Thry used to transport cars in boxcars. When trucks started hauling them, railroads switched to autoracks. The truckers did not like the loss in business so they would go to isolated spots and shoot the windows out of cars
Plus all the stolen batteries and parts... strip them en route then hop off the trains with the goods... or while they were sitting on sidings easy pickings... OL J R :)
1970 General Motors the largest private employer in the U.S. with 600,000 employees. I think the starting wage for union employees was $17.00 an hour. Look how far this country has fallen and GM.
@@thyslop1737 UAW Union machine operator making parts for assemblies to be shipped to assembly plants , that was enough for a house or new car . back then , Are you old enough to remember the new Pinto advertised as a starting price of $1919.00 ?
It’s no coincidence that all those shiny new locomotives at 4:02 were built by GM as well. A few more horses than necessary to pull that train, but it’s appropriate & looks good in the video.
Loved my '74 Vega. Only got about 25 mpg. Not very good for a "small" car. Totaled it with over 200,000 miles. Never a breakdown. No doubt however, the beginning of the end for Detroit. Then we moved on to Chevettes, Citations, Omnis, Horizons and Fiestas. American engineering at it's finest. An interesting side note .When the Vega was discontinued the leftover frames were used in the Chevy Luv pickup.
7 nearly brand new GM-built EMD SD45's pumping out 25,200-horsepower....no damn way was the Southern Pacific going to be seen in this promo film not supporting one of their biggest customers and suppliers. Southern Railway with that Alco RS-3 switching the GM loading facility..."eh, F'-em!"
0:51 is a shot of the car loading dock next to Lakewood Assembly in Atlanta, GA. The train/car rail enclosure still stands. Lakewood was one of three plants that built pick-ups along with cars - Fremont & St Louis Assembly.
The need to move the cars in that position defined some design details so that the oil, petrol and battery acid didn't pour out, and they chocked the suspension and engine mounts so they didn't have to take loads in the wrong axis. It's really quite ingenious, but presumably there were disadvantages or they'd still do it.
@@donkmeister Lots of extra labor, and you'd have to design for it. New cars dont leave enough room for an engine when they are designed let alone for any engineering like that :)
My parents bought a new 1971 Chevelle wagon, 307, 3 on the tree, antique green with the phony wood sides. I learned to drive in it. We picked it up at the dealer, driving home and were 2 blocks from the dealer and the oil light came on, major oil leak. We got back to the dealer and it was another 2 weeks before we saw it again. Guess the dealer had to finish the assembly job that should have been done at the factory, BUT, it somehow passed all those strict GM quality checks.
The fact that I can watch this video and design a car on a company website, then contact a dealership who can price and order it, or find one at a dealership anywhere in the country all while sitting on the couch or even out in the woods is a testament to how far technology has come since loading tapes into a computer the size of a truck
in a rail yard were i am a trainman i used to watch those guys drive the new cars off the rail cars and they beat the living shit out of those new cars.
1970s: Information goes from paper, to mail, to paper, to punch card, to teletape to Martha on her type writer, to another punch card, to Ralph in the computer room, who then feeds the info into the computer and saves it to magnetic tape. 2020: Sends a text to dispatch.
text to dispatch? that's so 2015. now it's high speed cameras read the railcar numbers and relay that to the ai which will factor in whether any exception is within limits and then it's relayed to a human.
I have not the slightist idea why GM "carefully packed the Vega in a container" when in fact they started falling apart in transit. They might as well shipped them to the salvage yard!
GM logistics. They were the ones that scratched the roof on my new '78 Olds Cutlass. Someone left chains hanging from above while my car was being backed out underneath. They dented the trunk lid also. The dealer attempted to fix the damage. Their body shop did a poor job with over spray. Had red paint on the chrome pieces and dull spots in the finish. GM's commitment to the highest standards I guess.
