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Great Northern Railway training film: "Is it worth your life?"

jay jayjay jayOGR Forum Member

I came across this postwar training film of the Great Northern Railway while looking for something else. It is a 35 minute film, but is fascinating from a number of perspectives. It is a training film for employees of the GN, and has a number of safety vignettes, but also has a large number of shots of both steam and diesel locomotives in use, as well as great shots of mid-century freight trains and all the cars of different shapes and sizes. It makes running scale boxcars with 6464s look prototypical! I especially enjoyed shots of the foremen chastising the employees for safety rule violations. Its a fairly long film, but I suspect some of you will enjoy it.

 

By the way, at 31:40 and again at 35:04, they use model trains to demonstrate the need for excessive speed rules within yard limits. They appear to be 0 Scale trains, but I suppose they could be S or HO, also. Can anyone identify the locomotive?

 

 

 

Last edited by jay jay
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jay jayjay jayOGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by mark s:

I own a copy of this tape, and got a "kick" (actually, horrified) out of the recommendation that a car toad connecting air hoses remain on the balls of his feet, so he can jump out of the way in case of a sudden, unexpected move by the locomotive.  Eeeeesh!

Yes, I noticed that. I guess that they were supposed to use a "basketball stance" at all times.

Last edited by jay jay
jay jayjay jayOGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by suzukovich:

Thanks for posting this.A couple of things I noticed,

 A war emergency hopper with a steel plated riveted to the side. 

A fruit Growers X-24 Reefer.

A GN round roof box car.

Various east coast roads, PRR, ACL,PM, NYC, Virginian , SAL, B&O, C&O, and looked to be a N&W.  

Yes, there were a large number of roads represented in the rolling stock, as well as many types of cars. Just like the trains I run! I also enjoyed the assortment of steam and diesel locomotives represented, from 0-6-0s  to articulateds  to E- and F-units.

M mlavender480OGR Forum Member
We were taught at NS to always keep one foot outside the gauge when working between cars.  It does allow you to make a faster exit, as I learned one day when working in Conway yard.  I had laced up the air hoses between two 86' boxcars and was opening the angle cock on one of them when I heard a loud BANG from the draft gear.  I was out from between the cars in half a second.  The train didnt move, but I would have been out of harm's way before it did.
Big JimBig JimOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
Originally Posted by mlavender480:
We were taught at NS to always keep one foot outside the gauge when working between cars.  It does allow you to make a faster exit, as I learned one day when working in Conway yard.  I had laced up the air hoses between two 86' boxcars and was opening the angle cock on one of them when I heard a loud BANG from the draft gear.  I was out from between the cars in half a second.  The train didnt move, but I would have been out of harm's way before it did.

Exactly! Mark & John why do you think it should be done any other way?

mark smark sOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

Big Jim - Agreed, guess there is no way around stepping between two cars to tie the gladhands. But......I lived in Cincinnati in the '80's and recall hearing a radio news report of an employee being killed in the Queensgate Yard downtown. I'll bet it was just such a circumstance. CSX had narrow paved roads between each track and golf carts for the car toads, to facillitate their tying everything together, but modernization has not eliminated that hazard.

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