| Genre: | Children's |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Runtime: | 15 minutes |
| Channel: | CBS Television |
The Roar of the Rails is an American children's television series that aired on CBS from October to December 1948, and in October to December 1949. Each episode is 15 minutes long and includes commercials for the toy manufacturer A. C. Gilbert Company.[1]
Experienced railroad workers explained their job duties, and the work was illustrated by showing A.C. Gilbert's American Flyer model train layouts created for the series.[2]
The series was touted as "honoring heroes of the railroading business" and presenting dramatic stories.[3] One episode told of a locomotive fireman during a 1904 Baltimore Fire;[<ref>https://www.newspapers.com/image/867280386/?terms=%22The%20Roar%20of%20the%20Rails%22&match=1 'Hopalong Cassidy' to return On KSD-Tv at 2:45 P.M. (TV highlights) ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', December 4, 1949, page 71] another episode told of a brain surgeon riding on a special train over a flood-weakened roadbed in order to get to a young boy in need of life-saving surgery.[4]
Seven 1949 kinescoped episodes of the series exist at the Library of Congress in the J. Fred and Leslie W. MacDonald Collection. The episodes contain complete commercials for American Flyer electric trains, Erector sets, Microscopes, and Chemistry sets.The episodes include: