Overhead Rail: How the Battleship's I-Beam Works 

I think if I were you and I was asked "what is the yellow rail for?" in person on board the ship, I would look at it in surprise and say, "I've honestly never seen that before".

I like Ryan plugging his (our) ship for filming, you take great care of our lady.

As an architectural historian and curator I just want to say how very well this curator explains everything here. Nicely done.

Ryan, you should do a fundraiser where once the goal (25k ?) is reached you have to watch Battleship and live stream your commentary on it (not showing the movie for copyright reasons of course).

Came for the interesting rail down Broadway, stayed for the movie rant. For real though, never thought about this rail concept. Super cool. Thanks for the vid!

Regarding filming in Hawaii, it comes down to filming days per year. 365 is a hard number to beat. Also, the large number of people willing to be extras who have a military or LE background. Lastly, for tax purposes, the studios are largely exempt from paying taxes or have large incentive tax breaks to film in Hawaii. As for Battleship (the movie) there's ads and even a few scenes of sailors manning the rails in their whites as the Burkes are supposedly passing the Arizona Memorial. If you look closely, there's a decent number of seabee rating insignias on the whites of a lot of the sailors there because we were the only ones available to stand in as extras for the shots.

@6:45 The worst part about that scene in Battleship is that you can see the complete rail right above their head while they're carrying the shell

RE: filming on Missouri instead of NJ, it was a happy coincidence that they were able to film at the same time that Missouri came out of drydock so they could easily tow her out to sea to get real shots of her "under way" instead of relying entirely on CGI or vintage footage. How much would it cost to tow NJ out to sea for a day or two of filming? Millions I'm guessing. Though if you found any film productions to take you up on the offer, that'd go a long way toward funding your planned drydock maintenance!

My first engineering assignment at Boeing involved the I-Beam trolleys at MX missile silos. We drop a part the size and weight of an 8 cylinder automobile engine down the personnel hatch to the little tunnel that runs into the launcher equipment room that surrounds the upper part of the silo. We hang it from a trolley on the I-beam installed in the tunnel and roll it to the main room. Then transfer the part to the trolley hanging from the I-beam in the equipment room that runs around the silo where we can roll it to where we can install it into the missile. The transfer was the tricky part. It involved side loading the trolley on the I-beam. Factory safety regulations at the time, and presumably on these Iowa class battleships, is to not do that. The trolley would slip off the I-beam and the load would smash your legs and feet. So I got on the phone to Beebe and sweet talked them into supplying us with trolleys that can be safely side loaded without slipping off the I-beams. So thanks to little ol' me, and to some engineers at Beebe, we were able to maintain the MX missiles in their silos until Reagan and Gorbachev started negotiating a reduction in the nuclear arms race.

I love hearing about things like the issue on Houston and Scharnhorst mentioned here and how the problem was overcome or fixed on the more modern vessel.

Those engineering access hatches and beam supports are rich! Wish we would have had them on my ships. We had to manhandle stuff out of hatches and escape trunks with chainfalls and come-alongs. In drydock, we would have hull cut access.

"...CGI nightmare..." lol, best Ryan quip ever!

I smacked my head on this last week! 😂

I used the rail many times as part of the rigging team. Used it to move many different motors up to the re wind shop and to move pumps and valves to the machine shop.

Yes Ryan Sink the Bismarck never gets old for me . Good Movie . Thank you for talking about the Rail .

When you consider all of the requirements you suspend disbelief in order to accept The Missouri’s role in the movie battleship, hauling the shell is the least among them. All that requires is to come up with the excuse that either current damage or the process of turning it into a museum ship means that the rail down Broadway is not fully accessible anymore and that the shell was being hauled by multiple teams with each team surging to carry the shell a short distance , after all , at this point we have already accepted that the boilers could be lit so fast, and a museum ship still had live ammunition and powder onboard

Not strictly a battleship in the modern sense but my favorite film involving capital ships is Master and Commander with Russel Crowe; I guess in a way the old ships of the line were the battleships of their time so it fits.

By far the best videos of naval history of Battleships on RU-vid! Great job!

Ryan's indignation about how Hollywood always films on Missouri instead of New Jersey was quite endearing. You're right, it's NOT fair!

