1 00:00:05,138 --> 00:00:09,074 Sometimes is has seemed that railroads were doomed. 2 00:00:09,209 --> 00:00:11,040 The Durango-Silverton railroad 3 00:00:11,177 --> 00:00:14,578 is one of the most spectacular rides in the world. 4 00:00:14,714 --> 00:00:18,411 In 1960, it was nearly shut down. 5 00:00:19,652 --> 00:00:24,021 In 1883, the Orient Express ran from Paris to Istanbul 6 00:00:24,157 --> 00:00:26,990 created the ultimate in luxury travel. 7 00:00:27,127 --> 00:00:30,585 It was abandoned in 1977. 8 00:00:31,297 --> 00:00:36,599 In 1887, rotary snow plows first fought the snow drifts in the High Sierras. 9 00:00:36,736 --> 00:00:40,103 Looking like relics they seem improbable holdovers 10 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:41,901 from the past. 11 00:00:42,042 --> 00:00:44,977 Once this streamlined locomotive hauled passenger trains 12 00:00:45,111 --> 00:00:46,976 at 100 miles an hour. 13 00:00:47,113 --> 00:00:49,775 But for 20 years, it sat outside a museum, 14 00:00:49,916 --> 00:00:52,282 its machinery rusting. 15 00:00:57,657 --> 00:01:01,149 Yet today these trains still run the rails. 16 00:01:01,294 --> 00:01:03,694 Now they evoke a more remote past 17 00:01:03,830 --> 00:01:06,424 when trains first bridged the continent, 18 00:01:06,566 --> 00:01:09,899 Ferried recruits to war 19 00:01:10,036 --> 00:01:15,474 provided celebrities with an opportunity to be seen and a chic way to travel, 20 00:01:15,608 --> 00:01:20,170 gave a mobile campaign platform to politicians, 21 00:01:20,980 --> 00:01:24,143 and offered a refuge for hoboes. 22 00:01:24,918 --> 00:01:27,478 Train tracks disfigure the countryside 23 00:01:27,620 --> 00:01:31,852 Trains assault the senses with brutal noise and begrime the air. 24 00:01:31,991 --> 00:01:36,792 How then account for the multitude of people who love trains? 25 00:01:36,930 --> 00:01:39,865 When you're actually running a train, you just can't get enough. 26 00:01:39,999 --> 00:01:42,695 I don't know. Maybe I'm just a junkie for trains. 27 00:01:42,836 --> 00:01:44,235 But that's about it. 28 00:01:44,370 --> 00:01:46,133 I bought a caboose back in the '50s 29 00:01:46,272 --> 00:01:49,537 because I was busy riding trains in the '50s. 30 00:01:49,676 --> 00:01:52,668 And suddenly I read in the paper one day where trains were going to go out. 31 00:01:52,812 --> 00:01:55,246 All passenger trains would be taken off. 32 00:01:55,381 --> 00:01:59,340 And I knew unless I got a piece of ride on the train again. 33 00:01:59,486 --> 00:02:02,922 So that's when I bought my caboose and put it in my yard. 34 00:02:04,190 --> 00:02:09,184 There are grown men who ridetoy steam trains at a mountain retreat. 35 00:02:09,329 --> 00:02:11,661 There are train buffs who choose to ride 36 00:02:11,798 --> 00:02:15,700 through South America's Andes on a baggage rack. 37 00:02:15,835 --> 00:02:19,498 There's town in lowa that honors hoboes, 38 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:22,267 and there are thousands of young people competing 39 00:02:22,408 --> 00:02:25,639 for the chance to engineer a train. 40 00:02:25,778 --> 00:02:29,771 There are people who harken to the lonesome whistle blowing 41 00:02:29,916 --> 00:02:32,384 and the clickety-clack of wheels on rails. 42 00:02:32,519 --> 00:02:36,683 Theirs is a worldwide fraternity with no membership requirements 43 00:02:36,823 --> 00:02:40,190 beyond sharing in the love of trains. 44 00:03:25,038 --> 00:03:27,802 You've got a sheet like this and it tells you 45 00:03:27,941 --> 00:03:30,341 who's sitting in every seat, and every seat is assigned, and... 46 00:03:30,476 --> 00:03:33,240 There are many people so enamored of trains that they take trains, 47 00:03:33,379 --> 00:03:36,712 not to go anywhere, but just for the pleasure of riding. 48 00:03:36,849 --> 00:03:39,340 Each year the North Alabama Railroad Club sponsors 49 00:03:39,485 --> 00:03:42,977 an all-day excursion on a Norfolk Southern steam train. 50 00:03:43,122 --> 00:03:46,023 Seats are always sold out and there's even competition 51 00:03:46,159 --> 00:03:48,389 for a chance to work on the engine. 52 00:03:48,528 --> 00:03:50,587 Bill Hayslip is a deputy sheriff, 53 00:03:50,730 --> 00:03:53,995 and he loves trains so much that he volunteers on his day off 54 00:03:54,133 --> 00:03:57,933 for the dirtiest job in railroading-apprentice fireman. 55 00:03:58,071 --> 00:04:01,632 I've studied steam engines just about all my life. 56 00:04:01,774 --> 00:04:06,006 I guess I was born about 30 or 40 years too late. 57 00:04:06,145 --> 00:04:07,169 There's something about a steam 58 00:04:07,313 --> 00:04:10,578 locomotive and railroad that's just romantic. 59 00:04:10,717 --> 00:04:13,049 A steam engine kind of has its own personality. 60 00:04:13,186 --> 00:04:14,551 It's like a lady. 61 00:04:14,687 --> 00:04:16,587 You have to treat it just right. 62 00:04:31,104 --> 00:04:33,538 Steam engines evoke a special affection. 63 00:04:33,673 --> 00:04:35,800 Though inanimate objects of iron and steel, 64 00:04:35,942 --> 00:04:39,343 they seem to breathe with the fire of life. 65 00:04:40,046 --> 00:04:43,311 This day the train will run to Chattanooga, Tennessee, 66 00:04:43,449 --> 00:04:47,078 evoking cherished memories of a popular song. 67 00:05:40,006 --> 00:05:43,601 I've often wondered if I was maybe one of those people 68 00:05:43,743 --> 00:05:46,769 that had trains in my bolld or something. 69 00:05:46,913 --> 00:05:49,848 Some people have alcohol, I have trains. 70 00:05:49,982 --> 00:05:51,347 I have spent the whole day in Birmingham 71 00:05:51,484 --> 00:05:53,577 just to see the two trains go through town. 72 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:58,851 My wife thins that's crazy, but, you know, it's a thrill for me. 73 00:06:04,330 --> 00:06:05,763 Part way through the trip, 74 00:06:05,898 --> 00:06:08,366 the train comes to a stop in an open field. 75 00:06:08,501 --> 00:06:13,097 Now begins the prized ritual of the steam train excursion. 76 00:06:13,239 --> 00:06:16,834 The train backs up, cameras are readied, 77 00:06:16,976 --> 00:06:21,310 and then a sweet symphony for every train-buff's ear. 78 00:06:49,275 --> 00:06:51,675 The train station in Chattanooga has been transformed 79 00:06:51,811 --> 00:06:53,574 into an entertainment center. 80 00:06:53,713 --> 00:06:55,374 When the train returns to Huntsville, 81 00:06:55,515 --> 00:06:59,212 Dr. And Mrs. Lonie Lindsey stay on in Chattanooga for dinner 82 00:06:59,352 --> 00:07:00,910 in a refurbished diner. 83 00:07:01,053 --> 00:07:04,489 They remember another train trip long ago. 84 00:07:04,624 --> 00:07:11,052 We got on the train in Tuscumbia, Alabama and we went to Chattanooga. 85 00:07:11,197 --> 00:07:15,099 Went up to the courthouse and we got married. 86 00:07:15,234 --> 00:07:18,203 That was 55 years ago, 87 00:07:18,337 --> 00:07:22,933 and we've had a very lovely marriage so far. 88 00:07:23,075 --> 00:07:29,173 And here 55 years later, we do the same start-over again. 89 00:07:31,017 --> 00:07:35,613 The most popular rooms at the Choo-Choo Hilton Hotel are old train cars, 90 00:07:35,755 --> 00:07:39,851 Nostalgic setting for recapturing fond memories. 91 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:49,734 For those who love to ride steam trains, 92 00:07:49,869 --> 00:07:52,463 each trip is a journey into the past. 93 00:07:52,605 --> 00:07:55,972 In the beginning, steam engines were at the center of the Industrial Revolution 94 00:07:56,108 --> 00:08:00,408 which could not even begin until mankind learned one crucial trick 95 00:08:00,546 --> 00:08:04,038 how to transform heat energy into motion. 