NARRATOR: Stay tuned
for the premiere episode of a new series on trains. Discover how steam
giants built America. Learn why diesel
power did steam in. And explore how railroaders
forged history and legend out of iron and ingenuity. Get an overview of this exciting
new series "Trains Unlimited," next. [theme music] Train number 1385 is
running on schedule. 4 locomotives pull 150 cars
through the Wyoming plains. 6,500 tons of products,
produce, and resources are headed for the dinner
plates, garages, power plants, and factories of the nation. For nearly two centuries,
railroads have efficiently transported people and
things from point A to point B and beyond. Their success has often been
measured in miles and car loads and dollars. Measuring their
significance in history goes beyond mere ledgers. The "Mona Lisa" is an
artistic masterpiece. The rails are a masterpiece of
ingenuity and the human spirit. KEVIN KEEFE: It's difficult
to imagine how you could write American history without
dedicating a really large chapter to American railroads. If you're gonna really
understand what made America what it is, the cultural
forces, the economic forces, the technological
forces, you have to come to terms with
the railroad too. NARRATOR: High-speed computer
chips and space shuttles are today's state of the art. When railroads were
first envisioned, they were the high-tech
wonder of their day and continued to be for
over a hundred years. [train whistle] Railroads transformed
America into a great coast to coast enterprise. They allowed the country's rapid
expansion and industrialization in the 1800s. They were America's first big
business and, at one time, provided nearly one out
of six industrial jobs. They even prompted the
organization of the nation's first powerful labor unions. They also gave birth to legends. Without the rails, there'd be
no John Henry or Casey Jones. And Harvey Girls
in Pullman Porters would never have served
a single traveler. In the most practical
sense, railroads are about commerce
and transport. Through time, they've
come to represent the infinite
possibilities of a nation. But to the dreamer,
the rails themselves are the magical voyage. In 1801, overland transportation
hadn't changed much since ancient Rome. Horses pulled wagons down roads. A growing United
States was 25 years old and, like most
impatient youngsters, wanted better methods of getting
goods to market and people to and fro. Ships sailed along
the Atlantic coast. But ocean travel was often
dangerous and unpredictable. Inland, rivers moved traffic,
as did canals by the 1820s. But they too were frequently
difficult to negotiate and frozen in winter. Roads between towns
were poor at best. Sometimes they were built
out of wooden planks. But often, they were simple
dirt trails and only as good as the weather allowed. The development of smooth,
level, mechanized railways was like the reinvention
of the wheel itself. Steam power made it possible. The first steam
locomotive to run on rails was built in England in 1804. By 1825, the first steam
operated public railway was in operation. Others followed and prospered. And once again, Great
Britain had set a standard for the world to follow. Back in the States,
Revolutionary War veteran Colonel John Stevens had been
an advocate of mechanized rail transportation since 1812. In 1825, he built and
ran a steam-powered wagon on a circle of track
outside Hoboken, New Jersey. At 12 miles an hour, a speed
only a horse could match, the steam wagon became the
first steam-driven vehicle to operate on rails in America. In August of 1829, the
first true locomotive designed to pull cars ran on
the tracks of the Delaware and Hudson Canal
Company in Pennsylvania. The various firsts in American
railroading become confusing, but each was significant. In 1827, the Baltimore and
Ohio became the first railway created or chartered
by a state government. Its first locomotive
was a horse. The first scheduled steam train
service came three years later in Charleston, South Carolina. It was also the site of
an early rail disaster. BILL WITHUHN: It was the first
steam locomotive to blow up. And the story goes
that the-- the fireman was irritated with the steam
safety valve and tied it down. And consequently, the little
boiler developed too much pressure and-- and blew up. The railroad provided for a
little bit of early railroad safety and put a car
stacked with cotton bales in between the locomotive and
the rest of the passengers. NARRATOR: Other
American-built locomotives traveled the first rails with
less catastrophic results. In 1830, businessman and
inventor Peter Cooper first brought steam power to
