This Is My Railroad (1940s)

[Music] e there's something about a railroad and something about railroading that's different from any other calling beneath the sun something inside of man and the way he thinks about his job and the pridey feels in his own performance it rides the motorc car across a stretch of open track with a band of men on their way to work it stands beside them in the silent desert where the only sound is the sound of their tools and their voices it walks with the man who works alone marches with thousands who work together for these are railroad people a breed of their own the men and women who run the Railroad working with paper with forges lathes and presses TR the wheels tending the signals throwing the switches handing out supplies helping with the baggage serving the food selling the tickets building a fence a bridge a roaded using a shovel a crane a Transit a typewriter making up the trains running the trains maintaining the trains this is my railroad a 100,000 men and women working together to serve one purpose to keep a railroad [Music] running in the beginning there was was nothing no rail no roaded no Rolling Stock nothing but untouched Wilderness but in the wilderness was also a promise the promise of a Western Empire which could make one nation as wide as a continent if it could be bound together with bands of Steel where few men had dared to walk a path was cleared out of the rock out of the Earth and through the Virgin Forest ties were hued rail was laid bolted and spiked down when the last Spike was driven our first trains moved across the continent up an over 7,000 ft of mountain barrier locked in Winter's clutches and Into the Heart of the Western Empire a nation now was joined together a nation scarcely born yet reaching for its Destiny as the west and southwest grew so did the railroad until today those rails which once bravely span the mountain have become an interlocking Network Binding Together the Far West the southwest and the South linking them in turn with the midc continent and through many connecting lines hauling traffic Across the Nation hauling the products of the Forest Lumber from the cisus the Cascades the Sierra from New Mexico Texas and Louisiana hauling the products dug from the earth the metals the chemicals the oil hauling the products of the soil fruits and vegetables from the garden spot of the nation transported to distant cities as if distance were non-existent hauling the products of the factory fashioned into the shape of things our people need hauling the people of a free Nation a people free to move and travel at their will without answering to any man this is my railroad a service performed by 100,000 men and women who share a common Pride knowing how to run a railroad well railroading is quite a job and it seems to be getting bigger all the time all along our lines we keep getting more people don't ask me where they come from but they keep right on coming and behind those people we keep getting more business and industry each day in the last 25 years a new industry laun large enough to need a rail connection has sprung up along our lines since the end of World War II that rate has double two new Industries a day turning out Goods that have to be delivered to somebody somewhere all over the country so it's no wonder we can't ever say a railroad's really built we're always adding to it and always rebuilding it for instance as traffic increases is we keep laying bigger and heavier rail to carry the heavier loads replacing rail isn't a complicated job till you remember you can't hold up traffic our boys work it out though the fellows Down the Line pass the word along when a train's coming we make a temporary joint move our equipment out of the way and the train goes right on through it's work and the train has to slow down a little but traffic keeps on moving the speed at which we can run our trains depends only partly on the power of the locomotive it depends even more on the weight of the rail and the curves and gradients of the track we always try for a straight and level [Music] line but the Contours aren't always made to order we have to fit our railroad to the Contours so when we have to build a curve we try to make it as gentle as we can on one stretch of track the Tahachapi Loop it wasn't quite so easy we had to swing our curve all the way around so one end of the train actually passes over the other we have to carry passengers in Freight even when there's a mountain where we want a canyon or a canyon where we want a mountain so we move the Earth around that's all cut it away from one place and fill it in in [Music] another cut and fill that's the basic [Music] pattern where a cut would be too deep we drive a tunnel through where a fill would be too great we build a Trestle or Viaduct to carry our trains on stilts in order to cut across the Great Salt Lake we had to build a Trestle 12 M long we put a road bed right across the water and we engineer our bridges sometimes we build a small one sometimes we build a high one like the posos river bridge in Texas there are more than 10,000 Bridges viaducts and trestles on our line it's a lot of work to build a railroad and the work is never done what you build you have to maintain maintaining a railroad takes a lot of material our supply trains are always on the Move carrying that material to every point in the system it takes a lot of equipment and some of it very technical like the rail detector car which can see right right inside the steel rails looking for Flaws no human eye could ever see but mostly maintaining a railroad takes a lot of men and those men have to know their jobs when the weather's fine and the sun is out it isn't too difficult but when the weather changes the job gets a little more [Applause] complicated when the wind whips up a desert Sandstorm we've got a real fight on our hands that tearing sand blast can wear the hard steel rail faster than the trains that run on it it can bury the rails block the switches and even stop the trains so our men must fight it this is no easy way to make a living but railroad men can take it working as steadily as the wind itself for as long as the wind keeps blowing like I say it's quite a lot of work to run a [Applause] railroad who are these people who run the railroad who keep the railroad running we are a plain and friendly people living in the cities towns and Rural districts of