Safety in the 1950's HIT DIFFERENTLY... Literally. | Railroader Reacts

Railroad safety videos are usually a deluge of boring, obnoxious, corporate blegh. This one, from the D&RGW back in the day, is quite entertaining, and a "little extra", as it were.
Cheers to Drew Sparkmon for uploading it. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of dead space in the video, so I trimmed it pretty heavily for your enjoyment. The full videos are below:
Part 1: • Rio Grande Railroad Sa...
Past 2: • Rio Grande Railroad Sa...
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[@KarolOfGutovo]

I didn't expect a 50's railroad safety to have such a deep hitting portrayal of the finality of death

[@drakenred6908]

To be fair its post WW 2, the audience then had newsreels during WW 2 and the warcrimes trials. A lot of what survived was edited (for television and later movies)from what was distributed.

[@BudderCraft526]

Check out shake hands with danger for another good one haha

[@Ice_Karma]

Gotta shake people out of complacency somehow, especially back when, if I'm not mistaken, focus on safety was still kinda new. Like, early in the video, it sounds like steel-toed footwear wasn't mandatory. (But I'm not an expert on the history of industrial safety training.)

[@fixman88]

@@BudderCraft526 "Why don't they look?"

[@amtrakp4242]

Right about that, it’s almost a Horror Movie!

[@croom1278]

I wish that safety videos were still done like this

[@nfnworldpeace1992]

failvideos now serve this purpose :P

[@hueyiroquois3839]

Did you ever see the one about Klaus, the forklift operator?

[@zenjon7892]

Shake hands with danger

[@AnimeSunglasses]

@@zenjon7892 _dun du-duh-dun dunnnnnnnnn_

[@Elcicikos]

@@zenjon7892 Three finger Joe is that you?

[@starlightnixie]

"He got his name in the papers, but nobody reads his own obituary" is an absolute monster of a line. The "here's why you don't do this" type safety training presentations we had to watch when I was in automotive school did not use play acting and dummies to get their point across and some of those images are still seared into my mind fifteen years later in a way I very much wish they weren't, but I get why they do it that way. There's no room for subtlety in saying, hey, pay attention, we aren't messing around here, this will straight up maim or kill your ass.

[@felixchaus]

It don't haunt me, but I still remember what the outcome looks like when motorist tries to take on a semi, he was scattered in a few hundred feet along the highway and insides wrapped around dually trailer wheels. There was once a short period of a time where in england they showed real outcomes of motorcycle vs. car accidents. The sight in public television primetime where top half of a motorist went over a passenger car and lower half went through the car was somewhat too mutch for regular viewer, but there was a noticeable drop in accidents where cars drove in front of a motorcycle even that advertisement was in television for just a few commercial breaks. If it hits you hard enough you'll tend to remember it

[@starlightnixie]

@@felixchaus For me it was, in particular, photographs of valve spring versus eyeball, and long hair versus helicopter main rotor mast.

[@felixchaus]

@@starlightnixie Sounds delightfully sickening.

[@justaguycalledjosh]

In my college chemistry class, the poster to drive home safe use of glassware was an actual picture of a previous student impaling their hand on a pipette

[@RT-qd8yl]

I saw that sort of thing in middle school, and then I started looking up Chechen war crimes videos and eventually became a firefighter. I guess some people arer just built differently haha. I miss ogrish and liveleak.

[@juphikie3559]

As a man who is going into OSHA for a field, this was amazing and I loved it. Now I need to get a box full of fake eyes to scare some people into wearing PPE

[@randymagnum143]

Couldn't you find anything productive that you were capable of mastering?

[@brianb8060]

THIS could happen to YOU!

[@granthoppel2534]

At my train crew class, we watched a video from UP called "Getting Off On The Right Foot". Ironically, we didn't watch the video until AFTER we had practiced boarding and dismounting a moving train.

[@halfgecko3202]

I remember watching that one. "It doesn't hurt, not if you have a wooden leg."

