"Why Risk Your Life?" -- 1940s Railroad Safety Film 

Only the strong survived the 40s and 50s.

Yes....and those employees were walking over the rail lines, no path for them, no safety whatsoever...if they tripped, good God...😳

It isnt really dangerous if you are prepared and expect what is about to happen. If it is dangerous, they use stunt men. Danger is part of their job.

This is actually incredibly tame compared to _Getting Off on the Right Foot_ , also available on RU-vid.

@@Allurade and no safety vests !

b3j8

Okay, you can show off, but you better not get hurt or we will have the film to prove why you got hurt!

Like all the time just don't get caught

Let's be fair, they were all drunk anyway.

cue the guitar riff from "Shake Hands with Danger"

Well all these people are likely not with us anymore.

+airminnesota Ride the AutoTrain. It has a very good chance of getting in early. But it is also known to run late when there is bad weather in the SE.

At least they weren't the only one on the ground like now.

Our dad was an engine driver. He told me when the engines were getting near shopping the plates would get loose and puffs of asbestos lagging would come out into the cab. He died aged 96.

NS like Nederlandse Spoorwegen?

Dont be a snowflake! US freedom types worked 20-36 hours and be damned with no goddamn socialist commie Democrat gay anti second amendment safety practices! They just cost our corporations profit! Trump was right to deregulate everything!! Long Live god and savior trump!

depends on the railroad. a decent amount still allow it. on csx its under 4mph

Where did you work on the SOO?

yes the title is kinda rich considering the risks they took that were NOT considered unsafe

Sven thanks for the eye opener, SVEN......

6 lawyers. Sounds about right. Big companies employ lots of lawyers just for these occasions. Check out the Bhopal India Union Carbide (not Pacific) disaster from 1984 (chemical spill killed 20,000, injured 500,000 - now THAT'S a "train wreck").

@@terry_willis Crazy thing is that that company was majority owned by the Indian Government at the time.

i can tell ya one thing: there arent such videos today that put much emphasis on the worker. videos today just explain the rules, but theres no "heart" in the vids you know

XxAdminChllaxX that's all they want now and days 100% rules compliance.

StangThang07 do you know any "today" safety vids? couldnt find much

No I don't. I've seen EEO videos here but that's just about it. The rule book is about the size of a dictionary.

+Offshoreorganbuilder The former rail worker - which I also am - told you the truth! Railroad work calls for vigilance 24/7!

Do tell, Mr Aspen? There’s a good video out there on that subject, with interviews with Underground employees. I’m always happy to hear more about them, though!

HOW LONG YOU GOT????? I was born just after the 2nd WW. My dad left my mum when I was 6 months old, so, mum moved back with my grand parents. Grandad was a porter on The Underground at the start of the war, too important to go to war, as he was going to work the train signals. He was Senior Signalmen at Hammersmith Broadway signal box by then. He used to set the signals up for me to work at the age of, about 5/6, and the passenger displays. I had a box bedroom at the back of the house, overlooking the District |Line. I used to watch the track repairs in the early hours, sometimes, steam trains passed by on the line. I have to send this, as the computer deletes long mails, part 2 in a mo!

@@sharong8511 Part 2! I won't bore you with my life in The Royal Navy and Met. Police London. After this I became a bus driver for London Trasnsport, then I went onto The London Underground, as an engineer, trained by BT, I learned to drive a train. In WW2, a Doodlebug, went down an air shaft, killing hundreds, I was told by a driver, that if you went down there, you could hear the murmerings. Part 3!

@@sharong8511 Part 3! We had a driver who had "ONE UNDER" He was asked to take the train back to the depot. On the way back, he had another one, he ended up in a mental institution, I know these people have problems, BUT! THE POOR DRIVER....One Friday night, when I was driving my bus, passing Ealing Broadway Station, a guy ran in front of my bus, fell over, I slammed my brakes on, passengers on the floor, I jumped out of my cab, thinking I had killed him, such a terrible state, "ONE UNDER" on my bus, he ran off laughing! For LOADS of videos, visit Geoff Marshall, The Londonist. Also, a web site, The History Of The London Underground. ENJOY! BIG TIME! I have more memories, but, I think you have enough for now....NIGHT!

True. To put it in historical perspective though, some railroads' rule books had their rules clearly state Main Track switches were not to be fouled before lining for movement. Other than main track movements, such as in the yard, did not fall under that. Interestingly, a book of rule INTERPRETATIONS put out by the ICG in the early 1970s, which oddly enough was as large as the rule book itself, made the difference clearer between fouling a Main Track switch and a yard switch, going so far to say that if an incident occurred as a result, the way the target or switch points were lined conveyed who had the right-of-way, whether the switch be lined normal or reversed. Of course, one should never foul another track without making sure what they are about to foul is clear and with no closely approaching movement. Congrats on your retirement. I retired almost two years ago from the BNSF after 42 years of service.

