All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S22E07.Freight.Trains.Plus.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- [Narrator] It's the greatest
freight transportation system

in the world.

A complex network woven
into the very fabric

of the United States.

From the early iron horses

to today's sleek
steel stallions.

They grind up hillsides,

snake through valleys,

thunder across prairies
to deliver the goods.

Now, Freight Trains
Plus on Modern Marvels.

[intense electronic music]

Welcome to North
Platte, Nebraska,

home of the largest
rail yard in the world,

Union Pacific's Bailey Yard.

- The yard is
approximately 3,500 acres.

It's eight miles long,
about two miles wide,

no other rail facility
like it in the world.

- [Narrator] Rail yards are the
hubs of railroad operations.

Here, freight cars
from across the system

are funneled in, sorted,

and then reassigned
to new trains

that will bring them closer
to their final destination.

- Just about anything that's
produced in the United States

is shipped by rail.

So if you're talking about wine
or cheese, fresh vegetables,

televisions, radios,
automobiles, automobile parts,

you name it, just about
everything that America uses

on a daily basis comes
through North Platte.

- [Narrator] The Bailey Yard
is strategically located

in the center of the Union
Pacific rail network.

The facility is so large,

you can't see more
than a third of it

from any point in the yard.

Well, that is except
from the computer screens

of the command center,

[inquisitive music]

where all rail activity
on the yard is monitored.

- What we do in the BCC,
Bailey Command Center,

is coordinating movement

of between 130 and
180 trains per day.

- [Narrator] Utilizing
computer based controls,

the Center monitors all traffic

over Bailey Yard's
315 miles of track.

In addition to
locomotive movements,

workers process
14,000 freight cars

through the yard each day.

For some of these cars,

their first stop is one of
the two classification yards,

or "hump yards".

- This is where we
process eastbound trains.

Trains that come into North
Platte are gonna be sorted here

to their four destinations.

So we are taking
these cars apart

that have come in on a train

and then we're
sorting them to go out

to destinations, further
points from here.

- [Narrator] The hump is
a three story manmade hill

that allows up to four cars a
minute to roll into its bowl.

- Gravity pulls
'em off the hill.

The computer picks up
the weight of the car

as it goes over the
scale rails here.

- [Narrator] The car then passes

through a system of computerized
retarders, or brakes,

that pinch the wheels as they go
through to slow the car down.

- It slows them
down accordingly,

not only to distance
that it needs to travel

to the other end,

but it also computes how much
distance is left in the rail.

And the computer will go all
the way from 12 mile an hour

down to one mile an
hour if necessary

to allow for safe
and careful handling

of the freight that's
inside these cars.

It's pretty amazing that
the amount of tonnage

that's going over this hill,

how softly it's handled

down here when it hits
the bottom end of things.

- [Narrator] The
destination of each car

is entered into a computer.

It automatically
switches the track

so the car rolls directly
onto its assigned rail.

- At the trim tower at
the other end of the ball

are trim crews

and what they do is they
actually build the trains

that are gonna
leave North Platte.

So we take 'em apart here

and they put 'em back
together down there.

- [Narrator] Remote
controlled switch engines,

less powerful locomotives

used for switching
cars in a rail yard,

assemble the trains

when enough freight cars
going to a single location

have been humped.

- The hump used to be the focal
point of the railroad yard.

Pretty much all traffic was
handled in this fashion.

What's changed that has taken
the pressure off of this,

are trains like you
see leaving over there.

They leave their originating
point all in one big chunk,

they arrive at their
destination in one big chunk.

- [Narrator] Unit freight,

or an entire train consisting
of the same type of freight,

like a coal train, is
treated differently

since it doesn't need
to be reassigned.

For unit freight, there
are 26 run-through tracks,

some with pad areas,

which allow trains to pull
up, refuel, and depart

without having to detach
from the locomotive.

- Every train that comes in

must have a mechanical
inspection by our car forces.

We have a NASCAR pit team
concept for our locomotives.

They're a team of
five men and women

that attack each
locomotive that comes in,

whether they have to be fueled,

their oil has to be checked,

they shine the windshields,

they get the
locomotive ready to go.