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He built the Tom Thumb, which
was a little curious thing with a little vertical boiler
and four little wheels, pumped merrily away
by a single piston. And Tom Thumb was really
not very economic, but it got people all excited
about steam locomotives. NARRATOR: Hot cinders and the
rickety ride of early steam trains made the
journey a challenge. But rail travel clearly became
the fastest and safest choice in long distance transportation. Lines sprang up and
cities were linked. But in sharp contrast to the
British philosophy of spanning two established destinations
for a specific purpose, many American lines
extended westward towards an uninhabited frontier. American railways held
another distinction as well. Our track was not built to
the same standard as in England, because we were
building on the cheap. We had to borrow a lot of
money to build our railroads and had to cover a
lot of territory. The Brits were pretty amazed
at our cheap construction, but more than that, the-- the idea that American engineers
had that they could have the trains climb steeper
grades and tackle mountains. In Britain, the idea was to
make your railroad as flat as a tabletop. And if there was a mountain in
the way, you cut a big tunnel. Or if there were a
valley, you threw up a big Roman-style viaduct. We didn't have that kinda
money in the States. NARRATOR: America found
economy in its abundant natural resources. Forests provided wood for
cross ties and trestle timbers. New iron rolling technology
allowed for domestic production of quality rail. And while early locomotives,
like the John Bull, were imported from England,
then modified for American use, by the 1840s, a new
breed of locomotive was meeting the challenge,
the American Type. Four guiding pilot wheels in
front helped smooth the ride and keep the locomotive on
hastily-built American track. The four driving wheels which
followed provided power. In later designs, trailing
wheels behind the drivers were added to carry the extra
weight of growing engines. Locomotives came to be
classified by their wheel arrangements and
still are today. The 4-4-0 American Type became
the preeminent locomotive of the 19th century. The three-day stagecoach
ride east from Philadelphia to New York took less than
a half a day on the train by the 1840s. The trip west? That was America's
next big journey. Chicago is a major hub of
railroading in America today. Virtually every major
railroad has a presence there. So do countless short
lines, commuter lines, and America's passenger
rail service Amtrak. Railroads built Chicago. The city began as Fort
Dearborn, a wilderness outpost of the 1800s that was enveloped
by westward expansion propelled by the rails. The 19th century brought
about a great partnership, really, between the
government and the railroads. And in some ways, it was
perhaps a shotgun marriage. But neither could
really accomplish what it wanted to accomplish
without the other. The government wanted to
see the country settled. But it wasn't gonna
be able to do that without the sort
of transportation and commercial infrastructure
to make it possible. NARRATOR: In 1851,
the Illinois Central became the first government
land grant railroad. And the prototype
for this large scale well capitalized expansion west. Private industry built the
rails at great expense. Government gave them the
land under the tracks, as well as land along the right
of way, which they could sell off to finance construction. Suddenly, railroads were in
the real estate business. Unlike any other transportation
industry, they owned the route. They helped create the
need for their service by bringing immigrants and
pioneers west, selling them land once they got there, and
developing entire communities dependent on the rails as
their link to the world. KEVIN KEEFE: The railroads
wanted to make money. They moved west. They expanded to make money. And they weren't gonna make
money unless they took people with them. So it really was ingenious
the way it all worked out. There were some unfortunate
chapters along the way, in terms of land
speculation and exploitation and broken promises in terms
of what people would encounter when they-- when they got
to some parts of the west. But without the railroads,
the great move westward could never have happened. NARRATOR: Railroads were
becoming the nation's first big business. They were the preferred
mode of transportation and connected every other
economic activity in the United States. 3,300 miles of track linked
the 26 states of the Union in 1840, a figure that
