daily. created as aan was public service by america's cable-television companies, and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places to learn about american history. next, we tour the railroad exhibit at the henry ford exam in dearborn, michigan. the curator talks about the profession of american rail. he shows us an 1831 steam locomotive, and 125 foot allegany engine. is matt anderson. we are here at the henry ford museum of innovation in dearborn, michigan. we are standing in the midst of our railroad exhibit.

the key transportation technologies of the 20th century. the railroad was the major technology of the 90th -- the 19th-century. the steam locomotive was thought of as the equivalent of an? today. astronaut today. we have railroad locomotives that tell the story from the earliest days in the 1830's, right up to to early days of the the 1920's.ric in behind me is our released example, a replica of an 1831 car used on the mohawk and hudson railroad. in itself is pretty historic now. this gives us an idea of what automotive's and trains would have looked like when trains were coming on the in itself ise early 1830's. the mohawk and hudson was located in new york state, and eventually became part of the new york central, one of the

largest railroads in the united states. railroads were normally local affairs, running 15 or 20 miles between cities. ofe had grander ambitions connecting to the mississippi river. eventually we got to that point, but it took these systems time to coalesce to form what will be a comprehensive national network. people were always chalked to -- shockedcomotive to see this locomotive. they look like stagecoaches on steel wheels. that is basically what they were. they took a couple years to develop the standards we know today. stagecoaches worked fairly well to start, but they tended to rock and roll a little bit as they traveled over the road. rail designers realized they could come up with a more efficient system. it wasn't until a few year

they went withhat the more standard configuration we know today. when the rail was introduced in 1830's, it would have been fairly expenses to travel on. traveling in general was expensive, whether it was by boat or canal. as time went on, fares fell. the average would be three cents per mile for transportation. we had the idea of separate classes of travel. so you had first class with all of the luxuries we might think to what we wya down might think of as the immigrant class, which would have just been a wooden coach. depending on your social economic status, you could travel, to just would be more or less comfort depending on how

you can pay for your fare. passenger freight trains were using the same technology. some of the earliest railroads in the united states workforce powered. -- were horse howard. they realized the steam locomotive provided greater potential carrying capacity. railroads in the united states were to find by -- were defined by the american type. those were equally at home hauling passengers or freight. the locomotive behind me is the quiz attentional -- is the quintessential. what those numbers refer to is the arrangement of the wheels. their are four wheels here, and the four driving wheels powered by the rod. box, sos under the fire

4, 4, 0. many more driving wheels on the allegheny. this is the locomotive we picture in our heads today. this was by far the most popular type used in the second half of second halftates -- of the 19th century in the united states. absolutely necessary that we have one of these in our collection. this was used on the atlantic and gulf railroad, which was a short line on the american south. very expensive as railroads used them. they tried to get as much life out of them as they could, put they aged. this locomotive would have been increasingly devoted to -- increasingly demoted to smaller service.

when the locomotive came to the museum, it was purchased by henry ford and put back into service to be used in the dedication ceremony. on that day he brought one of his closest friends thomas edison to cream filled -- two greenfield village along with herbert hoover. for the president, october 1, 1921, officially dedicating greenfield village. called thee it was edison institute in honor of thomas edison. i have always thought it was interesting that the place opened october 1, 1929, just days before the stock market crashed. arguably, one of the west good days of herbert hoover -- last good days of herbert hoover's administration. britain is where we turn to

for inspiration in building railroads. they had flat level grades, stone bridges, substantial construction. they had fenced off right of ways. in the united states, we are moving fast, so we don't spend a lot of time making things permanent. power railroads were less expensively built. part of the reason why the 440 worked well, it would handle that would attract. we didn't bother putting up fence around the railway. it was common for livestock to wander onto the track. it becomes a problem if the train is coming along. usually the cow comes out on the short end of the conflict, but the body could get stuck and cause it to derail. it is designed to keep the cow

from falling under the locomotive. 440 locomotive like this would require two crewmembers to operate. you have the engineer controlling the brake, and you have your fireman, who is physically shoveling not coal, but wood into the box. wood was the first widely used fuel on american railroads because it was abundant and cheap. we moved to coal by the mid-19th century because it was more efficient, you could get more power. woodwas still fitted with in the firebox. the other thing that was required was water. we take for granted that we have water everywhere in the eas, but not so much to the west. railroads would have to build water towers or tanks a specific number of miles.