- Our goal is to
do it in 45 minutes

to service the train completely.

And then we expect the
train crew to be here

as soon as we drop
our protection,

which is blue flags.

- [Narrator] In addition
to these pit stops,

the Bailey Yard boasts a
locomotive repair depot

the size of five
football fields.

- This is not a heavy
duty repair facility.

What we do here is
quarterly maintenance,

semi-annual, annual
and tri-annual

standard maintenance
on our locomotives.

- [Narrator] And
just as important,

rail cars are serviced at
the Bailey Yard as well.

- Part of the issue we have
with derailments on occasion

are our wheels or
axles failing en route.

And so our car
department employees

really focus in on the
conditions of wheels and axles

as they're coming through
our run-through facilities.

- [Narrator] Four person
crews sort, service,

and repair locomotive
tires at the train car.

The repair facility handles
roughly 50 cars daily,

totaling approximately 10,000
pairs of wheels each year.

What used to take
12 days to repair,

takes crews 8 to 12 minutes

to get a train back on track.

And most important of all,

are the people at
the Bailey Yard.

Today, the train yard is home

to approximately 2,000
Union Pacific employees

that work around the
clock, 365 days a year,

inspecting over 14,000
freight cars a day

and keeping freight moving.

- There's an absolute production
mandate at North Platte.

Whether it's rain, snow,
sun, blizzard, high winds,

we must hit those production
targets because if we don't

we will back up the
railroad on both sides

and we cannot have
that kind of impact

on the Union Pacific system.

- [Narrator] The Bailey Yard
may be the largest rail yard

servicing the largest
railroad in North America,

but it's also a mammoth cog
in a much larger machine.

We're talking about an $80
billion a year industry.

[soft rock music]

A system so large,

it encompasses over
140,000 miles of track

and extends to
nearly every corner

of the continental
United States.

And it's more than that.

It's approximately
38,000 locomotives,

1.7 million freight cars.

Its trains average
100 cars long,

extending over a
mile and a half.

It's 1.8 billion tons of freight

crossing the country each year.

But it was the
movement of freight

that was the driving force

behind the creation
of the railroad.

The railroad business
traces its roots

back to rudimentary horse
drawn carts like these.

Navigating rails in coal mines

and stone quarries in the 1820s.

- The whole principle is

that you have steel
wheels on steel rails

and that lowers the
coefficient of friction.

You could pull more with
less power on a steel rail

than if you were
trying to pull a wagon

over the mud or dirt roads.

- [Narrator] Rail ways
that utilized horses

to move public
goods soon emerged.

- After 1830, when
it was the Tom Thumb

and the first successful
steam engines,

the best friend of Charleston
and those early ones,

they proved that
steam was reliable

and more powerful
than horsepower.

- [Narrator] Steam
engines quickly replaced

horses and mules
on rail operations.

And it didn't take long
for railroad entrepreneurs

to set their sights

on capturing the American
freight business,

a market cornered by the
growing east coast canals.

- Just about the time it was
taking them to build the canals

to a standard where they
would be really useful,

you could build a
railroad next to the canal

and just beat the pants off
the canal boats with a train.

And the railroad simply

technologically
replaced the canals

almost overnight.

- [Narrator]
Laborers built tracks

as fast as humanly possible.

By the 1850s, railroad
tracks extended

from the east coast
to the Great Lakes.

In 1869, the Union Pacific
and Central Pacific railroads

met at Promontory Summit, Utah,

and completed the
Transcontinental Railroad.

- The railroad business
expanded very rapidly

because you could make
a lot of money at it.

There was hardly a
hauler in West Virginia

that didn't have a branch
line reaching a coal mine.

There was hardly a hill or
valley in the Pacific Northwest

that didn't have a
lumber railroad in it.

- [Narrator] Railroads changed
the landscape of America,

creating new towns
along their tracks,

supplying the new population

with building materials
and other necessities,

and carrying far flung
crops to markets back east.

- They could send their money
and their gold and stuff

back from California to
the bankers in the east.