more than doubled by 1850. And by 1860, just months before
the start of the Civil War, over 30,000 miles of rails
blanketed the country. The first shots on Fort
Sumter in April of 1861 forever changed the way
America would look at itself. Just as the Civil War
redefined the United States, the railroads redefined
the concept of war. Rail lines became strategic
assets, which ultimately helped the North prevail. Years before
hostilities broke out, Washington politicians
battled over where to put a proposed
rail line, which would span the continent. Northern legislators
wanted a northern route, Southerners a southern route. Partisan interest prohibited
the successful selection of any route. That's absolutely no accident
that the Pacific Railroad Act comes in 1862 in the
middle of the war, when all the Southern folks are
out of-- out of Washington DC. And so the groundbreaking for
the first transcontinental occurs even before
the War is over. NARRATOR: Lee's surrender at
Appomattox in April of 1865 saw thousands of soldiers
once again become civilians, civilians in need of jobs. For many, their
next great adventure would come with the building of
the transcontinental railroad. The newly formed
Union Pacific Railroad headed west from Omaha. Early financing problems
hindered their progress, more than the sloping
plains of Nebraska did. The Central Pacific Railroad
headed east from California. Their obstacles were
geographically more daunting. It took them years to inch
through the rugged Sierra Nevadas, one tunnel at a time. But after reaching the level
plains of the Great Basin, the Central Pacific put down
rail at a prolific rate. When you consider that they
built thousands and thousands of miles of railroad
with no power tools-- everything was done
with pick and shovel. It was done with mules. It was done with black powder. There were no bulldozers or
trucks or anything like that. It was a heroic accomplishment
by thousands and thousands of people. NARRATOR: Both railroads
won large parcels of land for each mile of track
they established. And since they couldn't agree
on a common meeting point, their crews eventually passed
each other leveling parallel roadbed for over
a hundred miles. Congress finally stepped
in and decided for them. The rails would meet on a
windswept plateau just north of the Great Salt Lake,
Promontory Summit, Utah, elevation 4,905 feet. On May 10, 1869, at
12:47 PM local time, the ceremonial last
spike was driven. At that instant, in the
first national news hookup, the word "done"
was simultaneously flashed across the
telegraph to both coasts. 37 years after it was
conceived in an Ann Arbor, Michigan newspaper
editorial and 7 years after Lincoln gave
it his blessings, the National dream of an
iron road had come true. Done. Brawn and daring had
built the railroads. But a number of key
inventions allowed for their increasingly efficient
operation in the middle 1800s. The telegraph was
invented in 1837 and sent the first
train order in 1851. Telegraphy and Morse code were
crucial to railroad safety and scheduling. This first form of instant
long distance communication allowed railroads to monitor
and control train movement along thousands of miles
of single track mainline. Morse code was also a
wonderfully romantic thing. People that knew
Morse code almost had a kind of a magical secret. And the telegraph operator
was one of the great breeds of railroader, all the way up
through the 1940s, replaced by radio. NARRATOR: The Janney knuckle
coupler was invented in 1863 and is still used today. It replaced the dangerous
link and pin method of tying cars together, saving
countless fingers and hundreds of lives. And in 1868, George Westinghouse
perfected the modern air brake system on trains. Up till then, brakes had to
be applied manually by crewmen jumping dangerously
from car to car. Westinghouse and the
air brake was really what made the difference. It put the control of the
train firmly in the hand of the engineer and really
made possible the sorts of breakthroughs in higher
speeds and improvements in safety that we saw at
the turn of the century. NARRATOR: It seemed nothing
could put the brakes on a growing nation
and its rails. But the railroad's increasing
power and influence created growing public mistrust. What really troubled many
Americans about railroads was their monopoly
position in American life. Remember that railroads were
the only way you could travel long distances
for the most part. You were dependent on railroads
if you were a manufacturer or a farmer to ship your goods. And very often, shippers felt
they were the victims of price gouging. NARRATOR: Rural communities
