National Geographic: Love Those Trains Page #4
- Year:
- 1991
- 75 Views
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.
to the other end of the siding.
Throwing five tons of snow a minute,
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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