The Pennsylvania Railroad in "Clear Track Ahead" (1946)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ธ.ค. 2024
- "Clear Track Ahead" was a promotional film made by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1946, just as it was beginning the transition from steam to diesel.
This is another of my "railfan editions"--I've edited out the various side stories and studio vignettes.
Those of you that have seen the photo of the PRR T1 with the 5 inspectors standing in front of it, My father was the man standing on the left end. He was one of the inspectors during the T1 builds. Yes they are building a new one, with some modifications, LOL - at 80 I am not sure I'll see the finished locomotive. I will say that the steam era was truly wonderful.
I certainly hope you hang around long enough to see that T1 completed and user steam. I'm a bit younger than you (66), but have followed rail story in the Northeast rather tenaciously for a good deal of my life.
That’s so cool!
@@barrettwbenton
@@ColtFour.7
💯
Jobs. Service. Dignity. Sure, work was less than ideal and often hard but people could raise families with one breadwinner who took pride in work well done.
Very true. Stable well paid work. A Human based economy
Those steam engines required a lot of people to support them and with no interstate highway system it was full employment.
What a wonderful film. At age 9 (1958) my grandparents took me and my sister to Charleston, SC from NYC's Penn. This was the only time I was in the main part of the Penn station, I remember seeing the glass roof 75 feet above. My g-parent's had two roomettes, and it was the most exciting event of my childhood. On the return trip, we slept in the bunk beds. What a way to travel, then.
and thanks to car now we get to be stuck in traffic
I see a T1, I click.
Shame none exsit
Steamloco a new engine will be completed in 2030.
@@loganmalough2379 I hard that it was going to be sooner but I could be wrong what I hard is that they made enough money for 20 or 30 percent I could be wrong please take what I wrote a pinch of salt
yep
Ah yes a true man of culture
The freight yard you see is the Enola breaking yard in Enola PA. I lived across the tracks from this yard for 34 years. I used to take my now-grown son to sit in our old Chevy station wagon and watch the cars being humped and put together to deliver goods across the nation. At one time, the Enola yard was the largest breaking yard on the East Coast.
I remember one day someone came to our door and told us that there were free potatoes being given out. Sure enough, down where my son and I went to watch the cars, a reefer car full of Idaho potatoes had broken down, and rather than waste all those taters, the railroad was giving them to the townspeople. We went away with a couple of bags of spuds! First come, first served.
At 16:44 you will see the engineer's lodgings. When I moved to Enola in 1973, it was no longer there, but instead had been transformed into an appliance repair shop called "Barlup's." Mr. Barlup and his sons ran that shop and they are good people (Mr. Barlup has now passed on) and are, I believe, still there to this day operating as Barlup's Appliances.
Thanks for the story, Edward Hara. As a rider on the old Pennsy, I enjoyed it.
You dont happen to remember Vans diner ? I was from altoona, My grandfather Engineer middle div. He loved Vans & so did I. It might be long gone ?
As this film depicted a shining future for railroads, it was the beginning of the end for steam power and after another decade the decline of passenger travel.
And the greatest act of civil vandalism in the Nation’s history - the destruction of Pennsylvania Station, the finest transport terminal ever built.
I last road a passenger train in 1971 as a kid in Renovo pa. It went to Williamsport and then to Philly. I loved it and think about it all the time.
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. I was born in 1946 in Chicago, and fondly recall traveling on steam-powered equipment. Just 19 years later, in college, I traveled the Denver Zephyr on one of its last runs. It is truly sad to know that the future held, instead, the demise of railroad travel and then American manufacturing itself, with the steady decline of solid middle-class incomes, homes, and affordable college educations for us who grew up in that era. I am still stunned to think of it all, and to see our economy today and the chasm between the two economic extremes of our society -- and now, it is horrible to think about what the pandemic is going to do to all of the good people just trying to hang on . . . .
@@shanghunter7697 Renovo! Wow, that's a town in the middle of beautiful and undisturbed Sproul State forest (minus the fracking). The hunting club I belong to, the Remington Club, is one of the oldest in PA and I think has the oldest cabin in PA. Our founding members took train, in the opposite direction from where they started in Harrisburg to Philly, then back to Williamsport. They met with a farmer who had a barge to get them across the river at North Bend. They had frostbite and one time snow that buried their cabin, back when you got snow taller than a person. The conditions were horrible, sometimes the hunting rough. We continue to honor their legacy by forgoing electricity in our cabin.
