I thought the adults were telling us the Teamsters were behind the scenes crippling the trains so freight would have to be handled by long haul truckers. When I was a kid, the roads were not so clogged with semis as they are now, so who knows? I do remember long, long trains when we traveled on road trips.
The trains are even longer today. If you ever take a trip to the 48, check out certain rail lines out west where UP and BNSF run trains that are incredibly long.