the land of the Amazon. New England machines to modernize latitudes of jungle green. [Music] Well, the sign is 234 Western Avenue. Check. I'm out of hurricane. That's the bicycle bought by auntie in Boston for her nephew in New York. It's to be delivered to the lucky lad by the railroad through its pickup and delivery system. This is another modern phase of railroading. This is a water gateway for the interchange of freight cars between railroads. New York, the East River. When freight cars from New England are destined for points outside of New England, they may come here. They're to go over the lines of other railroads. And how is the transfer affected? We see a water phase of operation that you might not readily associate with a railroad. A car ferry and the dock apron can be moved up and down to follow the tide. The car float arrives with cars from the New Jersey side. They're from points south and west and are destined for New England. Raw materials for the industries of New England. [Music] And the car float is locked to the dock apron. Heavily loaded steel freight cars roll onto the tracks of the globe. manufactured articles made in large part from raw materials brought previously into New England. On the other side of the river, they will roll similarly onto the tracks of the railroad that is to take them on to complete their journey to some point in this immense country of ours. New England carloads bound for everywhere. [Music] [Music] This is a New Haven Rail Gateway up in New York State. It's another point where railroads meet and where freight cars are interchanged. Those are cars loaded with merchandise for New England, raw materials, and perishable food. packing house and dairy products from Chicago and Kansas City. Oranges and grapefruit from California and Arizona. Onions from Texas, meat from Sous City. ice for perishable food must be kept cold in the hottest weather and moves in refrigerator cars called reefers. Before they pass into New England, the railroad replenishes their supply of ice. Here they use an average of 1500 tons of ice a month. They ice as many as 5,000 cars in a single year. Block ice is used for fruits and vegetables to keep them fresh and crisp. Crushed ice is used chiefly for meat and fowl. This bit of railroading is a frosty job. Also a bit salty. Same as with the old ice cream freezer that mother used to operate. They salt the ice. They use 300 tons of salt a year. And now another batch of refrigerator reapfers is ready to move on. It's early morning at a New England city. Freight cars full of fresh food. The beginning of the day, the right time for food distribution. The car loads of produce are speedily unloaded and this begins some busy and bustling procedure. On a peak day, this produce terminal will unload 200 cars of fresh food for the bargaining of the buyers. It's 6:45 a.m. and they hurry to get the produce to neighborhood stores and markets. They are also mighty keen to get the best price. Just listen to that bargaining. >> Oh, no. No. I'll give you a dime. Nothing though. >> All right. All right. We got a few left. You want a few more ready? A few more for the store. 25. There's only 35 left. All right. That's all right. I don't give a >> No. No. 35 left. >> Well, give me an $8, >> Angelo. No. Give me an $8. That's all there is to >> Nothing. 340 if you want them. That's all. >> Quick work to get the merchandise on its way. Hurry up, boys. The housewives are waiting. [Music] After cars are unloaded, they are pulled into the yards for inspection. Here, a string of them are going to the yards to meet the keen eye of the inspector. Cars are carefully inspected at regular interval and when something wrong is found, the car is tagged. Bad Order, familiarly known as Bo. The car then goes to Bo Brown's yard. Those are his real initials appropriately. In the yard, light repairs are made. No matter who owns a car, as soon as trouble is discovered, it is fixed at the nearest repair yard. This is another phase of allaround railroad cooperation. And it is smart practice to do the small jobs here instead of sending the cars to the shops where heavy repairs are made. And watch Bo put his boys on the light repair job. >> What's the matter of this guy? You looked it over yet. Brake burn wheels. L3. Jack her up. >> Okay. [Music] a little. >> All right, let it come. >> All right, now come on. >> Okay, >> it I'll bind it now. >> Push it in. >> All right. >> Okay. For heavy repairs, freight cars are brought to the back shops here. Wheels are pressed off the axles by the application of enormous pressure, hundreds of tons after being repaired to exacting standards of safety. Wheels are pressed back onto their axles under pressure. No bolts or screws needed to keep the wheel security in place. Just that enormous pressure. [Music] These pictures have shown us vast magnitudes of material and work. They have revealed to us a complicated industrial system in action. A system of many interlocking parts, operation and maintenance, passenger and freight, carload and less than carloads, steam and electrification, light repairs and heavy repairs. All these coordinated with a perfection of timing to many parts working together harmoniously, a giant clockwork of transportation, an America railroad. All this is typical of the industrial genius of America. It is an example of that world important thing on which this nation and our brother nations must rely in a perilous war of worldwide scope. Our victory depends first of all on the American gift for making giant industrial systems of production and transport operate with an amount of efficiency that no other nation can match. Such is the larger meaning of these scenes of a great American railroad at work. The human factor is the true source of all the mechanical wonder. It is, as New Haven President Palmer told us, "People whose skill, devotion, courage, and strict adherence to the finest railroad practices have made possible this railroad's record of safety, efficiency, and progress. Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Applause] [Music]