Association of American Railroads Promotional Film "Thundering Rails" 34944 (1948)

Synopsis

This 1948 black and white promotional film is a presentation by the Association of American Railroads showcasing steam and diesel trains. These include ALCO PA, Southern & Pacific, Atlantic Coast Line, and Baltimore & Ohio. The film opens with a view of the tracks from the engineer’s perspective and the sounds of track and whistle (:02-:18). A curtain blows over a sleeping boy, awakened by the train (:19- 1:25 ). The steel bands of the track shine at night from the engineer’s perspective. The silhouette of steam pouring out of the train chimney in the moonlight is magical ( 1:26 - 2:18 ). The switching rail yard has many tracks overlapping each other ( 2:19 - 2:28 ). The streamline train pulls in and the brakes applied ( 2:29 - 3:00 ). Inside the station, passengers shop at a magazine stand. Others pick up suitcases. A little girl waits with multiple suitcases, as does a dog, and an elderly couple ( 3:01 - 3:40 ). Passengers move up the stairs, a couple kiss goodbye, a mom kisses a son and waves goodbye with her hanky, a honeymoon couple is showered with rice, and a man reading a newspaper walks into a woman ( 3:41 - 4:21 ). The camera focuses on shoes ( 4:22 - 4:40 ). Shown are tickets being printed, a giant roman numeral clock that says “Eastern Standard Time”, people boarding a train, and the conductor ( 4:41 - 5:07 ). The passing train kicks up dust. It speeds past fields, over a trestle, past towns, and over bridges ( 5:08 - 5:40 ). The thundering sound of multiple…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time

17 minutes

Language

English

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage