Dearborn, michigan. Were standing in the midst of railroad exhibit. Just as automobiles and airplanes were key technologies of 20th century, railroad was the key trmgs for 19th century. The steam engineer was thought of as equivalent to astronaut today. Its important we have a modest but important collection of railroad vehicles. What we have here are Railroad Locomotives that tell the story of railroaded in the 1830s up to the early days of electric locomotives in the 1920s. Behind me is our earliest example. This is a replica of 1831 locomotive cars used oppose hudson railroad. The replica built in 1982. It in and of itself is historic now. This gives us an idea of Steam Locomotives and trains looked like when railroads first come out of the scene in the 1830s. Mohawk located in new york state and became part of the railroad known as u. S. Central, one of the largest railroads in the United States. Railroads in the 1830s were very small, very local affairs. They might run perhaps 15, 20 miles between a couple of cities. Some of them had grander ambitions of connecting, saving Atlantic Ocean with great lakes, mississippi river. Eventually we got to that point but it took a few decades for local systems to kind of coalesce and grow into each other to form what would be a comprehensive National Network. People are always kind of shocked to see this locomotive and especially the cars. They think those cars back there as stage coaches on steel wheels. Thats basically exactly what they are. It took a few years to develop the Standard Railroad coach as we know it today. Of course when the railroad was introduced they use the technology they knew. Stage coaches worked fairly well to start with. You could get a number of people on them. They tended to rock and roll down the road, as they did over the road for that matter. Railroad designers realized they could come up with a more efficient system. It wasnt too long after they were built, perhaps 10 years or so, they went through standard rectangular box configuration when we think of a Railroad Locomotive or railroad coach. When railroad introduced in 1830s, it would have been fairly expensive to travel on. It would have been just upper classes to travel on. Travel in general was expensive by railroad, stagecoach or canal. As time went on fares started to fall a little bit. Typical working average for mid to late 19th century would be about 0. 03 a mile for your transportation. Of course by the mid 19th century we now had the idea of separate classes of travel. Everything from pullman cars with luxurious appointments me might think of all the way down to what would have been called immigrant class. Perhaps nothing more than simple wooden coach, wooden bench seats and thats it. Depending on your socioeconomic status you could travel. You would be traveling in more or less comfort depending how much you could pay for your fare. Passenger and freight trains were largely using the same technology. The Steam Locomotive introduced fairly early. Some of the earliest in the United States were horse powered. Horses would pull the trains along the track. It was in very few years they realized Steam Locomotive offered greater potential and greater carrying capacity. For many years in the mid 19th century, railroads were defined by one locomotive, 440 or american type. Well take a look at those in a moment. Those were equally at home hauling passenger trains or freight trains and became prominent symbol of the United States in the 19th century. The locomotive behind me is quintessential american locomotive. Thats what its called american type, 440 Steam Locomotive. What those numbers refer to are wheel layout, the arrangement of the wheels. If you look, four wheels up front and four driving wheels, the wheels actually powered by the rod there and zero training wheels. No wheels under fire box. 440. If we talk about allegheny, we talk about 2666, obviously much bigger, many more driving wheels than 440. This is the one we picture in our head when we picture Steam Locomotives. This was by far the most popular used in the second half of the 19th century of United States. Those two locomotives facetoface, they were both 440s. Absolutely necessary we have one of these in our collection. This was used in american south. Locomotives, of course, very expensive. As railroads used them, they tried to get as much life as they can. But they age. They become underpowered for heavier trains, heavier service. This locomotive would have been increasingly demoted, on the hauling line, passenger freight, pushed to yard service where it was shunting a few cars around the yard and not on the frontline anymore. When it came to the museum it was purchased by henry ford and put back in service for the dedication ceremonies for henry ford. On that date he brought one of his closest friends, Thomas Edison out to Greenfield Village with another guest of honor, herbert hoover. He renamed it for that occasion the president. You see the date october 21th, 1941, which is when they had the ceremony dedicating Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum of innovation. Really at that time it was called Edison Institute in honor of edison, mentor, this whole place founded as a tribute to him. I always thought it was interesting the place october october 21th, 1939, days before the stock market crashed. Arguably one of the last good days of herbert hoovers administration. American railroads are distinguished between british railroads. Britain is where we turn to for our inspiration building railroads and Steam Locomotives. The big distinguishing characteristic, british railroads were well built, level grades, stone brenlgidges, larg locomotives. They had fenced off right of ways. In the United States were moving fast. Go. Go. Go. We dont spend a lot of time making things permanent. Our railroads much less expensively built