[@KidarWolf]

See now, here's me thinking this isn't one little bit extra. Unlike modern safety videos in most jobs, this got the point across, efficiently, and effectively. This is the sort of safety briefing I used to get, and give, when I did stunt performance. No bs, straight up "this is the hazard, it will kill you, like it did to X last year, don't do this" - that way, it's rare you need to expound the virtue of being safe about it more than just the once to each person involved in planning a stunt.

[@Hyce777]

That's definitely fair.

[@brillbusbootcamp2320]

Wow, the D&RGW really committed to that bit! And your commentary added a lot of good context, especially explaining the vital “the rules are written in blood” idea. This video may look old now, around 7 decades later, but imagine what these Rio Grande workers would have thought of the brutality of safety culture 7 decades before them, in the 1880s!

[@Hyce777]

No kidding...

[@Dumbrarere]

It's very much the same in aviation. A lot of federal regulations came about because of fatal accidents, often when the fatalities numbered in the hundreds because of neglect (on the part of either the manufacturer, the maintenance or ground operations crews, or the pilot in command.)

[@mightyocelot]

@@Dumbrarere I was popping down here to say the same thing, lol (laughing at how you beat me to the punch by like 4 months, not the way the rules are written)

[@vito3533]

We need Hyce’s face at 3:18 as a membership chat sticker

[@Hyce777]

Someone tell Mickely to make it so :P

[@trainmaster844]

The tool check portion definitely gives me vibes of Santa Fe's own safety video in the 1970's called "Team Effort". The whole collection of Santa Fe training films are in the Pentrex video "Working on the Santa Fe"; some of them could be nice follow-ups to this D&RGW one.

[@Hyce777]

Good to know :) if it's pentrex it may be harder for me to react to, but we'll see. Copyright shenanigans...

[@mightyocelot]

@@Hyce777 If you need to ask for the rights to watch it on your YT channel, you could possibly argue that it will help some future railroaders who might want to work on the Santa Fe by exposing them to the safety videos in advance, and it might inspire people to sign on to work on the Santa Fe line

[@calebrimer2870]

Football and railroading also have extremely dedicated fanbases

[@niiinaa]

I recently started working for a railroad and on day two we got to watch some so called "Ouch-videos" where some trainers got together and essentially made short, badly acted youtube videos recreating accidents that actually happened. No corporate animations, just some dudes with no acting training doing some acting. It was wonderful. Not as nostalgia inducing as this, but well done. They also did some interviews with the actual people who were in those accidents

[@randompersonwhocomments3645]

Fun fact: Alfred E. Pearlman would go on to be in charge of multiple different railroads over his career, including a time with New York Central and PennCentral

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

Yep and a lot of foamers don't like em cause he hated steam locomotives

[@LiftPizzas]

"What, me worry?"

[@KatyPacific382]

And also Alfred Perlman managed to save western pacific, and turn its bad situation around before union pacific purchase it

[@samuels1123]

​@@IndustrialParrot2816 Standing near a turbo coal fire and a loose pile of coal with a hot high pressure boiler while rolling across a bridge with 8 cars behind it filled does sound a bit unsafe, but I say steam locomotives are cooler than most other forms of train and that makes them better.

[@TrainsAreReallyCool]

@randompersonwhocomments3645 And that's why D&RGW 683 is the only surviving standard gauge steamer.

[@xenowreborn]

Wow...when the Title said "Hit Differently...Literally" I was NOT expecting the Eyeballs, and neither were the workers who lost them to Recklessness

[@AShadowboxsFSX]

In the helicopter world, they make us watch actual footage of an incident where someone wasn't paying attention and walked into a tail rotor. I think safety videos are just always grim. But you never forget them.

[@pommeswerfer6973]

And lathe videos. Man the lathe really is the scariest tool in the shop

[@Hyce777]

Oh yowza.

[@Hyce777]

And yeah, lathes are terrifying.

[@ColtonRMagby]

I watched an old training video about train yard operations earlier this year, and one of the things the narrator said was "Don't be a dummy." There was a dummy in the shot at the same time, which made me laugh a little.