@@phyllishamilton165 I hope to make that a reality again
Wow- what a treasure this video is to me. I love the PRR, and think the T-1 is awesome, and this video will be so helpful to me when I paint my model. Thank you for posting this interesting, informative and useful video
It was a great Railroad Rip Pennsylvanian Railroad PRR you will be in our hearts.
Also watching a T1 on a Dyno track is probably the most epic train nerdy things you can witness! Simply amazing when you think of watching something that 3 feet away at full power of that size and the pressure waves from the cylinders pounding in your chest.
I fully believe that it could have beaten the mallard
Seeing that shiny new T1 on the Dyno track had me geeking out. That was a beauty of an engine.
@@theincrediblehulk5797 nah mate, thats s1 job
No ear protection. And you know it had to be loud in that enclosed space!
Absolutely would have loved to experience that.
So heart breaking seeing all of the railroads in their prime and now they're non existent relics of the past rusting away in peices across america..
AJ DeRiso they were a means to an end
They haul tons of stuff still, far from being nonexistent
Railroads now haul far more freight than they did in 1946
No, there are tons of railroads. A lot of the small branches shut down, and the organizations were merged, but most of the main trackage is still there, most of it heavily used. In total tonnage, we ship more by rail than we did before. there are fewer cars and fewer trains, but they carry a lot more.
Dude I work for one, no we are not relics rusting.
This fascinating film was made the year my parents got married. It might as well show life on another planet.
Back when made in America was commonly stamped on almost everything you owned
Year I was born,lol! All gone(mostly) D&RGW, SP, CNW, WP, NP!.As someone says, sad
No, no, NO! Jim can wait a minute! More of the test plant please. Lol! Seriously though, this was a fantastic short film. Thanks for the upload.
I didn't see anyone working at the Test Plant wearing ear protection. I can only imagine how loud it was standing right next to that T1 running close to 100 mph!
@@b3j8 Actually, probably not as loud as you think. At the stack sure, but running on rollers it should be pretty good or it would beat itself to death in short order.
If anyone is ever in South Central Pennsylvania, there's a Pennsylvania Railroad museum in Altoona PA that's worth seeing. They have a directory of All PRR's employees.
For 1946 the US had some great gear and that includes the T1, beautiful.
You are not kidding. Could you imagine seeing one of these on British tracks!!!
@@jeffreyshaw4037 yeah, i'm sure it could give the Mallard a run for its money.
Have you guys heard about the T1?
The answer: in 2014, the group of Penslyvania name the t1 trust is currently building a brand new t1, which will be completed sometimes in 2030
@@Railfan105. we’ll find out in a few years whether or not it could’ve beat Mallard’s record
@@Railfan105. I think not, if I recall Mallard holds the speed record for steam still.
I remember as a kid visiting an aunt who lived next to a rail line and waving to the engineers as the trains passed. Also one of my favorite trips as taking a rail trip from Chicago to Seattle stopping for a visit to Glacier National Park. Unfortunately the last part of the trip was by bus because a forest fire had closed the last section of track from service. Also, when our kids were young, took the Amtrak to NY from Indpls. Enjoyed the great Pennsy Horseshoe Curve where you could see both ends of the train.
Now get crammed in an aluminum tube envious of the room enjoyed by sardines packed in a tin can.
Ah,back when the U.S.A was a strong powerhouse of industry and commerce. I don't think this country will ever be that strong again. I wasn't around at that time, however it is nice being able to see footage of this country back when things were actually made here.
I can now appreciate and enjoy running my HO Scale T1 even more than before. It's an awesome beast; even with the slipping troubles of the real ones.
How did you get your HO T1 to have a wheel slip ability?
@@parkertherailfan probably the weight of the train and opening the throttle really fast.
This is fantastic, it shows machines and technology of the time that I never knew about or saw.
i only just found this. Thanks for posting. It was fascinating to see this great engine in motion :) . I noticed a team of enthusiasts are actually going to build one of these engines too . Meant to be ready by 2030.
Was the T1 really a good engine? Or is this exaggeration?
All gone now.As a young boy I sent letters to many railroads & received many emblems, belt buckles, etc.
I was old by an Engineer at Altoona he'd start on the ready track and shut down the throttle. It would coast the next mile on its own. Smooth roller bearing setup.
The Pennsylvania RR paid dividends on it's stock every quarter without a single break, even during the Great Depression, right up until 1949: the longest record in corporate history.