started viewing the rails as socially divisive, bringing
the evils of the outside world into town and whisking
their youngsters away to the big cities. Well-publicized investment
scandals of the 1850s and '70s didn't help railroading's
cause, nor did its notorious reputation
for labor abuse. STEVE LEE: Organized
labor really got its start with the railroads and with
some of the other industries that-- that really
mistreated their workers. There was horrible working
conditions, low pay, poor safety, terrible equipment,
and things of that nature. And the first operating
unions date back to the late 1850s, early 1860s. That's when the railroads
really started to grow. And that's when problems
really started to happen. NARRATOR: Railroads had another
problem, a very timely one. BILL WITHUHN: You had a
separate time in every big city and most of the small ones
clear across the country. Might be an 8-minute difference
or a 15-minute difference, depending upon the longitude. So trying to coordinate the
travelers time was bad enough. But imagine the difficulties
if you were a train dispatcher. All this confusion about time
led to a number of collisions of trains running on two
different railroads and two different clocks colliding
at intersections. So finally, the railroad
barons had had it. The railroads got
together and said, yep. We're gonna do it. We'll establish
these four time zones and that'll become
railroad time. NARRATOR: November 18th, 1883
became known as the Day of Two Noons, as the country
reset its clocks and standardized time
in four separate zones. The government didn't officially
adopt this system until 1918. But it didn't take
an act of Congress to remind the public of
the rail's mighty power. The United States entered the
20th century controlling half of the total rail
mileage in the world. The turn of the century
was arguably the golden age of American railroading. Arduous journeys over
treacherous track had given way to safety,
speed, and luxury. In 1893, New York's
Central Engine No. 999, pulling the
Empire State Express, claimed a world record
speed of 112 miles per hour. While railroads made
most of their profit from freight traffic, they
often made their reputations on their passenger service. Super luxury trains like the
New York Central's 20th Century Limited and the Pennsylvania
Railroad's Broadway Limited battled for dominance of the
New York to Chicago route. BILL WITHUHN: Railroads roll--
rolled out the red carpet. The 20th Century Limited,
literally, had a red carpet. The services on board included
a barbershop, a stenographer, included all the kind
of business services you might want. And the food was good. Of course, the food and the
service and the punctuality were an advertisement
for the railroad. And the railroad, frankly,
hoped that some of these vice presidents and entrepreneurs
and deal makers and whomever might think about their railroad
next time they were going to ship something commercial. NARRATOR: Their
trains were grand, but their stations were grander. Lavish granite and marble
palaces rose as monuments to the rails. St. Louis Union
Station, Union Station in Washington DC, and
Manhattan's renowned Grand Central Terminal
and Penn Station. KEVIN KEEFE: The building
of Pennsylvania Station in New York, or as we came to
know it, Penn Station, in 1910 was really one of the great
moments in New York history. For one thing, it
kinda crystallized this tremendous rivalry
between the city's own hometown railroad, the New York
central, and its arch enemy, the Pennsylvania Railroad. And by building the Hudson
River Tunnel in Penn Station, the Pennsylvania Railroad
was able to finally bring its trains directly into
Manhattan, without having to force passengers to transfer
to a boat over to Manhattan. The building of
Penn Station really opened up Manhattan in a big
way to the rest of the country. NARRATOR: In 1916, American
rail mileage peaked. Over 254,000 miles of passenger
freight and commuter tracks spanned the nation. Ironically, that same year,
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Good
Roads bill, beginning the ongoing relationship
between the federal government and the highways. It also initiated the
tempestuous relationship between the automobile
and the railroads. They said it would never happen. But in 1917, America entered
World War I. The railroads entered a battle of their own. BILL WITHUHN: We were
trying to get an awful lot of military supplies and
troops to the East Coast ports for dispatch to Europe
in one heck of a hurry. And the railroads flatly
collapsed under the strain. I mean, they were delaying
