A 1980s PBS documentary about early diesels

Travel

This is how I spent my morning while packing for a house move. The 1980s music, the people they interviewed, the VHS artefacts; everything was amazing.

Screenshot from the documentary showing a Baldwin centre cab diesel locomotive

But I’m sure other rail nerds would especially appreciate this zinger at 37:30:

Besides the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern, six other roads owned centre cabs. In fact, Baldwin designed the unit for the Elgin, Jolliet and Eastern; a beltline around Chicago owned by US Steel. EJ&E’s centre cabs continued in service into the 1970s after most of the others were scrapped.

The secret? EJ&E replaced the Baldwin engines with EMD.

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