@@lokomac8 When I first started in train service as a brakeman at the Soo's former Milwaukee Road yard at Bensenville, fouling switches so the brakeman didn't have to walk that far was common practice even though the Soo Line's rules forbid this. This continued even after I was promoted to locomotive engineer. It wasn't until a change at the top that fouling switches on the Soo came to a stop (in the clear!). I retired last year, March 2018, after 37.5 years of employment with the Soo and C&NW. Congrats on your retirement too!

@@WAL_DC-6B, it was some years, after the GCOR became the book of the day, I think, before "Main Track" was removed from the rule I worked under on the Santa Fe and it could generally be applied to ALL switches, which of course, is the safer course, particularly as the number of crew members, heads on a swivel and eyes were reduced, thereby reducing AWARENESS as to surroundings. Oddly enough, it was some time before I even noticed the subtle change in wording that made the rule all-encompassing, lol. Not surprising though, as most of what we did from when I hired on in 1975 THAT WAS CONSIDERED PERFECTLY SAFE, is now considered UNSAFE! Of course, I had always considered "Safety Rules" and "Safe Work Practices" to be a misnomer and misleading in and of itself -- it is all about RISK MANAGEMENT -- the risk that is willing to be incurred to achieve a certain task. Making something SAFER does not actually equate to making it SAFE!

@@lokomac8 I started back in 1980, as a yard clerk for a short stint before promoted to the C&NW's engineering dept. (maintenance of way) as a ultra-sound test car operator and consequently was involved with railroad operating department rules such as the GCOR. I was unaware of a time when in yard service it was accepted practice to be able to foul a switch. None of the "old heads" ever told me it was legal in the past. Thanks for the little history lesson!

@@WAL_DC-6B, I think it depended on the rule book that one was working under, and except for roads working under say, the Uniform Code of Operating Rules, most back in the day had their own books. Almost all books were loosely based on the old Standard Code. In my case, the Santa Fe rulebook I hired out under was dated Jan'y 5th, 1975. As long as it was determined safe to do so and no movement was closely approaching it seemed we were okay to pull close to the switch, even fouling another track, to hand line it or to run through spring switches, flopovers or variable point switches. Note the wording of the rule: "122 (F). Except at spring switches, a train or engine must not foul a MAIN TRACK until switches connected with the movement are properly lined." {emphasis mine}. Many arguments had taken place about fouling other tracks in yards before lining the switch, however, by either being overlooked or purposely excluded, the rule did not seem to specify as it was written. (Almost all blown away in modern times where they started specifying stopping back at least 50 feet from switches to be lined in these more modern times, of course. That was primarily to keep the switch from being in a bind when operating it, but you wouldn't be able to get much closer to the fouling point anwyay if you were a good fifty feet back.) Now, that being said above, note what is found in the book, RIGHT OF TRAINS by Peter Josserand (1957) that used the latest addition of the Standard Code (1953) as the basis of it's discussions of the rules. The Standard Code said this: "104 (5). A train or engine must not foul a MAIN TRACK OR OTHER TRACK until switches connected with the movement are properly lined." Now this was always a bone of contention and we would occasionally be called down by an official for doing it . . . until we asked them WHERE they got the info from and they would find the Santa Fe rule above and we would be somewhat vindicated, whether we were actually right or not. Someone smarter than me and all the switchmen I worked with back in the day could still say we were wrong, but too late, I'm retired now, lol.

Yep. Looked pretty good until the actual collision. And I’m thinking no cameraman would be actually set up to film an accident about to happen without foreknowledge of same.

I like your term "relentless greed".

The brakewheel was on top so the trainmen could walk along the tops of the cars to set the brakes. When moving a loose car in a humpyard it was necessary for the man to be atop the car so he could see where he was and know when to apply the brake.

Before American trains had air brakes, the brakes were placed high up so that the brakeman could run along the roof while the train was in motion to apply and release them. After air brakes were introduced, the hand brakes were left where they had always been for a long time.