96 00:08:04,183 --> 00:08:08,244 In the first century A. D., the Greek scholar, Hero of Alexandria, 97 00:08:08,387 --> 00:08:11,117 invented steam-jet propulsion. 98 00:08:13,159 --> 00:08:17,619 Hero's ingenious device remained a toy until 1712 99 00:08:17,763 --> 00:08:21,961 when Thomas Newcomen developed the first successful steam engine 100 00:08:22,101 --> 00:08:26,060 Newcomen's engine was used to pump water out of coal mines. 101 00:08:28,374 --> 00:08:30,638 One hundred years passed before 102 00:08:30,776 --> 00:08:33,904 the first British-built steam locomotives took to the rails. 103 00:08:34,046 --> 00:08:37,641 Soon the public everywhere crossed the threshold of a new age 104 00:08:37,783 --> 00:08:42,686 as horses were replaced by the latest locomotive invention. 105 00:08:43,623 --> 00:08:48,060 Today, these early engines can usually be seen only at museums, 106 00:08:48,194 --> 00:08:50,890 where they seem as distant as dinosaurs. 107 00:08:51,030 --> 00:08:54,659 The John Bull is the oldest operable steam engine in the world. 108 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:58,497 To mark the 150th anniversary of its first American trial, 109 00:08:58,638 --> 00:09:00,401 the Smithsonian Institution brought it out 110 00:09:00,540 --> 00:09:03,304 for a run along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. 111 00:09:03,442 --> 00:09:05,307 People who love trains dressed up 112 00:09:05,444 --> 00:09:08,345 for the occasion and gathered from miles around. 113 00:09:08,481 --> 00:09:11,507 Many had never heard the hoot of a steam whistle 114 00:09:11,651 --> 00:09:14,017 or the screech of brakes. 115 00:09:24,530 --> 00:09:27,966 Nostalgia for those seemingly innocent days of American history 116 00:09:28,100 --> 00:09:30,466 is very much alive today. 117 00:09:33,372 --> 00:09:37,001 For some, no doubt, steam engines are the attraction. 118 00:09:38,711 --> 00:09:42,112 For others, perhaps, it is the appeal of travel. 119 00:09:42,815 --> 00:09:46,945 Or could it be that so many share the romantic notion of growing up 120 00:09:47,019 --> 00:09:49,317 to be an engineer? 121 00:09:51,891 --> 00:09:54,359 These trains are called live steamers. 122 00:09:54,493 --> 00:09:58,224 Seymour Johnson loves trains so much that he donated land and equipment 123 00:09:58,364 --> 00:10:01,822 for a miniature railroad at his home in Montecito, California. 124 00:10:01,968 --> 00:10:05,233 I think in my case and in the case of a lot of people, 125 00:10:05,371 --> 00:10:11,241 you kind of grew up with them as toys and these are pretty big toys. 126 00:10:11,377 --> 00:10:15,313 I started building this particular engine in 1947 127 00:10:15,448 --> 00:10:17,382 and I completed it in 1951. 128 00:10:17,516 --> 00:10:23,284 And that's why I have the numbers on the side-4751 -to remind me of the time. 129 00:10:28,995 --> 00:10:32,123 Johnson and the local members of the Goleta Valley Railroad Club 130 00:10:32,264 --> 00:10:34,858 spent 17 years building their line. 131 00:10:35,001 --> 00:10:39,165 Today they test their engines on more than a mile of track. 132 00:10:44,143 --> 00:10:46,668 There is something nostalgic about steam engines now, 133 00:10:46,812 --> 00:10:50,270 of course, but the thing is, a steam locomotive is live. 134 00:10:50,416 --> 00:10:52,611 The engine talks to you when you're running it. 135 00:10:52,752 --> 00:10:54,276 You can feel what it's doing. 136 00:10:54,420 --> 00:10:57,548 It tells you I'm working too hard or I'm taking it easy. 137 00:10:57,690 --> 00:10:58,850 You can hear it in the stack, 138 00:10:58,991 --> 00:11:01,983 you can hear it in the sound of the blower, the sound of the fire. 139 00:11:02,128 --> 00:11:04,323 They've got steam engines that are over a hundred years old 140 00:11:04,463 --> 00:11:06,055 that continue to run. 141 00:11:06,198 --> 00:11:09,531 Once a year, Johnson and the club host a three-day meet 142 00:11:09,669 --> 00:11:12,729 that attracts model owners from all over the country. 143 00:11:12,872 --> 00:11:14,965 Each engine is custom-built, 144 00:11:15,107 --> 00:11:18,565 representing thousands of hours of meticulous machining. 145 00:11:18,711 --> 00:11:21,111 And as in real life, the engineers discover 146 00:11:21,247 --> 00:11:26,981 that steam engines can be cantankerous beasts capable of fighting back. 147 00:11:31,290 --> 00:11:33,349 Well, this is a 21/2-inch scale, 148 00:11:33,492 --> 00:11:37,656 narrow gauge locomotive built to run on 71/2-inch track. 149 00:11:37,797 --> 00:11:40,823 We're trying to duplicate exactly the kind of engine 150 00:11:40,966 --> 00:11:44,094 that the Colorado & Southern used back in the years 151 00:11:44,236 --> 00:11:49,230 of 1890 through 1936. 152 00:12:00,453 --> 00:12:04,446 Hey, John, you want to push the daylight car into the siding? 153 00:12:04,590 --> 00:12:07,684 The most popular daily event is the grand tour of the line 154 00:12:07,827 --> 00:12:09,294 for families and friends. 155 00:12:09,428 --> 00:12:10,952 Three engines are coupled. 156 00:12:11,097 --> 00:12:15,534 Together they are pulling six tons of engines, cars, and passengers. 157 00:12:15,668 --> 00:12:17,602 We now have 14 cars. 158 00:12:17,737 --> 00:12:22,765 Mostly they're freight-car type because people are way out of scale. 159 00:12:22,908 --> 00:12:27,072 This train is one-eighth full size, but people aren't. 160 00:12:27,213 --> 00:12:29,511 So if you put them in a passenger car, 161 00:12:29,648 --> 00:12:31,081 you can't put a roof on. 162 00:12:31,217 --> 00:12:33,117 But if you put them in a freight car, 163 00:12:33,252 --> 00:12:35,186 the sky is the limit. 164 00:12:38,824 --> 00:12:42,692 Many of those who build and enjoy riding live steamers 165 00:12:42,828 --> 00:12:45,319 can still recall the old days 166 00:12:45,464 --> 00:12:48,228 when steam engines ruled the rails. 167 00:12:51,537 --> 00:12:55,564 The halcyon days of steam and rail began after World War 1. 168 00:12:55,708 --> 00:12:58,074 The Big Boy of the 1940s was driven 169 00:12:58,210 --> 00:13:01,839 by four pistons that powered 16 drive wheels. 170 00:13:01,981 --> 00:13:04,541 It was the largest steam engine ever built, 171 00:13:04,683 --> 00:13:08,175 and could pull a train five miles long 172 00:13:12,892 --> 00:13:16,157 And during World War I I, steam engines transporting the freight, 173 00:13:16,295 --> 00:13:18,024 weapons, and troops to the seacoasts, 174 00:13:18,164 --> 00:13:21,895 made possible the fast buildup of America's war machine. 175 00:13:23,803 --> 00:13:27,899 In the 1950s, steam gave way to diesel and rail companies, 176 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:31,373 competing for passengers promoted streamliners 177 00:13:31,510 --> 00:13:33,444 as the chic way to travel. 178 00:13:38,417 --> 00:13:39,441 But late in the decade, 179 00:13:39,585 --> 00:13:43,385 passengers shifted to automobiles and airplanes for long-distance travel 180 00:13:43,522 --> 00:13:45,752 and trucks took over much of the freight. 181 00:13:45,891 --> 00:13:48,758 The low point came in the 1970s. 182 00:13:48,894 --> 00:13:53,263 Congress rescued six bankrupt railroad by creating Conrail. 183 00:13:53,399 --> 00:13:55,731 Railroad lines were abandoned, 184 00:13:55,868 --> 00:13:59,998 and hundreds of stations closed for good. 185 00:14:06,478 --> 00:14:10,107 Although Americans seemed to lose interest in passenger train travel, 186 00:14:10,249 --> 00:14:14,276 some countries maintained their trains as national treasures. 