shipments of troops and-- and supplies. Sometimes whole
troop trains would get stranded for half a day. And the government had just--
just after a few months of this, just had it. And there was a complete
government seizure of the railroads. The takeover lasted a
couple of more years. But it was a traumatic
experience for railroads. And from that point on, the
heavy hand of regulation kinda bore a bit heavier
on the railroads. NARRATOR: After the government
returned control of the rails to the private sector in
1920, passenger ridership reached an all-time high. But federal regulation
of rail freight rates and the increase
in automobile use led to a decade of financial
stagnation for the railroads. Mass production put more and
more vehicles on the road. In 1910, fewer than 10,000
trucks existed in this country. But by 1925, over
half a million of them were carrying short
haul cargo, a job that had almost exclusively
belonged to freight trains. The internal combustion engine
was both a blessing and a curse to the railroads. The blessing was the advent of
the diesel-electric locomotive. It was initially
used in city areas with smoke pollution
restrictions. In 1925, the first
commercially successful model operated by a mainlined road
entered switching service on the Central of New Jersey. It's 300-horsepower
diesel engine turned a generator, which then
powered motors on the wheels, pulling cars without steam. At first, the big
problem was reliability. They couldn't equal
the reliability of steam, which was a very
well-understood technology. So there were
frequent breakdowns, as you might expect with any
infant development like that. These early diesels may have
been small potatoes compared to those enormous steam engines. And yet, it wouldn't take
much to further develop that technology. And a lot of railroaders could
see the writing on the wall. NARRATOR: 1925 marked another
milestone in railroading, a human milestone. The Pullman Company owned or
operated nearly every sleeping car on the railroads, making
them the largest hotel operator in the world. Pullman also employed
more African-Americans than any other company. Many were the famous
Pullman Porters. Labor abuses, commonplace
on the railroad, touched their lives as well. In 1925, several porters
approached A. Philip Randolph, the publisher of an
African-American newspaper. That meeting led to the creation
of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. In time, this
pioneer union's work helped improve the treatment
of Black American workers and the attitude
towards organized labor. In the 72 years after the
Pullman Porters organized, African-Americans have risen
in the ranks of railroad employment and have gone
from the back of the train to the front. TORREY BODIE: The company
is as strong as its people. And you need people all over the
system in different capacities to make the company successful. So I feel like I have
all the opportunities as the next person. NARRATOR: A. Philip
Randolph's work didn't end with the Pullman Porters. He went on to help organize
the 1963 March on Washington and became a celebrated
figure in the struggle for civil rights. The stock market crash of 1929
and the Great Depression that followed decimated America. It showed in the landscape
and more painfully on the faces of
America's people. The country's industrial
base was ravaged. Unemployment reached 35%. And rail traffic
dropped by one half. Railroads were still recovering
from the federal takeover during World War I. Some
survived and some didn't. BILL WITHUHN: It was
just a death spiral for all of these interlocked
organizations and businesses. The Depression, of course,
affected railroads. Right away, there were
railroads in the Midwest that began going bankrupt. Under regulation,
these railroads couldn't stop running. They had to continue to run. And of course, so
much of Americans were dependent on the railroads. Ownership might change. But essentially, the
railroads were kept running, because there was
simply no choice. NARRATOR: From a
technological standpoint, the '20s were actually a
watershed in steam locomotive development. A significant improvement,
known as "superpower," came to be just prior
to the depression. By enlarging an engine's
coal burning firebox and adding an
additional trailing axle to bear the extra
weight, higher horsepower could be achieved while
proportionately burning less coal. A 4-6-2 Pacific Type locomotive
evolved into a 4-6-4 Hudson. And a 2-8-2 Mikado
became a 2-8-4 Berkshire. The same number
of driving wheels could now pull longer
trains at faster speeds. Steam engines may look
