Ear on Chicago; Crossroads

This is the sound of one of Chicago's great industries. Our microphones are set up in the Pennsylvania Railroad Yards at 63rd Street, but about to follow the arrival of train PWC -1 in Railroad terminology known as the Stealer, arriving in Chicago right now from points east. Our guide, as we examine the operation of the Railroad industry, is typified by the Pennsylvania, with the Mr. J. A. Bonnelly, the train master for the Chicago Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Our technical train has now arrived at the receiving yard at 63rd Street. The caboose of the train is pulling up almost directly opposite us, and if we pick the right spot, we may be able to talk to the conductor of the train. And here's our guide, as we examine the operation of Railroading in the Chicago area. Mr. J. A. Bonnelly, the train master of the Chicago Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Mr. Bonnelly, will you introduce your two friends? Yes, Mr. Flynn. Meet Mr. Russo, our conductor who has just

arrived from Logan's port, and his flagman Mr. Strong. They have taken this train all the way in from Logan's port, Indiana. Gentlemen, let me ask you a few questions about the operation of this train that you've just brought in. First of all, we'll talk with the conductor. How big was your train today? 48 cars. Well, now, when you come in from a run like this, do you have to make any particular reports, you don't report on the weather or anything like that. No, sir. What sort of report do you turn in? Well, the only reports that we turn in is a report that we write up each and every day on each train in the bells. Beels of lading, and the afterturning about the weather, the equipment operates, whether the cars are all in good shape. Yes, it's a rule you do, and in this case today, we've broken two, once, not a broken air hose. We lost a little time on this run. And you'll turn in information on those. That's right. Yes, sir. How about the track conditions you report on those two? Yes, sir. How long does it take to make that run from Logan's port to Chicago? Well, we were called for 415 in Logan's port, Indiana this morning. We got here, let's see,

at 11 o 'clock, little earlier than 10 o 'clock, you're talking about railroad time. Railroad time, sir. All right, and this is your flagman. Yes, Mr. Strong. Mr. Strong, tell me something about your duties in the operation of a typical freight, such as this one. Well, the flagman's duties are always to protect the rear end of the train anytime you stop, and you also have some critical work to do in the way of what we call fuel reports. Each and every car must be written up according to the initial number, weight, work originates, where its destination is, and its contents, any irregularities that you might know about the train anywhere. Now, you're responsible for the return of the train, the rear end of the train, that's right. And the conductor serves as the captain of the ship on this whole operation. Yes, sir. Now, you're in the freight service, both of you. Now, what's the difference between men serving in the passenger service and you, Maddie? You in the same classification? Same classification, and just the uniform is about the only difference, and work on the passenger train, and on the public a little more.

But theoretically, you could, and may also work in the passenger service. Yes, sir. Which do you prefer? Freight. Why? Well, you, that would be a little bit hard to explain, I expect, just more or less what the individual himself prefers. Well, you get a lot of sunshine, and I do like to see. That's right, yes sir. How about you, Mr. Strong? Which do you prefer? Well, I've only worked passenger about three times, that was an emergency, so I can't really say, but I'm not a qualified passenger man, I don't even have uniform. But you enjoy this work, don't you? Oh, I like this, alright, yeah. Now, our train has arrived at the receiving yard at 63rd Street, and what's happening to it, Mr. Benelli? We're getting ready to hop at Mr. Flynn, but before we do, we have to bleed the air from it, so that the cars will run freely. In other words, with the air in the cars, the

brakes will not release themselves. It's necessary for us to remove all air from the car before the car will run. That's our song we hear every now and then, we're being released from the car. Yes. As a matter of fact, there's one of our car inspectors, now say Mr. Tanner, come over here man, where? Mr. Tanner, meet Mr. Flynn, this is one of our car inspectors, Mr. Flynn, who will bleed the air. And what do you do now when a train comes in in the job of inspection? Well, inspecting it to have, being inspecting it to have to be bled, I believe them. What do you look for when you inspect the car? Oh, brake rigs, anything that causes a rig, see if they're playing it's mostly. In other words, you have a practice diet, as you walk along the train, you can tell whether anything doesn't look quite right. Right, that's right. You are able to tell a thing about the sound of a train as it comes in the yard, whether or not anything is a miss? Well, sometimes I can't miss anything, it's something drag, you know, hot box or anything concerning that. That you can tell with a year. Yes, I can. But generally as you inspect the cars, you