187 00:14:14,420 --> 00:14:18,220 The narrow-gauge Guayaquil and Quito Railway in Ecuador 188 00:14:18,357 --> 00:14:20,791 plays a vital part in national life, 189 00:14:20,926 --> 00:14:23,895 and people here use the railroad like a party line. 190 00:14:24,029 --> 00:14:27,192 It even serves as a food market on wheels. 191 00:14:41,180 --> 00:14:43,842 Train buff and writer Carla Hunt has traveled 192 00:14:43,983 --> 00:14:46,508 throughout South America on trains. 193 00:14:46,652 --> 00:14:49,553 The Guayaquil-to-Quito run draws her back as the 194 00:14:49,688 --> 00:14:52,486 most exciting in South America. 195 00:14:55,694 --> 00:14:59,562 A train buff's dream an American-built Baldwin engine- 196 00:14:59,698 --> 00:15:03,259 a relic from 1900-begins a two-day climb from sea level 197 00:15:03,402 --> 00:15:06,394 to over 11,000 feet in the Andes. 198 00:15:06,538 --> 00:15:09,006 Passengers have a choice of three classes. 199 00:15:09,141 --> 00:15:11,609 Second class costs a dollar sixty. 200 00:15:11,744 --> 00:15:15,544 First-class cars sport padded seats for two dollars ten cents, 201 00:15:15,681 --> 00:15:19,242 and local vendors offer lunch on brown paper. 202 00:15:23,822 --> 00:15:28,816 The affluent, who ride deluxe, get reserved seats and meal service. 203 00:15:31,230 --> 00:15:36,190 But some prefer the roof where conductors seldom collect tickets. 204 00:15:39,204 --> 00:15:43,573 American engineers laid out the route in 1898. 205 00:15:43,709 --> 00:15:47,110 It took ten years to cut the line from the sugar cane fields 206 00:15:47,246 --> 00:15:50,215 of the lowlands up over the Andes. 207 00:15:50,349 --> 00:15:53,910 When the train going up fails to meet the train coming down 208 00:15:54,053 --> 00:15:55,486 at the appointed siding, 209 00:15:55,621 --> 00:15:58,249 there's an unscheduled stop for a phone call to find out 210 00:15:58,390 --> 00:16:00,756 what happened to the other train. 211 00:16:03,395 --> 00:16:05,863 These trains, not only do they carry the people up and down, 212 00:16:05,998 --> 00:16:08,899 but they carry the mail. 213 00:16:09,034 --> 00:16:13,596 Every once in a while you see them with a medical prescription, 214 00:16:13,739 --> 00:16:15,764 a telex that might have come into Guayaquil 215 00:16:15,908 --> 00:16:18,138 but can't make it up between the two points. 216 00:16:18,277 --> 00:16:20,245 There is a telex facility at Tiobamba. 217 00:16:20,379 --> 00:16:23,280 But between here and Riobamba there is absolutely nothing. 218 00:16:23,415 --> 00:16:27,112 The train that's coming from Riobama has a problem in Huigra. 219 00:16:27,252 --> 00:16:31,951 One of the wheels of the machine was falling down off the track. 220 00:16:32,091 --> 00:16:36,653 And now we are going with this train to help the other train. 221 00:16:36,795 --> 00:16:37,659 So, back to Huigra. 222 00:16:37,796 --> 00:16:40,060 Ah, fantastico. 223 00:16:40,199 --> 00:16:41,666 Derailments are common, 224 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:45,133 but the speeds are slow and the accidents usually minor. 225 00:16:45,270 --> 00:16:49,297 As a bonus, amateur supervisors get a chance to see how, 226 00:16:49,441 --> 00:16:51,068 with a minimum of equipment, 227 00:16:51,210 --> 00:16:55,237 a derailed car can be coaxed back onto its track. 228 00:17:19,238 --> 00:17:23,698 After a change of engines, the train climbs into the mountains once again. 229 00:17:23,842 --> 00:17:25,469 In the early days of the American west 230 00:17:25,611 --> 00:17:27,272 railroad builders often resorted 231 00:17:27,413 --> 00:17:31,042 to zigzagging switchbacks to gain altitude. 232 00:17:31,183 --> 00:17:34,584 On this line, a famous switchback is still in use. 233 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:38,850 The train has proceeded as far as it can up the valley. 234 00:17:38,991 --> 00:17:40,925 Now it switches to another track, 235 00:17:41,060 --> 00:17:43,893 and backs up the side of Devil's Nose, 236 00:17:44,029 --> 00:17:48,363 giving passengers on the rear platform a front-end view. 237 00:17:58,043 --> 00:18:04,471 The train backs around the mountain, then switches again to climb higher. 238 00:18:10,556 --> 00:18:13,286 Going forward again, the train has climbed 239 00:18:13,425 --> 00:18:17,555 300 vertical feet up the side of the mountain. 240 00:18:21,834 --> 00:18:25,201 At the end of the first day, the train stops at Riobamba. 241 00:18:25,337 --> 00:18:28,135 For Carla Hunt, a visit to the market is a fascinating 242 00:18:28,273 --> 00:18:29,638 feature of the trip. 243 00:18:29,775 --> 00:18:33,074 People come from miles around to sell and buy. 244 00:18:33,212 --> 00:18:34,804 You see things in this market 245 00:18:34,947 --> 00:18:38,212 you won't see anywhere else in Latin America. 246 00:18:38,350 --> 00:18:40,113 But more than anything else, 247 00:18:40,252 --> 00:18:44,450 I like to wander around and look at all those beautiful faces. 248 00:18:53,932 --> 00:18:58,096 From Riobamba to Quito, the train is really a bus on rails. 249 00:18:58,237 --> 00:18:59,397 There are seats inside, 250 00:18:59,538 --> 00:19:02,268 but for hardy train buffs like Carla Hunt, 251 00:19:02,407 --> 00:19:05,376 there is a much more exciting vantage point. 252 00:19:05,511 --> 00:19:09,538 The place I like to ride is up on the luggage rack on top. 253 00:19:09,681 --> 00:19:12,912 That's the best sightseeing seat in South America. 254 00:19:14,419 --> 00:19:18,150 To go through the mountains and to climb over the two ranges of the Andes 255 00:19:18,290 --> 00:19:20,952 to go through the beautiful upland villages 256 00:19:21,093 --> 00:19:24,119 with all the wild changes of weather on route, 257 00:19:24,263 --> 00:19:26,390 there's nothing in the world like it. 258 00:19:26,532 --> 00:19:30,969 Clouds shroud the peaks of the Andes as the line climbs high through cuts 259 00:19:31,103 --> 00:19:34,504 in the mountains and then descends to Ecuador's capital, 260 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:36,767 the Spanish colonial city of Quito, 261 00:19:36,909 --> 00:19:41,539 to bring to an end one of the world's most extraordinary train ride 262 00:19:45,617 --> 00:19:48,017 In the United States, another spectacular train ride 263 00:19:48,153 --> 00:19:51,611 inspired one train buff to take dramatic action. 264 00:19:53,592 --> 00:19:55,822 The line from Durango to Silverton, Colorado 265 00:19:55,961 --> 00:19:58,896 was threatened with abandonment in 1960. 266 00:19:59,031 --> 00:20:00,498 Charles Bradshaw Jr., 267 00:20:00,632 --> 00:20:04,625 Florida citrus grower, rescued it in 1981. 268 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:12,574 Like many a town in the old West, Durango was created by a railroad. 269 00:20:12,711 --> 00:20:16,078 The Denver & Rio Grande chose the site laid out the streets, 270 00:20:16,215 --> 00:20:18,649 and sold lots around the depot. 271 00:20:23,889 --> 00:20:28,121 Young people, who share Bradshaw's enthusiasm for trains, keep it running 272 00:20:28,260 --> 00:20:29,454 I love it. I really love it. 273 00:20:29,595 --> 00:20:30,653 I go home and tell my husband, 274 00:20:30,796 --> 00:20:32,855 I learned all kinds of new things today. 275 00:20:32,998 --> 00:20:35,262 I would like to be an engineer very much. 276 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:37,265 You have to go through all the training, 277 00:20:37,402 --> 00:20:40,633 which is pretty physical for a girl and then you have to also a fireman, 278 00:20:40,772 --> 00:20:44,037 which shovel six ton of coal a day. 279 00:20:44,176 --> 00:20:47,509 I wouldn't want to get out of my limit I don't think that's right. 