fairly antique today, but probably the highest
tech they ever developed in their day where these
Hudson Types, 4-6-4s. And certainly, that was
a very spectacular sight to see wheels of that size
thrashing down the railroad at a-- at a hundred miles an hour. NARRATOR: Railroads needed
to jumpstart Depression Era business. And they needed to attract
shippers and travelers away from cars and trucks. They employed innovative
engineering designs as well as creative marketing
strategies to stir interest. Streamlining was a marriage of
both combining emerging diesel technology with a
revolutionary new look. The diesel locomotive
kinda kicked into high gear the Streamline Era
of the late 1930s. And by the end of the decade,
we had all sorts of fancy Buck Rogers kinds of passenger trains
just wowing the American public with sleek new designs
and higher speeds. NARRATOR: In 1934,
the Union Pacific debuted their sleek M-10000. By comparison to conventional
trains that pull heavy steel passenger cars, the Streamliner
was made of a light aluminum alloy. It was driven by a
600-horsepower petroleum distillate engine
and could easily speed its 3 car
loads of passengers and 10 tons of baggage
over 90 miles an hour. Three months later, at Chicago's
Century of Progress Exposition, another Streamliner made
an even bigger splash with a truly grand entrance. The Burlington Route
Zephyr raced from Denver to the exposition, averaging
an unheard of 78 miles per hour and topping out at
112 miles per hour. The Zephyr boasted a
stainless steel skin and a diesel electric cart and
unquestionably got the hearts of restless travelers racing. KEVIN KEEFE: It was really
both aerodynamics and weight that made a difference in
the way the Streamliner was designed. For one thing, the application
of the diesel locomotive meant that you can build a
lighter locomotive, instead of a giant, heavy steam locomotive. So a lighter power plant meant
that the whole train weight was lower. You could move at
a higher speed. But also, the introduction
of some new technology, in terms of metallurgy and
manufacturing processes, made it also possible. The trains themselves
were lighter. NARRATOR: As highly evolved
as steam engines had become by the 1930s, streamlined diesel
power and its public popularity began to challenge
steam's dominance. Many railroads responded
by dressing up old steam in a new wardrobe. BILL WITHUHN: What
began to happen was you took conventional
steam locomotives and covered them up with
these really gorgeous shells, essentially, kind of skins
that were grafted on the top, but gave the engines
altogether new and, you know, delightful appearance. But essentially, under
that delightful skin was still a ordinary steam
engine with all of its faults. One publicist for one
railroad said, well, the streamlining
of the steam engine was not to lower air resistance. It was to lower
passenger resistance. And it's probably
a-- a good phrase. NARRATOR: Streamlining was one
way to catch the public's eye. Good advertising was another. The Chesapeake and Ohio
wanted to call attention to their new luxury air
conditioned sleeper cars. "Sleep like a top" was
their chosen ad line. By chance, a company
executive came across an etching of a napping
kitten tucked into bed. In a stroke of marketing genius,
the CNO licensed the artwork and changed their slogan
from "Sleep like a top" to "Sleep like a kitten." Within weeks of the
new campaign's debut, thousands of requests
came into the CNO, asking for reprints
of the Kitty ad. The Chesapeake and
Ohio found a new image. And the Legend of Chessie
the Railroad Kitten was born. The CNO became the Chessie
System after a 1973 merger. But the outline of their
famous cat within the letter C graced their locomotives
and rolling stock until Chessie became CSX
Corporation in the early '80s. Chessie, the railroad
kitten, remains one of the most endearing
and enduring icons in all railroading. In 1941, Chessie went to war,
as did every major railroad in America. With the threat of
German submarines looming in coastal
waters, the rails were called upon to move troops
and supplies safely inland. BILL WITHUHN: In this
case, the railroads did not collapse, as they
had done in-- in World War 1, but, in fact, were able
to handle the freight. Of course, we all know then
about Rosie the Riveter. But Rosie the Railroader
was pretty important. About 125,000 women
worked for the railroads during World War II
at one time or another and held almost every
kind of job conceivable. STEVE LEE: They did
just about everything. They were machinists,
boilermakers, laborers. They built freight cars. They washed locomotives. They made parts, did