as we moved into the lead 19th and early 19th-century, -- late 19th and early 20th century, railroads would build pans of rails, and thee train could scoop of water without stopping. it would have been a site and te train could scoop of water without stopping. it would have been a site to see. they did not work as well in the winter. they tried to keep the water liquid as much as they could, but inevitably it would freeze in harsh conditions. that was another reason why the electric diesel was so popular. not only did you not need coal and wood, but you did not need water every few miles. when we think about the passenger experience for the dewitt clinton, it is much different from being in closed cars. there is not much protection, even when you are in the stagecoach body. when there is inclement water --

inclement weather, you are going to get wet and cold. toy -- some could be enough set closing on fire. there are some stories of people on the first ride of the dewitt clinton using umbrellas to protect themselves from fires. networks and -- that works until they caught fire. if you opened of the window, you might catch a face full of smoke or soot. we have the open plan of railroad compartments, where you or four people. in the united states, everyone was in the same car. eventually you would have some conflict your seatmate. you might want the window open, someone might be cold. you might have or someone readig

softly, you might have someone reading lovely. you might have someone talking. basically the same with airplanes today, whether it is the crying baby or the person that wants to talk while you want to sleep. than your clothes catching fire, but nonetheless annoying. this is the engine that built the united states when we talk about westward expansion. he could not have been done without locomotives like this and without the transcontinental railroads. if you had to think about a states in the united the 19th states in the 19th century, he would take two of them -- one would be the thealo, and one would be 440. both represented the united states in that pivotal time in development. behind me is the 1942 allegheny locomotive, which was the high

water mark for steam locomotive technology. they don't come much bigger, more powerful than this. close tomotive weighs 737,000 pounds. coal, you areand looking at over one million pounds in weight. tremendously powerful. the problem is, there is a practical limit to the size that you can build a steam locomotive, and the alleghenies pretty much there. any longer, and it becomes too difficult to navigate. this is about as big as the steam locomotive ever got. this was designed to haul long coal trains through west virginia. it is maybe not surprising that the c&o held onto steam power as long as it did of the 1940's, while diesel electric has proven itself. hauling cts money

oal. this was easily the most photographed object we have in the entire museum. not a day goes by when i don't and and someone is losing with this locomotive. -- posing with this locomotive. i have a picture myself. it is something about the size. one of the most popular questions i get, how the heck did you get this thing into the museum? it came here not under its own power, but under tits own wheel. we have a connecting track to the museum. pushed, but not without removing a few pieces from the locomotive and the back door from the building. it has been here since 1956. this is the one object in the museum that i can say fairly

confidently is not going anywhere. these would have required at least two people in the cab. normally the fire person is the person physically shoveling the call into -- shoveling in the coal. his appetite was so great a human could not keep it running at peak capacity, so it has an augur which automatically pushes coal into the firebox. the fireman would still be there, but largely checking gauges rather than the physical labor of shoveling coal. still hard to imagine two people could operate an object of this massive size. these were built just in time for world war ii, which was somewhat of a golden age for american railroads, hauling not just war material, but transporting troops.

some alleghenies were used to haul troops. for all of the technical sophistication in these automotives, they were entirely out of date within 15 years. diesel locomotives proved themselves not only more efficient, but more flexible in how they could be used. steam locomotives, you could certainly add additional locomotives, but you had to add additional crewmembers. with the diesel electric, you could string up as many as you like, and they can be connected electronically. by the time this locomotive was operating, railroad sizes had been standardized. shortly after the civil war, we standardized on four feet, 8.5 inches. railroadse so long as

were local operations. but to create a national network, it can't be done if the wheels arent the same width apart. the advancement of the real world -- of the railroad was just prior to that, people watched noon and it may be entirely different in chicago or than it was in detroit. the railroads changed that so they could operate their efficiency. we all adopted standard time. we not only have these locomotives, but out in greenville village, we have an operating track. we have locomotives that will carry passengers throughout the village. it is a tremendous experience. it is not only the sound, but

the smell and feel. one of the questions we often runasked, how come we never the allegheny out? several reasons for that. first of all, it is a historic artifact, and we don't want to damage it. two, would be tremendous to get it operated safely. difficult size is -- it could not clear some of the building and station platforms that we have. as much as i would love to one of these things running again, i am afraid it is not going to happen here. steam locomotives require almost fully constant maintenance. there are also daily inspections of locomotives. you have to make sure there are no cracks or weak spots in any of the bolts or the boys. -- or the boiler. mineral deposits can weaken the