Having worked at dealerships for 30 years out of all the mechanics I would trust to do any job is two, and one of them has now died. You would not believe how dealerships advertise trained staff but honestly apart from the two (now one) mechanics I mentioned I would not let any of the others even blow my tyres up.
In Iowa we would sit in the fields with our hunting rifles and shoot out as many car windows and tires as possible. Didn't matter if it was GM, Ford, Chrysler or AMC. That day's winner would get a Grape Knee High from "Farmer Bill" who let us play in his barn with his 16 year old daughter. Ah, the 70s ! !
Developing a completely new rail car， to save a few bucks of delivering fee on a model that was basically a failure and ran for only 5 years. Sounds like typical GM or Soviet central planned system.
GM had planned to cooperate with Toyota on reverse shipments from the west coast. That never materialized for many reasons. It was a unique idea, even if the Vega was short lived in production. The basic construct of the Vega continued on for almost another seven years in similar improved GM models and used these Vert a Pak cars for transport. The real issue with the Vert a Paks is that they required extra labor to load the cars and special equipment to stop fluid leaks in transport because the stood on their nose. All these accommodations needed to be reversed at the destination incurring even more costs. The Vega suffered from having too many new ideas thrown in one package.
My grandparents lived out in the country along one of the main north-south rail routes in the SE US where I used to spend at least a week visiting them every summer in the late '60s and early '70s. I was already a car guy as a kid so I loved watching the southbound trains carrying 100's of new cars and trucks go by their house every day, but I was surprised at how wide open the new car transporters were. It's a miracle that any of them arrived without at least some rock dings, if not worse.
Most of this story was from a retired railroad employee off a railroad employee chat room...:There was a car parts theft ring that would target train No. 373, a train of new autos that would leave Los Angeles area headed northward, in the 1970’s. Everything had been checked leaving LA and rolled by the railroad security at Oxnard, Santa Barb and coming into San Louis Obispo. They never found anything, but when the train would arrive at the next crew change spot 100 mi. away, it was starting to get light out and you could see hoods up, etc and the cars stripped, even some transmissions. Well this went on and they couldn't figure it out. Well, one Friday night they had a ball game at Cal-Poly and the stadium was at the corner of Foothills Blvd. And the railroad tracks. Well they had the nice big bright lights on and here comes #373. As it went by, the lights showed the train up like a drive in movie. Here were about 10 to 12 guys leaning over into engine compartments with hoods and trunks open doing their best to get what they wanted. There were a couple of Sheriffs at the game and they called the railroad. They had the train slow down a bit and got enough cops together to meet about 40 miles down the track. They had the engineer stop the cars involved right where they were set up. Busy night at the lock up. It turned out what they did was strip the parts they wanted and then throw them off in a few places they could get a car or truck into. Then they would kick back inside the cars until the train made a stop. They would de-train and a member of the gang would be following the train with a CB radio and would pick them up. Well, when they were stopped, they didn't have any tools or parts on them. But, "Film At 11:00" got great pictures of them auditioning for their staring role during the ball game. They were finally charged and deported back to Mexico.
You're talking my language. Give me a 1996 Caprice and Impala SS along with a 2006 Suburban LTZ, a 2013 black Suburban 2500 , a 2017 SS along with a Pontiac 6000 STE AWD, 1987 Buick GNX and a 1996 Olds LSS.
GM at least in my opinion now builds the nicest looking & best built vehicles for the most part. But $85,000 for a full-size pickup is too much. You gotta know dealers invoice & their holdback. So maybe down to more like $60,000.
@@Justincasethompson A lot of their modern stuff looks pretty good in my opinion too, I agree. But their new Silverados look like they run off of beer, but at the same time I oddly like their appearance too so I guess they grew on me
You gotta love 1970. You gotta love the men’s sideburns. You gotta love the women’s hair styles. You gotta love the new cars being carried by train. You gotta hate the vandals that put all this expense and logistics into motion to necessitate this immense program. You gotta wonder who this film was created for and directed at. You gotta love all the thought, planning, filming, and scripting that went into this production. I love it! You gotta think for just one moment: nearly all the people seen in this film are now certainly, sadly long gone. We're next.