Potential suggestion for the museum: I strongly agree with minimising the signage on the ship, however, either before visitors board the ship or as part of a route they take just after it there could be an area guests go through that depict various areas of the ship and answer commonly asked questions about them. You could phrase it as an "look out for/see if you can spot *this* while you're aboard!" or as "do you remember seeing/were you wondering about *this* while you were aboard?" depending on where in their journey you show it to them. For particularly common questions I think this would be a cool way to get and keep people's interest in the ship. It will inevitably lead to more questions, but they will perhaps be one level deeper and of more intrigue, meaning their interest has been heightened, which I submit is what it's all about.

I have only ever been to the Alabama, and was typing up the comment "I don't remember seeing this on BB-60" when you noted the SD class didn't have this (and why). You think of everything!!! Great video, very interesting.

While not a battleship movie, my favorite is The Battle of the River Plate. It not only uses real ships, but two of them actually fought in the real battle.

Honestly... The movie Battleship is my goto when I want something mindless and enjoyable... lots of it doesn't really make sense... the nice thing is it leaves lots of stuff unexplained and just moves the story onward... It's an uncomplicated guilty pleasure I let myself enjoy once in a while...

Hey, Ryan, I want to hear you do your best Drachinifelian rant, and having you rant about "Battleship" would be a dream come true...!

Favorite...I agree. Both movies are very good. I've watched so many movies Navy related and it's hard not to see the mistakes. Mr Roberts is one of my favorites. James Cagney must have come out of the same mold the officer was that was in charge of engineering on our ship. Fun times......RIGHT ! Barry

While not about battleships, my favorite naval movie has to be 'Midway'. Also, when I watch your videos, I am always in awe of the complexity of the ship. And to think that it was all designed with pencil and paper.

IIRC, Under Siege was filmed using the USS Alabama, a South Dakota-Class battleship... I'd still like to see a video discussing the ship aspects of Under Siege.

I honestly thought I would hate Battleship, but I really loved it...you definitely have to suspend your imagination. That movie is one of the reasons I live this channel. The movie captured how tough a battleship really is.

Loved Under Seige. It was a Steven Seagal is Mary Sue movie, but I always thought everything around him looked like it was something that might happen. Thanks for validating!

I loved the scene in battleship where the six men are carrying the 16" shell down the hall. Then I did the math, 1600#s/6 people = 267#s per person. Given the small awkward size of the heavy shell, one mistake and the shell is on the deck on top someone's leg. Even at my physical peak as a heavyweight college wrestler I don't think I would have been able to carry a shell that size with five others. 😳 Would be an interesting challenge for a Mythbusters type program.

The Japanese film on Yamato was incredibly well done. Brutal.

I love this channel! I've been catching up and watching all your videos for the past 6 months. It's been fun seeing Ryan get more comfortable in front of the camera. I've learned so damn much about everything nautical, thank you!

Thanks for answering my questions from the other day about how you close the door.

We had I beam hoists like that in the plastic factory i used to work at. also seen them in machine shops and stuff before.

Excellent information and presentation in this video. Thanks for the knowledge break.

Somebody read the comments on the video about the door lol

The ship I was on, I transported chaff - dispensing pods for aircraft on overhead I beams and up a crane shaft to the sealed room where the pods were cleaned and reloaded with new chaff spools. Great fun.

One thing about the Battleship movie, it's incredibly deferential to the veterans shown. To the average movie goer watching that scene it makes the old crew seem really "bad ass" for lack of a better term as long as you don't know there's a rail system in place just for such an occasion. A person calmly escorting the shell on a gantry while Thunderstruck is blasting away wouldn't have quite the same impact they're trying to achieve.

Ryan, great job. Would LOVE to see a video of your favorite naval based films!

Great video as always. You are very good at explaining to laymen!

Ryan, this is a great video on the I beam system. Also hoisting up equipment to another floor.

Nice, I was asking about this in relation to Ryan's favorite door the other day. Specifically in relation to the door closing. Someone gave me the answer, but failed to mention where it was stowed. Fun side note: It was by referencing the overhead rail in extant portions of Fort Wetherill in Jamestown Rhode Island that allowed me to get a much better grasp of how the fort functioned internally back when I frequently wandered around inside of the fort.

Super cool to learn. Awesome!

And the overhead rail also serves to move Tomahawk missiles to submarines parked next to the ship 😃

Thank you for answering our question!

