The nation's railroads are for perennial labor disputes, failing passenger service and, in the case of giant Penn Central, spectacular bankruptcy. Yet the railroads have become increasingly good at moneymaking service, using new specialized and electronic gadgetry that would baffle Casey Jones. For a closeup view of modern railroading, Associate Keith Johnson rode cab and caboose on the world's fastest freight train, Santa Fe's premium-rate Super C, Chicago to Los Angeles. His log:
8:20 A.M., CHICAGO. "Highball, Gerty, all aboard," comes the word over the cab loudspeaker. Engineer eases the throttle open, and his huge diesel units, totaling more 10,000 h.p., growl into action. They are pulling nine cars, mostly mail loaded in truck trailers carried on 85-ft. flatcars. From the cab track seems too frail and narrow to support 1,500 tons of locomotive and load. After the train leaves the Corwith yards, the speedometer needle creeps up slowly through the flat, industrial along the Des Plaines River. Finally are thundering along at 79 m.p.h., the top speed allowed this train. There a loud beeping sound over Gerty's an Alertor, with sensors wired to cab controls, has detected that he not moved for some 20 seconds. This safety device will automatically the train if the engineer does respond.
10:30 A.M., CHILLICOTHE, ILL. The first of 17 crew changes between Chicago and Los Angeles. Gerty climbs down the side of the red, yellow and silver lead diesel unit; Engineer Bill Burk climbs up. Off again, then a stop for 20 minutes in Galesburg. A load of lumber on the local freight ahead of us has shifted dangerously, so that car must be set out on a siding. Though a fast train like Super C means less working time for the crews, Burk says he prefers handling a longer, heavier train: "It's the difference between a Sunday outing in the family sedan and driving a racing car. Here you've got a lot of power and you've got to keep the speed up."
The Super C sweeps along the Mississippi River at full speed, then slows to cross into Iowa over a combined highway-railroad bridge. At La Plata, Mo., after crossing to the eastward track to pass a slower freight also heading west, the engineer again opens the throttle fully. With so much power hauling a relatively light train, the Super C seems to reach top speed almost as fast as an automobile. The mileposts flash by, one every 45 seconds.
5 P.M., KANSAS CITY, MO. Long-haired young Brakeman George Ketner, sporting bell-bottomed jeans stenciled with (missing male symbol)and (missing female symbol) symbols, says he likes working the Super C: "All you have to do is get on at the beginning and get off at the end of the run." The train pulls out past the Santa Fe's year-old Argentine sorting yard, equipped with one IBM System 360 Model 30 and two Honeywell DDP-516 computers, which have speeded up car movements through the yard by about 50%. Two delegations of Japanese railroadmen have inspected the new yard, and one print of a Santa Fe film about Argentine even has a soundtrack in Japanese.