than british railroads. They steppeded to be rough and bouncy. The reason 440 worked well handle the rough track we would build wood bridges rather than stone bridges and we didnt build fence around rightofway. It was not uncommon for livestock wandered onto a track. That gets to be a problem if a train is coming along. Generally in that situation the cow comes out on the short end of the conflict, doesnt survive but the body could still be caught underneath the train and cause it to derail. The cow catchers designed not to push the cow away to go off and live a happy life its designed for the cow not to fall under and cause the 4400 derail. Two crew members, throw and brake and fireman, who in this case would be physically shoveling not coal but wood into the fire box, taking bits of wood and throwing them in there. Wood was the first widely used fuel on American Railroads because it was abundant, easy to find, very cheap. We moved to coal by about the mid 19th century because it was more efficient. We could get more speed and power out of the equivalent amount of coal than wood. This is fitted with wood in the fire box. The other thing to operate Steam Locomotive is water. We take for granted we have water everywhere in the east but not so much out in the west. Providing water got to be a challenge. Railroads would have to build water towers or tanks at a specific number of miles between each point. Often pull spoke a station there would be a water tower nearby so the group could take on water as well. As we moved spot late 19th, early 20th, some highspeed railroads and passengers trains built track pans, pans of water between the rails. There could be a scoop that would be dropped down from the locomotive and the train could scoop up additional water without stopping. This was kind of interesting. Must have been a sight to see that, watch the water flying. Needless to say they didnt work as well as winter. They would try to keep the water to keep it liquid as well as they could. Inevitably it would freeze up in some harsh conditions. That infrastructure was another reason why diesel electric locomotive proved popular. Not only did you have to have coal and wood, you didnt have to have water stationed every so many walls. It was fueled up and ready to go. When we think about Passenger Experience, it would have been different than the Passenger Experience in the closed cars. Theres not much protection inside the stagecoach body. With inclement weather youre going to get wet and cold. Also the matter of embers and sparks thrown up from the locomotive as well. Many of them would be fairly small and wouldnt do much damage. Some would be fairly large, enough to set clothing on fire. In fact, theres story of the first ride of people opening umbrellas to protect against shower of embers. That worked fine until their umbrellas burned up and then they were on their own. Not very comfortable. This coach at least more protection from the sparks and embers. That said, you would still if you opened up the window, if the parise was right, you might catch a faceful of smoke or soot. Riding in the cars we have open plan. Britain, private compartments where you have two or four people in the compartment. In the United States everybody always in the same car. It was a democratic way. Inevitably you would have some conflict with your seat mate. You might want the window open, he or she might want it closed. You might have somebody in there reading silently, loudly so everybody hears it. Other people singing, talking loudly. Frankly basically the way we fly in airplanes today. Theres always somebody in there thats a little annoying, whether its the crying baby or the person who wants to you can talk, talk, talk, when you want to sleep. Those issues turn up. Less difficult than clothes catching on fire but nonetheless an annoyance. When we think of 440, i dont think if is the exaggeration to say this, this is the engine that built the United States. When we talk about westward expanse moving to the pacific, it could not have been done two without this and other trans continental lines that followed. If you had to think of a symbol in the 19th century, you would probably pick two of them. One would be the buffalo, one would be 440. Both represent United States in that pivotal time in our development. Behind me is our 1942 chesapeake and ohio railway allegheny locomotive, high watermark for Steam Locomotive, they dont come fuller than this. This locomotive ways 770,000 pounds without water, add those and looking at a million. Horsepower, 7500. Terrel powerful. The problem is a practical limit you can build. The allegheny there is. Any longer than this and it becomes too long to negotiate the curves on the track and too heavy for bridges, structures, roadbeds and so forth. This is about as big as the Steam Locomotive got. It was designed to pull coal trains enthusiastic mountainous sections in west virginia. Its maybe not surprising the cno would hold onto steam power as it did. Really by 1940s, diesel electric proven itself in Passenger Service and increasingly so in freight. Made money hauling coal they would invest in technology for a locomotive like this. This is also the most photographed object we have in the entire museum. Not a day goes by when i dont walk by her and somebody posing in a picture for this locomotive. I have a picture of myself as a boy. Something about the size its enormous and grabs people and they think, whoa, what the heck is this. We love it. One of the most popular questions, how the heck duties this thing into the museum . It wasnt easy. It came under its own power, its own wheels. We have a track that connects to an active railroad behind the museum. This was pulled here and then pushed spoke our museum but not without first removing a few pieces from the side of a locomotive and not without removing the door and frame on