ATLANTIC CENTRALAs someone who works with my hands everyday, and who has been exposed to industrial work like that, I did not see anything that surprised me.
Same here. You don't work in a factory very long without figuring out where the hazards are (sometimes other emplyees) and how to behave around heavy equipment.
Usually 90% of the mistakes I've seen were when somebody was in too big of a hurry and cutting corners.
Another thing they push today is teamwork. They think it is a new concept. The labor force was huge in these old plants and you had to have "teamwork". Just look at track workers or the riveting gangs (especially the guys working 50 storeys up!) or anybody working in the steel industry or a foundry.
I was a Millwright for forty years. Sometimes we had ten or twelve guys on a big machine moving project. Every one of us knew what the other guy was going to do and we could anticipate every move. It was like a ballet.
Sometimes I had to work with a substitute person. That threw everything off. The job took four times longer because we had to stop and explain things or the working "rythim" just wasn't there. That's when mistakes were made and, yes, sometimes people got hurt.
Again, I'm sure glad these films have been preserved. The kids working in Taco Bell just won't understand.
I found this photo taken from the roof of Despatch Shops of the supply yard.
MDT - East Rochester car shops - From the roof by Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, on Flickr
Quite a collection of goodies!
MDT - Standard refrigerator car - 1928 calendar by Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
Ed, great video, thanks for posting.
As someone who works with my hands everyday, and who has been exposed to industrial work like that, I did not see anything that surprised me.
In my business of restoring old houses we make jokes all the time about our modern tools. "I know we did construction work before we had screw guns and and nail guns, but I really don't remember how...."
Hard hats? Just my opinion, but many times "safety gear" is the real hazzard. There is a time and place for hard hats, safety glasses, etc, but generally, it is not every minute of every day doing that kind of work.
Anything that restricts your field of vision or range of motion can cause more injuries than it prevents.....
Again, great video.
Sheldon
Great video. Think of this when you scratchbuild your next model.
i'm with Tom on my favorite part.
tstage I loved watching the carpenters work. The nailers hardly missed a beat between the last strike of one nail and the first strike of the next one. And the countersinker was like a machine and as efficient with his strikes as one could be.
I loved watching the carpenters work. The nailers hardly missed a beat between the last strike of one nail and the first strike of the next one. And the countersinker was like a machine and as efficient with his strikes as one could be.
The car had a build date of 11/1952. I wonder if in 67 years our grandchildren will be watching videos of Boeing 787s being assembled.
Thanks for sharing.
Ray
Neat video.
I dunno about touching up to change numbers - that font 9 would be awfully hard to make into a 7 without repainting completely. On that one car enar the end, 117002, the bottom of the 2 also looks darker, like the top of the 7, but in the stenciling part you could see that after they used the stencil, they went back and hand touched up parts of various numbers and letters.
Can't find an online roster with a quick search to see which were made at what time, or if there are any obvious spotting differences to see that they are the same or different cars. Possibly what was being stenciled were not the same cars being pulled out and off to go in service just a few minutes later. The cut being pulled, with the 11700 series numbers, may very well not be the same cars shown getting stenciled just minutes previously - numbers only switched because the previous day's batch were 1700 and they day they were filming, they were making 1900's
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Just a guess, Tom. That strip and keystone might have something to do with funneling the brine away from the doors and direct it toward the drains at the end of the cars? I'm paging through the 1940 Car Builder's Cyc. and the "Great Yellow Fleet" by John White and haven't come up with a hint.
Yeah, those stencils are being brushed with the old-fashioned tamper-style stenciling brush, then the gaps trimmed up once the stencil is removed. I remember watching the painters at GE doing similar work. Some of them had stencil brushes with paint reservoirs built in. Others used a roller affair for applying the right amount of paint to the brush.
Did you notice inside the shop they were stenciling 11909 (48:30) but when they were pulling the cars out they are mysteriously numbered 117xx. If you pause at 50:49 you can see that it looks like the numeral "7" on that cut of cars has been "touched-up" somehow.
Cheers, Ed
Fascinating stuff, Ed! Thanks for posting the link!
Two questions:
I loved watching the carpenters work. The nailers hardly missed a beat between the last strike of one nail and the first strike of the next one. And the countersinker was like a machine and as efficient with his strikes as one could be. I also like the grabiron end bender/shaper early on.
I'm definitely bookmarking that one for reference. Thanks again, Ed!
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
BigDaddybut why did Clark Kent walk through the shop
"Which way to the nearest phone booth??"
Kind of looked more like Humphrey Bogart to me, though.
I like the guy spraying paint at 31:03. One quart on the car for every three quarts in the air!
I'm still watching it, but why did Clark Kent walk through the shop at 21:49?
Other thoughts, not a hard hat to be seen, arc welders lung.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Glad you liked it, Mike. I was five-years away in 1951.
Amazing to watch the fitting of the interior planking in the refrigerator cars. And the upholsterer stuffing his mouth full of tacks when he is nailing the insulation to the doors.
Just a beehive of activity!
I'm glad some of this history has been documented and saved for us to see in wonderment!
They was great Ed ! I was a whopping 2 years old at this time, as the first grandchild, I was being spoiled to death by aunts and uncles at my granddad's farm. Just up the road from where the Soo Line crossed.
Mike.
My You Tube
Watch as several freight car types are built at the East Rochester, NY, location of the New York Central-owned Despatch Shops:
http://vp.telvue.com/preview?id=T01799&video=50528
Click the full-screen view to see it in better detail. An amazing amount of labor-intensive work is shown.