280 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:51,007 My father and my grandfather and my great-grandfather 281 00:20:51,149 --> 00:20:52,912 were all railroaders before me. 282 00:20:53,051 --> 00:20:55,713 They worked for the Rio Grand. Not this particular branch. 283 00:20:55,854 --> 00:21:00,723 I'm the first one in the family to work for this branch of the railroad. 284 00:21:00,859 --> 00:21:02,690 None of them were conductors. 285 00:21:02,828 --> 00:21:04,693 They were all in different parts of the railroad, 286 00:21:04,830 --> 00:21:06,422 so I'm the first conductor in the family. 287 00:21:06,565 --> 00:21:08,157 They have to be pretty responsible people. 288 00:21:08,300 --> 00:21:12,031 They can't be irresponsible at all. 289 00:21:12,170 --> 00:21:15,105 Aren't you pretty young to be an engineer? 290 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,073 I hear that about 30 times a day. 291 00:21:18,210 --> 00:21:20,974 If I couldn't handle the job, I wouldn't be here. 292 00:21:27,953 --> 00:21:31,411 Silverton is only 45 miles from Durango, 293 00:21:31,556 --> 00:21:35,959 but to get there, the train must climb almost 3,000 feet 294 00:21:38,630 --> 00:21:39,824 In the 1870s, 295 00:21:39,965 --> 00:21:44,299 huge discoveries of ore were made in the mountains surrounding Silverton 296 00:21:44,436 --> 00:21:47,462 but there was no economical way to get the ore out. 297 00:21:47,606 --> 00:21:50,769 The railroad made the mines profitable 298 00:21:50,909 --> 00:21:53,901 The ore is now removed by truck. 299 00:21:54,046 --> 00:21:56,446 The traffic has changed, 300 00:21:56,581 --> 00:22:01,609 but the town still prospers-mining tourist dollars. 301 00:22:03,922 --> 00:22:05,412 All aboard. 302 00:22:14,866 --> 00:22:17,096 As soon as the route was completed, 303 00:22:17,235 --> 00:22:20,864 the drama of the train's traverse of the Animas River Canyon 304 00:22:21,006 --> 00:22:25,272 was recognized as one of the great sights of American railroading. 305 00:22:26,144 --> 00:22:29,375 In the early 1880s, photographer William Henry Jackson 306 00:22:29,514 --> 00:22:33,450 lowered himself into the canyon to take this picture, 307 00:22:33,585 --> 00:22:36,554 published in Harper's Weekly magazine. 308 00:22:37,322 --> 00:22:41,383 Today's passengers can still enjoy the same spectacle. 309 00:22:42,994 --> 00:22:47,454 The ride is potentially just as dangerous now as it was then. 310 00:22:47,599 --> 00:22:52,468 A derailment could topple the cars 200 feet into the gorge. 311 00:22:58,076 --> 00:23:02,240 An extraordinary train run has been preserved because of the dedication 312 00:23:02,381 --> 00:23:06,579 of one man and the delight that more than 100,000 people a year 313 00:23:06,718 --> 00:23:09,118 take in supporting the line. 314 00:23:18,163 --> 00:23:20,131 Boston has its marathon; 315 00:23:20,265 --> 00:23:21,892 New Orleans its Mardi Gras. 316 00:23:22,033 --> 00:23:25,093 Britt, lowa honors hoboes. 317 00:23:30,575 --> 00:23:32,907 Once a year, this small town invites 318 00:23:33,044 --> 00:23:37,037 hoboes from all over the country to drop by for a visit. 319 00:23:37,182 --> 00:23:40,276 The get-together largely attracts those who have retired from 320 00:23:40,419 --> 00:23:42,319 actively riding the rails 321 00:23:42,454 --> 00:23:47,187 and can now look back on their former rag-tag wanderings with nostalgia. 322 00:23:48,293 --> 00:23:51,285 Hoboes were not always so honored. 323 00:23:51,430 --> 00:23:54,763 Hoboing began during hard times after the Civil War. 324 00:23:54,900 --> 00:23:55,867 And in the Great Depression, 325 00:23:56,001 --> 00:23:58,629 the desperate once again took to the rails. 326 00:23:58,770 --> 00:24:02,433 Sometimes railroad police threw them off moving trains. 327 00:24:02,574 --> 00:24:05,509 Others jumped rather than face the reception they received 328 00:24:05,644 --> 00:24:07,942 when caught crossing state lines. 329 00:24:08,079 --> 00:24:11,344 If we are to protect the public of Southern California 330 00:24:11,483 --> 00:24:14,281 from the indigent transient class. 331 00:24:14,419 --> 00:24:18,378 They are coming here at this time, not for the purpose of securing work, 332 00:24:18,523 --> 00:24:21,583 but for the purpose of living on relief, 333 00:24:21,726 --> 00:24:23,591 stealing, or begging. 334 00:24:23,728 --> 00:24:24,752 Where is your home? 335 00:24:24,896 --> 00:24:25,794 Chicago. 336 00:24:25,931 --> 00:24:27,523 You ride a freight all the way from Chicago? 337 00:24:27,666 --> 00:24:29,600 Yes, sir. 338 00:24:29,734 --> 00:24:33,067 Well, you can ride, 'em back too, or any way you can to get back. 339 00:24:33,205 --> 00:24:35,605 We're going to see you over the state line. 340 00:24:35,740 --> 00:24:39,904 Don't come back to California until you can come in like a man. 341 00:24:47,285 --> 00:24:51,881 Hobo camps are called jungles, and life in them has always been hard. 342 00:24:52,023 --> 00:24:53,183 But in Britt, lowa 343 00:24:53,325 --> 00:24:56,624 the jungle is a place to renew friendships and swap stories. 344 00:24:56,761 --> 00:24:58,592 ...in '78 Yes, yes. 345 00:24:58,730 --> 00:25:01,221 Yeah, I remember you. My memory that bad? 346 00:25:01,366 --> 00:25:05,166 Now wait a minute! Every year you get older, 347 00:25:05,303 --> 00:25:07,032 you have a special privilege. 348 00:25:07,172 --> 00:25:11,108 Every year you will get a little bit better at forgetting. 349 00:25:11,243 --> 00:25:13,302 Yes. I am there already. 350 00:25:13,445 --> 00:25:16,346 Hoboes are known most often by their nicknames. 351 00:25:16,481 --> 00:25:20,611 "Steamtrain" was first elected hobo king in 1973. 352 00:25:20,752 --> 00:25:22,276 Now we got a young goat here, 353 00:25:22,420 --> 00:25:24,980 and it's going to be some pretty tender eating 354 00:25:25,123 --> 00:25:26,715 when we get him all browned up here. 355 00:25:27,859 --> 00:25:29,793 Yes, sir. 356 00:25:29,928 --> 00:25:31,862 We'll have some of the best music and some of the best food 357 00:25:31,997 --> 00:25:34,056 you'll ever sit down to. 358 00:25:56,888 --> 00:26:00,949 Time has reversed these hoboes' roles once they were outcasts. 359 00:26:01,092 --> 00:26:04,584 Now Britt youngsters look up to them as knights of the open road 360 00:26:04,729 --> 00:26:08,358 who seem to have lived in a mythological age. 361 00:26:08,500 --> 00:26:09,728 That's my name, see. 362 00:26:09,868 --> 00:26:13,201 That's your name? Well, this is mine. 363 00:26:13,338 --> 00:26:16,102 Mountain Dew. I was talking to the hoboqueen and she says, 364 00:26:16,241 --> 00:26:18,471 Would you like to be a hobo? And I said, "Sure." 365 00:26:18,610 --> 00:26:19,804 And I go, How do you be a hobo? 366 00:26:19,945 --> 00:26:24,712 And she said-well, she pulled out this kind of perfume stuff, 367 00:26:24,849 --> 00:26:30,810 whatever it is-and she goes, I acquire you prince, a hobo price. 368 00:26:30,956 --> 00:26:32,890 And she put some on my forehead. 369 00:26:33,024 --> 00:26:35,117 So I'm a hobo prince. 370 00:26:35,260 --> 00:26:38,093 And my name is "Beer-Belly Bob." 371 00:26:38,229 --> 00:26:39,753 I started out when I was about 16, 372 00:26:39,898 --> 00:26:42,958 and had 12 years on and off, different places. 