This is a great little film (about 26 mins. long) - see the links to the version on YouTube below. There's something for everyone in it (BaltACD comes to mind). It really shows railroading (and some aspects of society) as it was 40+ years (cabooses even !), and many, many of the topics that have been discussed here.
I invite everyone to watch all 3 parts (they seem to automatically transfer from one to the next), then post here the parts (likely more than one) that you like the most.
Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzRIVVcV4rQ (9:23)
Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ub78vWY51M (9:51)
Part 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye5ALfmwgqU (6:57)
This is probably the most valuable post I've put on here in a long time.
- Paul North.
Always loved this movie. Used it in class many times.
The opening shot and some others are on the now abandoned SP&S east of Pasco. The single grain car loading was in the Paulouse country of SE Washington. A couple of years after this was made the government opened the Snake River to navagation as far as Lewiston Idaho, diverting almost all of the grain to the "free ride" on the river. Many of the NP and UP branches in the area have been abandoned and the rest are wards of the State of Washington.
Mac
.
To be objective - one notable and unfortunate omission from the movie:
No depiction or mention of anything about the Engineering Dept. - Track, Bridges & Buildings, Communications & Signals, etc.
Chicago Tribune, September 26, 1974
West works magic on a New Yorker
by Bob Wiedrich
Harvey Lloyd, New York City born and bred, an urban-oriented cat if ever there was one, has fallen in love with the Great American West.
Because he is a talented cinematographer, the romance is hardly one sided. In return for the joy the vast western plains and mountains have given him, Lloyd has captured their breathtaking beauty on film in a classic documentary which more than 3 million people have viewed thus far.
For what started out to be an industrial motion picture for the Burlington Northern Railroad has developed into a sensitive, yet dramatic portrayal of the majestic American heartland and the art of railroading across some of the most demanding terrain in the world.
“Portrait of a Railroad," the kind of film usually found among selected short subjects, won a first prize in the Venice International Documentary contest several months ago. It is being submitted for an Academy Award this year.
But far more importantly, the film has given audiences such pleasure throughout the United States and Canada that people routinely give it a standing ovation after viewing 20 minutes of a majestic America at work.
In that sense, "Portrait of a Railroad" is unique, a presentation that obviously sells an image for the Burlington Northern, but without once mentioning its name.
In fact, there is little narration, just a smashing musical score and the unfolding drama of 26,000 miles of railroad as it goes about the business of hauling 136 million tons of goods a year from Chicago to Seattle, the Twin Cities, Kansas City, Denver, and Houston, spanning half the length and breadth of a land rich with a harvest of grain and industrial might.
The locomotives and rolling stock, of course, bear the Burlington Northern emblem. However, even that sales pitch is subtly blurred in the spectacular sunsets of the midwestern grange country and the ethereal dawn of winter in the Cascades.
Of more interest is what making the film has meant to the metropolitan life-style to which the 47-year-old Lloyd had become addicted during a carefully polished career as a Madison Avenue advertising man turned cameraman. He'll never be the same.
"It's turned me into a patriot, a conservationist, a man who never really realized what he had," says Lloyd.
"I went out West and I saw all that and I said to myself, ‘My God, man. This is my country. I didn't even know it existed. I was absolutely overwhelmed by it. Not only is it big, but it is eternal.’ "
Now, that’s quite a mouthful for a sophisticated fellow who lives in Manhattan and has seen close to the four corners of the world. But let him tell you more about his transfiguration:
"Back East, it's all jammed up, wall to wall houses and people. Out West, you begin to realize the incredible sense of time and how really fleeting is the passage of man across that landscape.
"Just take the art of railroading in the Far West. It's one of the last places you find the rugged individualists, the dedicated workers. Even the supervisors are on 24-hour call.
“Why there’s more pride in those people, responsible men who know their jobs, who are proud of their jobs and their ability to perform them. They're people who don't need anybody to wipe their noses. This is the stuff that made America. And I'm ashamed to say I've just discovered it."
