Pennsylvania Railroad Film Wheels of Steel [4K]

[@BackshopRailProductions]

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[@chrisjones4423]

My Grandfather Ran PRR trains for many many years, he started on the Frisco in 1924! made it to New York central, then to Pennsylvania Railroad. When the Merger came together he stayed with Penn Central, then retired under Amtrak in 1974. His best memory was the presidential train!

[@bigdchi]

Love these 1950's PR films always weaving in patrioism.

[@mitchdakelman4470]

The film was not a corporate made PRR movie as many people think, but was privately made by Jack Pokress who was a news photographer for the Long Island paper NEWSDAY. Years ago I looked in a Long Island phone book and his number appeared and after contacting him, I went for a visit and he sold me a copy of the movie in which he still had some left. Very nice man.

[@johnshiner3295]

I enjoyed working on the penncentral a great job.

[@jaminova_1969]

Great film! I remember going to watch the GG-1 when I was younger. It was great seeing the footage at Long Island City. I also rode the Metroliner along the same route, NY to WDC. Cheers!

[@dalecomer5951]

My family lived in western PA around the time this film would have been made. No electrification of the lines that I can recall. Lots of big, beautiful, grimey steam locomotives and beautiful new EMD diesels. I saw pictures of the GG-1 in books and thought if that is the future they can have it. Funny, I feel the same about electric cars now. Still, this film has lots of priceless historical details. Never heard of a "pig" ("barney?") in that context and learned that a coupler has to be strong enough to "haul hundreds of tons." The kid in the engineer uniform playing with the Lionel toy train would not likely have been from any of the steel towns around where we lived.

[@nikerailfanningttm9046]

My family served on the PRR, PC, and Conrail. So I have GG1 genes running through my blood. I was born in 1976 and when I was 4 in 1980 I rode in the cab of a GG1, when I was 3 in 1979 I rode in Conrail 4800’s cab. Good memories of the PRR, PC and Conrail. Today with NS, well, things have gone downhill sadly on the PRR route.

[@christopherwagner2395]

Quite a script. Fantastic document. The Pennsy was a big operation. They always make a point of their disciplined maintenance and insistence on high safety standards.

[@candacelubin3813]

Thanks for this nostalgic film of great days of the railroads. I was fond of the Pennsy and the NY Central. The whole family would go out to Penn station to greet family arriving from upstate (NY).

[@asd36f]

Those Gt1s were certainly one of the most distinctively styled locomotives in American railroad history.

[@CrabMan2539]

1:03 What a gorgeous building. I would love to visit it at some point. Oh wait....

[@richardgordon8110]

I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED THE PENNSYLVANIANS AND THE NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD.

[@VictorianMaid99]

very cool

[@pauls.3400]

My Grandpa was the engineer of a Presidential train with Western Pacific...🚂🚈🛤

[@theAztecfalcon]

How far we've fallen

[@devinrogers6877]

Ain't that the truth

[@geodot595]

the likes of mary bara to put a kenworth in every driveway which most dont need. massive highways, empty trains.

[@ocsrc]

These were the days. The pride they took in the safety All of the people what's good paying jobs Now we have trains to miles long with only one man running them and soon with positive train control computers will take over that last job and the trains will run completely automated with no human beings Automation is good but what do we do about the people who need jobs, real jobs that pay a living wage ?

[@Mark-iy4no]

It's a shame these days are gone and never coming back

[@dalecomer5951]

I like to refer to it as "the other Planet Earth." One of the very best episodes of The Twighlight Zone had that theme.

[@caryhuff8924]

GG-1 pulling 18 cars at once when Amtrak struggles to pull 5-6 cars using 2 loco's. 0:12 & 10:03 Love the G!

[@dmrr7739]

Bull. Amtrak’s ACS-64 has 6,400 hp continuous while providing head end power at 125mph. The GG-1s had less horsepower and had a separate oil-fired steam generator for hotel power.

[@robertdipaola3447]

@@dmrr7739 the gg-1's had 8000 hp and could, if need be, go up to 125 mph way back then, they were Monsters, only now is Amtrak faster

[@dmrr7739]

@@robertdipaola3447 wrong. 8,000 hp was the GG-1’s maximum horsepower. It couldn’t maintain that for more than a short time before it’s transformer would overheat. Its continuous output was 4,600 hp. The ACS-64 has a maximum output of 8,600 hp and continuous output of 6,700 hp (mistyped above as 6,400). They also didn’t pull at 125mph. They were geared for 100mph service, and later, 90mph. Faster service was introduced with the Budd Metroliners (intermittently due to equipment problems), then permanently with the AEM-7 Toasters.

[@danadohy1712]

I love trains

[@Sugarmountaincondo]

I got to see & visit inside the Presidential passenger car back in the 1970's at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum, was a built out heavy weight pullman with extra room to navigate a wheelchair. I think the last President to utilize it was G.H. Bush in the 1980's. Kim Jong Un of North Korea still uses the armored train his grandfather had built, and any current National Leaders have to take an armored train from the Polish Border to Ky' iv. Hopefully when the Russo-Ukrainian War ends, the armored train will be saved into a museum for preservation.

[@johnwalters1341]

What did a GG1 use fuel oil for?

[@nigelmitchell351]

I would imagine it was for a train heating boiler. An electric boiler for 18 coaches would have taken a huge amount of power.

[@peterstierli3596]

needs fuel oil for steam generator for train heat

[@PrekiFromPoland]

I wonder why no American railroad didn't use electric heating on a larger scale until like mid-seventies. In Europe it is a standard since the end of WW2 and even before then a sight of an electric locomotive with steam boiler was rare here. As a temporary solution, juicers equipped with HEP hauled an additional steam heating car, but most of the cars used on electrified lines were soon rebuilt with electric heating, negating the need of either steam boiler on the locomotive or a separate car.