Cutting edge technology in those days. As a kid, I could see all those dead railroads represented by their rolling stock as they entered the now gone SP yard in my hometown. Same goes for the MoP on the north edge of my hometown. I also got to see SP and MoP steam engines before they were replaced by early diesels. The local SP yard was a thriving place. 13 tracks; switching crews; car repair shop; roundhouse; PFE ice rack; signal men with their motor cars on the back of 6 wheel trucks; yard office; depot; yard men who walked the trains and oiled the 'box'; passenger trains. All gone now.
Watching them manufacturing the T1, I'll bet the T1 Trust that's working to build a new one would give anything to have the skilled Craftsmen shown building the T1's come back from the dead to lend their knowledge!
If anything the craftsmen they have today are the best of the best and would have a thing or two to teach the original T1 engineers
@@fty-ys4niTrue but the castings they could make back then are no longer possible. I've worked some with welded and cast metal, and there's an integrity and toughness in a solid casting that only a perfect weld can hope to equal. Maybe its a grain structure in the metal when it's cast?
My grandfather worked for the Delaware & Hudson and he was sadly killed working in the Albany, NY breaking yard. He was helping to build a freight at night in February, 1961 during a snow storm when he was caught between the cuplings of two cars. he, apparently because of the deep falling snow, didn't hear the rolling shunt approaching, while he was opening the frozen knuckle of the receiving car, which caught him. I was all of 9 years old then. his funeral was a closed coffin because his injuries were too horrific to be viewed. Grandmother never recovered from her loss. 😞
God, I luv this sort of thing...
Always have, always will.
Thanx for posting. That wuz a good one!
cheers
My Dad work for the Penn R.R. At Penn Station from 1940 until he retired, except for his years in WWII.
Incredible video.
1946 was a fabulous year for the PRR …. It was their 100th anniversary.
Then PRR …. Now NS also CSX.
You forgot Conrail
That was a fascinating and enjoyable film. I was surprised about steam power still being so prominent and being further improved when diesels were already in service.
Another surprising item was how cab telephone systems were in common use- I thought they had been developed years later than this. Perhaps the Pennsylvania Railroad was a remarkable company..
People who designed this are now gone. They had no CAD. No GPS. Ect.. they just make it work. Fine job by our ancestors. My generation we we went from Paper maps to Map Books to GPS. I'm glad to have seen advances in getting things done. Been running service trucks since early 90s. Remember anyone driving with a map in your lap ? I didn't like GPS at first. But now I cannot imagine life without it. 😃
I listened to a talk given by the Chief Mechanical Engineer Victorian Railways in 1978 and he mentioned that they would look at a blueprint of a locomotive and they would tell the designer to make it 100 pounds lighter. All from blueprints! No CAD.
Wow, so much of that doesnt exist anymore. There is a restoration club seeking to build a new one of the PRR T1'S because none exist today also the S1's.
Must be something special, they call this engine a miracle of engineering.
a new group building a NEW T1 5550
Tickled Funny Bone yep the T1 is expected to be done bye 2030
They just finished restoring a Union Pacific Big Boy and taking it out for a run somewhere out west. Here's a link if you weren't aware of it.:
th-cam.com/video/IrWXwSNzbGQ/w-d-xo.html
S1, really?
Interesting to see that there were steel shipping container systems in 1946. I thought they appeared in the late 1950's.
Me too. I thought they were 'invented' by a trucking company who started by putting trailers on flat wagons and then just putting the box without the chassis - the container.
I think what happened later is standardization across the industry -- earlier container schemes were not widely adopted enough.
LCL Containers go back to the 1920's. The New York Central had them as early as 1922. "Piggy Back" trailers on flat cars were pioneered by, of all things, an interurban railroad in 1926. The Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee (CNS&M or "North Shore Line").
@@markcarey8426 The British railways/railroads had transferable road/rail containers back in the '40s if not earlier but they were small and wooden (afaik) and restricted to short-wheel base wagon 'flats'. It was a start (before the demolition of most of the U.K. rail network under a policy set by road-building interests).
A very nice old film. PRR T1 - I like streamlined Steam Locomotives. Thank you for Uploading. Thumbs up. Best regards from Germany. :-)
Most interesting when they where testing the great locomotive.
Thank you kindly for this...
Can’t wait for the new T1 to be completed, they where such grand looking engines
There's a better chance of the PRR coming back to business then seeing another T1.
@@TheMrPeteChannel by the look of things the T1 trust is still on schedule, we should be seeing a new T1 within the next 10 years
@@TheMrPeteChannel the T1 Trust is 30% by weight done with their project to build a new T1.