Very cool to learn, Thank you!

Glad you mentioned Sink the Bismarck

Oh my god I completely forgot about that scene from Battleship! It is exactly as you describe it and quite frankly, YOU CAN SEE THE RAIL IN THE SHOTS!! oh Hollywood.....

the walk through gopro footage moving through the ship is awesome I could watch it for an hour

Good episode!

Under Seige immediately came to mind when I first saw this video and it's nice to learn that it accurately depicted how the I-beams would be used.

Great video! I was totally wondering about the door closing thing and then you answered it perfectly. That said..... you really should watch Battleship!! It's a much more entertaining movie than you are realizing

Great video. Total fiction but the Bedford incident is a good movie. As was the Enemy Below.

If you think the broadway scene in "Battleship" would give you high blood pressure, then the anchor scene would give you an aneurism!

wonderful......cheers, Paul

Great video from the battleship.

Thanks for information about the rail system, also about how the rail is removed so WTH can be closed and sealed!

You would enjoy the "handbrake" scene in Battleship, when they drop anchor and drift the 50K ton BB :) I love that movie anyway, worth to see it... not a documentary, but very spectacular. It really gives the feeling when a heavy girl fires a broadside and the recoil drifts the ship sideways.

Very interesting-----thank you.

It will be hilarious if Ryan does this video using a harness to hang from the overhead rail. 😁

thank you for going ON the rails about the rails

That trip down Broadway was visually interesting. I can't wait to visit USS New Jersey!

6:46 and keep your blood pressure down hahaha I get it, me and my veteran R.N. Mom are the same with medical movies and shows. =) Thanks for everything all of you guys do. I absolutely love the channel and wish oh SO,soooo much that I could come volunteer.... Canada's a bit of a commute though. =)

Now I really want a Ryan reacts to battleship video.

Your video on the anchor chain made me think of the scene in Battleship where they drop the anchor while at full speed so they can stop and turn the ship on a dime. Yes, groan. Missouri became the star when she was chosen as the site for the surrender. And, you have to admit, "Mighty Mo" is kind of catchy.

You're not wrong about the movie Battleship, but it's a guilty pleasure of mine. 😄 They really do put the battleship used in a good light.

Very good video, I just asked about it recently 😀👍🏻

Ahhh, Under Siege.As a teenage boy that movie made me fall in love with Steven Segal movies, Battlships, and cakes large enough to fit a person in them...

I would suggest that the Missouri gets all the attention because the top people in charge of the films want to hang out in Hawaii while they're working. Also, I hate that "Battleship" exists and cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone who already loves battleships, BUUUUT... it's hilariously good fun catching a RU-vid clip of the scene where they anchor-drop-drift the Missouri in blue water as though they were pulling the e-brake on a front-wheel-drive car at speed. It's wild!

Thanx for referencing the rail in Under Siege.

Always on point, These videos really do the New Jersey credit as well as history. As far as battleship movies not sure. But In Harms way is the best naval movie imo.

I’ve visited the Wisconsin and the Missouri. Luckily. Hope to visit the New Jersey one day! My favorite battleship movie is definitely with Tommy Lee Jones and Steven Segal also the one with Cher. 😜

Hey Battleship New Jersey! I’m new to your channel and I find your content very Interesting! I was wondering what does it take to get a career in working on museum battleships. Do you need a specific type of degree or schooling? And are there specific requirements needed besides knowledge on the ships history?

I am watching this video because of the movie Battleship. It was what first got me into naval history, and I watch it every time it is played on TV. However I agree, and think that there should be more historical battleship movies. Washington vs Kirishima and the Battle of Jutland are some of the most deserving.

Sorry Ryan. Battleship is probably the best battleship movie. So what if you have a bunch of geezers lugging a shell from one end of the ship to the other, have steam boilers get up to pressure in under a minute from when they were lit, and still have powder hanging around in the mags after all these years. The movie is a popcorn munchable rush! Good soundtrack to. Edward R. Murrow may not have a cameo but what the hell.

I was wondering about this. I always thought it was weird that they had that scene on battleship where they were moving a shell from one turret to another.

I think you mentioned that Montana could have two "broadways" in a loop compared to the 1 broadway in an Iowa. Would there just be a solid structural wall, or would there be more doors allowing access between the two lanes?