[@derail14]

gg1 was electric over head cantnery wires were used.

[@ffjsb]

@@PrekiFromPoland Because the US has vast reserves of coal and oil, and it is MUCH larger than Europe, with some vast areas that are far from power plants that generate electricity. Not to mention that our trains are much heavier than a typical European train also. It's just not practical for much of the US.

[@gregmilliken5538]

America really lost something when all the passenger trains went away. I know there are still passenger trains, but not like the ones depicted in these films. I guess people are a lot different, too. Everyone is in a hurry , not that long ago, people didn't travel much, it was an adventure. On a train you would be on there for a while, you could and would chat with friends if you were in a group, or fellow travelers who were strangers if you were alone. Just a different world from today.

[@dileepnewaskar6352]

GG1 👈my all time favourite electric⚡locomotive 🚊👌 ❤Love from India 🇮🇳 🙏

[@mitchdakelman4470]

I will be showing an original 16mm print which I purchased the film maker Jack Pokress many years ago at the upcoming PRR Technical and Historical Society's annual convention in Lancaster on May 15. This was not a corporate film by the PRR. Jack financed it himself.

[@BackshopRailProductions]

Funny, I have the original 16mm film that has the stamp and company letter from the PRR. I showed this to an old retired PRR employee and was told this was produced by the PRR.

[@mitchdakelman4470]

@@BackshopRailProductionsIts very well possible that Jack gave the PRR a print, or the PRR bought prints from him, but when I met Jack Pokress about 20 years ago, he had the camera original and the track in a can he showed me. I have no idea what became of it. I do have PRR corporate films like Clear Track Ahead, both versions, Opening a New Frontier and Progress on the Rails. PRR made a few color films, but I do not have any on 16mm. Mitch

[@mitchdakelman4470]

I finally got a color PRR film, TRAINS TRACKS AND SAFETY FACTS, made in 1956. Great safety film and production! Non fade Kodachrome too!

[@gleanerk]

Thanks

[@paxtonfettel7268]

Nice! 8-)

[@MrSouthernman73]

*Narrator* @10:07 "Youve got 18 cars loaded with passengers".Ummm no....only 13 actually.

[@train_lover_2004]

I've noticed that too

[@T128Productions]

@@train_lover_2004 Same here.

[@fredzag2452]

Hardly the mention of the GG-1's massive horsepower. 6,000 ponies!

[@nigelmitchell351]

Fuel oil for train heating, presumably, but why wasn't electric power utilised.?

[@markschroeder2578]

Head End Power (HEP) was still years in the future. At the time of the film, passenger trains were still steam heated and air conditioned.

[@sethkimmel7312]

@@markschroeder2578 but why not use electrically powered water boilers?

[@markschroeder2578]

@@sethkimmel7312 Presumably because no one developed an electric steam generator. The only ones in existence used fuel oil (diesel fuel actually) to produce steam. Switzerland extended the service life of their steam locomotives (after they started large scale electrification) by mounting a pantograph on the cab roof and an electric heater in the firebox, using electricity to boil the water to steam. But there was no attempt made here in the U.S. to use electricity to produce steam.

[@sethkimmel7312]

Why do the GG1s have oil burners to boil water for the steam heating of the coaches and sleepers? Wouldn't have been easier for them to use electrically powered boilers that get their electricity from the same overhead wires as they uses for propulsion power?

[@dmrr7739]

No, producing steam from electricity is horrendously inefficient, requiring far more power than the GG-1 could supply. Locomotives were stuck with steam generators until the arrival of head end power in the 1970s in the US (1950s elsewhere).

[@scottroland6577]

@@dmrr7739 The reason that the passenger cars were steam heated, was they had to be compatible with the remainder of the system (railroad) which wasn't electrically powered. They used the steam from the steam locomotives to both run the heat and the Air Conditioning in the passenger cars. In the early days (1920's) they used ice for air conditioning.

[@eggman8053]

Hey.. so theirs this little thing and umm... ^PENN CENTRAL*

[@maunster3414]

11:20 gandy dancers, that's a new one.

[@davidkean1487]

I think Gandy was the manufacturer of the tools they used in track maintenance.

[@kyleproctor6928]

What area was that bridge crossing the Susquehanna if anyone knows?

[@steveember8972]

The bridge connects Havre de Grace and Perryville in northeastern Maryland.

[@dileepnewaskar6352]

Railways 🛤️ that built-up modern...... 🚂🚃🚃🌉🌉🌉🌉🌉🚃🚃🚃 civilisation🏢🌇🏭🚗🏭🖥📞💺🚀⛽🏟 so fast三👌

[@ThunderTrain2930]

I miss the PRR

[@gospelsparky]

“...the story of a nation made great.” Sounds somehow familiar...

[@gospelsparky]

Samuel Olesek if even the most oblique reference to Trump makes you consider leaving railfanning, please consider seeking help. This is not healthy.

[@gospelsparky]

Samuel Olesek hopefully that’s not the sole criteria you base your vote on... But even if so, the rails have been jam packed since ‘17.

[@gospelsparky]

Samuel Olesek explains a lot. Don’t listen to the media/ your teachers. Trump is at work to make this nation great again, somewhat similar to the golden age depicted in this video. Thus the phrase they used.

[@fumingriley]

But this guy wasn't lying

[@hectorhardy4781]

Like train

[@jimtalbott9535]

Then: "Link between the rolling country-side and the busy city." Now: "Fly-over country" and "Liberal enclave".

[@neetknight9954]

I love propaganda. You’re a locomotive!

[@raspergrey3171]

Like train