373 00:26:43,101 --> 00:26:47,162 Working irrigation ditches up in Washington, 374 00:26:47,305 --> 00:26:49,205 or cutting pulp wood in New York, 375 00:26:49,341 --> 00:26:52,174 dong lifeguard work down in Miami Beach, 376 00:26:52,310 --> 00:26:55,040 working in a gypsum plant in Yuma, Arizona, 377 00:26:55,180 --> 00:26:58,206 washing dishes in California You know, different stuff like that. 378 00:26:58,350 --> 00:27:02,411 Working in the coal mines, but they gave me a day shift. 379 00:27:02,554 --> 00:27:04,215 When I went in, it was dark and when I come out, it was dark, 380 00:27:04,356 --> 00:27:05,584 and I worked there two weeks. 381 00:27:05,724 --> 00:27:07,089 I told them when they put windows in there, 382 00:27:07,225 --> 00:27:09,193 I'd come back to work. 383 00:27:09,327 --> 00:27:12,626 How long did you hobo? From when to when? 384 00:27:12,764 --> 00:27:16,222 About, let's see, 1931 to '38. 385 00:27:16,368 --> 00:27:17,733 Something like that. 386 00:27:17,869 --> 00:27:22,306 What's the satisfaction? Of being free. 387 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:23,304 Being free. 388 00:27:23,441 --> 00:27:28,504 In other words, not having to account to anybody for your actions. 389 00:27:28,647 --> 00:27:32,242 As the sun sets, the hoboes gather around a fire, 390 00:27:32,384 --> 00:27:35,751 and balladeers recall the hard days of depression times. 391 00:27:35,887 --> 00:27:43,225 ...my wandering. 392 00:27:43,361 --> 00:27:49,322 Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, 393 00:27:49,467 --> 00:27:56,373 If the railroad doesn't get you, then the bread lines must, 394 00:27:56,508 --> 00:28:11,515 And it looks like I'm never going to cease my wandering. 395 00:28:19,264 --> 00:28:21,425 When most railroad buffs think of trains, 396 00:28:21,566 --> 00:28:23,500 they think of passenger trains. 397 00:28:23,635 --> 00:28:26,695 But many of those most devoted to trains have found their life work 398 00:28:26,838 --> 00:28:28,601 with the railroads. 399 00:28:32,844 --> 00:28:36,007 Whether they maintain the racks or work on the trains themselves, 400 00:28:36,147 --> 00:28:41,346 the big business for them is freight, moving everything from coal to lettuce. 401 00:28:41,486 --> 00:28:45,183 And although much of the public thinks railroads are a dying industry, 402 00:28:45,323 --> 00:28:47,791 in fact they are thriving. 403 00:28:47,926 --> 00:28:51,919 Deregulation has permitted them to abandon money-losing lines, 404 00:28:52,063 --> 00:28:55,396 and new techniques, like piggyback hauling of truck trailers 405 00:28:55,533 --> 00:28:58,161 and containers, attract new customers. 406 00:28:58,303 --> 00:29:01,500 The mass-market shipping of fresh produce by rail 407 00:29:01,639 --> 00:29:03,402 enables farmers in California 408 00:29:03,541 --> 00:29:07,443 to sell lettuce to buyers 3,000 miles away. 409 00:29:07,579 --> 00:29:11,242 Lettuce harvesting has become an assembly-line operation- 410 00:29:11,382 --> 00:29:14,840 cutter, packer, sprayer, box-closer. 411 00:29:17,322 --> 00:29:19,654 Today's lettuce that we've got is probably the best 412 00:29:19,791 --> 00:29:21,622 we've had in about a week and a half. 413 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:24,456 It's 54 to 55 pounds absolutely clean. 414 00:29:24,596 --> 00:29:28,828 Derek Derdivanis is Sales Manger of the Admiral Packing Company in Salinas. 415 00:29:28,967 --> 00:29:32,562 He sells lettuce by the carload to buyers all over the country. 416 00:29:32,704 --> 00:29:34,763 Just call us back with that order, will you? 417 00:29:34,906 --> 00:29:37,739 You know. The one you got in your back pocket. 418 00:29:38,743 --> 00:29:42,110 A refrigerator car holds 30,000 heads of lettuce. 419 00:29:42,247 --> 00:29:45,648 This one is bound east for New York City. 420 00:29:46,618 --> 00:29:49,314 The morning after the lettuce is picked, the Admiral lettuce car 421 00:29:49,454 --> 00:29:54,118 has been joined to a 50-car train called the "Salad Bowl Express." 422 00:29:54,259 --> 00:29:57,695 Five Southern Pacific engines are needed to pull the train 423 00:29:57,829 --> 00:30:02,163 over a 7,000-foot-high pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains. 424 00:30:12,510 --> 00:30:14,842 The route climbs toward Donner Pass. 425 00:30:14,979 --> 00:30:19,177 On average, 35 feet of snow fall here each winter, 426 00:30:19,317 --> 00:30:24,448 and avalanches have obstructed travelers as long as the pass has been used. 427 00:30:27,292 --> 00:30:32,889 In November 1846, blizzards trapped the emigrant Donner party here. 428 00:30:33,031 --> 00:30:36,330 Thirty-five died of starvation and exposure. 429 00:30:36,467 --> 00:30:40,028 Some survivors resorted to cannibalism. 430 00:30:42,507 --> 00:30:44,372 In the spring of 1982, 431 00:30:44,509 --> 00:30:47,967 ten feet of snow fell in 12 days in the High Sierras. 432 00:30:48,112 --> 00:30:51,445 Southern Pacific stopped all trains across Donner Pass. 433 00:30:51,583 --> 00:30:55,212 Diverting traffic cost $100,000 a day. 434 00:30:55,353 --> 00:30:57,947 Snow fighters tried to keep the lines open 435 00:30:58,089 --> 00:31:02,753 with spreaders-snow plows that push the huge drifts to the side. 436 00:31:13,671 --> 00:31:15,366 But when the snow drifts too deep, 437 00:31:15,506 --> 00:31:19,465 spreaders stall and the pushing wings collapse. 438 00:31:24,582 --> 00:31:27,642 The nerve center of the railroad's fight is a community of houses 439 00:31:27,785 --> 00:31:30,015 and offices connected by tunnels 440 00:31:30,154 --> 00:31:33,487 so buried in snow that it is call "Mole Town." 441 00:31:33,625 --> 00:31:36,423 Here a hundred men and women work day and night. 442 00:31:36,561 --> 00:31:37,493 Norden operator. 443 00:31:37,629 --> 00:31:39,426 Everything's in the clear on the Number Two? 444 00:31:39,564 --> 00:31:40,656 How about the rotary? 445 00:31:40,798 --> 00:31:42,265 Rotary's in the clear on the Number Two... 446 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:46,530 Management calls for its ultimate snow-fighting machines-rotary plows 447 00:31:46,671 --> 00:31:49,936 that can dig through almost any accumulation of snow. 448 00:31:50,074 --> 00:31:52,065 ...that engine's being held right now. 449 00:31:52,210 --> 00:31:56,476 The rotary is going on down to the other end of the siding. 450 00:32:12,697 --> 00:32:16,690 Throwing five tons of snow a minute, 150 feet from the line, 451 00:32:16,834 --> 00:32:21,032 the rotary can literally dig a trench deeper than itself. 452 00:32:33,184 --> 00:32:36,711 As one rotary chews toward the top of the pass from the west, 453 00:32:36,854 --> 00:32:39,948 another struggles up from the east. 454 00:32:52,904 --> 00:32:55,805 The first train comes through. 455 00:32:59,644 --> 00:33:00,702 Beyond the Sierras, 456 00:33:00,845 --> 00:33:03,336 the "Salad Bowl Express" drops into the desert, 457 00:33:03,481 --> 00:33:05,176 and a new crew takes over. 458 00:33:05,316 --> 00:33:06,783 On the long, straight runs, 459 00:33:06,918 --> 00:33:11,184 there's time for shared stories and for trainmen to enjoy the camaraderie 460 00:33:11,322 --> 00:33:14,348 which is part of the attraction they feel for their work. 461 00:33:14,492 --> 00:33:17,757 I don't think it's dawned on me yet that I've had a kid. 462 00:33:17,895 --> 00:33:19,419 I'm still in shock from it. 463 00:33:19,564 --> 00:33:22,260 Went in Sunday night. Had it Monday morning. 464 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,301 Last couple of days have been pretty busy for me. 465 00:33:25,436 --> 00:33:26,061 I was lucky. 466 00:33:26,204 --> 00:33:28,434 Generally the railroad doesn't allow you to be in town. 467 00:33:28,573 --> 00:33:30,734 They keep you away from home quite often. 