[@andrewreynolds4949]

There really was in some places a “we die like men” mentality, or just a general sense of “I know better than they do up top, I’ll do things my way”. Something this harsh on reality might be needed to help cut through that. I’ve seen the results of why the rule “always set handbrakes on your equipment”, including a smashed up speeder!

[@alwaysbearded1]

Shake Hands With Danger. These videos are historical. I currently work in Building Inspection. Most of the old timers were in the trades before joining. Some had short finders. They share enough horror stories to remind you to be safe. I had some people working on my house, one of them shot themselves with a nail gun. When I talked about it at work I got 4 stories of similar incidents from 3 people.

[@timprussell]

Shake Hands With Danger is the best.

[@West_Coast_Gang]

*Epic guitar rift*

[@slanderedstone]

Awesome, now I can protect my mind and limbs at the same time. Thanks hyce!

[@JeffS96]

I'm a truck driver. One of the lumber mills we go to makes you watch a security camera clip of a guy getting run over by a big forklift. I also pretended to be a safety officer for a year and I definitely learned that when you're being told to do something by safety, there's a reason. In part because operations gets to say no to anything we don't have an ironclad argument for.

[@randymagnum143]

So you drive around on the highway, the most dangerous place to work aside from the sea or a farm, and you wouldn't know to look out for forklifts?

[@HerpicussCosplay2]

Hyce just convinced me to watch a safety video voluntary. Great stuff tho!

[@BandanRRChannel]

In terms of showing the serious consequences, this feels like one of the better vintage safety videos. Would also be fun to see a reaction to UP's "Getting off on the Right Foot" sometime.

[@Hyce777]

That's a classic.

[@TheSuperTrousers]

“The rules are written in blood” is not just used on the rails, but in the skies too. I cannot tell how many times I have heard thst phrase in aviation.

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

It goes for everything including everything from laws to medical regulations

[@hannahranga]

It's amazing how they survived without any HiVis clothing. Seeing that slide fence, one of the scarier moments of my career was being up a signal with a double stack freighter coming past at track speed.

[@Poldovico]

I wonder if the 50s narrator would have had something snarky for that :P

[@randymagnum143]

When I see men is reflective vests, chaps, or hard hats, face shields and earpro.....and they're standing around watching someone work...........

[@JuneNafziger]

I genuinely think safety videos that show “this is what happens when you fuck up” are the most useful, other examples I can think of are the shake hands with danger CAT safety video and that claus forklift safety video

[@Ice_Karma]

18:06 "Every safety rule grows out of tragedy and grim experience." Truer words have rarely been spoken.

[@justaguycalledjosh]

Here in the UK we still have torpedos as part of the emergency kit on both trains and track-gangs. Although i don't know how often they get used as part of routine work, since, as you said, signals do most of the job now. Especially since most of the UK network is somewhat interconnected to allow bypass routes on closed tracks, so often routes are entirely closed to facilitate work.

[@The_New_IKB]

they still get used every day/night to protect possessions and as additional protection for line blocks

[@JonsGarage89]

This is good and your commentary is always appreciated. Have you ever seen the german forklift safety video with klaus? We need a Hyce-reacts to that one just for the funsies.

[@Hyce777]

I *love* that video. One of my favorites.

[@MrFen-ws3vr]

I kinda wish safety vids like these still got made (and if they are they got distributed better) The company I work with has a lot of safety training but they don't seem to work on some of our more... Stubborn individuals Having video of actual physical events might work better than the dry "read this and then answer these questions" we currently have

[@coreybonsall]

S-2's, C-48's, and that L-105 at the end... On the note of destroying equipment, one of the mines I worked at up in the Powder River Basin actually had a live demonstration of what a 240 ton capacity haul truck would do to a crew van. The haul truck, the size of a two story house, didn't even flinch. The van ended the same thickness as the engine block.

[@autisticgamer3961]

It would be neat to see you make your own railroad safety video and talk about the proper way to handle the equipment.