the back of the building. Even then it just barely squeezed in. Its been here since 1956. This the one object in the museum where i can say fairly confidently, i dont think its going anywhere. A locomotive like this would have required at least two people in the cab. You have to have your engineer and fireman. Traditionally the person shoveling coal into the fire box. A locomotive of this size, its appetite was so great, theres no way human beings could keep up with did he mantds, shovel enough coal to keep it running keep capacity. So it has auger or stoker, automatic, looks like a screw device from the tinder into the fire box. The fireman would still be there but largely just checking gauges more so than actually doing physical labor of shoveling coal. With that its hard to believe two people could operate something this massive in size. All together 60 of these locomotives were built. They were built just in time for world war ii, something of a golden age for American Railroads, the service they provider. Not for ships overseas but troops, primarily designed for freight. Some alleghenies were troop trains, carrying them to ships that would transport them overseas. For all the technical sophistication in these locomotives, they were entirely out of date within 15 years by which point the diesel locomotive proved itself not only more efficient but more flexible in how its used. Steam locomotive, to add power you could add additional locomotives but have to add additional crew members for those locomotives. With this you could string together all you like and stringd together and one crew could operate them. You dont have to have a separate crew for each engine. By the time this locomotive was operating railroads had standardiz standardized. After the civil war 48 standard issue in the United States. Prior to that a number of different gauges particularly in the south, which was fine so long as railroads were local operations as they were through the first half of the 19th century. Of course to create a National Network it cant be done if you have to move from one box to another because the wheels werent the same width apart. The movement to standard gauge was major change and railroad a driving force if the United States. That and the adoption of standard time which came later in the 1880s. Prior to that people set their watches based on where the sun was at noon. Local time noon at dearborn could be entirely different than chicago or detroit just 10 miles away. When the railroads changed that so they could operate this schedules more efficiently. We all eventually adopted standard time, of course, and helped us mav forward certainov. Not only here but Greenfield Village we have operating two mile track that runs around the village and a fleet of Steam Locomotives that will take riders around the village. Its multisensory. Theres not ensembonly the soun unique smell and feel. One of the questions we get asked being we have that railroad out there, how come we never run allegheny out. Well, reasons for that, one, historic artifact we wouldnt want to damage it. Two, it would be expensive to make it operational again, to make sure we could operate safely. Three, a bit oversized for hauling passengers around the village. Four, it physically would not fit. Could not take the sharp curves and clear buildings and station platforms we have out there either. As much as i would like to see one of these run again, im afraid it wont happen here. Steam locomotives require almost constant maintenance. There are Major Repairs that have to be done every so often. There are also daily inspections of those locomotives. You have to make sure no cracks or weak spots inside the locomotive or boiler. You have to inspector the tubes that boil the water to create steam. Scale builds up regularly, Mineral Deposits that can weaken the metal. That has to be cleaned out. Ash pans have to be cleaned out, too. You have to remove ash and unburned coal, too. A great deal of maintenance. Very labor intensive. As long as steam was the only in time, that was something they lived with. They accepted the fact all these maintenances would have to be done. Especially after world war ii railroads see they can run for thousands of miles with very little maintenance. Basically top off the fuel tank and thats it. They realize there are tremendous economic advantages so the diesel is embraced and adopted very quickly. The locomotive behind me is perhaps not as handsome or pretty as Steam Locomotives in our collection but nevertheless its equally important, 1946 ingersollrand diesel locomotives, one of the widespread used in railroads. When we talk about locomotives we refer to them as diesels just generally but thats not an entirely accurate way toss describe them. They are strictly speaking diesel locomotive. In other words diesel doesnt directly power the wheels and make the locomotive do down the track. Instead that Diesel Engine powers electric generator. That electricity is fed to a set of traction motors. There was one with each wheel set. Those traction motors, move up and down the track. What youre looking at is an electric motor that carries its own electrical generatinging in the form of diesel powered electrical generator. Very quickly they proved their worth on American Railroads. They required much less maintenance than Steam Locomotives. You didnt have to clean scale or ash out of the fire box. You didnt have to have infrastructure that Steam Locomotives required. There was no need for water tanks, no need for roundhouses, large roundhouse in which inspection work could be done. Top it off, fuel tank and go thousands of miles before it required any Major Repairs. Nevertheless diesel trgs made inroads on american roads fairly slowly. They started with smaller units that would have been used on switching yards. Main railroads, factory, power plant, used to hall