A WHISTLE IN THE NIGHT

[Music] [Music] wow [Music] listen to the winning of the Iron Horse the whistle of a train in the night this is the sound America made as she pushed a frontier into the Pacific and this is the way she did it with a red hot Firebox turning water to steam and steam into power to drive wheel over Steel on a dead run down the right of way to [Music] anywhere the locomotive cries out in the night and the e is called Nostalgia a memory of home of places visited but once and a longing to return the romance of railroading hasn't changed much in a 100 years but the conveniences have a train these days offers more than just Transportation It Off off room to stretch out and to move about a chance for sociability an opportunity to eat a snack or a full meal cooked to your order but nostalgic sentiment and a ton of Waldorf salad are not enough to justify a century of [Music] railroading whether the headend eats coal or ampers or diesel oil everything back in the tender must be dedicated to service legally and morally required to carry anything from a cocker spaniel to a circus managerie one of the railroad's greatest responsibilities is the United States mail on each mail run thousands of pieces are classified and sorted on Route by Railway postal clerks who have been a tradition of the road since Jesse James was an accepted occupational hazard today many a letter with an air mail stamp on it starts or ends its ride or even rides most of of the way in an RPO whatever the challenge of other carriers the railroads know that so far the 3 cent stamp is still the cheapest ticket in the world this terminal alone receives more than 150,000 bags of mail a day broken down and sacked according to its destination it is still legally riding the railroad as long as it is in motion it doesn't become the responsibility of of the post office Department until it falls clear of the conveyor [Music] Bel big city terminal or Whistle Stop Depot there's a train leaving on its run every few seconds a wholesale movement of of people in carload Lots keep station switchboards busy checking accommodations rates and schedules on everything from the coast to coast flyer to the broken leg limited of the sque dunk hesitation and Pacific Railroad booking reservations is a complex Affair every book in the rack represents a train and every page in the book stands for a car but reservations aren't made only for passengers Freight is the real payload loading the cars properly reduces handl and protects profits less than car load Lots like this must be loaded together so that all Goods Bound for the same destination are in the same car and readily accessible for unloading perishable Freight such as dressed meat fruit and vegetables is sent to the ice stock in reefers refrigerator cars where a layer of ice is packed around the cargo to prevent spoilage although the journey might be a th000 even 3,000 miles Franks are born in the classification yard here the cars of a newly arrived train are scrambled to make up a dozen new trains according to the destination of their shipments but before the train is made up every car rolls over the inspection pit for a safety check on its trucks and running [Music] gear [Music] after a car is checked it is uncoupled and allowed to roll free gravity takes it down a slight incline and it is Switched Off to its proper track to become a unit of a new [Music] train while its train is being assembled the locomotive is turnt into position with 285 lbs of pressure under its Dome this is the perin of iron horses all Steam and oil and grease it may not get its picture on the company calendars as often as the streamliners but these big boys and their powerful Brothers the freight diesels handle the biggest part of the business of the average railroad hauling Freight [Music] a y detective checks to see that car seals have not been tampered with prevent looting and discourage doorways the oiler makes a lastman an inspection of the journal boxes to determine that the cotton waste which is packed around the bearings is well saturated with oil otherwise at troubl some hot box might develop when everything is ready the Breakman hangs out the markers it is just a string of cars until these flags or lanterns are up and then and not until then is it officially a [Music] train as the train pulls by him and out of the yard the conductor make sure that the couplings between cars are in order and that no brake rigging is [Music] [Applause] dragging just as on a passenger run the conductor is the chief officer of the train and his command car is the Caboose from his way bills he must sort out the shipments to be cut out of the train at the next switching Point meanwhile his rear Breakman keeps a sharp Lookout at the bay window to spot any trouble that might show up on the train ahead when they take a [Music] curve the Caboose is office as well as lunchroom for the crew and many a conductor or Breakman is an accomplished chef [Music] [Applause] [Music] but up in the head end the engineer's main concern is time it's the hand on the throttle against the hands of the clock as a 48 four-wheeler runs off with a fast break as a red ball manifest hits the high iron destination on time back into the scramble of the freight yards where the train will be broken up again and its various units reassigned the bulk of the liting grain to be reloaded for ocean shipping is Switched Off onto a tilting platform here the entire car is tipped and emptied like a box full of breakfast food to go into the hold of the [Music] ship no industry knows better than the railroad that it can't stand still it must continue to develop test and use new scientific and mechanical improvements as it has done through a century of [Music] progress at the end of World War II the railroad industry faced up to a great job of Rehabilitation and Improvement in the first 5 years after the war despite Rising costs and lagging rates the railroad spent nearly $5 billion to build better railroads not only for streamlined equipment for new passenger trains but for thousands of new diesel electric locomotives and for more than 300,000 new and larger Freight [Music] cars and then as the demands of National Defense grew and America began to rearm the railroad stepped up their program of car repair and rebuilding and took steps to add more than 100,000 Freight cars and new locomotives by the thousands so that there might be No Lack in meeting the essential Transportation needs of the Armed Forces and of the [Music] nation with the railroad's technical advancement creeping up on its terminal facilities greater skill is required in traffic control to eliminate long weights in the yards and misconnections in the station this is the job of the control tower Master of the switches controlling through tracks and sidings this is the nerve center without which a timetable would be just like fiction [Music] with train telephon using radio or induction it is possible to talk with men on moving trains but this only supplements and does not supplant the signal systems by which each train itself automatically and instantaneously notifies all approaching trains of its presence on the track it does this first with a distance signal which says in effect caution slow down and then with another nearer signal which says [Music] stop for smoother and safer riding Comfort much of America's 200,000 mil of tracks and TI must be ripped up and replaced every year Road beds can be turned into roller coasters dangerous and uncomfortable without proper drainage to combat SE and Frost and allow free drainage under the tracks the gravel ballast along the right of way must be periodically displaced and thoroughly screened for loose dirt Cinders and obstructing plant [Music] growth [Music] [Music] powerful diesel motors under the teardrop cowling of a modern Streamliner can be repaired or adjusted on Route they can operate without refu buing stops from Chicago to the Pacific and given a level grve and a clear block signal they could show even the train of Tomorrow how to carry the [Music] m the modern American has traveled a long way in a 100 years and most of that way has been across Trestle and tie and track it's been a long time since a narrow path of iron was first pushed across a Wilderness by an iron horse this is his stainless steel descendant this is his P land this is America ah