Pennsylvania Railroad – Steam and Electric Years, 1936–1952 [video]
youtube.com
youtube.com
“This digitally edited program presents black and white films of Theo (Ted) Gay taken in the '30's, '40's, and early '50's along the Pennsylvania Railroad. We see scenes once taken for granted; GG-1's, P5A's, M-1's, K-4's, L-1's. Even the unusual; an E-3 in steam, a Sperry Rail car, mail being picked up on-the-fly. A hotbox and the consequences of a hotbox. Taken in the area around New York City and Philadelphia, the films show us why the PRR was sometimes called the "The Big Red Subway". The company had the largest fleet of passenger cars in the world at the time, and it ran the trains to put them to use.
In this program, you get the chance to visit the familiar spots; the platforms at Penn Station in New York; Newark; Princeton Junction; 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. You get to see things that can't be seen anymore; the street level view of old Penn Station; Broad Street Station (Including its demolition); freight on the P&T; "Cutoff" at Whitford, Pennsylvania; and frequent and intense freight action behind steam and electric power at Downingtown and Thorndale, Pennsylvania. One treat shown here is the fleet of oil trains dispatched during the early years of World War II, utilizing nearly every tank car the nation could find. Approximately 45 minutes, color, B&W;, graphics, narration, prototype sound. RA-3”