THE BIG LITTLE RAILROAD

[Music] in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty where the Hudson flows by the skyscrapers of New York into the bay lies a pulsing artery of American Commerce the terminal of the Jersey Central lines centered at this Crossroads of the world almost at the feet of boldi's famous statue it was natural that the Jersey Central should adopt as its emblem the lady with the [Music] torch West and north of the statue who stretch the railroads peers Cal dumpers dry ducks and other structures in seemingly endless roads the greatest water Frontage of any Railroad in New York Harbor the railroad's fleet of car floats and lighters barges fairies and tugs ply the busy tidal waters and oceangoing vessels dark at the rail head officially 100 years old in 1949 parts of the railroad were built as long ago as 1831 the Jersey Central lines are small mall with main lines running from New York Harbor to Scranton Pennsylvania and Bridgeton New Jersey but few railroads anywhere carry so heavy and so varied a volume of traffic in so limited an area it's a big little railroad it has one of the world's busiest engine terminals through its yards roll hundreds of trains every day carrying thousands of passengers carrying tens of thousands of tons of freight a traffic so heavy that in this stretch at the terminal over a 100 miles of track are required truly a big little Railroad and an important Link in the network of American [Music] railroads from the Harbor Terminal the Jersey Central lines extend through the heart of the industrial East comprising the Central Railroad of New Jersey the central of Pennsylvania and several subsidiary [Music] railroads the Jersey Central serves the people and industries of New Jersey and surrounding areas and those far beyond its lines through more than 65 connections with other railroads some of the most important connections are in the Scranton wils bar [Music] section others are in the Allentown Bethlehem region and still others are at Bound [Music] Brook and at the terminal on New York Harbor many connections link the Jersey Central with everything that rolls and floats in this gigantic Arena of Commerce along the rails move the products of many Industries most important in volume is Old King Coal both soft coal and hard coal down the trunk line through Scranton wils bar and mock chunk comes hard Cal in an endless flow for the railroad Taps the world's only important anthracite region a region studded with innumerable mines and [Music] cures some of the anthracite comes from open pit Minds this great Chasm was created over a span of 45 years as the ERS dug ever deeper to reach the veins of hard [Music] coal and it's worth the digging for its high-grade anthrit hard black glittering coal that will burn with intense heat and little or no [Music] smoke this is one of the many mines that Tap The Fabulous coal deposits in the central part of the anthracite region layers of decaying vegetation laid down millions of years ago and turned into Cal by intense heat and pressure thousands of tons of anite come from this deep open pit yet it is shallow compared to the tunnels which reach far below the Earth's surface to follow the cold seams up from these deep mines comes the greater part of our anthracite located in the rich Wyoming Valley coal fields near the city of wilbury this cury uses the most modern machinery and methods to handle and process the [Music] anthroid often muddy and mixed with slate the coal is conveyed to the top of the breaker on an endless Bel here it is freed from Stone sorted for size and thoroughly washed as it works its way to the bottom out it comes ready for its journey to Tide Water and [Music] Market almost pure carbon black diamonds [Music] in former years the coal was hauled up Blue Mountain from Ashley to pava by a cable Railway known as the Ashley Plains the power cable pulled a massive Barney truck which in turn pushed the cars up the grave as the cable was reeled up in the PowerHouse at the [Music] top in operation for more than 100 years this cable Railway hauled billions of tons of coal and other products upgrades too steep for a [Music] locomotive now that it is discontinued our car of coal goes directly from the breaker to the main line at Ashley just outside the city of wilbury here it is drilled into a string of [Music] cars the wheels of this 6,000 horsepower diesel giant begin to move as power is applied and we're on our way [Music] on the first leg of the journey are rare views of a smoking mountain side where for 60 years veins of anite have smoldered far below the surface in spite of many attempts to Snuff out the fires it's a picturesque route with a thot climb up out of the Wyoming Valley along the slopes of Blue Mountain it takes a lot of power to haul 70 ton cars over Mountain Graves but these new Freight diesels have what it takes [Music] in 90 minutes this 6,000 horsepower diesel hauls 53 loaded cars from Ashley up to the pcot yards where they are classified into trains Bound for various destinations it took almost 2 hours to haul these same 53 cars to the yards with the now discontinued cable Railway up from Ashley Far Below in the valley of anite this is a reduction of more than 25% in time through the great New Hauling power just one example of how diesel electric power has speeded up the hauling of freight all along the Jersey Central lines the man at the throttle of a diesel can really Hive all through making the grades at sustained speeds without stops for coal or water or helper