" A RAILROAD REPORT TO AMERICA " 1950s RAILROAD FILM PENN STATION PASSENGER TRAINS XD14754

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This film, dating probably to the early 1950s, demonstrates modernization efforts on the railroads as a shift from steam powered locomotives, to diesel engines, and begin to concentrate on freight service. The film presents a view of by-then already antiquated styles of passenger service, as well as an early look at multimodal transportation. The film displays an information technology landscape of punch card tabulation, fax machines, reel-to-reels and a feminized clerical workforce, and culminates in a spectacular demonstration of the control systems employed at Conway Yard. (TRT 17:28) A steam locomotive moves down a track, marked “Cyrus K. Holliday” (0:09). The engineer sits at the front of the train (1:06). A steam engine (1:19). Military people enter a train car. The train passes by artillery. (1:31). Workers walk past engines at a railroad yard (1:44). People pack the back of a car. Cars move down the street, competition for the railroad (2:03). A Greyhound bus drives past some palm trees (2:11). An airplane marked Eastern Air Lines picks up travelers, ascending aircraft stars from the tarmac (2:20). The tail of a United Airlines Mainliner. Air freight (2:28). Trucks carrying freight. Trucks marked Triple, carrying short haul (2:35). Barges (2:46). A pipeline being laid (2:53). A graphic shows a natural gas pipeline, the “Big Inch,” joining Texas and New York (3:04). A train with a car labeled “State of Maine Products,” “Soo Line,” (3:25). The Old Penn Station, New York City. People stand at ticket booths (3:40). One Pullman ticket booth is marked NY NH H RR (New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad). and LV RR (Lehigh Valley Railroad). Tickets. A sign marks times and locations for Poughkeepsie and the “Upstate Special,” which includes Hudson, Albany and Schenectady (3:51). Businessmen exiting a train car (4:01). New York Central Railroad trains traveling (4:04). A porter serves beer to a group of women, men sit in armchairs in first class, a man gets a haircut from a barber, women stretch out their feet on rests (4:30). A woman in pajamas reads in a sleeper car. A man answers a telephone (4:44). Porters serve meals to people seated around dining tables on the train. Coffee is served. A man makes the case for the institution of the dining car, threatened with extinction (4:56). A crane lifts freight out of train cars (5:40). The sign of the LaSalle Street Station (5:49). Men laying railroad rails by hand and hammering in railroad spikes. A crane lifts a rail. A man pushes a rail through a machine that welds the rails together. The long rails - as long as a quarter of a mile - are then transported by train (6:00). A modernized Penn Station. A ticket sales sign - “Directory: Pennsylvania Railroad” (6:30). A woman puts a container in a pneumatic tube system. Women with headsets monitor closed circuit television screens, telephone dials and notebooks at the ready. A woman makes a reservation next to a television screen (6:39). People work a giant tabulating machine used for making travel reservations. A facsimile transmitter prints a reservation, a ticket printer prints a ticket (6:52). Trains of different varieties race one another, in a demonstration of the greater economy of diesel over steam engines (7:30). A Santa Fe Railroad diesel locomotive. People aboard the train. (8:05). A Pennsylvania Railroad experimental lightweight car, Pioneer III (8:20). A New Haven Railroad self-powered car (8:30). A General Motors Aerotrain (8:40). A smoking car - the Santa Fe high-level El Capitan (8:53). Freight cars pass between buildings (9:10). The Pennsylvania Railroad Keystone (9:24). The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad’s Pioneer Zephyr (9:44). The New Haven Talgo Train (9:47). A Mid-States truck, illustrating early multimodal transportation, knick-named “The Piggyback” (10:17). A “Piggyback Trucker” describes how freight is moved onto trains and trucks. The distance between Chicago and New York is displayed (10:40). Conway Yard, a marshaling yard on the Ohio River built by Pennsylvania (12:39). The automated control center of Conway Yard (13:12). A tickertape machine and punch card tabulator. A man phones in to a reel-to-reel recorder accompanied by transcriptionist. A pneumatic transport (14:13). Electric retarder brakes, with electronic control (15:37).
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFi...