Nostalgia & History > Canadian NFB Film Showing 1958 Railroading

Here's an interesting 1958 B&W NFB film about the CN, profiling Train 406 from Toronto to Halifax. Check out the steam, those GM GP's and F units, CLC C Liners, MLW RS and S units, reefers, RPO's, wood cabooses, oil lamps, train orders, foot boards and cigarettes!

https://www.nfb.ca/film/train_406

Man!!! That was great! Thanx for finding it for us! I really enjoyed it!

Oh the humanities! Stick rail. Roofwalks. Solid bearings. Smoke in the air. Steam locomotives. Hand signals. Gosh, how did they ever manage?

Here's a few more that will probably tickle your fancy:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/railroaders

https://www.nfb.ca/film/railroad_town

https://www.nfb.ca/film/railrodder

I just crack up every time I watch The Railrodder. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Larry

Does CN still operate a Toronto to Halifax manifest train 406?

Not to be nit picky but the film editing was a bit interesting. For example, a steam powered passenger train appeared to pass the on-siding 406 twice. And the 406 engines seemed to flip back and forth between MLW and EMD makes. And it looked like a 406 engine set was flying white flags - would that have been normal for a scheduled train?

Very interesting film. Did CN ever get any of those atomic powered locomotives?

The National Film Board of Canada was a Canadian Government organisation set up during WW2 to produce propaganda films.

Mackenzie-King, the wartime Canadian Prime Minister was a former lawyer and labour mediator. He was noted as being the "neutral" between the Government of Colorado,Colorado Fuel and Iron, US President Woodrow Wilson and the UMWA regarding the coalfield war which lead to the Ludlow CO massacre.

The NFB was set up to promote the benefits of the Canadian way of life, and to portray working citizens in a positive light.

After WW2, the propaganda was much more subtle. Because it employed politically motivated screen writers and directors, who also were innovative in motion picture techniques, it attracted several noted directors and screen writers from Hollywood during the McCarthy era.

If there is a leftward bias in the NFB railroaders at work series, it is that it portrays workers in a positive realistic way rather than the "Casey Jones" portrayals often seen in Hollywood productions. None of the NFB railroad films were directed by the Hollywood ex-pats.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/14 06:36 by eminence_grise.

I watched and noted the change from English to French a few times. Did CN and CP use english or french as the "official" language of the railway when operating in QUebec? I"m just curious. I also enjoyed the crew continuing their card game on the caboose seemed none-too-excited about the crew caller giving them their call to work...and boy, did those crews dress spiffy back then!

DrLoco Wrote:
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> I watched and noted the change from English to
> French a few times. Did CN and CP use english or
> french as the "official" language of the railway
> when operating in QUebec? I"m just curious. I also
> enjoyed the crew continuing their card game on the
> caboose seemed none-too-excited about the crew
> caller giving them their call to work...and boy,
> did those crews dress spiffy back then!

The incoming crew would be from Brockville ON., in a few years the train crews would run through from Belleville, perhaps a decade later the engine crews would do the same. The outgoing crew were from Joffre QC, near Quebec City. The language of work would be English for the Brockville crew, and French for the Joffre crew.

I am intrigued why the Joffre crew are wearing passenger uniforms. Did they come to Montreal on a passenger train?

In those days, the train crews had assigned cabooses which served as their resting place during their layover, hence it would travel with the crew. Did it deadhead over on a freight ahead of the passenger train the crew worked?

In a few years, CN in Quebec would change after CN President Gordon admitted there was a "glass ceiling" for Francophone officers at CN. Because CN was a Federal Government corporation, management of the railway in Quebec was largely French speaking by the late 1970's.