A Must See Video....!!!

"The force it takes to stop a freight train going 60 MPH, would be enough to lift it 10 stories in the air"

Wow. I'm not sure of the grade to get that high, but that sounds impressive!

Joe...I know what you mean.  The video had a lot of info that I had never heard before...

Alan

man that one actor sure came a long way!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyRwIDZMSWg

Harry, I tip my hat to you.  Good find.

This is precisely what makes me wistful - the railroad era in which I got to know and like trains, the early to middle 1950's.  The last and best of steam, lots of passenger trains, numerous Class I railroads in decent to excellent health, freight trains with cars from a dozen or more different lines, a variety of signals, and - because of my later background - the 24-RL air brake schedule on then-contemporary locomotives, the very best brake valves ever made for controlling the brakes from the locomotive.  When this film was made, that was all state-of-the-art.

This is a good film about the best railroad system in the entire world, made possible largely by the adaption of the automatic air brake way back there in time, which enabled all of the further advances in North American railroading.

Thanks, Harry.

The Westinghouse Air Brake Co. did a great job.  And, here I thought that "product placement" was a recent advertising "feature" of TV and movies until I saw that Westinghouse TV prominently shown .  The camera did everything short of zoom in on the big script name.

I really liked the segment that showed adding ice to reefers, coaling, and loading up so many other types of commodities.  It was a really informative snapshot of several industries served by the RR.  It was so thorough that the only thing missing seemed to be bananas -- the transportation of which seems to be a popular, almost obsessive, topic in old transportation photos and postcards.

PRRHorseshosecurve, it wasn't only that Barney Miller actor who came a long way, but acting in general -- it was so stiff and stylized in those days; fortunately it didn't detract from the facts and great footage.  We never did see Scotty actually cook 'though, considering all that serving and hustling that waitress Kelly was doing ... .

Lastly, in one narrated segment, the film seemed to have a strong submessage that the government shouldn't control the railroads.  Then, of course, there were the frequent mentions of how the railroads were privately owned and self-funded, so I wondered what was going on in the nation or larger world with regard to the industry when Westinghouse made the film.  It clearly predates the Penn Central merger and of course Conrail, but something must have been up for such a tour-de-force marketing piece.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

The guy asking all the questions is a B movie actor named Bill Kennedy, a ex movie host here in Detroit.   He got off the train in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is seen walking up the hill on Depot Street.  I used to work at the depot back in the early 70's. 

Marty