[@martehoudesheldt5885]

i love the bluntness of this . i have seen destruction and death in person it is no joke. the more realistic it is the better. and no pc

[@Nareimooncatt]

It's no Shake Hands with Danger, but that narrator was savage at 17:18 when he referred to accidents caused by inattention, negligence, etc. as suicides.

[@mattthedoormat]

The part with the eye safety got me the most. I'm deeply paranoid that something bad might happen to my eyes. Heck, It probably means nothing bad but I scare myself enough that my eyes have sunken a little into my head. But at least I have both of my eyes. I hope I never take the safety of my eyes for granted.

[@michgeeson278]

90% of all my safety meetings could be summed up by 'Don't Stand Between The Weird Shiny Things!' btw in england it is still common place on the Absolute Block lines to protect work with Detonators ( or as apparently called in the US "torpedoes?")

[@Acela2163]

The pyramid of piss cups in the back just complete the picture.

[@erikunderbar4265]

You made me stop breathing

[@mateokuo7502]

Then add the ES&D boxcar and boom

[@Hyce777]

Thanks go to Baconm13 who made the cups , sent them to me, and told me I should make the stack.

[@dickJohnsonpeter]

​@@Hyce777 That guy has a hell of a sense of humor. Same as you for doing it.

[@ebnertra0004]

I remember seeing a video like this from GN filmed in the 40s. More than a few practices were seen that would never be allowed today

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

Hey the great northern is my local fallen flag railroad

[@bobsmith2637]

"Why Risk Your Life?"

[@brianentwistle145]

As somebody that has to watch nearly 20 hours of videos a year to stay compliant for my job, I wish they were little more like this. If they were not so watered down it would make them a little more relatable and memorable.

[@drachenfliger1368]

There is also a German safety video where they discuss the dangers of electricity. shocking but important

[@shuttheheckupkarl6153]

LIMES!

[@crazyjack3357]

Surprised the narrator never said when you shake hands with danger

[@jadebullet3884]

I remember a story I heard from a MOW worker for the Lehigh Valley railroad. They were doing track work and had the track jacked up on multiple track jacks when the crack fast freight "The Mercury" came into view. They scrambled out of the way and the train blew through, snapping the heads off of all of the jacks.

[@pridover]

we need a "Shake Hands With Danger" style railroad safety video

[@stevephares]

It would be amazing to find out this guy narrated a whole series of various industries' safety videos. I'd be here for them all.

[@ShadowDragon8685]

"Why didn't they save one of those?" Because Alfred E. Perlman was in charge of that road, and he: Wants! That! _STEAM ENGINE!_ _chainsaw rev_

[@DAPchatt]

Always a good day when Mark uploads!

[@thatlittlefox.]

16:50 Rio Grande apparantely had dual gauge track on some parts of The line.

[@Hyce777]

They had many sections of dual gauge.

[@deltacx1059]

The old ones are the best, they are entertaining enough to keep you paying attention and they show you the actual consequences. The old videos for fixing semi trucks are the same way, they show a guy getting launched because they were inflating a tire with a incorrectly installed multi piece rim.

[@0ptera]

That old safety video certainly hit differently.

[@mattthelombax]

"How would you like to go through this operation 3 or 4 times a day for the rest of your life?" Well... I wasn't prepared for that shot....

[@TheBeeMan1994]

This video 100% applies to shortlines still lol, I watched the UP version in orientation. My boss was like “yeah we don’t use speeders anymore so just pretend it’s a hi-rail truck, but everything else we still use”

[@TheWeavingBagel]

I just came back to your channel. I'm impressed to see that it has grown.

[@daviscampbell9020]

Normally I ignore safety vids but the built in humor demands attention.

[@stevenjoppich5012]

This is done in pilot training too. In the more formal programs, a lot of time is spent on reviewing actual incidents where people were injured or killed as lessons of how even the most attentive pilot can be killed by a single mistake and then failing to recognize and fix the mistake timely.

[@TheAtlantaRailfan]

Interestingly enough the A.E Pearlman mentioned in the video is Alfred E Pearlman, he went on to become CEO of New York Central and he was responsible for the scrapping for most of the NYC steamers

[@2dogsf-ing]

The old school voice over guy, I think did every voice over from the 1940s to 1960s.

