Balancing Power: 
Pre-Computer Railroad Stories of the Pacific Northwest
 A documentary by Dan Senn (55 minutes)

Several years ago I created an installation of sculptural instruments 
and video for the opening of the Washington State History Museum 
in Tacoma, WA, which involved interviewing former employees of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad who had worked at Tacoma's Union Station 
between 1930 and 1970.  Having little to go on but vague memories of 
steam engines and a once bustling passenger service out of Milwaukee, 
WI, I entered the interview stage with a virtual blank slate.  My only 
agenda was based in musical and visual requirements, that is, the need 
record interesting stories and faces to accompany the percussive sounds 
of my automated instruments. To my unexpected joy, however, I found a 
group of people who were exquisitely well-spoken and literate, all of whom 
had loved their jobs and described a network of co-workers, thousands 
upon thousands, who had cooperated to enable a system of dazzling 
complexity. As I interviewed 13 former telegraphers, dispatchers, 
secretaries, an accountant, a car men, and a train master, I discovered 
a system virtually free of social conflict and quickly learned that this was f
or very good reasons. Person-to-person communication skills underpinned 
the smooth running of the pre-automated, pre-computerized pre-1970s 
rail system. To communicate poorly was to jeopardized human life. With 
many tons of fast moving steel rolling in every direction, the selfish and 
immature did not last. The railroad of old exemplified a cooperative ideal 
and to interview these "old timers" was to shed light on their unique and 
extraordinary lives and on a spirit which serves them well in their 
present lives.DS 

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