Intense, Remarkable Railroad Switching
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Take a few minutes and really look at this clip it is remarkable for many reasons!
This was the Southern Pacific Railroad's evening commute between San Francisco and San Jose. Here we see rush hour train operation with a time-lapsed bird's-eye view of the super busy action receiving and queuing cuts of cars for their return trip back north to San Francisco. These trains were coming in on 3 minute intervals keeping that brakeman in the bottom of the frame running to keep up!
This time-lapse view was shot with a WWII "gun camera". Gun cameras are cameras mounted on a gun, used to photograph or record from its perspective. They are typically used on the weapons of military aircraft and operate either when the gun is fired or at the operator's will. Two of the trains have the old Harriman-style commuter coaches. The rest of the trains have old bi-level cars. Notice the switchman with the white sweater scurrying back and forth to route the traffic in the 'nick of time' without a misstep. You can also see commuters pouring out of the cars (on the right) to clear the way for the next train due into the station.
It ends with an Amtrak Coast Starlight pulling in heading north. This is from our full length movie
"Southern Pacific When the Empire was Intact" Available at www.cspmovies.com
![[RR] WORLD'S CROOKEDEST RAILWAY - INSANE curves and hills! The Mt. Tamalpais](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IY71kM_UZuQ/mqdefault.jpg)
A great scene in San Jose from "SP By The Bay" available at www.cspmovies.com
Excellent. This is great stuff!
That was very impressive. The switchmen really had their work cut out for them!
What year was this footage shot?
It was around the late 70's to 1980, since they were using SP SDP45's & GP40P-2's!
Diridon's changed a lot since then!
...from the South (looking North)?
With trains arriving as they are, we are looking north
SP did a great job for so many decades.
BTW--It's interesting that SP termed these "commute" trains rather than the more common "commuter" trains.