GM used to be such a company. They were so good for America. Now look at them. Made in China and assembled in Mexico. Our country isn’t advancing doing things this way. We become less and less capable and more dependent on foreign countries.
FALSE. While GM may have crappy quality cars, about 55% of their parts are manufactured in the US. About 20% and 15% originate in Japan and China. GM operates roughly 15 assembly plants in the US and only 4 in Mexico (Toluca, Ramos Arizpe, Silao, and San Luis Potosí).
They were shipped with special seals to keep fluids in and very some even at the least amount possible to allow them to run enough to load and unload. Dealerships had to remove the extra seals and shipping blocks that held things like the Battery tighter in place. All this would be done before they could hit the showroom. GM spent time and money to make sure the vents in the Vega's were in a location that not only allowed normal function but also were high enough to not leak when being shipped.
@@gotacallfromvishal Not all Vegas got the " rail transit " treatment; those that could be trucked to local area dealers had a " normal " battery and wiper fluid bottle, those by rail had the fill caps relocated so they wouldn't leak. Worth mentioning the REAL reason Vegas were shipped standing on end, was to SAVE Generous Motors MONEY -- Thirty cars per auto rack as opposed to 15 on a normal rack. Remember the Vega was the entry level ( i.e. = CHEAP ) Chevrolet.
My mother was dating a guy who had a friend that worked for GMAC. He over saw the insurance of GM vehicles once they were loaded on rail cars. Also, Look at 1:01. White Ford Econoline & station wagon. Fords at a GM holding lot unless it was an independent contractor.
just in time wasn't really a thing in the 70s yet. and any capital intensive venture with customers in every single point in the vast united states was going to have logistical hurtles. even elon musk admitted auto manufacturing is way easier than it looks.
Look at Toyota now. GM can't hold a candle to the reliability of a Toyota, they don't even make cars anymore....because their small cars and sedans are junk.
At that time, we laughed at ALL foriegn cars...they were nothing but junk. No spit, they were total crap tiny uncomfortable useless cars....if you could call them cars....they couldn't take our climate and perforated with rust immediately. In the 60's & early 70's we all wanted horsepower to rule the road and GM delivered for the most part along with Ford and MOPAR. Then emissions and gas shortages started...and the Big 3 took it in the shorts...for a while. I'll still buy a GM product over any other brand despite whatever the mellinials like to think.
they created a shipping schedule similar to a bus or airplane route. Today's average smartphone could handle the workload of 20 of those computers. Se still got those sideburns
When they g..m . Chrysler when under we sound have never bailed them out,no 1 helps us if we go under,justvlike yellow roadway which got government cash and when under,same 4 all those railroads in the 70s ,your problem not mine,fo your budget like the rest of the real world has 2..
These open panel railcars were targets for juveniles who would stand either at the rail crossings, or being in the train yard heaving rocks, or sometimes stray rail spikes unto the car bodies or through the cars windshields and door glass. That's why you see fully enclosed rail car haulers today. There were cases where when a car hauling train would stop, juveniles would get on the railcar, enter a new vehicle, turn on the ignition, shift the vehicle in drive or reverse, wedge a stick or place a brick on the accelerator, and watch the car smoke the rear tires, as the train slowly pulls away - heading down the tracks. A few times through the years, I actually saw a brand new car with flames coming out from under the hood on the railcars, as I patiently waited in my car behind the roadway railroad crossing gates. One day, I saw the interior of a new Cadillac that was fully consumed in flames, as the train hauled ass past me down the tracks, again waiting in my car behind the crossing gates. Wonder how many new vehicles had suffered body damage throughout the country, as new vehicles left the factory by train to their destination?
The trick now is to find the bill of lading from the rail company and find all the particular cars on the particular rail car. Restore all of them and make a display of it all.