Today, Lloyd stands in awe of the magic chemistry the West can work on man.
"I've seen kids working summers on section gangs get all wrapped up in it," Lloyd recalls. "They fall in love with the sweet air of the Great Plains, with the mountains, clear rushing streams, with the beauty of nature and the satisfaction of doing something important.
"In making the film I've met more interesting people working on the railroad with more varied interests than you’d ever find in Manhattan—mountaineers, historians, naturalists, real human beings who know what life is all about."
Lloyd was director, writer, and producer of "Portrait of a Railroad," for which Michael Small wrote the music. Composer of the score for "Klute," Small is a gifted musician and student of early American folk music. So for the film he created a lyrical background blending the gingham, sorghum, and honest sweat of the Old West with the modern dash of contemporary railroading.
Two guitars, harmonica and drums are complemented by two violins and a French horn manned by members of the New York Philharmonic. Thus, Manhattan got into the act anyway. And that seems appropriate, since that’s what America is all about.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1974/09/26/page/28
What I thought of when watching the brakeman hanging on the grabirons while switching was looks like fun now but when its a dark and stormey night and the rains getting in to the face and going down the neck, they don't show that. It is a romantic film and many changes have occurred, no hooped up orders, no cabooses, computerized CTC, or track warrants. Thanks for calling it to our attention.
I was surprised about 3 1/2 minutes into the third part to see the caboose going down the hump. Did some railroads do this as normal practice?
John
I saw this film in 1975 and was impressed by the fact that this was a film that would have some appeal to the general public. I felt that it humanized the railroad, a message that a lot of people, including many of us in the hobby, don't always hear.
When I started as a switchman with BN in 1989 at Northtown I worked many shifts pulling pins on the hump. EVERYTHING went over the hump—with two exceptions: explosives and the Boeing aircaft fuselages. Cabooses, intermodal, auto racks, LP gas, and even a dead-in-tow EMD switch engine—"let 'em go" was the word from the tower. Once we had a depressed center flat car get high centered on the hump crest but we pushed it again and got it moving on its way.
Kurt Hayek
With that funky 70's music, I kept expecting Clint to pop up in his "Dirty Harry" role...making some punks day!
For the time, overall it was a good look back to the way it was then....some things have changed for the worse, some for the better.
23 17 46 11
Film denotes a slice of life that I expreienced in the early years of my career. With that being said, the appearance of the the property shows a level of deferred maintencance even on what was then a profitable and on going concern. Pity the Penn Central and the other NE railroads.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
edblysardWith that funky 70's music, I kept expecting Clint to pop up in his "Dirty Harry" role...making some punks day!
I thought the (sound) track was more in line with some of the "Easy Rider" music.
Did anybody notice the tri-level unenclosed auto rack in the third part?
Mike/ wanswheel -
Thanks (belatedly, to be sure) for finding and posting that Chicago Tribune review and interview with Harvey Lloyd. I'd not seen it before, so it added some insight to what I already knew about the film - most of which was also similarly complimentary. Thanks again !
Chuck - Yes, I noticed that tri-level - along with many other of what today we view as anachronisms.
The part I really liked was the still photos and brief interviews with the working railroaders - the muscular black guy, what looked like a blacksmith with the bill of his cap folded back and his straight-forward view about his life, and the fellow with the accent hoeing or raking in his garden while a B-unit was moving slowly past in the background.
I really started observing freight trains at age 3-1/2 on Manhattans' West Side Freight Line, now Amtrak's Penn Station - Hudson line, which was just beginning to be covered over for Riverside Park. This 40+ year old film shows how much modernization occoured by the 1970's. Alteady, no outside-braced wood boxcars, no catwalks on boxcars, all interchange with roller bearings, no steam. Sure. a lot has happened since then. When I went into HO scale as a teenager, The Varney 0-4-0T B&O dockside switcher, and the Mantua Reading 0-4-0 Camelback were the started level purchases. All-gone.
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