GN promotional film

[asciibaron]

part 1:

part 2:

enjoy

-Steve

[The Donkey]

& enjoy I did-Thanks Steve!

What a great find-I know my better half will get a kick out of this as she's a N scaler &
GN fan. (she'll eventually have a simple layout-right now she has just a loop with
freight cars pulled by a SOO RS1 & a GN GP9)

A lot of decent dated proto references in this. (assuming this was made late 1968 or into
1969 as the '69 Plymouth shot tipped me off) Little did they know the GN had only a year
to go.

Hmm-a GN corporate jet? now THAT was interesting! Maybe an idea for the modelers that
also model aviation. (I guess we can add planes to possible proto reference?  )

[Hyperion]

As an employee of the successor road -- the BNSF -- it's amazing, one, how little the corporate videos have changed in 40 years, but also just how little railroading has changed.  I always knew it hadn't changed much, but that video looks almost exactly, shot for shot, word for word, like some of the corporate videos I see today 40 years later.

Truly the only thing that really jumped out at me was, first, having a Marketing guy in the field, I'm not sure if I've ever seen that.  But also that not only was he wearing a suit while doing it, but he had absolutely no PPE on at all.  If an exempt employee walked up to a car without PPE on like that he'd be fired in the blink of an eye.

[3rdrail]

As an employee of the successor road -- the BNSF -- it's amazing, one, how little the corporate videos have changed in 40 years, but also just how little railroading has changed.  I always knew it hadn't changed much, but that video looks almost exactly, shot for shot, word for word, like some of the corporate videos I see today 40 years later.

Truly the only thing that really jumped out at me was, first, having a Marketing guy in the field, I'm not sure if I've ever seen that.  But also that not only was he wearing a suit while doing it, but he had absolutely no PPE on at all.  If an exempt employee walked up to a car without PPE on like that he'd be fired in the blink of an eye.

Well, all the class I's and many regionals and even some short lines, still have sales and marketing forces "in the field" as it were. I guarantee, having been one, that there are many customers that would not give a railroad a pound of freight without personal contact. Oh, I did not wear a suit, just a sports jacket and tie, to call on customers locally, but I'd be sure to have on my "Sunday best" when calling on customers or potential customers in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, or Atlanta.  As to "PPE", if you're referring to a hard hat, I had one, but it was useless as it just sat directly on my head, with no strapping. I wear an 8 and 3/4 Long Oval hat and there ain't a hard hat made that big. As a result, I never wore it, even when climbing on loads for freight claim inspections.

I spent half my career with the PRR, PC and CR in the Sales Department, a year with the Erie Western - Chicago & Indiana, and the rest in charge of marketing, pricing, sales, car hire negotiation, freight claims and interline divisions for the Apalachicola Northern. Sixteen of those years I was also in charge of traffic for St. Joe Forest Products, which owned the AN.

[up1950s]

Nice videos , thanks .

[Ryan87]

Little did they know the GN had only a year

Considering the "Hill Lines" had been trying to merge since the turn of the century and the current merger had been going on since 1958 approved in 1967 and Big Sky blue was going to be the paint scheme for the "Chicago, Great Northern & Pacific" They probably had a good idea something was up...

Archive.org has a number of corporate videos from SP, NYC, AAR, Worth checking out if you haven't.

[asciibaron]

Considering the "Hill Lines" had been trying to merge since the turn of the century and the current merger had been going on since 1958 approved in 1967 and Big Sky blue was going to be the paint scheme for the "Chicago, Great Northern & Pacific" They probably had a good idea something was up...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,738768,00.html

BN was so successful because it took 67 years to plan and execute.  PC tried to do it in a decade with horrible results :

-Steve

[Ryan87]

BN was so successful because it took 67 years to plan and execute.  PC tried to do it in a decade with horrible results :
-Steve

One word COAL. without the large coal reserves BN sat on top of they would have been in the red for most of the 1970's & 1980's.

[wm3798]

Great videos...   I put on a skinny tie, lit a camel, mixed a cocktail, and did the Frugue to the music.

Lee

[2-8-8-0]

Great video. If i ever was to switch to a western road to model, GN would be the road...something about grain trains rolling across the high plains just seems right, somehow.

After watching this, one has to wonder if people will watch videos of us, 40 years from now, of our railroads and business practices, and think...look at that primitive computer, and wow...those hairstyles!

I gotta go check my hair!

Tim

[up1950s]

Great video. If i ever was to switch to a western road to model, GN would be the road...something about grain trains rolling across the high plains just seems right, somehow.

After watching this, one has to wonder if people will watch videos of us, 40 years from now, of our railroads and business practices, and think...look at that primitive computer, and wow...those hairstyles!

I gotta go check my hair!

Tim

If white socks may someday be back in , but never with me .