just watch it carefully, huh? That's right, I look over carefully. I notice some people running along with hammers and things, that's sort of the attack various things too. No, we don't, we just inspect the general bus and look for broken parts on them, all that, anything that causes a rig. Now, perhaps I can draw a word picture of this whole process, if we start at the south end or should I say the east end of the Pennsylvania Yards, your train arrives here at 63rd Street and you call us, your receiving yard? Right, this is our receiving yard, right at this point. And our train in your terminology is PWC -1, that is correct. Tell me what those initials mean. That indicates the origin or the originating point. P stands for Pittsburgh, W, Wheart and Junction, and the C is for Chicago. And now the train is called the Stealer, it's an all steel train. In other words, all the products on it are from the steel mills, right? Yes, the various steel mills in the Pittsburgh area collect their freight

and forward it on this train. Well, now from the receiving yard, your train is split up into various sections into the classification yard. That is correct. And you get them into that yard by this process, we're now observing called Humping. Humping, yes sir. Maybe you can tell me what happens in this Humping process. So, yes sir, the cars are shoved with a yard locomotive to the highest point in the yard where they are cut off, right over here. Yes sir, they are cut off and they are operated into the various tracks which house the various destinations such as foreign railroads, several cars going to the northwestern railroad. For example, we'll go down today on to track 20 tomorrow that may change and so on all across the yard. There's a whole battery of switches at the approach to this classification yard. I guess that's what you'd call them, huh? Yes sir. Those are switches operated by switch tenders who have a tab, we call it, which indicates the track, the specific car is to go into.

And is it take very long now to slow up this train and get it all classified and on its way again? How long will this take? This? No, no sir. This will take a maximum about 30 minutes before we are starting to move again. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes

sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes

sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir.

Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes

sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir.

Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. A woman. And you make your home in Logan sport. Yes sir. What kind of a run that you have up today? A good run. Who's your other man over here? You can still classify as a fireman? Heal sir. EA Osborne. Logan sport. Now what does a fireman do on a diesel? Well, he has to see that the engines are kept running. Check the water supply. Fuel supply. And when departing from Chicago, we have to test the cabin signals, which is important for the Columbus division. And just other keeping supplies on the engine and

helping the engineer. You have to be quite a technician to keep this machinery going, don't you? Well, that's what they want you to be. All right. I'm going to talk to the engineer again now. You look like a man who's been an engineer for a good many years. Yes sir. That's right. About how many? Well, about... Well, I've been running an engine about 20 years ago. Maybe not that long. How long ago did you transfer to diesel? How's that? How long ago did you transfer to diesels? Well, when they first got them in here that... I got one year that 19... I don't know when they first came here. About 10 years ago? Something like that? I get it yet. Well, now, as you sit here and face this battery of gauges in front of you and your throttle and so on and your speed indicator, this must be quite a thrill to operate this powerful piece of machinery, isn't it? Well, it isn't that, yeah. It's... Oh, it's all right. It's fine. There's a lot here to look at, but then... It's all works pretty good. Do you have to keep a sharp eye on the track ahead, do you?

Oh, yes. Yes sir. But you don't have to stay... All the time. No, no. You don't have to guide it, but you have to know where you're going. Uh -huh. And you have a lot of automatic stiggling devices and things of that sort. Yes sir. All along the way. I see you have a telephone here. What do you do with that? Well, you use it to talk wherever they have a train phone. They have a train phone with North Judson. And we want a van where we leave Logan. Van Tar. North Judson Tar. In other words, you're in communication with the people along the right away. That's why they're this phone. They call up and call right in here and get you right away. It's very nice. Oh, okay. That way. What sort of speed do you make on this run coming up from Logan's board? Oh, yeah. It went around 50 miles between 45 and 50. Now, you have two units here, don't you? Three units. Three of them. Well, what's the total power that you can come up with with other three units? Well, I don't know just exactly what the power is, but it's what is some three units.