all sorts of things. NARRATOR: The railroad's
performance during this period has been called heroic. Personnel and equipment were
pushed to the limit and then some in aid of the
dual front war effort. 10 years of depression followed
by 5 years of record high war traffic left many roads with
worn out tracks and trains. Victory eventually brought
prosperity to post-Was America. But it put the squeeze
on the railroads. Cars, highways, and jet planes
would challenge rail survival as surely as totalitarianism
had challenged democracy. In 1945, America looked
ahead to good times, something the railroad certainly
wanted to be a part of. That year, they carried 75%
of intercity passenger traffic and 69% of all freight tonnage. But those figures would
drastically erode over the next decade. There was competition from
trucks, planes, and cars. There was the high labor
and operating cost of steam. These factors, combined with
an aging equipment roster, set the stage for the
diesel revolution. In one word, the advantage
of the diesel over steam, all things considered, was cost. NARRATOR: A diesel may
have cost more to purchase, but it required fewer stops
for fuel and water, less scheduled maintenance, and
not nearly as many people, buildings, or pieces of
equipment to keep it running. Plus, individual diesels could
be combined into the size unit the railroad needed and still
be operated with one locomotive crew. And there was another benefit. KEVIN KEEFE: Steam locomotives
were always handcrafted, customized machines
that were customized for each individual company. Now, every railroad company
was able to buy locomotives virtually off the shelf,
just the way people buy automobiles in a showroom. So by standardizing parts
and standardizing technology and procedures, the diesel
became a very efficient, cheap to operate tool
that was-- you know, you couldn't deny its power. NARRATOR: Diesel electrics
had been used since the '20s in switching service. And the diesel streamliners
had caught the public's eye in the mid '30s. But in 1939, General Motors'
new FT-103 Locomotive set out to prove that diesels were
suited for mainline freight service as well. BILL WITHUHN: It
was demonstrated all over the country. It had enormous pulling power. It had a lot of economies
that people could appreciate. There were not a lot of
sales of the early diesels, except in a few cases. But then, came World War II. And one railroad in
particular got a large fleet of diesels, Santa Fe Railroad. Santa Fe had a lot of trains
operating through desert country. And so the idea of a locomotive
that didn't need a lot of water all the time was-- was a nice attraction. But during the
course of the War, that fleet of diesels
on the Santa Fe built up a fund of experience,
which showed that these diesels could set all-time
records for economy and pulling power and labor
savings and all the rest. By 1947, 90% of all locomotives
ordered were diesels. NARRATOR: Diesel and steam
now shared the same stage as the face of railroad
technology continued to change. Physically, steam engines
couldn't get much larger and still negotiate
existing tracks. The pinnacle of steam power was
reached with two locomotives during the '40s. Lima Locomotive Works produced
the 4-6-6-6 Allegheny. It weighed over
a million pounds, generated 7,500 horsepower,
and is considered by some to be the most powerful
steam locomotive ever built. Alleghenies were
specifically designed to haul long, heavy coal trains
through the Appalachians, a design that limited
their versatility. They were impressive, but
arguably the king of steam was the Union Pacific's Big Boy. The American Locomotive Company
built these 4-8-8-4 freight engines exclusively for the UP
and put them in service between Wyoming and Utah. They were monstrous,
but they were versatile. A Big Boy reportedly could pull
a 5-mile long train on a level grade, but could just as easily
speed a shorter fast freight over 80 miles an hour. They had a voracious
appetite for fuel as well, which eventually
contributed to their demise. Only 25 were ever built. But as
the steam age drew to a close, the Big Boy's success had
convinced many railroaders that it was truly the mightiest
steam engine of all time. Month by month, more and
more steam locomotives began to vanish. For countless
railroad employees, so did their livelihoods. STEVE LEE: You take somebody
that-- that had started out as an apprentice boy, as
an apprentice boilermaker, had honed his skills during his
apprenticeship, which would be three to five years, and
then had become a boilermaker and had worked nights
