Thanks, ex-BN. Did you ever work in Washington state? As a young teen in the early 80's, I watched BN crews switching Seattle area yards and work the local branch lines. Looking back on it, they were not lazy people and performed the work very well.

In 1984 I watched a crew switch the north end of Stacy Street Yard with an old NP SW1200 (#187 I think) and it was perpetual motion. The ground man walked briskly between switches while the engineer kicked cars into the yard with just the right amount of push. I don't recall any loud joints like the one in that video above. The BN guys were pros.