@@TheMrPeteChannelare you sure about that? Might wanna check again
Never thought I would see a chassis dyno for steam trains.
There is another video on TH-cam of one in England called "locomotive testing station".
I think that may have been in Altoona PA.
I had no idea they had in-cab signalling!
@John Mumford The cab signalling system and its equivalents is still in use today on the NS Pittsburgh Line, Amtrak Northeast Corridor, and commuter lines like SEPTA and NJT
Railroads didn't work together as a team but fought each other tooth and nail.
Full version... Search: "The Pennsylvania Railroad - Clear Track Ahead! 1946 Vintage PRR Footage"
At 12:56, there's a piece of equipment in the background that kind of looks like a miniature mk. IV tank. I'm guessing it's some kind of mobile power unit as there's a hose connected to the gauging equipment mounted on the tracks.
This was great! Thanks for sharing.
Wow! I didn't know steam locomotives could have cab signalling!
It's been there in the UK and USA for over 100 years!
The Chicago & NorthWestern Railway (C&NW) had cab signals in their steam locomotives going back, I believe, to the 1920s.
And coal stokers too!
Its those wire antennas on PRR cabooses, those "handrails" ontop of their diesels and on top of tenders.
Theres many other facinating parts of steam locos that have improved efficiency, including booster engines, feedwater heaters, stokers, etc.
Me neither!
Great video, Thanks for presentation, from Germany
God bless the men and women of the Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania railroad paid dividends continuously to their shareholders for over 100 years. They were the best run railroad in the world. Nobody ever dreamed they would fall.
Until they weren't.
wrong
Absolute gem 👍
Was always my favorite railroad.
I never knew they had signal readouts in the cab till now
Like • Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway 🚂
This is really well written.
I have ridden the train many times and enjoyed everyone of them. Took one Pullman and the best sleep ever.
I love these grand, old films !
Many thanks for sharing this AMAZING information! I will be sharing with other railroad fans 👌
The Pennsylvania railroad is awesome
That TrainPhone system worked okay, but was often full of static. Especially the further away you got. Almost unusable later on as track conditions deteriorated.
They should have been using VHF radio even then. Low band VHF was not that expensive even then.
@@Isochest Yeah several railroads like the New Haven started testing radio after WW2. Trainphone was very short range, maybe 300 feet if that. And they used that system well into the 1960's believe it or not!
Nobody could have envisioned the interstate highway system and the expansion of flying in 1946.
I was always fascinated by the Pennsy S2 "turbine" 6-8-6. The technology there was really something for it's day. If diesels had held-off another decade or so and given a little more refinement, who knows where that design could have gone.
Sweden ran successful steam turbine locos for decades, but they were much smaller than the S-2.
@@pilsudski36 Yes, I looked at some of those Swedish locos. Very impressive! Throughout the world it seems steam turbines either were direct gear drive or the turbines drove electric traction motors. I wonder if anyone ever tried using a Voith-type hydraulic transmission similar to what was used on the Krauss Maffei ML 4000 diesel-hydraulics? Might have resulted in a very interesting turbine loco.
What awesome engineering back then
Yes but the disadvantage of direct-drive steam turbine was that the turbine could not operate at optimal speeds over the locomotive's entire speed range.
@@Jerry-hp5sf I'd read recently that within a road speed band they were efficient and as powerful as all hell. But outside of that band, they were exceedingly expensive to run. The washup being that they weren't worth the effort and expense. It's a bit like compounding in that it's a technology well suited to marine use, but not so much to rail.
Hewlett unloading. Amazing.
Interesting that this film about the Pennsylvania Railroad (one of my favorites) came out the same year the railroad celebrated its centennial.
Everybody loves the PRR.
Rebuild the old Penn Station please - should never have been torn down.
They turned a building nextdoor into a station.
The demolition of Penn Station kindled the preservationist movement in the United States. Everyone could see what a great loss it was.
Produced Directed by my Father Alexander E. Gansel, one of the original owners of Audio Productions, INC of New York City. I have originals of the 2versions of Clear Track Ahead.
That's very interesting. Is there a history of your fathers' company? I used to work across the street from the (then closed) Jam Handy company in Detroit.
LOVE this video!!
Great film! I learned alot!!
From my point of view. Even a ride can be a destination...
This is a wonderful video!
awesome.....i love your videos...thanx for sharing
The PRR T1 class is one of my favorite streamliners
This is an interesting video. I love the T1 duplex. 9:39
THE STANDARD RAILROAD OF THE WORLD!!!!!