and had worked weekends and had endured furloughs and
layoffs and things like that and worked his way up
pretty close to the top of the seniority roster,
and then one day he's laid off for good, because
the boilers are gone. So they don't need him anymore. Sociologically, that
had to be terrible. NARRATOR: Some roads, like
the gargantuan Pennsylvania Railroad, challenged the
diesel to the very end. Its T1 steam
locomotives fought back with technological advancements
and diesel-killing looks. Their streamlining was designed
by Raymond Loewy, the same man responsible for styling the
Avanti automobile, General Motors' block logo, and
the Coca-Cola bottle. Unfortunately, the T1 didn't
live up to its billing and was eventually
scrapped for a diesel. By 1960, 27,000 diesels had
replaced the 40,000 steam locomotives America operated
at the end of World War II. The Great Lakes'
Grand Trunk Western was the last major
railroad to pull steam out of passenger service. Steam freight took its last
gasps on Virginia's Norfolk and Western. One man chronicled
its disappearance. New York commercial photographer
O. Winston Link loved trains and had worked on
industrial projects related to the railroad for years. He started to photograph the
Norfolk and Western at night, using massive banks of
flashbulbs to stop the action and often captured man and
machine working together for the last time. His astonishing photographs
are among the most striking visual records in
railroading of the way it was and the way it
never will be again. Dieselization may have
saved the railroads, but it didn't guarantee
a painless transition. Railroad employment dropped by
50% between the end of World War II and 1962. Thousands of men
and women lost jobs as entire categories of
skilled trades disappeared. Freight service today is a
profitable venture for the five remaining major railroads,
several regional, and numerous short
line operations. But trucks continue to challenge
the rails for cargo business. Unable to counter the
speed of airline travel and the convenience
of the automobile, the railroads gave up on
scheduled passenger service in the '60s. In 1971, that responsibility
fell on the shoulders of the government-organized
national passenger railroad corporation Amtrak. BILL WITHUHN: For those
that liked to travel rail, this was actually
a pretty good deal. Because for the
very first time, you could buy a ticket
from a single point and travel clear
across the country and be under the
same railroad flag. NARRATOR: It's always
been a struggle for Amtrak to maintain that something
about a train that's magic. It inherited an aging fleet
of worn out passenger cars and locomotives. But with each new purchase
of state of the art coaches, each acquisition
of high-tech power, and the ongoing blessings of
the United States Congress, Amtrak's success
mounts year by year. It's still the only way
to see America by rail. TORREY BODIE: I'm 46 and I
used to ride the train when I was a little kid. And what I remember is Amtrak. And it's the best mode
of transportation. Trains, you have a chance to
look at the scenery going by, different towns. So I take a great amount
of pride in my job. So that-- when you're prideful
of what you do, you know, you're gonna do a good job. And I would hopefully think
that Amtrak will be around for a long time, you
know, because I'm gonna be here a long time. NARRATOR: Today, Amtrak serves
over 500 cities from coast to coast. The Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX,
Norfolk Southern, and Conrail move minerals,
products, and produce from mines and factories and
fields to the marketplace. And they often do
it at a fraction of the cost of alternative
overland shipping, helping to keep down
the cost to consumers. Even though you don't wake
up every morning and your first thought is a railroad or a
train, this industry is just-- just about like any other. It's-- except it's been
around longer than most. If we're doing our job properly,
if we're moving freight, we're moving it efficiently,
serving our customers, you hardly ever
notice we're around. NARRATOR: In its two
centuries of existence, the railroad has been both
hero and villain, demigod and scapegoat,
irritation and salvation. Its history is well preserved
at dozens of museums and parks across North America. But its spirit is
perhaps best experienced under the power of a
vintage steam locomotive on a classic tourist railroad. Without the roar of jet
engines, without the clamor of freeway rush hour, steam
hisses and the clickety clack of the rail mesmerizes. And for a brief moment, the past
comes alive, until you sleep, like a kitten. [music playing]