468 00:33:30,875 --> 00:33:34,777 So I was pretty lucky to be home when it happened. 469 00:33:34,912 --> 00:33:36,243 In 1950, 470 00:33:36,381 --> 00:33:39,976 I was on a high-speed perishables train, 471 00:33:40,118 --> 00:33:43,110 and a passenger train come out of a side track in front of us. 472 00:33:43,254 --> 00:33:46,314 We hit him head on about 52 mile an hour. 473 00:33:47,692 --> 00:33:50,388 The engineer on the other train was killed. 474 00:33:50,528 --> 00:33:52,428 I'm very lucky to be here. 475 00:33:52,563 --> 00:33:54,463 Now that scared me. 476 00:34:00,204 --> 00:34:03,537 By evening, the train is in eastern Nevada. 477 00:34:03,674 --> 00:34:04,504 The next morning, 478 00:34:04,642 --> 00:34:06,974 now with a Union Pacific engine and crew, 479 00:34:07,111 --> 00:34:11,946 the "Salad Bowl Express" climbs toward the Continental Divide. 480 00:34:14,285 --> 00:34:16,048 Around a curve, Castle Rock, 481 00:34:16,187 --> 00:34:19,247 a well-known American landmark, comes into view. 482 00:34:20,825 --> 00:34:24,625 The famous photographer A.J. Russell captured this same scene 483 00:34:24,762 --> 00:34:28,289 when the transcontinental railroad was nearing completion. 484 00:34:30,701 --> 00:34:35,229 In 1867, it took three months to cross by wagon from the railheads 485 00:34:35,373 --> 00:34:38,001 on the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast. 486 00:34:38,142 --> 00:34:41,976 The new rail line cut that time to less than a week. 487 00:34:45,383 --> 00:34:49,615 Irish immigrants living in railroad car dormitories built west. 488 00:34:51,422 --> 00:34:54,550 Chinese coolies built east. 489 00:34:55,726 --> 00:34:59,457 It was the most dramatic engineering accmplishment of the century. 490 00:35:00,731 --> 00:35:04,599 Gorges were spanned, mountains cut through or tunneled under. 491 00:35:04,735 --> 00:35:08,171 An army of workers fought summer heart and winter snow 492 00:35:08,306 --> 00:35:10,866 at a cost of uncounted lives. 493 00:35:14,412 --> 00:35:17,404 There were no movie cameras to record the great undertaking, 494 00:35:17,548 --> 00:35:19,243 but once movies were invented, 495 00:35:19,383 --> 00:35:23,149 filmmakers recreated the drama in classic films; 496 00:35:23,287 --> 00:35:28,486 John Ford's the Iron Horse and Cecil B. DeMille's Union Pacific. 497 00:35:31,996 --> 00:35:35,557 Crossing the mountains, the deserts, and plains, 498 00:35:35,700 --> 00:35:39,534 Fighting the heat, the cold, and the rain, 499 00:35:39,670 --> 00:35:43,401 Summer to autumn, winter to spring, 500 00:35:43,541 --> 00:35:45,441 Bring 'em up, lay 'em down, 501 00:35:45,576 --> 00:35:48,409 make the hammers ring, 502 00:35:48,546 --> 00:35:52,209 Building a new road under the wheel, 503 00:35:52,350 --> 00:35:56,013 Bind up the earth in iron and steel, 504 00:35:56,154 --> 00:35:57,917 Working east, working west, 505 00:35:58,055 --> 00:35:59,750 we're building our way, 506 00:35:59,891 --> 00:36:05,352 On bad food, hard liquor, and a dollar a day. 507 00:36:06,264 --> 00:36:07,822 It was a day of national celebration 508 00:36:07,965 --> 00:36:10,627 when the two lines met at Promontory, Utah. 509 00:36:10,768 --> 00:36:13,032 A.J. Russell recorded the scene in what is perhaps 510 00:36:13,171 --> 00:36:16,004 the most famous photograph in American history. 511 00:36:19,010 --> 00:36:20,272 And in 1924, 512 00:36:20,411 --> 00:36:23,039 when John Ford recreated the scene for his film, 513 00:36:23,181 --> 00:36:28,710 he based the action on the photographer to pose the crowd. 514 00:36:36,194 --> 00:36:40,824 The joining of America's East and West by rail is even more important today. 515 00:36:40,965 --> 00:36:44,560 The "Salad Bowl Express" is only one of 60 to 70 trains a day 516 00:36:44,702 --> 00:36:47,296 moving across the nation on this one line. 517 00:36:51,309 --> 00:36:53,038 Now, near the end of its second day, 518 00:36:53,177 --> 00:36:56,044 the "Salad Bowl Express" comes under the traffic control 519 00:36:56,180 --> 00:36:59,274 of dispatchers at North Platte, Nebraska. 520 00:37:00,084 --> 00:37:02,780 Here three men per shift control every train 521 00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:06,913 on the 245 miles of track diagrammed on the walls. 522 00:37:07,058 --> 00:37:10,425 They decide which trains get priority on the lines. 523 00:37:10,561 --> 00:37:13,155 The "salad Bowl Express" is rushed along. 524 00:37:14,632 --> 00:37:18,500 Midnight. The "Salad Bowl Express" arrives at North Platte. 525 00:37:18,636 --> 00:37:22,128 Some cars will be sent south and eastward on other lines. 526 00:37:22,273 --> 00:37:24,468 Other cars will be added. 527 00:37:25,576 --> 00:37:29,307 The freight cars are pushed up a hump and separated. 528 00:37:32,550 --> 00:37:35,348 Gravity powers them down the slope. 529 00:37:35,486 --> 00:37:38,353 The tracks divide again and again. 530 00:37:45,963 --> 00:37:49,990 Automatic sensors weigh the cars and retarders brake them. 531 00:37:51,068 --> 00:37:54,299 There are 221 miles of track in the yard. 532 00:37:54,438 --> 00:37:57,930 And as many as 5,000 freight cars at a time. 533 00:38:04,982 --> 00:38:07,507 By 4 a. M., a new train has been made up, 534 00:38:07,652 --> 00:38:11,088 a new crew comes aboard, and the train moves on. 535 00:38:13,858 --> 00:38:16,918 In the afternoon, the train crosses the Missouri River. 536 00:38:17,061 --> 00:38:20,030 Operated now by Chicago and North Western railroad, 537 00:38:20,164 --> 00:38:23,827 it traverses the rich farmlands of lowa. 538 00:38:28,739 --> 00:38:31,435 The next morning, the train is in Chicago. 539 00:38:31,575 --> 00:38:35,443 Marshalling yards like this one are dangerous places. 540 00:38:35,579 --> 00:38:39,106 You have to watch for cars coming from both directions. 541 00:38:39,250 --> 00:38:41,582 There could be debris sticking out of the car. 542 00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:44,085 Try not go get caught in a situation 543 00:38:44,221 --> 00:38:46,451 where you have trains moving 544 00:38:46,590 --> 00:38:50,788 at high speed in both directions on each side of you. 545 00:38:54,932 --> 00:39:00,199 If you do have a tendency to feel dizzy, lay down on the ground. 546 00:39:00,338 --> 00:39:02,465 You could reel under the car. 547 00:39:02,606 --> 00:39:04,733 Despite railroad emphasis on safety, 548 00:39:04,875 --> 00:39:09,005 there is an average of 15 deaths and 6,700 injuries 549 00:39:09,146 --> 00:39:12,115 to American rail-yard workers each year. 550 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:19,549 Danger for railroaders comes not only from the trains themselves. 551 00:39:19,690 --> 00:39:22,386 In the early days, desperadoes like Jesse James, 552 00:39:22,526 --> 00:39:25,222 Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance kid held up trains 553 00:39:25,363 --> 00:39:28,423 in the lonely plains and mountains of the West. 554 00:39:30,167 --> 00:39:35,969 Today, trains are most often attacked as they pass through depressed areas 555 00:39:40,177 --> 00:39:45,979 We had one conductor-they got him with a gun and robbed him at Park Manor. 556 00:39:46,117 --> 00:39:48,483 It's just a few things that we go through out here. 557 00:39:48,619 --> 00:39:50,746 Everybody thinks we've got such a swell job. 558 00:39:50,888 --> 00:39:53,254 We have our ups and downs, too. 559 00:39:53,391 --> 00:39:56,588 This is our most dangerous spot of the trip. 560 00:39:57,094 --> 00:40:00,154 They put different articles on the tracks to derail us. 561 00:40:00,297 --> 00:40:05,860 They put old truck tires so they'll break the air hoses in two. 562 00:40:06,003 --> 00:40:09,734 They'll throw beer bottles, anything they can get their hands on. 563 00:40:09,874 --> 00:40:11,364 We've heen shot at. 564 00:40:11,509 --> 00:40:14,273 They shot at me five times through the caboose windows. 