12:57 interested in that old piece of equipment being used by the workers in the scene. Looks like a small tractor. If anybody knows what it’s called I would greatly appreciate it! I love old equipment and old railroads! 🚂
That piece of equipment you spotted is a SCHRAMM crawler track mounted air compressor for pneumatic spike drivers or ballast tamper heads.
We should retroactively name this.
“Man wasn’t our industry good, and then it all fell apart.”
computers ruined it all.needed lots of people when everything was analog...
Let's send all our money to Israel and all our jobs to China! It will be great!
@@WasatchGarandMan lmao
@@funtimehobbies789 Aviation becoming mainstream is actually what ruined it, you don’t need as many people or as much infrastructure for freight as you do for passenger service. Sure computers played a role but it was minuscule compared to aviation taking over in passenger service.
@@silaskuemmerle2505 Cars were an important factor too, why bother going to an station waiting 2 hours when u could get there by yourself on your brand new Ford / Chevy or your motorcycle?
I remember these days. Back when steam railroading was king of transportation.
Love the video...trains and America in a better time!
I will always maintain that if the Pennsy's management had been more forward-thinking, the Standard Railroad of the World would still be here.
And Sears would be the largest online retailer because their management would have stuck their heads up from their rut long enough to see what Amazon saw. Pennsy would have had to have also gotten seriously in the trucking and container business and perhaps even the airline business. And perhaps manufacture Pennsylvania automobiles? But the railroad market segment was going to drastically shrink almost everywhere no matter what Pennsy did.
This makes me wanna go back in time to see the PPR T1s
I want to work for the prr all steam in the after life forever
I didn't realize the container car concept was already a thing in 1946. 5:02
I was interested about how the coal was loaded onto ships. Should learn more about it
At 1:48 is that Bethlehem Steel?
USA: "We have the best railway system in the world, privately owned and profitable. It just helped us win the war. Now let's spend billions of tax payer dollars for Interstates and urban Freeways and ruin it!"
How was the cab telephone kept reliably working. Were there radio transmitters and receivers all along the way?
Great Video!
I think the signal was sent through the rail. There was an earlier telegraph system.
Radio was not involved. Signals were inductively coupled between the train, rails, and lineside wires. Loops of wire coupled the current to these things and from these things to receive. It is sort of a cousin to the loops of wire buried in roadways that sense when your car is there to make the street light change. Fairly primitive, but it worked pretty well. They called it "Trainphone."
The steam loco, iron horse with its beautiful look is the best of all the Locos built until now.
That was great Where can I apply to work for this Railroad? I'll work hard. I promise!!!
Unfortunately, the Railroad is dead. PRR became merged into Penn Central, and Penn Central became what we now know as Amtrak.
@@neighdrusangelformdeityofd5860 And Norfolk Southern, aaaaand CSX. RIP to the railroading of yore
@@neighdrusangelformdeityofd5860 Wrong, PennCentral into Conrail which went bankrupt and CSX and Norfolk Southern took over some of the lines. Amtrak is strictly passenger operation in the USA and between NYC and Washington DC is electrified all other Amtrak trains are diesel.
Lol😀
@@royreynolds108 100% correct
In this movie, "Jim" is not only an engineer, he is also a magician. He started his run on engine 5540 but finishes it on engine 5524. Oops. 🙂
"From one passanger train each day, to more than 2500 trains every day." Now we get 3 passanger trains per week in some areas. Most towns have none at all. So much for progress.
Wow, it's great American railroads !
I'd like to aboard !
How many cars could the Pennsy's T1s pull?
I'm just asking out of curiosity
I was born February 1958. The Pennsylvania R.R. was the world standard for railroads.
The voice sounds like William Conrad sped up a little but he was just getting started in 1946 so it might or might not be.
My era. I was in grade school when this was made . Optimistic times.
I recall this - "Escanaba, this way out (as the railroad man walks along).
Awesome footage!
beautiful, charming ....
Great film.
Those were the days!
16:23 Balls of steel. How cool is that dyno?
End Federal Air subsidies and watch medium distance passenger trains return. Then electrification beckons again: With positive possibilities for freight.
And hurt the bond between the aircraft contractors and the DoD?? Never! Maybe the rail industry should start putting out viable weaponry if they want to compete with air... /s
That only works for locations that can reasonably be reached by rail. There are a fair number of essential air service subsidies for places that can not be reasonably reached by rail.
The T1 is available as a model In Source Filmmaker. (SFM)
The Pennsylvania was big in my towns history.
Would love to see a 4K transfer of this. Guessing this was 16mm