About 45 ,000 pounds. 45 ,000 pounds. 45 ,000 pounds. 45 ,000 pounds. 45 ,000 pounds. Yeah. I guess that's right. Well, what's the, have you ever had any unusual experiences on this run of yours? Well, no, not. That'll usually, it's all pretty good. Like, coming up here this morning, we had a little until we must have narrows. And then we had to stop and fix that. How do you find out when something like that goes wrong? There's all the airstats. I see. This PC switch light to put it here. That means something is wrong. Stop and check it. This one's on the lap. He's down on your throttle. And the whole stop is so nice. It's a lot different from running the old steam locomotive. Oh, yes, I should say so. A little more comfortable for once. That's right. That's fine. That's a good part above it. Now, the engineer of train number PWC -1 is about to make his report to Mr. E .J. Samuel's the engine house farmer. And we'll listen in as the report is being made. Good morning, Mr. Obama. And what kind of a trip did you have? Well, good morning, Mr. Sanders. I

had a good trip. Well, I'm glad to hear that. You bring a good engine in? A very good engine. That's fine. You remember in the olden days, you used to take us four hours to get an engine ready. But we're going to get this one ready for N -W -82, another hour and a half. Well, that's fine. We'll make our regular inspection. Did you have anything to report on a special? Not anything in the special. Well, I'm certainly glad to hear that. We'll have it ready for you soon as you're ready to come out. That's fine. We are now in the 59th Street Yard Office of the Pennsylvania. Mr. Benelli, we're still following our train, PWC -1. What's happening now with all this paperwork? Mr. Flynn, this is a location where all this work is done. There's a great amount of paperwork necessary for the movement of cars. For example, on this PWC -1, it would probably be better for Eddie Kizuki, who is handlingly billed to tell you about it. Eddie, come on over here and talk to Mr. Flynn. I'll get the microphone close to

you. Eddie, go ahead and hit with your work and tell me what you're up to. Well, we got the bills and we're marking up what is known as the 3 .62. To indicate where the cars go to various roads. In other words, each car that came on this train this morning has a slip or a bill of lading. Yes, sir, that's right. And while you're split up the train, you're sending the cars off the various other roads. And you're making up for actually making up the train, huh? Yes, sir. How many of these do you have to handle every day? It varies. Sometimes I was 200, 250, sometimes 300. All depends on businesses. And you and the man across the desk, what is this fun of you over here? That's Tom Nickman -Tack. What's your job? I'm the outbound clerk. I take care of all the trains that go out. After Eddie Kizuki gets to marking up the PWC one, I take the bills and pull the bills, pretty trains going to the various connection railroads. At the present time I am working on the Santa Fe train, we'll have approximately

25 cars out today to the Santa Fe. Thanks very much. All of this, I suppose, is to keep track of the sort of business that you people are in, the movement of commodities and carloads of material. Yes, we will no longer see these cars, and let's speak of the Santa Fe railroad. We will no longer see those cars, and it is necessary for us to interchange properly in accordance with ICC and AAR instruction, and for the necessary collection of money at the final destination of the car. In other words, you have to get this paperwork done, while the train is still on your property. Yes, it is absolutely necessary. As I said, we won't see the car again. What are some of the other people doing in this busy office with the vanilla when you guide us around here? Yes, over here we have what is known as a teletype machine. John here is sending a message to the people at headquarters, at regional headquarters, of the cars that we are sending to the Santa Fe. In other words, they in a few moments will know exactly what cars at the

party. Everything must be handled very quickly. Each car will know the power of departing Chicago, C .G. to and C .G .A. in the 82, so far. That is very important, isn't it? We are having a very first thing we send to the St. Leeds, the cars that are notified all over the east. And the people who are waiting for the car, should also be right there to get them and keep the moving. We try to keep everyone informed us to the whereabouts of any car by message. So you use all the modern devices, you use teletypes and radio, and what is this device over here? This is a picture machine. We actually take a picture of the bills to help expedite the movement. Dominic here is going to put a few of the bills through. In other words, the necessary information or more detailed information, I should say, can be taken off of a strip film, which is the film is a cross -process later.