All of the things that
people wanted and needed

could be brought in by train.

- [Narrator] But moving
America's freight

didn't become the
complex system of rails

that stretches to every corner
of the nation overnight.

- [Narrator] Today,
American railroads

move more than 5,000
ton miles of freight

per person every year,

more than any
country in the world.

But getting there
began with tycoons

like Cornelius
Vanderbilt, Jay Gould,

and Leland Stanford, competing
to dominate the market.

- What separates
the United States

from the rest of the world is

that the American railroads
were all private enterprise.

They were all private companies,

highly competitive companies,

often run by robber barons
who would have financial wars

and the whole business.

- [Narrator] Due
to the infighting

among the rival railroads,

no cohesive system existed
to move freight efficiently

across the various
independently owned lines.

- During the first world war,

there was concern that the
railroads wouldn't be able

to keep up with the
demand for service,

and the federal government

took over the operation
of the railroads

under the United States
Railway Administration.

Their idea was to standardize
railroad operating procedures

and try to make the
railroads more efficient.

- [Narrator] Soon after the war,

the government returned the
rails to private enterprise.

20 years later by World War II,

a collection of
independent railroads

operated as a coordinated system

and no government
intervention was needed.

The steel backbone of the nation

played its part in
winning the war.

But by the 1950s,

the railroads monopoly
on freight transportation

was quickly eroded.

Trucking and the newly created
interstate highway system

threatened to derail
the railroads.

- Then, the railroads,

which were a network of
little feudal domains

of different railroads all
competing with each other

in a system that was set up
to compete among each other,

were suddenly having to compete

with a new outside competitor.

- [Narrator] Railroads
responded by merging

as well as upgrading
and modernizing.

And today, freight trains
are still the number one way

to move goods long distances.

An early pioneer was
General Electric.

Since 1907, GE owned and
manufactured locomotives.

At this factory in
Erie, Pennsylvania,

208 ton, 44,000 horsepower
diesel electric beasts

roared to life.

General Electric needs
approximately 26 days

to completely build one
of these steel giants.

And the last 12 days

are spent in this final
assembly building.

- This is station one,

the first station of a four
station final assembly process

for the locomotive.

In station one, you can see
where the platform is brought in

and inverted in the
upside down position.

- [Narrator] Workers install
sensitive electronics

and piping to the undercarriage.

Next, is a staging area
for pre-built components

waiting to be installed.

- This is an example of
the Evolution Series engine

that is really
the heart and soul

of the Evolution
Series locomotive.

- [Narrator] The 44,000
horsepower diesel engine

produces with 12 cylinders

what the previous engines needed
16 cylinders to accomplish.

- The new Evolution
Series locomotive engine

is three percent
more fuel efficient

than its predecessor engines.

The average locomotive

will burn approximately
350,000 gallons a year.

And if you expand that
over a 20 year life,

the three percent improvement
in fuel efficiency

correlates to about
200,000 gallons

less diesel fuel is burned
over the life of the product.

- [Narrator] With the
frame now upright,

the engine and other components

are ready to be put in place.

- [Pete] This is really

where the locomotive
assembly process

turns into an automated
assembly line.

The platform from station
one is brought down

and put into its
upright position.

And here we will start to place

the individual cabs and
components on the platform

and start to do the final
assembly of the locomotive.

- [Narrator] The locomotive
starts taking shape

as it advances down the line

in what workers call,

"the world's largest
air hockey table".

- What happens is, we'll
connect an air hose

to the air jacks,

the air will slightly elevate
the locomotive platform

and move it down from one
workstation to the other,

which is kind of impressive
when you think of

as it nears the
final workstation,

it's over 300,000 pounds.

- [Narrator] But
the 75 foot long,

16 foot high steel behemoths
aren't finished yet.

- At this point, the locomotive
is essentially complete

except for the truck assemblies.

From here, we'll lift
the locomotive assembly

off the air jacks and take
it over to station four.

- [Narrator] A crane operator
lifts the 150 ton locomotive

over the factory floor

and deposits it gently
onto a set of trucks

or wheel assemblies.

- After the locomotive is
completed in station four,

it is brought back to
one of our paint booths.

And as you can see here,
it's in the initial stages

of being prepared for
the final paint job.

- [Narrator] Specific
colors and logos

to identify a company's freight

is key for safety and
brand recognition.

And with that,

a custom paint job is complete
for this BNSF locomotive.

In the initial years
of

the biggest obstacle was simply

making sure the trains
carrying expensive cargo

could go the distance.

This shiny new goliath is
much smarter and much cleaner

than the power and might
that ruled the rails

for nearly two centuries before.

- The development of
the steam locomotive

was both evolutionary
and revolutionary.

The biggest problem initially
was finding the proportions,

the proportions between
the boiler, the cylinders,

the drivers and the
linkage mechanism.

The first locomotive that
really got it all right

in the right proportions

was a locomotive
called the John Bull.

- [Narrator] Mechanics put
the John Bull into commission

in 1831 and it became
the first locomotive ever

to be duplicated.

But the wood burning
model was quickly outmoded

as locomotives increased
rapidly in size and power.

- Wood was used generally
in the American railroads

till sometime right
after the civil war.

And what happened was
that a lot of territories

that the railroads are going in,

in the prairies and the plains,

the weren't any trees around.

- [Narrator] Most locomotives

introduced at the end of the
19th century burned coal.

- Back in those days, about
every three, four years,

you'd get a larger locomotive.

They just kept
advancing the technology

every couple of years.

And it's like your automobile.

Somebody would come
out with a new model

and the railroads would try
it out and find out that,

yeah, this is pretty efficient
and we'll buy some of these.

- [Narrator] Early 20th
century locomotives

easily dwarfed
their predecessors.

Their size and power may
have changed drastically.

However, there were a
few fundamental changes

in how they worked.

Pressurized steam enters
one side of the cylinder

and pushes the piston away.

A valve shifts the
steam to the other side

and forces the piston back.

A series of connected rods

convert the pistons
back and forth motion

to the rotational
motion of the wheels.

By the second World War,

the steam locomotive
had reached its pinnacle

of technological development

and it had an
unlikely replacement.

- The diesel was
introduced in the 1920s.

It was not considered to be a
real road worthy locomotive.

They were used in
switch engines.

They were used in specialties.

They were used in
lightweight streamliners,

but they weren't really
considered a threat.

The Electro-Motive
Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio,

decided that until
they could replace

a full size steam
locomotive with a diesel,

the diesel wasn't
gonna get anywhere.

So in 1939, they created
the FT freight diesel,

which was a two unit diesel,

had two 16 cylinder engines,

rated at 1,350 horsepower each.

And that locomotive

single handedly killed
the steam engine.

- [Narrator] For railroaders
like Bernie O'Brien

who spent decades working
on steam locomotives,

like the Union
Pacific Challenger,

the switch to diesel
was bittersweet.

- It was a sad thing for
me to see that happen.

Our last Challengers
were only six years old

when they phased
them out of service,

which is just pretty
hard to believe.

- The steam locomotive
did not fail as a machine

because it wasn't a
good puller of freight.

The steam locomotive was
extremely labor intensive

and it required a lot of care.

The diesel is like
your automobile.

It's automatic, you
fire it up and it goes.

- [Narrator] The mechanics
of a diesel locomotive

are very different from
those of a steam engine.

In the cylinder,
a fuel air mixture

is compressed by the piston
to a point where it ignites.

The explosion forces
the piston down,

which turns the crank shaft.

An alternator then converts
the motion of the crank shaft

into electrical power,

which is fed down to individual
traction motors on each axle

to turn the wheels
of a locomotive.

- Well, one of the
advantages of diesel power

is that you could couple
as many units together

as you needed for power to
get it over the the road.

It just depends upon how
much power you needed.

And one man controlled
all of those units.

- [Narrator] Like their
steam predecessors,

each generation of diesel
electric locomotives

continue to outpace the last.

Today's freight locomotives

are able to haul more
tonnage than ever,

but it's a feat that requires
more than just horsepower.