eight states living among our friends and neighbors whose patronage of the railroad gives us the wor by which we earn our living we in turn contribute to the communities in which we live we pay our taxes take an active part in community life and buy from Merchants up and down the streets of a Thousand Towns we're members of clubs women's clubs and service clubs and members of sports clubs too both as players and as Spectators we all have fun don't we [Music] bub yes we're a plain and friendly people we who run the railroad we who run the railroad in Sun and storm in summer and in winter in order to carry the people and the products of a Nation so that one man May exchange his Goods with other men and they in turn with him in the working pattern of a free economy we haul a lot of stuff all right but getting it to the right place at the right time isn't just a matter of hooking a lot of cars together and running them over the line every train has to be made up according to a carefully worked out plan so naturally we think our end of the job in the railroad yards is an important part of railroading because that's where the trains are put together all along the line cars come into these yards to be routed and rerouted to their destinations in The Yards we sort them and Shuffle the individual cars in new trains some will go north others south or east through West in the most modern yards it works like this the engineer of the switch engine pushes the cars up the slope of a man-made little hill we call the hump when the yardman pulls the coupling pin the car Rolls by itself down an easy grade to see that it doesn't roll too fast the operator in the first Tower sets a control and down on the track the wheels of the car get an electronic squeeze to slow it down it's still a little too fast so another control is set and a second set of squeezers brings it down to proper speed now the operator in the next Tower takes over and sends it to the right track to join up with other cars slated for the same d destination it has to be handled just right maybe there's Furniture in that car or maybe a load of dishes if it rolls down the hump too fast it'll hit like a head-on collision it's got to come in real easy right to the Cutler like a cushion that's what you might call a push button railroad but it still takes a good man to run it and a good team on the ground to back him up where One man's job ends another mans takes over as the newly made up trains pull along the throat track to the departure yard a yard clerk calls in the number of each car to the yard office SP 58228 PF 178 693 for every train we make up in the yard we make up a train on paper too by keeping a record of their movements we know where any shipment is anywhere along our lines at any time on automatic machines we cut a card for every car and every train the cards are routed through other machines that automatically cut teletype tapes and dispatch a copy of each card to as many as 60 different offices which may be interested in the train later at Junction points across the continent the progress of each car will again be telet typed ahead with the aid of automatic equipment and electronics railroading today has become a science yet all that these mechanical Marvels can really accomplish is to help good men do their jobs better the engineer in the cab can pick up his phone and thanks to shortwave radio talk with the conductor and the Caboose a mile away as easily as if they were sitting side by side the conductor works from Wheel reports which once made up by hand are now made up by machine but no machine yet devised has been able to cut off a car at its destination or switch it to the proper [Music] track no machine yet devised has ever taken the place of the brakeman's eyes as he keeps his watch over the Rolling Wheels of the Rolling Freight and no machine ever devised has taken the place of the engine skill as he Pilots his train along the track the machines help but it still takes men to do the jobs the engineer highballing along at top allowable speed knows there are trains ahead of him behind him and coming in the opposite direction yet he is completely confident his confidence is in the men who keep him posted the dispatchers on 100 100 miles of single track there may be as many as 20 trains traveling in two directions and at different speeds as trains pass a station the operator passes the word to the dispatcher he checks one report against the other and transmits his orders on ahead to be picked up along the line the engineer or fireman in the engine cab picks up the orders from the top arm of the train order post and a mile behind a trainman latches onto a duplicate from the lower arm the orders May read for the train to go right on through or to pull into a siding so another train can pass it's teamwork all the way good coordination and timing and the automatic block signal system provides a safe double [Music] check on the busier sections of single track line dispatch ERS can speed up the traffic flow with the aid of an electronic system called centralized traffic control or CTC CTC is the dream of almost every boy and man a railroad at your fingertips 100 Mil of track before your [Music] eyes out on the line two freight trains push on toward each other on the same track to the dispatcher miles away they are lights on his CTC board lights moving toward a sighting then a flick of a remote control [Music] switch one Freight takes the siding the other train keeps right on [Music] rolling with the positive control of CTC the dispatcher's judgment cuts down delays at sightings and often he can time his Meats so perfectly that neither train must [Music] stop Yes Behind The Men Who Run the trains are many men who help to keep them running no man works alone for each man's work depends on others work others like the shop men the modern conception of maintenance is to locate trouble before it happens and then keep it from happening shop men call it Progressive maintenance every locomotive steam or diesel passenger or Freight is checked and serviced after every run a laboratory man can take a tiny thimble full of lubricating oil from a diesel and turn that oil into a truth serum which reveals the personal secrets of the locomotive trouble foreseen is trouble stopped before it happens what might have developed into a major overhaul becomes a routine minor repair to a delicate engine or a set of rugged