565 00:40:14,412 --> 00:40:16,107 I've got pictures of the holes. 566 00:40:16,247 --> 00:40:21,150 It was either a.38 or a.45 because it put big holes. 567 00:40:21,285 --> 00:40:23,753 Sometimes they do it to rob the train. 568 00:40:23,888 --> 00:40:27,324 They break us in two to rob us, so they can take things off of us. 569 00:40:27,458 --> 00:40:31,087 On the cabooses they have... No, I know all about it. 570 00:40:31,228 --> 00:40:34,629 He's going to throw. No, he's not either. 571 00:40:37,835 --> 00:40:40,633 Oh, we go through this every day. It's nothing new to us. 572 00:40:40,771 --> 00:40:43,968 The many dedicated man and women who are drawn to railroad work 573 00:40:44,108 --> 00:40:48,044 also live with the danger that goes with the job. 574 00:40:49,146 --> 00:40:51,307 The "salad Bowl Express" rolls through 575 00:40:51,449 --> 00:40:54,885 the heartland of the industrial Middle West. 576 00:40:59,190 --> 00:41:02,751 On the fifth morning, the train parallels the Mohawk River. 577 00:41:02,893 --> 00:41:05,225 Now under Conrail control, 578 00:41:05,362 --> 00:41:10,299 it follows the same route taken in 1825 by the Erie Canal. 579 00:41:15,906 --> 00:41:17,237 Early on the sixth morning, 580 00:41:17,374 --> 00:41:22,368 the "Salas Bowl Express" arrives at its destination in the Bronx. 581 00:41:36,393 --> 00:41:41,387 Ten carloads of produce are unloaded at Hunts Point Terminal each day. 582 00:41:41,532 --> 00:41:45,366 The carload of lettuce from Salinas has been bought by the Armata family, 583 00:41:45,503 --> 00:41:49,132 wholesalers who in turn sell to markets and restaurants. 584 00:41:49,773 --> 00:41:51,434 Beautiful box of lettuce. 585 00:41:51,575 --> 00:41:53,600 As my father would say, It talks to you. 586 00:41:53,744 --> 00:41:55,439 As soon as you open up the box... 587 00:41:55,579 --> 00:41:58,377 It has been seven days since the lettuce was picked. 588 00:41:58,516 --> 00:42:02,247 It took four railroads and the involvement of 1,000 men 589 00:42:02,386 --> 00:42:04,911 and women to move it across the country. 590 00:42:05,589 --> 00:42:09,116 Half a million people work for the railroads in the United States. 591 00:42:09,260 --> 00:42:13,993 In one sense, theirs is just a job, but it is an essential job, 592 00:42:14,131 --> 00:42:16,929 moving the grain, steel, coal, automobiles, 593 00:42:17,067 --> 00:42:23,006 perishables-even the lettuce for a PTA luncheon in Baldwin, Long Island. 594 00:42:26,777 --> 00:42:30,543 Traditionally, little boys were given model trains for Christmas 595 00:42:30,681 --> 00:42:35,584 and, captured by a dream, many grew up wanting to become an engineer. 596 00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:38,517 The reality today is not far different. 597 00:42:38,656 --> 00:42:41,022 For a new class of 23 engineers, 598 00:42:41,158 --> 00:42:45,595 the Long Island Railroad had 2,000 applicants to choose from. 599 00:42:46,497 --> 00:42:48,829 Now to get the train moving, you'll need to reverse. 600 00:42:48,966 --> 00:42:50,900 You're in forward. 601 00:42:51,035 --> 00:42:52,229 This position. 602 00:42:52,369 --> 00:42:56,897 This is your throttle. Now we'll go in eight notch. 603 00:42:57,041 --> 00:42:58,736 Alright, blow the whistle. 604 00:43:00,678 --> 00:43:05,138 Dave Decker, senior instructor, has been an engineer for 14 years. 605 00:43:05,282 --> 00:43:08,115 Decker loves engineering and teaching, 606 00:43:08,252 --> 00:43:09,947 but the memory of train accidents 607 00:43:10,087 --> 00:43:13,614 in his past brings a special urgency to his teaching. 608 00:43:13,757 --> 00:43:16,419 Engineering used to be a man's job, 609 00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:20,291 but Federal affirmative action guidelines give Vita Zamboli, 610 00:43:20,431 --> 00:43:23,889 a former secretary, and extraordinary opportunity to join 611 00:43:24,034 --> 00:43:27,128 an elite group of railroad employees. 612 00:43:29,673 --> 00:43:33,734 I can teach an engineer how to make a proper brake application 613 00:43:33,877 --> 00:43:36,402 and accelerate, decelerate. 614 00:43:36,547 --> 00:43:38,139 That's the easy part. 615 00:43:38,282 --> 00:43:43,743 My most difficult responsibility is to instill into an upcoming engineer 616 00:43:43,887 --> 00:43:46,617 that they have monumental responsibilities. 617 00:43:46,757 --> 00:43:48,884 The is no margin for error. 618 00:43:49,026 --> 00:43:52,223 Not when you are dealing with 1,600 people behind you. 619 00:43:52,363 --> 00:43:55,491 Hopefully, I can bring this across to these upcoming engineers. 620 00:43:55,633 --> 00:43:57,328 Are you relaxed? 621 00:43:58,936 --> 00:44:00,130 A little damp. 622 00:44:00,270 --> 00:44:04,229 Alright. That's good. That means you've got guts. 623 00:44:04,375 --> 00:44:07,776 If you're not nervous in here, there is something wrong. 624 00:44:14,485 --> 00:44:18,717 How do you feel? Are you coming in strong? 625 00:44:18,856 --> 00:44:20,983 As she brings the train into a station 626 00:44:21,125 --> 00:44:25,289 Vita must learn the right timing how strongly to apply the brakes 627 00:44:25,429 --> 00:44:29,331 so as not to stop too soon or overrun the station. 628 00:44:29,466 --> 00:44:31,434 Okay. 629 00:44:31,568 --> 00:44:34,264 Now what you want to do is bear off the last second. 630 00:44:34,405 --> 00:44:35,599 No, no, not this. 631 00:44:35,739 --> 00:44:37,331 Right, bear if off. 632 00:44:41,779 --> 00:44:43,246 Super. 633 00:44:43,380 --> 00:44:46,611 You want that feel of this thing charging into the station 634 00:44:46,750 --> 00:44:50,277 and making your initial application and then your final application. 635 00:44:50,421 --> 00:44:52,355 You ever run a train before? 636 00:44:52,489 --> 00:44:54,457 Huh? Never? 637 00:44:54,591 --> 00:44:56,058 You did a heck of a job. 638 00:44:56,193 --> 00:44:58,161 What do you think? What do you feel? 639 00:44:58,295 --> 00:44:59,922 You feel that this... It was exciting. It was great... 640 00:45:00,064 --> 00:45:01,998 ...is this going to be your occupation or what? 641 00:45:02,132 --> 00:45:03,497 Yes, it is. Yes. 642 00:45:03,634 --> 00:45:05,101 I'm sure it's going to take a while. 643 00:45:05,235 --> 00:45:10,195 But I will get the feeling of bringing a train in. 644 00:45:10,340 --> 00:45:12,672 There are going to be times in your career 645 00:45:12,810 --> 00:45:16,837 when you are going to run across a grade crossing accident. 646 00:45:16,980 --> 00:45:18,447 You're traveling along at 65, 647 00:45:18,582 --> 00:45:21,210 and a car comes around a gate or through the gates. 648 00:45:21,351 --> 00:45:23,251 There's not a thing you can do. 649 00:45:23,387 --> 00:45:25,753 You hope you give pre-warning, 650 00:45:25,889 --> 00:45:28,585 that a warning whistle or warning bell 651 00:45:28,726 --> 00:45:30,819 before you get to that crossing are ample. 652 00:45:30,961 --> 00:45:35,091 You'll search your soul to know whether you did it or not. 653 00:45:35,232 --> 00:45:37,928 It's not just the glory of running over the road and to say, 654 00:45:38,068 --> 00:45:41,003 I always wanted to be an engineer. Now I have that. 655 00:45:41,138 --> 00:45:44,073 It's that you have to take that responsibility. 