- [Narrator] With its
punishing uphill grade,

tight curves,
and steep descent,

southern California's Cajon Pass

is one of the most
treacherous railroad routes

in the United States.

Patrick Marquez,

a locomotive engineer for the
Burlington Northern Santa Fe,

used to make the grinding
journey up the mountain pass

several times a week.

He does this with a mile
and a half of freight,

which weighs upwards
of 6,000 tons

trailing behind the engines.

It's normally a
two-man operation,

a conductor who serves as
the manager of the train

and its rolling stock.

- BNSF 764040, O'Brien, over.

- [Narrator] And the
engineer or train driver.

But for this grueling journey,

a second engineer with
two helper locomotives

couples onto the
rear of the train,

to push it to the
top of the hill.

- Helpers are gonna contact me

and let me know when
he's getting a release

on the rear end of the
train and then we'll leave.

- [Helper] 764040 released
to come and get you.

- Here we go.

So now he just
gave me the signal

that the air brakes
are releasing.

We come right off of the brakes,

give it some throttle
and we take off.

But as soon as we
take this corner,

you're gonna notice our
speed dropping dramatically

'cause the hill and it's
all the way up the summit.

- [Narrator] The
engines must provide

64,000 pounds of tractive effort

to propel the train forward.

- The more power we exert
into the traction motor,

the more likely that that wheel
has the opportunity to spin.

In order to keep it from
spinning, we'll use sand

and that will put a grit or
sandpaper underneath the wheel

so we don't have metal to
metal and it'll keep it moving.

- [Narrator] Today's locomotives

are equipped with an electronic
traction control system.

The system uses compressed air

to spray sand from a nozzle
in front of each wheel.

- If I spin my wheels,

the computer will
sense a wheel slip,

you know like on a
car, you feel it,

and you'll also feel it in here,

and I'll get a little signal
in here, it'll say wheel slip.

One of the helpers clear block-

- [Narrator] Engineer Marquez
is in constant communication

with the helper
locomotive engineer

at the back of his train.

- If we didn't pick
up those helpers,

we'd probably be getting
a lot of wheel slip.

The wheels would
just be slipping

'cause we wouldn't
have enough power

to pull this up the hill.

- [Narrator] It
takes a lot of effort

to get more than
12 million pounds

to the top of the hill.

- Gravity's pulling it that way.

I'm trying to pull it
that way, right? [laughs]

[rock music]

If we stopped out here

and if I release my brakes
without giving it power,

we'd start rolling back.

- [Narrator] With all
the tools on board

to keep his train
moving forward,

Marquez can sit back and
enjoy the ride to the top.

Well, sort of.

- That's an alerter, it's
like a safety device.

It's basically to keep
me awake. [chuckles]

If I'm capacitated somehow
and the alerter times out,

it'll apply the brakes
at a service rate,

just slow the train
down gradually

and just come to a stop.

I just hit this button,
the alerter resets

and every time it pops up,

if I do something with
the throttle, brakes,

something like that,
it'll reset it too,

because it's showing
that I'm awake

and I'm moving the controls.

- [Narrator] Marquez has to
stop his train at the summit

to let off the helper engines.

- All I gotta do
is throttle down

and the train will stall
out, come to a stop.

- [Narrator] This
stop was planned,

but not all of them can be.

- If we're moving
20 mile an hour

and we're coming down a
mountain grade territory

and this train weighs
roughly 6,000 ton or more,

it could possibly take
us a quarter of a mile

to stop the train in an
emergency application.

- [Narrator] And as every
early railroader knew,

being unable to stop
a speeding train was,

well, a train wreck.

[metal crashing]

- The earliest railroads used
hand brakes of various types.

Often this was as simple as
a lever with a wooden block

going against the wheel.

As the cars got bigger,

they would go to what we
would call a stem winder

that tightened a chain

that pulled iron shoes
against the wheels.

But they all had
to be done by hand.

- [Narrator] Every five or
six cars would have a brakeman

who had to apply the
brakes on each of his cars.