service laughing as much as 4 hours off the old running time between pavot and the terminal from pcot the main line runs through high wooded country and then follows the Lehigh River Valley historic Passage through the alagan to the coastal plains we pass Rockport where once Cole came down by a gravity railroad to the head of the Lehi canal and we see everywhere the ruins of the canal and its locks once a great Highway for cold down to Philadelphia and New York at Nesco honing Junction we pass a branch line which spans a deep valley over the hometown Bridge one of the highest of its type over this connection comes binus Cole from Western Pennsylvania we pass through mock chunk headquarters of the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania and as we approach the city of Allentown we passed one of the many cement manufacturing plants in this area the modern method is to ship cement in bulk to cut handling and to speed delivery the Jersey Central lines have a fleet of cement Hopper cars for that purpose the cement pours out of a chute into the carbs which are designed for Rapid dumping with steeper sides than coal Hoppers the railroad delivers 24,000 car loads a year [Music] cement coal and many other products roll into our yards at Allentown one of our most important Junctions with 65 tracks these yards are second in size only to those in Jersey City here we sort thousands of cars and make them up into trains it's done by an operation known as humping with the aid of devices called retarders which act as brakes on the wheels of passing cars it's called humping because the cars are pushed one by one over a hump from there on they're coasting downhill the speed of the cars as they roll over the retarders is controlled by the man in the tower he operates switches to guide them to the right tracks [Music] like Old Man River they just keep rolling along in less than 15 minutes a string of 52 cars can be sorted out about 48 trains a day pull out of these modern classification yards which extend almost to Bethlehem Bethlehem is the site of one of our engine terminals along the main line in this city of Steel stretch miles of furnaces Mills and shops we serve the Iron and steel industry by hauling raw materials and by carrying to Market steel products of many [Music] sorts down the main line the traffic moves Crossing the Delaware at Phillipsburg leaving the central of Pennsylvania and entering the central of New Jersey at ratan 37 M from the terminal we enter The Four Track section of the main line before us lie Bound Brook planfield Westfield Elizabeth we're entering an area that's well populated and studded with factories Great and Small the environs of the world's greatest City four five and even six tracks are required to handle traffic with swells like a river nearing the ocean at Elizabeth Port traffic becomes even heavier as trains feed in from nework from along Staten Island sound from Perth Amboy and from other points along our lines as far south as [Music] Bridgton at Elizabeth Port the main line crosses nor Bay over a massive fourt trck draw bridge it's the world's longest fourt trck bridge of its kind and one of the busiest an average of 250 Freight and passenger trains roll across it every day and it must be raised often to allow large vessels to pass from Newark Bay to New York Harbor [Music] the bridge is an outstanding example of modern engineering equipped to speedily raise and lower the vast weight of the massive spans to efficiently handle traffic at this busy Crossroads of rail and water [Music] transportation in the morning the majority of trains are New York bound and in the evening in the opposite direction but a modern signal system makes it safe to run trains in either direction on any one of the four tracks from the bridge Mainline traffic rolls along the Bon Peninsula into Jersey city where the line fans out into a 100 tracks leading to the peers day and night the cars roll through the yards Laden with products of Mines of factories of farms Bound for New York for other cities for other lands bound from everywhere to everywhere a crosssection of American commers on the rails a big little railroad big enough to fill all a shipper's needs little enough to give personalized [Music] service one of the peers located almost at the feet of the Statue of Liberty is equipped with giant car dumpers to this pier go the great tonnages of coal to be delivered by barge in the port of New York and here's the very car of anth site we saw start on its way from the cury now at Journey's End the giant machine goes into action lifting the heavily Laden car as easily as a child's toy high above the waiting barge in 1945 two of these mcer dumpers handled four and 1 half million tons of coal the Big Max can dump 400 cars a day a stunt that would flabbergast even Superman coal for the people of New York anthracite for thousands of apartments and homes binus for the power plants for running the subway light heat and power for the Metropolis nearby cement cars from the plant near allent toown are unloaded into lighters when they reach their destination the cement is pumped out from plant the job it's been covered and protected all the way ships from the seven seas are loaded from the railroad's fleet of Lighters when Freight is to be transferred to other Rail lines in the port area the cars are loaded onto car floats to New Yorkers the side of strings of freight cars rolling across the waters is a familiar one a constant reminder that railroad service does not end at