This Is My Railroad (Part I) (1940)

★★★★ · Production notes · R. Prata · 2013-10-11

This belongs to the industrial-film category, but it's so well written and photographed that it makes for a nice documentary, with historic and social lessons to be learned. The sponsor and producer is the Southern Pacific Railroad, which name appears in the dedicatee, the supervising producer's credit, and the end logo, S-P. The independent producer was Gene K. Walker, who also worked for Standard Oil of California, Tidewater Petroleum, Crown Zellerbach Paper, California Redwood, and the Western Pine Association (Portland, Oregon). Early in 1946, when he had got this and another contract at…

★★★★ · Southern Pacific · Wilford B. Wolf · 2003-04-26

This film is shot in the late 1940s or maybe early 1950s, just as railroads were transitioning to the diesel era and more modern rail controls. The audience for this film is hard to determine; possibly as an introduction film for new employees, maybe something to show to investors, maybe a little of both. But the film gives an excellent overview of the various jobs in the period railroad and some wonderful cinemotography, serving almost as a travelogue for the Southwest and West. There is an interesting subtext of how we, as a country, are free to travel and exchange goods, a subtle reference…

★★★★ · Im going to wash that train right out of my hair.. · Spuzz · 2005-07-12

I think this is the definite train documentary on this site. This film contains EVERYTHING you need to know about trains, the people that work on them, and why Southern Pacific is The Greatest Company On Earth. Filmed in glorious color, this was a fun, if not overlong, train hagathon. The best parts were all about how they got rid of the snow off the tracks, how the switchman works (he doesnt have lip cancer though) and the conversion of wood containers into metal ones (though the wood ones looked kind of nice). Again, this runs for half an hour, so if youre into trains, this is well worth a…