National Geographic: Love Those Trains Page #4

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But when the snow drifts too deep,

spreaders stall

and the pushing wings collapse.

The nerve center of the railroad's

fight is a community of houses

and offices connected by tunnels

so buried in snow that

it is call "Mole Town."

Here a hundred men and women

work day and night.

Norden operator.

Everything's in the clear

on the Number Two?

How about the rotary?

Rotary's in the clear

on the Number Two...

Management calls for its ultimate

snow-fighting machines-rotary plows

that can dig through almost

any accumulation of snow.

...that engine's being held right now.

The rotary is going on down

to the other end of the siding.

Throwing five tons of snow a minute,

the rotary can literally dig

a trench deeper than itself.

As one rotary chews toward the top of

the pass from the west,

another struggles up from the east.

The first train comes through.

Beyond the Sierras,

the "Salad Bowl Express"

drops into the desert,

and a new crew takes over.

On the long, straight runs,

there's time for shared stories and

for trainmen to enjoy the camaraderie

which is part of the attraction

they feel for their work.

I don't think it's dawned on me

yet that I've had a kid.

I'm still in shock from it.

Went in Sunday night.

Had it Monday morning.

Last couple of days

have been pretty busy for me.

I was lucky.

Generally the railroad doesn't

allow you to be in town.

They keep you away

from home quite often.

So I was pretty lucky to be home

when it happened.

In 1950,

I was on a

high-speed perishables train,

and a passenger train come out

of a side track in front of us.

We hit him head

on about 52 mile an hour.

The engineer on the other train

was killed.

I'm very lucky to be here.

Now that scared me.

By evening,

the train is in eastern Nevada.

The next morning,

now with a Union Pacific

engine and crew,

the "Salad Bowl Express" climbs toward

the Continental Divide.

Around a curve, Castle Rock,

a well-known American landmark,

comes into view.

The famous photographer A.J. Russell

captured this same scene

when the transcontinental railroad

was nearing completion.

In 1867, it took three months to cross

by wagon from the railheads

on the Missouri River

to the Pacific Coast.

The new rail line cut that time

to less than a week.

Irish immigrants living

in railroad car dormitories built west.

Chinese coolies built east.

It was the most dramatic engineering

accomplishment of the century.

Gorges were spanned, mountains cut

through or tunneled under.

An army of workers fought summer heart

and winter snow

at a cost of uncounted lives.

There were no movie cameras to record

the great undertaking,

but once movies were invented,

filmmakers recreated the drama

in classic films;

John Ford's the Iron Horse

and Cecil B. DeMille's Union Pacific.

Crossing the mountains,

the deserts, and plains,

Fighting the heat,

the cold, and the rain,

Summer to autumn, winter to spring,

Bring 'em up, lay 'em down,

make the hammers ring,

Building a new road under the wheel,

Bind up the earth in iron and steel,

Working east, working west,

we're building our way,

On bad food, hard liquor,

and a dollar a day.

It was a day of national celebration

when the two lines met

at Promontory, Utah.

A.J. Russell recorded the scene

in what is perhaps

the most famous photograph

in American history.

And in 1924,

when John Ford recreated the scene

for his film,

he based the action

on the photographer to pose the crowd.

The joining of America's East and West

by rail is even more important today.

The "Salad Bowl Express" is only one

of 60 to 70 trains a day

moving across the nation

on this one line.

Now, near the end of its second day,

the "Salad Bowl Express" comes under

the traffic control

of dispatchers

at North Platte, Nebraska.

Here three men per shift control

every train

on the 245 miles of track diagrammed

on the walls.

They decide which trains get priority

on the lines.

The "Salad Bowl Express"

is rushed along.

Midnight. The "Salad Bowl Express"

arrives at North Platte.

Some cars will be sent south

and eastward on other lines.

Other cars will be added.

The freight cars are pushed up a hump

and separated.

Gravity powers them down the slope.

The tracks divide again and again.

Automatic sensors weigh the cars

and retarders brake them.

There are 221 miles of track

in the yard.

And as many as 5,000 freight cars

at a time.

By 4 a.m.,

a new train has been made up,

a new crew comes aboard,

and the train moves on.

In the afternoon,

the train crosses the Missouri River.

Operated now by Chicago

and North Western railroad,

it traverses the rich farmlands

of Iowa.

The next morning,

the train is in Chicago.

Marshaling yards like this one

are dangerous places.

You have to watch for cars

coming from both directions.

There could be debris sticking

out of the car.

Try not go get caught in a situation

where you have trains moving

at high speed in both directions

on each side of you.

If you do have a tendency

to feel dizzy, lay down on the ground.

You could reel under the car.

Despite railroad emphasis on safety,

there is an average of 15 deaths

and 6,700 injuries

to American rail-yard workers

each year.

Danger for railroaders comes not only

from the trains themselves.

In the early days,

desperadoes like Jesse James,

Butch Cassidy,

and the Sundance kid held up trains

in the lonely plains and mountains

of the West.

Today, trains are most often attacked

as they pass through depressed areas

We had one conductor-they got him with

a gun and robbed him at Park Manor.

It's just a few things that we go

through out here.

Everybody thinks

we've got such a swell job.

We have our ups and downs, too.

This is our most dangerous spot

of the trip.

They put different articles

on the tracks to derail us.

They put old truck tires

so they'll break the air hoses in two.

They'll throw beer bottles,

anything they can get their hands on.

We've been shot at.

They shot at me five times

through the caboose windows.

I've got pictures of the holes.

It was either a.38 or a.45

because it put big holes.

Sometimes they do it to rob the train.

They break us in two to rob us,

so they can take things off of us.

On the cabooses they have...

No, I know all about it.

He's going to throw.

No, he's not either.

Oh, we go through this every day.

It's nothing new to us.

The many dedicated man and women

who are drawn to railroad work

also live with the danger that goes

with the job.

The "Salad Bowl Express" rolls through

the heartland

of the industrial Middle West.

On the fifth morning,

the train parallels the Mohawk River.

Now under Conrail control,

it follows the same route taken

in 1825 by the Erie Canal.

Early on the sixth morning,

the "Salad Bowl Express" arrives at

its destination in the Bronx.

Ten carloads of produce are unloaded

at Hunts Point Terminal each day.

The carload of lettuce from Salinas

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