The History of Railroad Technology

In the early days of railroading, and until not too long ago, a lot of bearings were plain bearings. You can see here, it's just an axle that rotates in a shaft, right? And then there's oily rags underneath. They cause so many derailments. I think that happened three times during the peak of Vietnam because all those bombs had to go to the ports somehow. It was a total nightmare. Again, the fact that roller bearings hadn't replaced these cars. Western railroads had the money. They're just being cheap bastards.