coal cars or cars around small yard used by that factory. It was by 1930s or so these electrics started to move into Passenger Service where they were seen as being clean, modern, ultraefficient, very popular with passengers. Then certainly after world war ii they made inroads to main line freight service. By the late 1950s, diesel electrics had all but replaced Steam Locomotives on american lines. This is what they looked like in this generation. They were revolutionary. Not only did they reduce maintenance and expense and crew size running locomotives, they were much easier on the track. When we think of Steam Locomotives we think of big side rods going back and forth. Cool to watch but a terrible beating on the railroad track, a physical strain on the plant whereas these were gentler. That was looked on very favorably by railroads as well. Were looking at the front of the locomotive right now though. Basically identical on the rear end as well. Thats a big advantage of diesel locomotives. They were geared to operate equally well either direction. Steam locomotive work just as well in terms of power. The problem is its hard for the crew to see backing up. They are not designed physically to run full speed in reverse direction. The diesel locomotive you can go either way. That was a big advantage as well. When you look at the locomotive it doesnt have cow catcher when we think of Steam Locomotives of the 19th century. They fell from favor in the 1900s to there about, the nation becoming less rural as a whole and railroads at this point had gotten around to fencing some of the right of ways in rural areas and farmers were more comigniza of fencing too. Encounters with livestock became increasingly rare. Now have you to start worrying about encounters with automobiles. Thats a whole separate issue, requires gates and flashing lights. Those start to appear more often on American Railroad crossings. There was concern about confusion with locomotive. With Steam Locomotive its obvious which end is locomotive. When you say move it forward everyone knows intuitively what that looks like. With this, you say back up, they go in the direction youre not expecting to move it. You look at the side theres an f painted near the front. Thats what it means, as simple as it sounds, thats the front, which, again, is an important distinction when youre operating this in a crew. There was some hesitancy as these new innovations brought about, not so much on the part of passengers as it was on the part of the railroads themselves. Famously conservative American Railroads even this day. They are hesitant to put a lot of money spoke new technology unless its been proved. Diesel locomotive prove itself in yard service before the main line. Very quickly it proved its worth and advantages over Steam Locomotive. They were quick to donadopt it. They look fresh, modern, look at railroad promotional of 1930s and especially into the 1950s you will see streamlined locomotives, rounder faces they looked fresh compared to Steam Locomotive of similar vintage. This is a time when railroads are doing whatever they can to attract passengers. The interstate highway system is starting to be built. Everybody has a family car in the garage. People are driving and increasingly flying in numbers they never had portfolio. So the diesel locomotive becomes a quick success on American Railroads because it comes at just the right time. Railroads had not been able to replace railroads during great depression, they werent able to during the war because they werent built during the war. At the same time during the war they were pushing infrastructure than ever before, all being moved. By the time the war ends, the late 1940s, 1950s, railroads need to replace their locomotives anyway. With deiesels on the scene its only natural they would turn to them. The work and design that went into that allegheny locomotive, how impressive and sophisticated it is and to think it was built in 1942 by 1956 its literally a museum piece. It happened that fast. Visitors ask a lot of questions about these trains. They will ask why this one looks so weird. It looks totally divot than any locomotive weve seen. This is an early example of diesel locomotive. When people didnt know what it should look like, no preconceived idea what it should be. Sometimes called box cab locomoti locomotive. For practical reasons its practicality in its purest form, box or housing around diesel, prime mover up there housing the generator and housing around generator. Controls front and top. Over time they become more refined. Nowadays they tend to have cabs up front and what would be called long hood in the back. You dont just walk in alongside the engine like you do here. You go inside. You flip over pants to access a part of the Diesel Engine if it needs maintenance. Also we look at this, too. Its much shorter than modern locomotives because of the design for simpler service. Also today modern locomotives tend to have platforms out on the side, crew members to get easy access. If youre moving in a yard youre getting on and off locomotive proofing cars around. Here you have basic platforms, the front not particularly safe. Thats a whole other issue with railroads, too. People will ask why we dont operate these locomotives, particularly the allegheny, would love to see them running somewhere. One reason is they are Museum Pieces and we try to preserve them. Any time you run things you have to repair over time. The object becomes less original with each passing year. Also frankly a great deal of expense involved in bring aing one of these locomotives back into its operating capacity. So we dont do it for those reasons. Also just the issue of size. Something like the allegheny is far, far too big for the track we have here. So theres no way we could operate it. All that said we have an operating out in Greenfield Village, we