Rich Blake

This is a great period piece with a fair amount of humor that only makes sense in the 1950s era. It uses the example of a family’s busted TV to teach railroad employees to properly handle cargo during rail car shipping.

But this film should also make model railroad operators think about how you handle your switching operations. Do you back the loco into the string and keep going without stopping to check the couplings? Do you bash into strings and then take off in the other direction without allowing time to connect brake hoses and check couplings? Do you speed over turnouts to get to the runarounds because there is a lot of free track? Do you think about where your brakemen are located or where they must be dropped off or picked up by the engine or caboose? How many times have you backed into a string so soft and easy that only the couplers move as they connect? Or, when you back into a string does everything move an inch? What is “an inch” in your scale?

I’ve seen many cases, including myself, where operators get in a hurry or don’t pay attention that result in rough car handling and/or derailments.

This film illustrates these bad habits in 1:1 scale and emphasizes that we all need to slow down and go easy on the equipment. You never know what precious cargo is in there!

If the video doesn’t appear below, click this link to watch it on YouTube: http://youtu.be/nlzTqPfHrAI

 

Editor’s Note: Watching this film made me realize just how much things have changed in the past 60 years:

  1. You had friends over when you got a new TV
  2. Your wife baked them a cake
  3. Your wife baked
  4. He saved his money before buying something
  5. It was “his” money
  6. Men stood in line to get paid
  7. They got something called a “check”
  8. Multiple people were going to watch a 21″ screen
  9. The wife and daughter shopped for groceries
  10. TVs arrived via railroad
  11. The shop delivered
  12. She grocery shopped in heels and a dress
  13. The daughter wore black shoes and white socks
  14. He wore a coat
  15. The deliveryman’s handcart has 3” wheels
  16. TVs were made inChicago
  17. TVs had tubes. And wires.
  18. TVs came in wood cabinets
  19. With doors
  20. TVs were shipped in boxcars
  21. There were no forklifts in freighthouses
  22. Switches were thrown by hand
  23. Switchstands had kerosene lanterns
  24. A “fellow’s wife thinks he does his job just right”
  25. Livestock traveled by rail
  26. Airplanes had propellers
  27. Radios were the size of backpacks
  28. Ice was used for cooling
  29. Companies made slow-moving movies like this for training

It makes you wonder how different things will be 60 years from now!

– Al Lowe