metal. out.has to be cleaned you have to remove the ash and unburned coal. very labor intensive. as long was out. you have to remove the ash and unburned coal. very labor intensive. as long was steam was the only game in town, that was something railroads lived with. but when the diesel locomotive comes on the scene after world war ii, out. you have to remove the railroady can run for thousands of miles with very little maintenance. you basically top off the fuel tank, and that is it. so diesel was adopted very quickly. the locomotive behind me is perhaps not as handsome or pretty as any of the steam locomotives in our collection, but nonetheless it is equally as important. this is a 1926 diesel electric locomotive, one of the first diesel in widespread use in american railroads. when we talk about railroads today, we refer to them diesel

generally, but that is not an accurate way to describe them. they are strictly speaking diesel electric. the diesel engine does not directly power the wheels. instead, that diesel engine powers. and electric generator as that electricity is fed to a set of traction motors, than those electric motors move the wheels up and down the track. it carries its own electrical generation station with it. very quickly diesel electric automotive's proved their worth on american airlines. they required much less maintenance. you do not have to clean ash out of the firebox. you did not need the infrastructure. there was no need for water tanks or large roundhouses. you just top off the fuel tank and go for thousands of miles

before it required any major repairs. nonetheless diesel electric made inroads fairly slowly. this would have been used in switching yards, perhaps not on main railroads. used to haul coal cars, or cars around the yard. it was by the 1930's or so that diesel electric started to move into passenger survey, where they were being seen as clean and ultraefficient. after world war ii, they made influenced to -- made inroads to freight service. diesel had completely replaced steam locomotive by then. they were absolutely revolutionary. reduce thed they crew size and expense, they were much easier on the track. when we think of a steam locomotive, we think of those big side rods go back and

forth. it puts a lot of strain on the track, whereas these are much gentler to the track. we are looking at the front of the locomotive, although it puts a lot of strain oninterl on the back end. they were geared to operate equally well in either direction. steam locomotives could work in either direction just as well in terms of power, but it is hard for the crew to see when it is backing up. they are not designed to run at full speed in reverse direction, where as with the diesel you can go either way and be just fine. you look at this locomotive, you see it does not have the cow catcher when we think of with locomotives in the 19th century. om favor as's fell fr the nation was becoming less rural as a whole and railroads

had gotten to fencing certain areas. farmers were more cognitive of fencing. encounters with livestock became increasingly rare. now you have to start worrying about encounters with automobiles, but that is a whole separate issue. dates and flashing lights appear more on railroad crossings. with the steam locomotive, it is obvious to the whole group which end is the front. everybody knowswith the steam in you move forward. in this case, when the locomotive looks the same on each side, that can be dangerous when you tell someone to back up and they go the other direction. you can see there is a little s painted on the front. -- a f painted on the front. that is important when you are operating with a crew. there was some hesitancy, not so

much on the passengers as the railroads themselves. they were famously conservative. they are hesitant to put a whole lot of money towards a new technology unless it has been proved. diesel was able to prove itself in smaller applications before it moved on to the mainline. very quickly proved its worth. adoptgers were eager to the diesel locomotive because it looked so fresh, so modern. if you look at railroad promotional advertising, you will see a lot of those streamlined locomotives, with a have the rounders looked faces. faces.der sloped this is a time whenthis is a tis are looking to do anything they can to attract passengers. by the mid-1950's, the interstate highway system is dealt.

everyone has a car and a garage, increasingly driving and now flying. diesel automotive dealt. becomes such a quick success because it comes at the right time. they had not been able to during the war. during the war, they are pushing at the right time. railroads had not been able to replace a lot of locomotives during the great depression. so by the time the war ends in the structure even harder. 1950's, railroads needed to replace locomotives anyway. with diesel efficiency over the steam locomotive, the steam was retired as quickly as possible. it is remarkable to our 1950's,o replace visitors to think about all of the design that went to the allegheny locomotive, and to think that it was built in 1942. literally a is museum piece. visitors ask a lot of questions about these trains, why this one

looks so weird. it looks unlike any automotive we have seen. this is an early example of a diesel locomotive, at a time when there was no preconceived idea of what it should be. cap is called a box locomotive. -- box cab locomotive. it is practicality in its purest form. a box housing-- box cab locomot. the electric generator, and controls in the front and back. a little time later, controls became more defined. they would have cabs up front. the engine, you go inside to flip panels. this, it is much shorter than modern

automotive's. if you're moving in a yard, you often get on and off. here, you have a few basic platforms. that is the whole other issue with railroads. visitors ask why we don't operate these automotives. the fact is, one, these are museum pieces, so we are trying to preserve them. anytime you operate something, you wear away the original fabric. the object becomes less original with each passing year. frankly, there is a great deal of expense with bringing these locomotives engine operating capacity. there is also the issue of science. something like -- issue of size. the allegheny is far too large. track ine an operating