- And the brakeman

was probably one of the most
dangerous jobs in railroading

because there was this chance

that you would be
thrown off the car

or lose your footing on that.

But you had to walk
from car to car

on the roofs of the cars
applying the hand brakes

in order to stop the train.

- But back then, the workers
were considered expendable

and that's what it
took to stop trains.

- [Narrator] In 1866,

George Westinghouse
took on the challenge

of finding more effective
way to stop a train.

And by 1873, he developed
what remains to this day

one of the most significant
safety inventions of all time,

the automatic air brake.

The air brakes on
a freight train

are supplied with compressed
air from the locomotive.

As the air reservoir
in each car fills,

it trips a valve to release
the brakes on that car.

Only when the last car
disengages its brakes

can the train move.

The system is fail safe,

as any reduction of
its air pressure,

such as a rupture in
the air supply hose,

causes the brakes to be applied.

When diesel electric replaced
the steam locomotive,

it brought with it another
revolutionary technology,

dynamic braking to
supplement air brakes.

Back at the Cajon Pass,

engineer Marquez relies
upon dynamic braking

to start his downhill descent.

- I'm in dynamic braking now

and it just turns the traction
motors into big resistors.

- [Narrator] Instead of
feeding power to the wheels,

the traction motors now
take power from the wheels.

The energy is
dissipated as heat.

The underpowered traction
motors have become hard to turn

thereby providing
resistance to the wheels,

slowing the train.

- [Marquez] The more I
move this lever forward,

it demands more amps,

which basically slows
the motors down,

adds resistance to 'em.

So they're the ones
slowing us down now,

which means I gotta be
prepared to add more amps

to keep my train under control.

- [Narrator] Dynamic brakes
are very useful on downgrades

and save a considerable amount
of wear on air brake shoes,

thus lowering maintenance costs.

- Gravity's just
pulling us downhill.

Like I said, I have
resistance on my head end

'cause I turn these traction
motors into to resistors.

So the wheels are turning and
I'm trying to slow us down,

the engines are trying
to slow us down.

And the train's just
pushing against our engine

and I can try and control my
speed with the dynamic brakes.

As we get faster, if I
don't want to go too fast,

I'll add more dynamic brakes,

trying to slow down or
keep our speed constant.

If I want to gain some speed,

I can reduce my dynamic braking,

which means the wheels will
turn easier on the engines

and it means gravity
will shove more.

- [Narrator] But the dynamic
brakes may not be enough

to keep this freight train

from becoming a
roller coaster ride.

- [Marquez] I'm in
full dynamic brakes.

I'm demanding 35 kilo
pounds from my motors

and all that resistance

and the trains just
going too fast.

I'm just gonna keep picking up
speed unless I do something.

So now I'll slow my train
down with some air brakes.

- [Narrator] Essentially,
he's riding the brakes

the rest of the journey down.

When Marquez's 6,000 ton
train reaches the bottom,

it becomes yet another train

that has successfully
negotiated the Cajon Pass

and transported hundreds
of freight containers

over the mountains.

And the containers it carries

are significant beyond
the goods they hold.

With the increase in
imports coming from Asia,

these freight containers

have come to rejuvenate
the railroad industry.

Over seven million containers

enter the ports of Los Angeles
and Long Beach every year,

more than anywhere else
in the United States.

They are intermodal loads,

containers designed
to flow easily

from one mode of
transport to another,

and they have revolutionized

and revitalized
the rail industry.

- Intermodal containers

are an extension of the
container ship operations

that are here at the
Port of Los Angeles.

Containers come off the ship,

they move onto the dock

and then they're either
moved out by truck

or moved out by rail.

- [Narrator] Over 50
trains leave the twin ports

of Los Angeles and Long
Beach on a daily basis,

each carrying approximately
220 containers.

That keeps about 11,000 trucks

off congested Los Angeles
freeways every day.

- The advent of trade with Asia,

especially in the last 20 years,

and specifically
China in the last 10,

has a doubled the
amount of volume

that is coming into
the west coast ports

over that period of time.

And the container trains
have really been a way

to be an outlet
for large volumes.

