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Three Giant Steps (1957)

1957 · Short film · 12 min

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Synopsis

(1957) is a black-and-white promotional film made by New York Central Railroad that details the “three giant steps” that the company undertook to optimize their freight and passenger services. Established in 1853, New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The three improvements or "giant steps" undertaken by New York Central included: Centralized traffic control (CTC) railway signaling between Buffalo and Cleveland, the opening of an automated frontier hump yard in Buffalo, and the introduction of the Flexi-Van service. Introduction: Title text flashes across screen, train horn blows as passenger train speeds along rail track (0:08). Montage shots of trains speeding towards camera along various tracks while narrator begins introduction; New York Central EMD E7 passenger diesel locomotives (0:36). Centralized traffic control: close-up of knobs, switches on switchboard before scene changes to wide shot of railroad employee sitting in front of large switchboard, New York Central Synchro Scan System (1:35). Camera pans track diagram included on panel of New York Central Synchro Scan System operating in Eerie, Pennsylvania; Allows dispatcher to have control of rails of entire territory between Buffalo, New York and Cleveland, Ohio (2:07). Close-up of melting clump of snow on rail after dispatcher turned on electric snow melters (2:26). Automatic recorder on the control machine; Close-up as pen…

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Details

Running time
12 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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