Diesels of West Virginia and Maryland
JMJ Productions
Format: VHS
Length: 45 minutes
Time Period: 1985
Locations: Harpers Ferry, New River Gorge, Grandview State Park, Hawk’s Nest State Park, Sand Patch Grade.
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We begin with, still images at the Harpers Ferry tunnel , mixed with live video, of some guys fishing! Maintenance is being performed by a work crew. An SD50 coal train shows up, and is videotaped from a mountain. This image is too far away. Zoom helps, the angle is poor.
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A much better view of a GP40, GP30 led Chessie coal train. When the zoom is off, it’s far. Very scenic area of West Virginia. Nice, except this is a train video. He spends our time, showing too much, of the pretty mountain and water.. they’re still fishing. So are we!
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A rough-looking map illustrates where we are (sort of), West of Cumberland.. more scenery and a civil war music sounding soundtrack. A deer passes by.. A ribbon rail train is viewed from afar. Again, some zoom helps.,, but the trees obscure the train and it’s too far away. I can see the blue exhaust, as it moves even further away.
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Seventeen Mile Grade at about 2.2%. Swanton. Chessie 4265 leads the locos with a Piggyback train. Much better, finally, we are trackside. Natural sounds. A helper. Very good. Chase this one downhill, it roars by!
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Cranberry Grade. A heavy coal train. Led by SD35’s 7428, 7415 ,GP40 4097 with SD50’s 8582, 8587, and 8591 pushers.
The narrator gives us announcements, with locomotive types and road numbers during the show. A blue B&O caboose is seen. Good train.
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Big Bend Mountain. Elevation is 1000 feet up. The view is great, and the track looks tiny. Watch the bird flying, see the bird. What? All of this and no train! So it goes.
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Sand Patch Grade is the best feature. Still, the camera wanders some, and you’ve seen it done better.
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Diesels of West Virginia and Maryland
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Very inconsistent show with some dubious editing decisions. Poor map quality. Narration is sparse. Too often, it looks like a nature program. Other scenes show little track equipment . More mountaintop scenes run too long.
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The whole program feels like a guy with a video camera chasing around the countryside. The train shots are not professional. The sound isn’t pro either.
This JMJ show needs editing. What kind of bird was that anyway?
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Rating: 2 Stars
American Train Video Reviews 