[@TheMetGuy]

This is a very good video Hyce, I love your videos talking about trains

[@MegaZsolti]

I like watching videos of old crossing safety movies, you get a glimpse of the state of crossing protection at that time. There's this one UP movie from the 40s where there's a crossing equipped with yellow flashers with STOP lights, that's cool. Then there's the one from 1959 with a crossing with crossbucks that look incorrectly installed.

[@QuintonMurdock]

Helped our MOW crew (father and son) with some ballast replacement last week. A backhoe helps but it’s still pretty physical

[@Real_Moon-Moon]

Maybe that tally is from the day before? Like, every morning without incident he goes and updates it. You never know when you're gonna get a call that an employee of yours accidentally threw out his back.

[@mightyocelot]

~20:35 "When you put the board on (scaffolding), use plenty of nails. They're cheaper than accidents" 😂Gotta love sassy narrator

[@wessparkmon2395]

My brother is the one who uploaded the DRGW video from one of our dad's VHS's. This is kind of his intention of uploading it. He was a huge fan of MST3K and we always watched their famous UP Grade Crossing reaction to "Last Clear Chance" and always thought what they did in this was perfect for that same sort of set up. I have no idea why our dad had the Rio Grande safety video, given we lived and always lived in West Virginia, but glad you found it and put it to use.

[@adammullarkey4996]

The football analogy was also used in a World War 2 "Know your Ally" series, in the first episode, about Britain. Same sort of message about teamwork. "We're in a different sort of game now. Only, this one isn't for fun; it's for keeps."

[@barrymeyer2805]

I work at a ir- g a. s. These videos are a lot funnier than the ones they show us at our job. Thank you for your video really enjoyed it

[@jessecarozza8134]

I teach chemistry in college - I can confirm that telling people to put on their eye protection is never going to be fun. XD

[@barrettwbenton]

Damn...the crack I made about Buster Keaton in the teaser you put up yesterday was more spot-on than I realized. Tell me I'm wrong to say the folks who produced this used *The General* as a template. (Just a bit more brutal for getting the point across.) Great stuff, and cool commentary, Hyce!

[@AtlanticPancakes]

Imagine being a railroad worker involved on a safety film set, and the director walks up to you before filming and says: "Alright, so heres a hundred bucks. What i'm gonna need you to do is take out that speeder, but don't follow proper procedures, sloppily take it out of the shed, aaaaaaand get your foot run over during the process...you're gonna do great!"

[@TwistedMinds69]

dont get run over by the speeder or whatever you called it. love these videos, its interesting, also like watching military old safety vids

[@johnnorton3874]

Way cool I stumbled on your derail valley videos and found out you were an actual engineer that is so awesome and really enjoy all of your channels content keep it coming

[@KatyPacific382]

I know Alfred E. Perlman worked on the penn central, new york central, and western pacific...but i did not know he worked on the rio grande! *"no wonder only one standard gauge rio grande steam engine (683) was preserved"* 💀💀😂😂😂

[@andrewframe8046]

I recently saw the 1947 one from Great Northern, and it's amazing how much of those safety practices still shape up today (for the stuff that's still legal, anyway)

[@SirNigelGresley4498]

There was a safety campaign on Network Rail that had a coiled up poisonous snake next to the Third Rail, and the text "The Third Rail bites and doesn't let go". I found it really quite effective.

[@gonvillebromhead2865]

Is it just me who noticed that all the "right way" individuals are wearing fedoras, whereas the "wrong way" chaps aren't? Was there a noticeable increase in rail accidents as the fedora fell out of fashion, or were safety fedoras mandated?

[@Hyce777]

Lmao

[@leechowning2712]

Them and hardened bowlers were the early hard hats.

[@Orangeshirt_Railfan]

as someone with a speeder this is quite accurate

[@TrainTrackTrav]

The safety lecture and all that are cool, but the fact that an adult male sees a clip of an articulated steam locomotive and says, "Ooooh, big choo choo," has me in stitches!! Great video as always.