have a twomile track around the village. We have three 19th century vintage locomotives we keep in regular operating condition. We like to say not only are we preserve the multicentury experience but the skills required to operate and maintain those locomotives. Needless to say people arent learning that anymore. Steam locomotives arent used in wide numbers anymore. We tend to get people here rather young. They come here, drawn to Steam Locomotives. They want to get involved in the program and we work them through the ranks as they would 150 years ago. Start in the shop, clean up, helping, you work your way up to fireman shoveling coal and then engineer where youre able to operate the locomotive. In a smaller scale were preserving that system of Steam Locomotive maintenance and repair. I do have a favorite locomotive one out on our railroad right now. The beautiful 440 from the later 19th century, much bigger than sam hill. We just put that back into operating condition a few years ago. I love seeing it out there because it actually looks a little larger than our other locomotives, because it is larger. It almost looks out of scale with Greenfield Village. Its beautiful out there, has a beautiful whistle when you hear it. Our Railroad Crews will tell you, compared to some other locomotives its like driving a cadillac, so much more comfortable, smather on the track. Thats probably my favorite. I like the allegheny, everybody likes the allegheny, no way you cant, its sos impressive. Ill go with baldwin. The locomotives we have are part of our collection. We had to add a few. Weve gotten rid of some because of the space they take up and they were duplicating the storage. Thats important concern with any museum artifact. What story do they tell . Are we telling the story with something else, can we tell better with something else. Occasionally they do have to remove from the collection. Fortunately in our case with things we move weve gone to other museums. Still in the public eye. Not a part of our collection. We do have diesel electric locomotive we keep operating in Greenfield Village as well that we use for yard work out there. Then we have gasoline powered locomotive unusual, too. Those are rare. This has a gas engine. The gas engine is mechanically connected to the wheels so not driving electric motor of any kind. Thats fun to see operate, too. We have a turntable out there as well entirely hand powered, not hooked to any kind of motor. So if the locomotive is balanced properly on the turntable one person can turn the whole thing around. Thats cool to watch, too. Continue our exhibit were trying to tell the story of the railroad in the United States, the growth from regional carriers in 1830s and 1840s to a National System by late 19th century and really a part of every day american life. From a technological point of view were trying to tell the story of Steam Locomotive from earliest iterations in late 1820s up through its peak of development in the 40s, allegheny locomotive right up to the introduction of ingersollrand in 1926, which will ultimately replace the Steam Locomotive. So its a lot of ground to cover. We have to be judicious doing it because we only have so much space for locomotives and cars. They take up so much space. Weve tried to be selective. I think weve got major types and eras represented in our holdings here. Weve only talked about a few of the locomotives here. We not only have these but a couple of other locomotives here, then we have a number of cars, too. We have 1850s passenger coach, typical of civil war era. We have a couple of freight cars including refrigerat refrigerated freight cars. Cars like that changed the american diet. Prior to that we had to eat fruits in season. With the advent of railroads and refrigeration we could purchase fruit any time of year grown anywhere in the world. Beyond that the moss famous, the caboose, small red caboose where a crew would be stationed on train and conductor set up shop for his rolling office. Weve got a nice selection that really tell the story of American Railroading in an efficient way but also very impressive way. You can watch this and other american artifacts by visiting our website at cspan. Org history. Each week American History tvs reel america bring archival films that provide context for todays Public Affairs issues. Ladies and gentlemen commanding general of seventh nr division, general, would you like to say a few words . Id like to say a few words today in celebration of christmas. Its not generally known this is the 11th consecutive christmas the seventh United States nr division has on served in the far east. On many far flung battlefields in the far east, the division suffered and died for the principles of liberty and freedom even as our lord suffered and died on the cross at calvary for the principles of freedom of worship and salvation of the world. We sincerely hope that by next christmas our country will have won a just and honorable peace not only on the battle fields of korea but throughout the entire world and we will be able to spend next christmas and christmas spread of brotherly love to our loved ones at home. On behalf of officers of seventh Infantry Division i would like to wish you a merry, merry christmas. Merry christmas to you. I know you want to get back to your meal here. Thank you very much for speaking with us. Merry christmas. Merry christmas. You can watch this and other American History programs on our website where all our video is archived. Thats cspan. Org history. Up next on American History tvs reel america from 1947, dont be a sucker. This dramatized War Department film uses experience of hungarian american to warn against dangers of minorities. Reacting to hate filled speech in American City he recalls how similar speeches led to nazi groups and eventual destruction of american society. This is about 20 minutes