Thanks for the info Dave. Much appreciated. Hopefully that has changed to a more contemporary situation these days.

but the foreman is a safety administrator therefore he can do no wrong. Today these people can be identified by their shiny shoes, spotless vests and khaki office pants with a clipboard in hand. Unlike the man in the film, these people have never actually performed the duty so they cannot give the proper instruction on how to perform the duty safely, rather they can only tell you that you are wrong because their book says so.

that wasn't a foreman that was a company officer

Aidan Maurice feel free to drive me

I wish that many rail crossing didn't vanished...then again knowing how dangerous trains are....🤔🤔😳

I’ve worked on a Steam engine, it’s dirty as hell

We just put stairs on the trains, no need to make the platform all fancy

Too expensive.

Some stations do have them.

Standard in the UK for ALL passenger and freight stations to have raised platforms.

That would involve cutting into profits, a definite no-no in America.

david barrera • It was common to spell it that way back then. They also spelled “today” as “to-day.”

+25mfd they actually aren't designed to be set from the ground they are meant to be set from the ladder but I get your meaning in saying they are the safest. Now if only there was some way to cross without having to walk to the next platform or the end of the cut of cars!

Yes you are right. That ratcheting noise is loud and annoying.

So is capitalising every initial letter in an English sentence.

You have an IMPRESSIVE way with words!

Railroaders ARE professional stunt men.

So it was Northern Pacific

The only reason why I thought it was Great Northern because there was a picture of a derailment in my hometown of Elk River inside of the Denny’s restaurant in Otsego. The picture had the engines in it, and both were Great Northern ALCO FPA-2s in the pic

because there was steam trains everywhere... and they all sounded either the same or a different noise

when shunting, trains would often only actually accelerate for a few seconds then let it roll. the ambient noise is enough to cover up the hissing etc.

You'd be surprised - even with steam locos.

Wind blowing across your ears against a train can mask sound.

Also a car or a cut of cars rolling on straight track can be totally silent as well. I have seen it many times in my yard where a cut was rolling through and the only thing you could hear was the gentle rumble as the weight shifted across the ground. Outside of that there was no sound until it reached the standing cut that was catching them.

I guarantee you nobody was killed. Each scene was carefully laid out and rehearsed beforehand. The "rulebreakers" doing the really dangerous stunts were all old-hands w/years of experience. They knew what they were doing believe me.

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SuperPatriot777 moo

Are you sure?

Dirty Dan that’s definitely debatable. Since anymore anyone caught with their phone can and will be fired. At least at the up.

@@scuba535 depends on who catches them I guess. The problem, like so many other things today is that it's only illegal if they get caught and they will take the risk of getting caught as opposed to missing that response to a personal ad on Craigslist/Snapchat/etc... If the FRA catches them, they are looking at a Willful violation which is somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000 personal fine per violation. Typically the FRA will collect these violations and show the company that there needs to be stricter enforcement, followed by a company fine. Personally I feel like self-enforcement should have been reinforced. The abolition of safety bonuses really curbed that self-enforcement issue. When companies turned around and shouted "Your bonus is we let you work here!" it really created a hostile, careless, lawless environment. When I first started working, we were our Brothers' Keeper, between self-enforcement and also peer-policing, we kept the job safe and safety officials were not generally needed. Today it's a dog-eat-dog world where "snitches get stitches" and there's no place for self-preservation except from getting caught.

I wasn't starting a debate..... lots of jobs have rules where people will be fired for using their phones at work. Yet, we still hear about the people who do it and cause accidents (only a small percentage of abusers ever get caught), and we all have seen the videos on RU-vid of using their phones at work as they crash the bus, the tram, the truck, etc. I was just pointing out how bad the "I have to have my phone in my hand" people have become. We all know that a large majority of the vehicle crash videos we see on here had a cell phone involved.... including the nuts you see riding motorcycles and scooters thru heavy traffic with a phone in one hand, lol.

me too

Randy Bingham it’s called a NORM, you get comfortable and then loose your head about things “that’s the way we always do it”

It's best to remember it this way, everything about railroading is hard, heavy, an made of unforgiving metal. you are not. It's amazing how a being with two eyes, two ears, and a brain (?) can allow themselves to become so careless around such a dangerous occupation but we see it happen everyday, sometimes it is the smartest one of the crew that makes the stupidest mistake and it isn't always them that pays the price.

Rail road made of steel; we made of flesh and bone.

Looks like it can be very dangerous if you disobey the rules. I'll bet there are many more safety rules in place today.

That statement sounds so cheeky but lives up to it!

Gravity never lets you down.

69th like, wether or not anyone cares

Gravity doesn't exist in Cartoons, India or Russia.

Facts

Especially those earlier types...the spindly shafts flexed as they were in use, to use them you needed to be in a dangerous position and they required additional leverage from a bar to effect braking - a nightmare.

You should upload them. Love to watch these!

Yup, could tell by the telegraph poles, lol