[@billtheunjust]

I don't recall seeing those cups stacked in the background on previous videos/livestreams... Nice touch for this topic.

[@brandonpurple165]

This Safety Video reminds me of the one me and my friends did for P.E In High School of the Do's and Not to Do's in the P.E Gym. The Teacher told us to use Our Imagination but make it look good. The Amount of Chaos that Ensue'd

[@40below1000]

9:30 "He was riding his luck but Death was riding the head end." That's gonna look great on my tombstone

[@Dannyedelman4231]

The hi rail trucks still have to check the train lineup so they can get on and off the track

[@melissasueh.]

When my husband was being trained for MOW operations, they did use that phrase "the rules in GCOR were written in blood."

[@57thorns]

13:30 And this is why you have to borrow those stinky steel toed boots whenever you visit a factory floor or construction site or anywhere else people work with heavy equipment.

[@XENONPLASMA]

"Duck and Cover" "Reefer Madness" and many other Social/ Mental Hygiene PSAs are freaking hilarious in the modern era!

[@khtrains]

Have you ever seen the PRR safety film, 'Escape from Limbo'? It's pretty much a Twilight Zone episode!

[@emilpersson8250]

There are an old educational film from the 1940s in Sweden were they show how a modern(for the time) hump yard was operated. Let’s just say that safety was not the highest priority on the state owned railroad at the time. The video also have English text available if your interested in watching.

[@bobsmith2637]

When I hired on with CN in the 2000s we watched Union Pacific's "Getting Off On The Right Foot" on the first day of rules class. Great Northern's "Why Risk Your Life?" is another classic, especially with its bit about how to 'safely' ride on top of a boxcar.....

[@smedley5215]

I love your content, and as you mentioned a few videos back, I’d love to see a deep dive into MU lashups and how that works. Thanks!

[@SeaKing61]

You want to watch some the British Rail safety videos from the 70s like 'The finishing line'. They were absolutely brutal... and designed for children to watch.

[@ashleytaylor896]

wow that was very interesting to watch thanks hyce.

[@OverKillPlusOne]

Cat’s “Shake Hands With Danger” is great too.

[@OfficialDenverRioGrandeWestern]

Hey The Rio Grande here thanks you all for watching this masterpiece of a video we put together

[@strike9716]

Oh no it's Perlman, Hide your steam engines! I guess this must have been during his rage against motocars phase.

[@BurnedBaconGaming]

This was by far the most effective safety video I have ever watched. Absolute gem.

[@garysprandel1817]

Hyce there's some WWII training videos on KZbin that i don't recall the exact search terms on but one or two covered sabotage of enemy rail assets. Fun part is watching all the WWII movie tropes get demolished by real world physics.

[@MineTrain]

That was funny and instructive add the same time! Thx you for showing this to us!

[@patricksheary2219]

Hi Mark, Fabulous period safety film. Totally corny dialogue but certainly a product of its time. The eyeball sequence made me look away OMG 🤣. Seriously though, it is well put and as you say still has many relevant things to tell us today. Cool to see all those period choo choos as well as the tools and workwear. Safety boots and glasses gotta have ‘em! Thanks again Professor for sharing this and as usual love your giggle reactions and educational commentary. Cheers!

[@T3ki1a_]

I have no idea if we still use them but I can assure you every modern train at the Belgian National Railways is equipped with those little bombs

[@shawndoyle7531]

We really need more of these

[@NorthmassRails]

This video was great! Funny commentary!😂

[@natdrat00]

I have worked in Trucking, Aviation, Lumber yards, and some time in the military; "Rules are written in Blood" has been a common guideline for all of them.

[@joeyoungblood6578]

It's always interesting to see how safety films were made back in the day. Where they showed the right way and the wrong way. And consequences if done the wrong way.

[@bjrnfrederiksson2505]

It's absolutely fantastic Hyce 😂😂

[@michaelhayes1678]

LOVED IT!!! Vintage safety film! Awesome!