greenfield village. we have 19th-century locomotives that we keep in regular operating condition. we like to preserve that multisensory experience, but preserving the skills to operate these locomotives. locomotives are not beingwe havs that we keep in regular operating condition. used in white numbers anymore. anymore.e numbers we get them young and work them ranks as they done 100 years ago. eventually you work your way to firemen where you are shoveling coal, then engineer. it is done 100 years ago. eventually you work your way sme preserving that whole system of steam locomotive maintenance and repair. i do have a favorite locomotives. ours one that is out on

the 1897 baldwin locomotive. it is much bigger than the sam hill. we just put that back into operating condition a few years ago. i love seeing it out there. it is larger, it almost looks out of scale. it has a beautiful whistle when you hear it. the railroad crews will tell you compared to others it is like driving a cadillac, is so much smoother on the track. that is probably my personal favorite. i like the allegheny because everybody likes it. it is so impressive. we have more permanent parts of the collection. we have added a few in recent decades. we have gotten rid of some just because of the state that they take up. -- the space that they take up.

that is important with any museum artifact. can we tell the story better with something else? sometimes museums have to remove things from their collection. fortunately they have gone to other museums, so they are in the public eye, just not part of our collection. we had a diesel electric automotive we keep operating for some of our yard work. we have a gasoline powered locomotive. those are kind of rare. the gasoline engine is mechanically connected to the wh eels, so it is not driving an electric motor of any kind. we have a turntable that is entirely and howard. -- entirely hand powered. one person can turn the whole thing around. that is pretty cool too much. in our railroad exhibit we are trying to tell the story of the development of technology in the united states, and its growth

from regional small carriers in the 1940's into a truly national system by the weight 19th-century -- late 19th-century. we are trying to tell the perspective of the steam locomotive from his earliest iterations right up to its peak of development in the early 1940's in the form of the c&o to theny automotive, up diesel in 1926 which would replace the steam automotive. we have to be judicious because we only have so much space, and they take up quite a bit of space. all of we have gotten the major types and eras represented in our holdings here. we have only talked about a few of the locomotives. we have a number of cars, too. coach, 1850's passenger very typical of the civil war era. we have a couple freight cars,

including a refrigerated boxcar. refrigerated cars like that changed the american diet. prior to that, we had to eat foods that were in season. with the advent of the railroad, we could eat food grown anywhere around the world. we had a small red caboose. where the conductor would have set up shocp. for his role in office nice selection that tells the story of american railroading in inefficient and impressive way. you can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website at the span.org/hisotrtory. >> this week on q&a. >> they are shoving and

jostling. their target was charles murray. i was a little bit behind him. it kind of intensified. he at the time was a 74-year-old man. i did with any decent being would do when you see someone on the verge of falling, i grabbed him by the arm. to make sure he didn't fall, but it was large -- i was fearful of being separated from them. when i took his arm, that is when it all took from the. someone pulled my hair. >> a military professor discusses a violent protest on the campus last month. watch the professor sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> this weekend on american history tv, foreign affairs and

humanities professor walter russell mead discusses nationalism and u.s. foreign policy, focusing on what he calls jacksonian populist nationalists. he explains how presidents reagan, and truman gained political support. >> the marshall plan, probably the most brilliant american reagan, andforeign-policy stroe louisiana purchase, comes about not by convincing the american people of the glories of foreign hamiltonian and wilsonian wisdom, but scaring the hell out of people of a communist takeover. we have a lot of foreign policy activists that would let the marshall plan go before they

would indulge in those kinds of scare tactics. but the truth is, if you want to do something big in american foreign-policy, you cannot do it without jacksonians. and jacksonians will only act for jackson in reasons. if you are out deal -- if your ideas persuade them not to be jacksonian anymore. if truman had tried not by the time he realized it was never going to work, stalin would have been i paris. if you are serious about american foreign policy, you have to be serious about understanding jacksonians, and working with jacksonians. that means working within a framework that they understand, recognize, and can support.

>> watch the entire program acts of mccarthy in and 11:00 p.m. sunday. -- >> the engineer lieutenant cortege 10 garrison documented newworld war ii service in guinea between 1942-1944. this shows like behind the front lines, and a key supply area where lieutenant colonel gerrish --, and includes scene of scenes of new guinea natives and australian -- allies. --er the war, can gerrish ken gerrish donated the film and other