Great vintage video

[trainman203]

Safety film on the Missouri Pacific on the late 1940s.

My favorite Railroad, my favorite time period.  The railroads were perfect art form in those days.

Watch, and comment.  Several very interesting interesting things are seen that I'll discuss later.

https://youtu.be/8ZgoSfD0TVM?si=QkhBPpOeQkSP0Por

[Ralph S]

I'll say it again.  Thank goodness the Diesel engine has taken over; two-way radios are the norm, and three points of contact has been emphasized in the safety of personnel.
It's interesting noting the changes in safety of personnel from that time period to today, but we're still fighting today the risks people take in performing work.

Interesting video though.

[Terry Toenges]

Thanks for the link. That was a cool video. I had never seen a real water spout in operation up close nor a coal chute. I imagine that a lot of these procedures weren't always followed by doing them the safe way.

[trainman203]

That video is an incredible insight into railroading of the days of yore.  Although it's labeled 1950s, the Missouri Pacific had gotten rid of almost all of its steam engines by 1952 except for isolated pockets here and there, like where I grew up. I believe most of that video was from the late 1940s actually.

Look at what you get to see.  You not only get a detailed look at taking on water and coal, you also get many glimpses of the rolling stock of the period.  You never really see the whole car because the focus is not the cars, but I saw brakemen walking around several corners of double sheathed wood box cars, which I thought were mostly gone by that time, their day having been around WW 1.   Also, there was the slightest glimpse, before they cut it off, of an even earlier 36 foot truss rodded box car which I thought were gone by those days, but there it is to see, right there.  Lots of views of wood four-window cabooses.  And full five man train crews standing at the head end checking their watches and orders before starting the run.  All dressed in overalls and caps and looking like Railroad men are supposed to look. 

There were a couple of views of some safety task in which way down the line in the distance you could see the classic smoke rising from an oncoming steam freight, I always wondered, which engine that was that we'll never know.  Most of the engines we saw there were 1200 and 1300 class Mikados but some of the 9000 class 0-8-0's were there. The distinctive MP crossbucks with striped posts at grade crossings appear several times, there were a few back home in those long-ago days.  This was a safety film, of course, but it was the same as all historical photographs are to historians, the most valuable stuff is always right in the corners, just barely visible and nearly completely cut off.

I have always thought that railroading of that period, around when I was born, was a perfect art form.  Except for the loss of the steam engines, railroads looked just like that until I finished high school in the mid-1960s.  It's all so simultaneously familiar, nostalgic, and wistful in its loss.