- [Narrator] And
intermodal train traffic

coming out of the ports
is expected to double

to 100 trains daily in
the next two decades.

- Over 60% of the cargo that
comes through these ports,

containerized cargo, in
the form of imports,

is destined for the
rest of the nation.

And the first stop or the
first passage if you will,

for that traffic is on
the Alameda Corridor

as it heads east to service
the rest of the nation.

- [Narrator] The 20
mile long corridor

is essentially an
expressway for trains,

[train whirring past]

connecting the ports to
rail yards east of the city.

- This 10 mile section that we
fondly refer to as the trench

was kind of the crown
jewel of the program.

It's 10 miles long,

represents about
one half the length

of the overall corridor.

- [Narrator] In the trench,

train travels unimpeded
beneath city traffic.

A journey that once
took almost two hours

has been cut to only 45 minutes.

- It's really a national asset.

What the Alameda
Corridor represents

is probably one of
the strongest lengths

in the Transcontinental Rail
Network at this point in time.

- [Narrator] Intermodal
freight has surpassed coal

as the number one revenue
generator for the rail industry.

And the articulated well car,

designed to carry
intermodal containers,

helped railroads remain relevant

in the competitive world
of freight transportation.

Each car is able to
fit one container

in a depressed well area.

With another resting on top,

the well area lowers
the height of the load,

allowing it to make bridge
and tunnel clearances

as well as lowering
its center of gravity.

- The double stack opportunity

provides two for the price
of one in a given car space.

So the loading
volumes can increase,

the cost per unit drops,
and makes the rail

a very, very efficient and cost
effective way to move cargo.

- [Narrator] Of
course, the well car

isn't the first freight
car to fill a special need.

The earliest freight cars
were simple platforms

with wheels attached,

but soon enough,
sides were added.

- This particular type
of car here is a gondola.

Now it's gondola, not gondola,
all those are in Venice.

There are none on
America's railroads.

This particular type of car

was one of the
earlier types of cars.

- [Narrator] But gondolas were
no match for harsh winters,

extremely hot summers,
and long treks

between settled areas of the US.

This called for an enclosed
car, thus the box car,

an icon of American freight
railroading was born.

Box cars often functioned

as rolling billboards for
the railroads they served.

- Box cars were modified
into several other car types

with open slats on the side.

It was modified into a
cattle car to carry cattle,

with heavy insulation and
ice bunkers in either end,

it could be used as
a refrigerator car

to haul perishable items.

- [Narrator] "Reefers",
or refrigerator cars

changed the way America ate.

- The refrigerator
car was essentially

an ice box on wheels.

And this worked well

until the advent of the
frozen food industry.

Enter the mechanical
refrigerator car.

In the early 1950s,
a small diesel engine

was used to power a
refrigeration device.

The cars then became a set
of ice boxes on wheels,

actual refrigerators on wheels.

This spelled the doom
of the ice reefer.

- [Narrator] The rail industry
was able to accommodate

just about every market
in the United States.

The petroleum age led to the
introduction of the tank car.

The automobile revolution

led to the emergence
of the auto rack.

And the piggy back, or
TOFC trailer on flat car

was developed in response

to trucking competition
in the 1950s.

But with a proliferation
of freight car designs,

came the demise of another
railroad car, the caboose.

- Radios made possible to
work with fewer people.

So you didn't need four or
five people to run a train,

you could run a train
pretty effectively

with two or three people.

The caboose became an
unnecessary appendage

on the rear of the train.

- [Narrator] Technology
caught up with the caboose

in the form of FRED.

- FRED means flashing
rear end device.

For the men who lost their
jobs as a result of this,

the F had a different
connotation.

- [Narrator] The dumb
FRED can be anything

from a blinking light
to a simple red flag

stuck on the end
of the last car.

Smart FRED, or the
end of train device

as it came to be called,

can radio information
about the airline pressure

as well as let the engineer know

what the cars at the end
of the train are doing.

But it's not just
the end of the train

that's gotten smarter.

Railroad operations are
moving full throttle

to the very cutting edge
of the information age.