the rail head the Jersey Central provides service for an army of 35,00 000 passengers daily 24,000 of them are commuters most of whom use our Fleet of fairies between New York and the Depo in Jersey City twice a day we handle Peak [Music] loads from this terminal we operate nearly 300 trains daily some go through to Scranton Harrisburg and Philadelphia but the big emphasis is on commuter traffic during the summer season traffic is heavy to the New Jersey Seaside Resorts tens of thousands on the busiest days though only 1if of the railroads business is passenger traffic it's a big job to handle so many people in rush [Music] hours there are many hundreds of coaches to be kept in condition for daily service one of these jobs of railroad housekeeping Is frequent washing of the cars this robot housewife sprays the coaches with soap and water and scrubs them thoroughly this industrious brusher upper can handle as many as a 100 cars a day and when they're done they're really SP in Span the Interiors of the cars get a daily dusting and cleaning which includes removing the spots on the seat cushions left by Junior's feet before each run there's a careful check on the brakes journals and other fittings jobs like these are seldom seen by The Traveling public but they're vital to a railroads operation generators have been installed on engine tenders to take the place of the old battery system they considerably improve the lighting in the cars it takes a lot of equipment to give daily service to so many commuters all the equipment is needed at rush hours but most of the day at night hundreds of coaches and many engines must remain idle mute testimony of the financial loss in conducting this essential public service [Music] with thousands of freight cars to be kept rolling inspection and repair is a big job running repairs to engines are made at the terminals the largest in Jersey City has 63 engine stalls this terminal dispatches more locomotives every day than any other roundhouse in the United States [Music] extensive repairs real breakdown jobs are handled at Elizabeth port in these shops covering many acres everything on Wheels is reconditioned from the engine to the Caboose and supplies are manufactured and distributed to the entire railroad the railroad's fleet of barges car floats tugs and fairies is serviced at dry docks in the Marine repair base $10 million a year is spent maintaining equipment and $7 million maintaining Road bed inst structures one of the modern devices used in Road bed maintenance is the Jordan [Music] spreader the Jordan spreader keeps the drainage ditches deep and even all along the lines thus protecting the road Bend [Music] the spino ballast cleaner looks like something Buck Rogers invented in the 25th Century it picks up the dirty Rock shakes out the dirt through screens and puts it back between the ties the stone ballast in the road bed must be cleaned every 3 or 4 years or safe comfortable riding on high-speed passenger [Music] trains speaking of of modern equipment we introduced the first railroad diesel here it is still giving service at the Bronx Terminal while the very latest diesels generating electricity to power their Motors are taking over the jobs performed for so many years by steam [Music] locomotives we're the first railroad to introduced passenger diesels for commuter service these diesels end the nuisance of smoke they are our electric engines that can go anywhere there's a track with no need for power lines first railroad to introduce diesels the Jersey Central was also first with automatic signals and today at Elizabeth Port we're pioneering the latest in Signal systems an electron pneumatic route control interlocking plant first of its type in the world the signals and switches are operated by push buttons from this Tower the indicator panel is a map of tracks and Signal blocks outside the tower pressing the buttons activates relays in the back setting switches and signals the position of every switch and signal is automatically double checked for [Music] safety the panel indicates all the tracks which go to Philipsburg Jersey City birth Amoy and new the white lights show roots in use the red light indicates a train is approaching from the West the operator pushes an entrance button and an exit button and the relays do the rest setting 25 signals and switches lights flash on showing the route is clear for the approaching train and here she comes surely a remarkable advance and safe fast handling of traffic at congested points it takes people as well as equipment to make a railroad and Jersey Central people are doing capable conscientious work in many diverse jobs they keep the hundreds of trains moving every day through the yards along the lines and the tugs lighters fairies plying the busy Waters of the harbor they give prompt efficient service to the shippers of freight as well as to the traveling public [Music] behind the scenes they handle the desk work a great variety of jobs all of them important jobs for without them no railroad could run there's plenty going on after working hours softball entertainments outings for the whole family 5800 went on this one many Jersey Central people have spent a lifetime running the railroad and many can say my father was with the railroad and his father too Through The Years Jersey Central people have built a tradition of sound railroading they have made it a big little railroad a railroad which has served industry and the American people through More Than A Century Of War and [Music] Peace for