The Monticello Railway Museum

The Monticello Railway Museum

Producer: Mary McPherson

Length: 62 minutes + previews

Time Period: 2012 and 1986 vintage.

Location: Monticello Railway Museum

Sources: Mary McPherson, Kurt Jensen, George Redmond

A brand new release.

Visit The Monticello Railway Museum in 2012. Railroad Days with four trains operating. Steam and Diesel. Cab rides, caboose and passenger cars, in a multiple viewpoint show. This release is in 16:9 widescreen format.

Museum area property and 7 1/2 miles of former Illinois Central trackage are covered.

Narration by Mary McPherson. She has a balance of discussion and live sound. Concise, historical backgrounds on the locomotives.

Imagery is razor sharp. Overall, the 2012 externals have some fine pro level cinematography. Cab rides bounce around in the woods, but this is appears to be on rough trackage. The remaining trackage is smoother.

View from the Wabash F7.

Milwaukee Road NW2. Note, the notch in the long hood, as a spotting feature. Stations and more museum pieces can be seen in assorted scenes. The museum seems to have quite a collection!

Our cab ride in the Southern 401 contains a severely vibrating camera. It just doesn’t work as we look through the engineer’s view a few times.

Understandable, is the challenge of getting the shot. The result is the point. Is this an enjoyable sequence, or a headache for the viewer? The Producer wants to provide some rare viewpoints. See for yourself.

Numbers 1 and 191 are shown in 1986.

The 1986 shot video was restored as best as possible. Old VHS tapes can be difficult sources. That video is included for historical content.

Southern 401 is a 2-8-0 built by Baldwin. Owned by the museum since 1967.

Wabash F7A is number 1189. This is a Canadian built EMD, which is actually a GMD !

ICRR 8733 is a GP11 rebuild. Main loco for the museum since 2007.

Milwaukee Road 1649, is an NW2. An early switcher by Electromotive Division of LaGrange.

A little bit of freight and maintenance of way equipment is in the freight train. Diverging Clear likes their low angle shots. This is a pile driver.

The two caboose train features the side door Illinois Central models. Originally built at Centralia shops by the ICRR. Some of these were still in service on ICG.

Illinois Central car #7 on a reverse move.

This release does a good job of showing what can be seen at the museum. Railroad celebration days are always a good bet to attend train museums.

Diverging Clear has a nice memento of the action at Monticello. For those who may travel there, it serves as a fine preview of what can be seen there.

Rating: 3 Stars