It was to maintain your records in smaller space. Right, right. It's very helpful along those lines. Well, this is a busy office and the modern office, and I suppose our train is just about ready to get moving now, isn't it? Yes, it is. The conductor has just left with his bills, and I think we still have time to catch him. All right, let's do that. Well, now Mr. Benelli, we're getting close to the end of our story. We've been following our train, PWC -1, as it arrived in Chicago, as it was broken up into cuts. Is that what you call them? Yes, we call them cuts. That means a portion of the train that goes to a specific point, like this cut in front of us now is the Santa Fe cut. The greater portion of the cars that came in on our train this morning, just about an hour ago, as a matter of fact, will go to the Santa Fe yards. That is correct. Where are they located? They're over around Archer Avenue at 47th Street. And they'll be taken over there and attached to more cars, and probably an hour

or two will be on their way to where? California. All points west, as far west as California. And now about how many cuts do you suppose the cars that came in on PWC -1 will make up? Well, when they get to the Santa Fe, they will be switched again, probably classified again, into specific cuts to move on west, practically the same way we did it, with specific destinations. Well, now there's hours time that it took to break up the train and get the cars moving seems to be pretty fast to me. Is this typical? It is today. The service has improved somewhat on the railroads to a point where cars must move through a terminal almost immediately. There can be no delay on moving equipment anymore. So in other words, if anybody says that railroads cars don't move through Chicago in a hurry, they're mistaken. Badly mistaken. This is certainly an example and point this morning. And who's this gentleman? All right, this is our conductor, Mr. Schlump, who is going

to take the cars to the Santa Fe Railroad. Mr. Schlump, you're a better railroad man too, I can tell. Yes, I've got quite a few years in. And your point of activity is within the Chicago area. That's right. You get the cars over to the Santa Fe and then you will take more cars back here, something of that sort. Yes, we do that. How long does it take you to get the cars over to the Santa Fe Yard? Well, without any delays, about 40, 40 minutes, 45, but to most. I'm just wondering whether it's easier to get a trainload of heavily loaded freight cars over to the Santa Fe Yards or to drive over there. Which would you say Mr. Schlump? Well, I think it'd be easier to take. Take a trainload over there than leave them. Well, these are our cars right here, is that right? Yes, sir. Recognize some of them that we saw coming in on the train this morning. So the transaction is almost completed now. Train and PWC -1 arrive in Chicago an hour ago. It is as the railroad been saved and divided into cuts. The cars have been

assigned to the various railroads. And we are now witnessing the departure from the Pennsylvania Yards on the Santa Fe Yards of the Cut of Cars, right Mr. Benelli that the Santa Fe will take on for their west. Right, that is correct, Mr. Flynn. As PWC -1 pulls out to continue its westward journey, we move on to the 47th Street Yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad. One of the more recent innovations for the fast handling of freight is an operation at these Yards. It's called the truck train system. And here is our guide, Mr. MJ McKinley, to tell us how the system operates. Let me give you an example of a typical shipment. We get a car around 2 o 'clock in the afternoon at our 47th Street office. We

dispatch a trailer to the firm who asks for this pickup. The tractor picks up the trailer here, it goes right through the shipping point, where it is loaded with a help of our driver. It should be back into the 47th Street Yard, around 5 o 'clock, where it's loaded on the freight car. Out that evening at 11, and today the second morning after, it's delivered in the city of New York. Mr. McKinley, how are the loaded trailers fastened down to these railroad flat cars? Well, after the loaded tractor and couples and drives off the flat car and down the ramp, they fasten four chains from the trailer to the flat car and front and also four in the back. This holds the trailer tight to the flat car, better the flat car. We have two jacks under the front of the trailer, which holds at level, an infirm in place, and we have chalks under the rear wheels, so that the trailers have no chance of moving while in route. After this has been completed,

all the trailers are tied down ready for movement. We call in a diesel engine who pulls them out into the yard, and the classifies them into the proper classifications, and are moved in and to the east, to New York metropolitan area, and to Philadelphia. And how many cities are connected by this trailer train service? Well, we have the truck train service at the present time between Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Indianapolis. The common carrier we have the service between Chicago, Philadelphia, New York. In Chicago, we have tracks that will hold 66, 75 -foot flat cars. The 200 flat cars, especially built for this new service, are designed for unloading and equipped with

roller bearings, high -speed trucks, and cushioned draft gears, allowing speeds of 60 miles an hour. What are the advantages of shipping this way? Well, it's a faster operation to safer operation, more economical as to rates in the wear and tear in the trailers. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you

very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very

much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.