U.S. President's Railroad Commission Photographs

About this collection

This collection consists of 1,656 images (8 film negatives and 1,648 photographs) that were taken on behalf of the railroad labor organizations to support the testimony of their members before the U.S. President's Railroad Commission regarding the crew consist dispute and their assertions regarding the necessity of the fireman position.

A number of the photographs were entered into evidence by the unions, but not all of them were used in evidentiary proceedings before the Commission. Both evidentiary photographs and those not used in the proceedings are located in this collection.

The photographs are arranged into 34 Series. The series each contain photographs documenting a specific carrier in a unique location, taken by an employee or employees of that carrier on behalf of their union. Where possible, the photographs have been identified by their exhibit number as referred to in testimony or, where that is lacking, internal numbering written on the versos of the photographs. Descriptions of the images are taken from the testimony of the photographers. For those photographs that were not included as exhibits, descriptions have been assembled from contemporaneous notes, geographical clues found in the images, and other information found in other exhibits submitted by the Organizations to the Commission.

On February 28, 1962, the Commission filed its final report, recommending substantial changes in many of the railroad's work rules. It agreed with the carriers' position that 40,000 firemen helpers who served on freight trains were no longer needed. It also recommended that the railroads "should have an unlimited right to technological change." (See Cornell University Library's catalog entry for the final report.)

All materials in this collection have been digitized. It was processed and digitized with the help of generous funding from the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Historical context

The U.S. Presidential Railroad Commission was established by Executive Order No. 10891 of November 1, 1960, to consider a controversy between carriers represented by the Eastern, Western, and Southeastern Carriers' Conference Committees and railroad employees. The employees were represented by labor organizations for operating employees: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (BLF&E), the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen (ORC&B), the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT), and the Switchmen's Union of North America (SUNA).

The controversy surrounded the assertion by the carriers that firemen, also called “helpers,” were not needed on diesel locomotives and that their positions should be eliminated. The unions, on the other hand, maintained that modern diesel locomotives were much too complex to be operated by one engineer and that firemen were necessary to ensure safety. Seventy-nine witnesses appeared before the Commission and statements were filed on behalf of one hundred and fifty-five additional witnesses.

Included in the witness testimony submitted by the railroad labor organizations were numerous photographs of various railroad operations used to support their claim for the necessity of the fireman position.

The railroad labor unions asked their members who worked for various carriers across the country to document their workplaces, such as train yards, stations and terminals, railroad tracks in urban and rural settings, industry sidings, industrial facilities, and locomotive engines. This request yielded over 1,656 photographs of the railroad facilities and equipment of 48 carriers across the United States by more than 30 railroad employees, the majority of whom were employed as firemen and engineers.

A number of the photographs were entered into evidence by the unions, but not all of them were used. In this collection, the U.S. President's Railroad Commission Photographs, both evidentiary photographs and those not used in the proceeding are gathered together to present a remarkably complete picture of the railroad industry and the surrounding American towns, cities, and countryside serviced by the railroads.

Using the collection

The images have been geotagged and mapped to aid researchers. For more information about using the collection, please contact the Kheel Center at kheelref@cornell.edu.