656 00:45:44,208 --> 00:45:46,676 If her engineering career follows the norm, 657 00:45:46,810 --> 00:45:51,770 Vital will face 500,000 road crossings in the next 25 years. 658 00:45:51,915 --> 00:45:54,315 If she is never involved in an accident, 659 00:45:54,451 --> 00:45:59,252 passengers who ride her trains will have no reason to learn her name. 660 00:46:06,196 --> 00:46:08,323 There are many great train rides around the world, 661 00:46:08,465 --> 00:46:11,662 but not one can match the aura of elegance, 662 00:46:11,802 --> 00:46:16,865 mystery, and romance surrounding the name-Orient Express. 663 00:46:17,007 --> 00:46:21,706 It ran for almost a century until its demise in 1977. 664 00:46:21,845 --> 00:46:26,544 Now two men have revived the historic run to Istanbul. 665 00:46:26,683 --> 00:46:29,982 Albert Glatt bought the 1920s-vintage cars 666 00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:31,917 and lovingly refurbished them. 667 00:46:32,055 --> 00:46:35,183 Sometimes, you know, you have to do everything on the train 668 00:46:35,325 --> 00:46:39,022 T.C. Swartz chartered the cars for those who could afford to recapture 669 00:46:39,163 --> 00:46:41,495 the glory of rail travel in its heyday. 670 00:46:41,632 --> 00:46:43,327 ...and then how to surpass it. 671 00:46:43,467 --> 00:46:46,027 People's idea of luxury is a little bit different 672 00:46:46,170 --> 00:46:48,104 than maybe what is actually was. 673 00:46:48,238 --> 00:46:51,173 So we're trying to do now is to give them more luxury 674 00:46:51,308 --> 00:46:53,776 than they had in the past. In fact, to make it the ultimate trip. 675 00:46:53,911 --> 00:46:56,345 I can't believe it, 676 00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:58,141 Oh, it's marvelous. 677 00:46:58,282 --> 00:47:00,409 There will be 98 passengers on this trip, 678 00:47:00,551 --> 00:47:04,248 each paying a modest $5,000 one way. 679 00:47:06,857 --> 00:47:08,654 I think the dogs are great. 680 00:47:08,792 --> 00:47:10,157 ...great, but they are... 681 00:47:10,294 --> 00:47:13,855 Yeah, but I can't see them sitting in the dining car. 682 00:47:14,898 --> 00:47:17,731 Some passengers, like actor Hal Linden and his wife, 683 00:47:17,868 --> 00:47:20,837 stage an arrival in the grand tradition, 684 00:47:20,971 --> 00:47:24,065 harking back to the aura of a princely trip. 685 00:47:28,579 --> 00:47:32,845 Original inlaid wood decorations and Lalique molded glass reliefs 686 00:47:32,983 --> 00:47:35,577 still decorate the cars. 687 00:47:37,254 --> 00:47:40,417 Names of the countries the Orient Express passes through 688 00:47:40,557 --> 00:47:45,256 Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria-ring with romance. 689 00:47:45,395 --> 00:47:48,990 Memories of mysteries like Murder on the Orient Express surround 690 00:47:49,132 --> 00:47:54,126 the passengers with an atmosphere of champagne and dreams. 691 00:47:55,138 --> 00:47:57,504 Well, my name is Otto. 692 00:47:57,641 --> 00:48:02,374 And I'm supposed to play the piano all the way to Istanbul. 693 00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:18,453 It seems like everything that's wonderful about 694 00:48:18,595 --> 00:48:22,929 the world is going away, and the trains are one of those things 695 00:48:28,605 --> 00:48:31,972 im Vosper and yle Collins advanced the date of their weeding 696 00:48:32,109 --> 00:48:35,977 so they could make this their first trip together as a married couple. 697 00:48:41,785 --> 00:48:46,654 For bourgeois travelers, meals in an aristocratic French style 698 00:48:46,790 --> 00:48:50,886 the ultimate temptation for those who count calories. 699 00:49:01,838 --> 00:49:05,706 I remember as a child we used to put people on the train in New lberia. 700 00:49:05,842 --> 00:49:07,673 And I was never sad because they were leaving. 701 00:49:07,811 --> 00:49:10,837 I was always sad because I wasn't leaving too, 702 00:49:10,981 --> 00:49:14,815 but I wasn't standing on the back platform when I'm waving goodbye. 703 00:49:14,952 --> 00:49:18,479 I think I was six or seven when I took my first train ride. 704 00:49:18,622 --> 00:49:21,056 From that time on, I think I fell in love with trains. 705 00:49:21,191 --> 00:49:25,150 And then I heard that you could spend four-and-a-half days on a train 706 00:49:25,295 --> 00:49:27,422 that sold me on this trip. 707 00:49:30,067 --> 00:49:32,365 The train cruises Europe like an ocean liner. 708 00:49:32,502 --> 00:49:37,565 Gypsies play as they did on the first run of the Orient Express. 709 00:49:41,345 --> 00:49:44,940 In the evenings, there are gala seven-course dinners. 710 00:49:45,082 --> 00:49:49,109 And occasionally the train waits as passengers are bused 711 00:49:49,252 --> 00:49:50,719 to the entertainment. 712 00:49:50,854 --> 00:49:54,620 A champagne tasting at the 150-year-old cave of 713 00:49:54,758 --> 00:49:57,556 Mumm's winery in France. 714 00:49:57,694 --> 00:49:59,889 And just as on its maiden voyage, 715 00:50:00,030 --> 00:50:03,466 there is a festive reception in Budapest. 716 00:50:10,941 --> 00:50:14,240 On the first trip, no passengers on the Orient Express 717 00:50:14,378 --> 00:50:17,245 dined at the hunting lodge of the sultan. 718 00:50:31,161 --> 00:50:34,062 It is an express journey to the sun, 719 00:50:34,197 --> 00:50:36,461 but the high point for many comes in Vienna 720 00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:41,003 where the Vienna Boys' Choir is only a part of the entertainment. 721 00:51:10,567 --> 00:51:13,365 Protocol prevented the Austrian royal family from 722 00:51:13,503 --> 00:51:18,065 receiving plebian passengers of the first Orient Express 723 00:51:18,208 --> 00:51:22,542 Now the Pallavicini Palace is theirs for the evening. 724 00:51:41,565 --> 00:51:45,592 And finally, the end of the line-lstanbul, Turkey- 725 00:51:45,735 --> 00:51:50,604 where passengers get the red-carpet treatment, Oriental style. 726 00:51:56,313 --> 00:51:58,804 For the 98 passengers of the Orient Express, 727 00:51:58,949 --> 00:52:03,579 the trip will remain an extraordinary adventure into the romance of rails. 728 00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:08,282 But the Orient Express has no monopoly on beauty. 729 00:52:09,392 --> 00:52:12,623 There are grand adventures for everyone in a rediscovery 730 00:52:12,762 --> 00:52:14,696 of travel by train. 731 00:52:17,234 --> 00:52:19,828 Amtrak's Crescent, with newly rebuilt equipment, 732 00:52:19,970 --> 00:52:24,839 races like a speeding ship across Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. 733 00:52:24,975 --> 00:52:28,877 The Great Plains offer the same sweeping vistas that challenged 734 00:52:29,012 --> 00:52:31,480 the pioneers so long age. 735 00:52:32,649 --> 00:52:35,277 There are majestic views of the Rockies 736 00:52:35,418 --> 00:52:38,410 on the Canadian transcontinental route 737 00:52:45,829 --> 00:52:50,994 The San Diegan is a beachcomber from Los Angeles to San Diego. 738 00:52:51,835 --> 00:52:56,067 In the future, new trains traveling 160 miles an hour are planned 739 00:52:56,206 --> 00:52:58,766 for the run between Los Angeles and San Diego, 740 00:52:58,909 --> 00:53:01,104 and that is only the beginning. 741 00:53:01,244 --> 00:53:05,908 Extraordinary experimental trains may some day revolutionize land travel. 742 00:53:06,816 --> 00:53:09,410 For those who love trains, whether as engineer, 743 00:53:09,553 --> 00:53:11,077 hobo, or passenger, 744 00:53:11,221 --> 00:53:14,554 there's an appreciation due for the song-writer's line: 745 00:53:14,691 --> 00:53:19,390 It's got to be the going and not the getting there that's good.