- [Narrator] At any given time,
there are thousands of trains

snaking their way across the
North American continent.

Their paths intersect,

they share some
of the same rail,

and may even use the same
line in opposing directions.

It may sound like a train
wreck just waiting to happen.

[intense music]

But every move of every train

is closely monitored
and calculated

by dispatchers located
at operation centers

throughout the United States.

- The train crew has
a responsibility

to operate the train,

but the train dispatcher gives
them the route to run on.

- [Narrator] Train dispatchers
are the rulers of the rails

and no move can be made
without their authorization.

BNSF Railways Network
Operation Center

is command central
for the dispatchers

of one of the largest
railroads in North America.

- The facility is
45,000 square feet,

about the size of
a football field.

We house at any given
time about 225 employees.

There's 94 different
dispatching work stations.

- [Narrator] Each dispatcher's
territory is 200 to 500 miles

and their planning horizon
is two to three hours ahead.

- He or she has a screen

with a track layout
on the computer screen

and it's all point and click.

The dispatcher can point
to a switch or a route

and direct that train's
movement over that

with just a point
and click operation.

- [Narrator] This way,
it's the dispatcher

that selects the path of
the train, not the engineer.

So it's imperative that the
dispatchers know exactly

where their trains
are at all times.

- We've got two different
tracking mechanisms.

One's through the signal system
that actually tracks trains

through electric
current in the rail

that brings the information

into the train dispatchers
dispatching system.

And then secondly, we've
got a wireless AEI,

automatic equipment
identification,

that wirelessly
transmits information

into the train dispatcher

and gives him or her
a location and route.

- And this is basically an RFID

that we place on all the rail
cars, all the locomotives,

on every rail car
in North America.

BNSF has around 500 AEI readers

and as the trains
go by these readers,

it energizes the tag and
captures what car that is

or what locomotive that is.

And then we use that information
to update our mainframe

and identify exactly
what's on the train

at that point in time.

- [Narrator] Within
a few seconds

of a train going by a reader,

the information is available

to the dispatchers at the
Network Operation Center,

as well as to customers online.

But since readers may
be up to 100 miles apart

and conductors set out cars

at various points
along the route,

dispatchers need even
more accurate reporting.

BNSF on a daily basis has around
1,400 trains in operation.

The trains go through a reader,

reporting critical information

through the voice train
reporting application.

The application automatically

converts verbal information
into computer data.

- So they basically just use
the radio that they have,

they tell us what they did.

Within nine seconds,

that information's
updated in our mainframe.

- [Narrator] This
information can be anything

from picking up cars
to leaving cars out

at various sidetracks and
yards along the route.

Handheld computers are also
used to report car movement.

- This will be very
similar to what UPS does

in that that's how they keep
track of their packages.

This is how we keep
track of our rail cars.

And if you consider a rail car
is just a lot bigger package,

this is basically where we track

where we left the car,
when we left it there

and it's how we identify
to the conductor

you need to go pick
up that package.

- [Narrator] Railroads are
now exploring innovative ways

to utilize Wi-Fi and
GPS technologies

to increase rail safety.

- An example of a
safety initiative

is electronic train management
system, or ETMS as we call it.

[train engine humming]

The locomotive on board system

would have the authority
that's granted to the train,

the speed, the
distance that they have

to travel with the authority
that's been issued.

- [Narrator] The
system automatically

takes control of the train

if the engineer
exceeds the authority

given to him by the dispatcher,

fails to acknowledge his signal,

or even if he's about to
take a curve too quickly.

The system constantly
monitors information

about the path
ahead of the train

and determines what actions
are required from the engineer.

It gives a warning
to the engineer

if he's not taking
the appropriate action

to stop or slow down the train.

- If they violate
that or don't react

to stop the train

before they get to the
end of their authority,

it'll automatically
stop the train.

- [Narrator] Once implemented,
ETMS will allow railroads

to run trains more
safely and efficiently.

So, as we move forward
faster the than ever before,

we can be sure that the
rail industry will continue

to be the best and most cost
effective way to move freight.