Going off of the silver standard in ‘65 (Johnson) then the gold standard in ‘71(Nixon)was the beginning of the end of any type of big mfg. in the U.S.. When the so called oil crisis hit in Nov ‘73 the value of the dollar had plummeted, the price of a barrel of oil nearly tripled by ‘75, was never above $5.00/barrel going back to the end of WW2. the price of all raw materials spiked. Heavy mfg immediately could not afford the costs. This was the big take down of the middle class in America, they had built their wealth going back to 1946, many politicians on both sides didn’t like that. Hard to believe that just 50 years ago GM had nearly exclusive use of the railroads in certain geographical areas of the U.S.. Now they want to only build EV’s w/o little or no charging grid anywhere, no one will buy them. The Chevy bolt-less has a problem with the Korean made battery. Mary Barra is only finishing what Roger Smith started.
The most fascinating part of all of this was the computer systems and electronics… now it’s all at the touch of your fingertip on a phone or tablet and each car could be equipped with its own monitoring camera.
7 sd45s of SP pulling a cross country auto from the midwest to the Pacific non stop wow. And on TOP of that that's definitely a GM train (hence the GM cars and GM-EMD Locos) when they was at their peak same for Southern Pacific railroad.
They would park those GM trains behind our house every Sunday. Funny how those nice and shiny new cars would only make it from Fremont, Ca. to our little town (about 16 miles) and then stop for 45 min. to one hour. When they started the trains up again all the windows would be shot out on one side from BB guns. Now I'm not saying I had anything to do with those BB guns (I used a .22 cal. pellet gun) but those cars sure looked like crap when the trains started up again. Every Sunday for month's on end. I guess that's what happens when you're a bored 11 year old little rat bastard.
Who would want to steal a piece of crap like the Vega? The Vega didn't need to worry about vandalism and shipping damage, they were designed to self destruct. One of the worst cars GM or any other US car makers ever produced.
Remember seeing pictures in Trains magazine at the time of the open rack cars that had passed through areas where the cars in the middle were burnt out shells because the got hit with Molotov cocktails
In 1977 my brother bought a brand new Vega for Speed what a great car and it was fast to held it Shine didn't rot lasted forever if I could only go back to 1972 I would buy a fleet of for Speed Vegas I love them
State dimply I don't think 1970 was a great year for the US Auto industry. But it was still a huge operation that provided a lot of good jobs for thousands of people. It's a shame it's all pretty much gone now.
What can I say but oh Wow!!!!! Now we've got mile long trains with strickly auto carriers, with only 2 locomitves, or if not 1 (dpu), extra engine in the tail end pushn, with NO engineer in that unit.👍👍👍 This was very interesting, from the 70s, I love it!!! Thanks for sharing this with us 😄
Remember this statement well and said often then: So goes GM so goes the rest of the country🇺🇲 from then to now is just a shell of what it was then gm.no cap logo too now.
REO Oldsmobile to open an build steel frontend caran plactic rear bumper wrap as agreement with union of auto.makers as oldsmobilebuild under A anJ body fisher coach
@@maplemanz No they werent shipped dry....they designed the oil pan(s) with baffles to curb the oil during verticle shipment. Do some research before posting simple thoughts.
Or how about the guy running the stamping press who gets laid off after 29.5 years and gets almost nothing because he didn't have 30 years of service and a contractor will do it in Mexico paying their guy $4 an hour and the union boss and Management have a big dinner to celebrate their "cooperation".
When we were kids, we used to shoot the windows out of the cars with BB guns as they speed by,. Not long after, they started using fully enclosed auto racks.
aaa yes a guy in a three piece suit checking the load tie downs.....lets see here il just bend down eye ball the tie down and they will tight them selfs...there the whole truck is safe and secure...gm should not ever have put a video out like this. its all lies...lmao
aaa yes bad hair brill cream no idea about shipping no steel toes in plant chain smoking brill cream chain smoking teletec operator.eye ball method lmao