For my as a german, the u-boat film "Das Boot" is by far the best movie regarding the navy fleet.

'Sink the Bismarck' is a good movie, with nice footage of HMS Vanguard's 15" guns as a stand in for HMS Hood. HMS Victorious also appears, but in her late 1950s configuration with angled flight deck and searchlight radar.

We used to run holding on to the trolly lifting our legs to see how far we could coast. PO Flossi about killed himself because he didn't know the section of beam had been removed going though the watertight door. Quite the bang when he and the trolly hit the deck! 😂

oddly enough, they filmed Under Siege on the Alabama because the MO was already being taken out of service and was unavailable at the time of filming. I suspect they used sound stages for any areas of the ship they needed to recreate because they were different on the two ships.

Videos that I would like to see: 1. Electrical wiring generation and distribution. 2. Ship's daily paper work and logs. 3. Costs related to ship. 3. Age distribution of the officers and crew 4. Women sailors aboard.

I wish the would make a movie about Coronel and the Falklands. Not battleships exactly, but such a DRAMATIC story; the early days of a world war, two doomed fleets, and a stormy winter’s evening on the lonely far side of the world.

There was a very brief shot of the medical department, very brief, but I remember it. I want to visit her one day!!

Can we pay $1,000 for a curator's tour and sit in Ryan's office with Battleship playing? I may have some crowdfunding to do lol

At time stamp 6:50 people on the tour route were coming up behind Ryan, at 7:25 they vanished into an another universe.

Not actually a battleship movie, but the 1926 silent film "Tell It to the Marines" starring Lon Chaney had a sequence that included Navy footage of the Pacific Squadron gunnery exercise in 1923. I had seen a photo of that in a book about battleship Texas, which was in that exercise. It was really cool to see those old dreadnaughts blasting away. I didn't know the photo was from a film until I saw the movie. Good movie.

thanks for explaining how you can close the watertight doors with the beams in the way.

My favorite battleship movie is sink the Bismarck. I have loved it since I was a kid.

Battleship is a fun movie to watch if you don't take it seriously. The anchor part is ridiculous too, but cool to imagine a battleship doing a turn like that, everyone inside would be thrown to the walls lol. The anchor chain would snap like a twig under that much force

I have an idea for a new format: Ryan watches Movies with Battleships and we watch his reactions. And we add a blood pressure overlay and every time it goes above a threshold we drink a shot.

ANOTHER cut reference to Ryan sliding down Broadway in a customer sling!!

I can’t speak to the accuracy, but the Japanese move Yamato from 2006 was quite interesting, as it ends with the Yamatos final battle and sinking.

what's interesting is that i hated history class in school, but with this digital revolution, i am finding my self on a bunch more history based videos.

Massachusetts also uses an overhead rail which is still visible around the machine shop and several of the magazines

Hands down, the best battleship movie of all time is Victory at Sea! 😅👍

Space Battleship Yamato for the win! LOL 🤣🤣🤣 Actually the Japanese Yamato movie was quite good. Kind of like Titanic for battleship fans.

Regarding the moment of wounded on the rail, the main benefit is not comforted to the patient but the freed manpower. You need a minimum of 2 but properly 4 people to carry a stretcher. That's 4 people who are out of the fight. But if one person could push the stretcher on the rail, then 3 people are free to do damage control, first aid, or emergency repairs

I was a Missouri sailor and I did watch Battleship. I have a hard time recommending it, though, because of that wildly unrealistic scene with transferring the shell and something even more wildly unrealistic...with all of the active and retired captains and admirals "on the beach" in Hawaii, they give command of possibly the most historic ship in the fleet (and the only one which stands a chance of defeating the aliens) to a junior lieutenant? WEPS or OPS maybe, just maybe, but CO? Pull the other one! I was willing to give the filmmakers the rest of their premise, though, as "wiling suspension of disbelief". Yes, I was on board for the reactivation, but we left that ship in great shape and I can grant the outside possibility that with a round-the-clock effort by all the resources of Pearl Harbor base and shipyard she might have been ready to get underway the next day. I can even grant that, on a base as large and historic as Pearl, that somewhere on that island might have been at least a partial combat loadout of battleship ammo. But the two things above ruined the movie for me!

for attaching a stretcher to the beams, did they have or make something special to do it, or did they use existing trolleys/hoists?