wheels wheels wear out of true from the steady grind of steady use shop men can true up the wheels without even taking them off the engine it takes quite a machine to handle the job and quite a man to handle the machine give men with knoow the tools and machines and there is no limit to the Precision work they can turn out from maintaining engines to rebuilding the cars those engines pull to the men in the shops like those at Houston Texas rebuilding cars is an everyday Story one by one old wooden cars are dismantled March through the shop assembly line and transformed into all steel cars better than before yes it's the shop men who keep them rolling we couldn't provide good service to our passengers and shippers if it weren't for these men the passeng passers and shippers never see but a railroad has its front men too the men in the stations who are the railroad to those the railroad serves in the smaller towns one man alone must do the many jobs The Station Agent he advises passengers and sells the tickets handles baggage and manages shipments and looks after the needs of our customers shippers he knows more about the railroad than anyone else in town and more about the town than anyone else on the railroad he's the man who keeps the railroad humming and who keeps it human in the larger cities it takes many people to do the many jobs but the human side is just the same to the passenger who knows only what he sees with his own two eyes the railroad is the redcap the man who prepares his ticket or the clerk who checks his baggage it is all the men and women with whom he deals in stations or on the trains to a passenger the railroad is a ticket home or a ticket to Adventure to new scenes passing by the window or to places well remembered the charm and Romance of the South The Majestic sweep of the Great [Music] Southwest the color and Beauty on the shores of the Pacific it is Beauty in unexpected places beauty that changes with the seasons spring is the gentle season as fragile as the Blossom on the branch spring brings the poppy to the Coastland the yaka to the hills along Louisiana bayus soft colors light the water hin the year turns and the Summer sun lies hot upon the [Music] land but with the Tang of autumn the colors change upon the trees a delicate tracery on the leaf a broad brush stroke on the mountain side [Music] hide the season of The Burning Bush gives way to the season of the silver mantle winter brings the silent snow the muffled Brook the bow beneath its Crystal burden the cloak lies heavy on the land the soft white snow that sparkles in the sunlight and turns the mountain Mountain into a fairy land of white the soft white snow which drives before the wind until it becomes deep enough to bury poles along our lines snow that can block our switches tear down our wires and challenge the progress of our trains in the Sierra the Cascades the cisu hundreds of miles of Mountain Railroad must be kept open the trains must go [Applause] through when a new storm blows into the Sierra you can be sure of just one thing a battle is about to begin a battle fought by man's mind as well as muscle by a powerful and complex organization that has gained skill and knowledge through the years as the storm Bears down upon us the power of the railroad is mobilized to meet it extra crews are called to duty track Crews train and engine Crews Crews for the snow fighting equipment railroad men who are mountain men men who have fought snow all their working lives these men and their equipment are dispatched to strategic locations at their Battle Stations they watch and wait knowing the call will come and that when it does all our efforts will be bent in one direction to keep the trains moving calling rotary 7205 snow is piling up at Mile poost 1 193 men and machine move in Against The Storm the line must be kept open gold run to Dutch Flat Blue Canyon to Immigrant Gap Cisco to nordon to Donner Summit and down the other side the line must be kept open dispatchers work to keep the flow of traffic moving through the mounting Fury of the [Music] storm trains West trains East rotaries in both directions always on the railroad when the chips are down the man with the shovel gets to work switches must be kept clear they must be kept from freezing the trains must keep [Music] moving somewhere on the mountain a wire is down a slender wire that holds the battle line together we fall back on our radio but we need that wire when the brake is located by radar a man goes out to mend it now fixing it becomes a personal matter between one man and the storm the fight goes on if the storm won't quit then neither will we when the blind white Fury Smothers our attack there's only one way to beat it Outlast it sometimes when the going gets tough enough we may have to yield a little to surrender one track to the storm and concentrate all our work and all our equipment to keep the other track open so we do we put our backs into it we keep on punching and the trains keep rolling [Music] through at last the clouds begin to break the wind dies the storm has spent its anger the snow once more is a white and Silent sea gleaming in the Sun the battle is over but not the work our buried wires must be dug free to safeguard Communications if another Onslaught comes on the open lines of track fast moving flangers clear the snow from between the rails but on the second track where the storm closed Us in and we made a temporary surrender the big rotaries still have a job to do [Applause] the path carved open by the rotaries is then widened by the spreaders we can push a little when we set our minds to it move over snow we've got a railroad here and the men who know how to run it this is my Railroad and I'm proud of it you can tell what railroaders are made of when the going gets really tough yes there's something about a railroad and something about the railroaders who keep it running through sun and storm in summer and in winter in order to carry the people and the products of a Nation for a railroad is more than roaded and Rolling Stock more than yards and shops and offices a railroad is railroad people men and women working together each one doing one job proudly whatever that job may be men and women working together and sharing a common Pride knowing how to run their railroad a Heritage from the past a service to the present a dream for the future still to [Music] [Applause] come [Applause] [Music]