Producer: John Pechulis Media
Locations: Pennsylvania
Time Period: 1957-1963
Length: 64 minutes
Source: Kantner Collection
The 2nd of a 4 volume series. Multiple Railroads and locations in Pennsylvania here. Predominantly, Diesel and the last of Steam era. All restored film. Single DVD-R.
Mike Bednar with the Narration. A career Railroader. The man knows his trains. In this show, the scenes pass quickly. Storytelling is limited.
New York Central is running; Electromotive and Alco units in this show. They ran much more, on their home trackage. Viewers will notice the ubiquitous Electromotive Diesel of La Grange, F unit locomotives are everywhere! True dat!
Reading and Pennsylvania, also ran stables of various freight and passenger F units. Erie and Lackawanna, as well. These amazing diesels are what vanquished Steam Power in the United States.
A variety of Railroads are seen. Cameras in this era had limited capacity on runtime. Shoot the headend and move on. I am showing some highlights. Buyers can find out most locations.
Naturally, Pennsylvania Railroad is the dominant player. A variety of: Steam, Diesel and a bit of Electric power.
Plenty, of hard to find 1st generation power. Delaware & Hudson was an Alco stronghold. Before the famous Lightning Stripe scheme, was this plain paint. Zebra stripes on the 2nd unit.
Reading is running a variety of locomotives. Alco RS-3 and Fairbanks -Morse Trainmaster, as seen above. Alco FA/ B sets. EMD Fs in several versions. GP9 units. New GP30s late in the show.
Both the Erie and Lackawanna are shown, pre-merger. These are uncommon in old film.
The Cinematography has some distance shots. Some scenes are better than others. Checkout the Jersey Central unit on the turntable.
Factory fresh, 2nd generation released by 1963. Reading has a few GP30s, as does Pennsylvania. Narrow gauge East Broad Top received a a visit.
Erie Lackawanna and predecessor roads are present. The Phoebe Snow appears stunning on this bridge!
Steam locomotives, running off their last miles. Reading T-1 Steam is on several Ramble excursions. Favorable, that this is not overdone.
WAG has a quick look. Shortline equipment such as this proved that anything goes in the fabulous 1950s.
Long gone Roadnames, that have vanished from the American scene. Lehigh Valley is another one present.
Intriguing,is the manual hump operation of Lehigh New England. The crew is filmed. They climb up on the hoppers. Turning the rolling cars brakes, by hand!
All scenes, are well filmed by the Katners. More surprises within the show…
Pennsylvania Railroad steam action is called in 1957. What is present was filmed well. Full color. Close to the tracks, for the majority. Diesel helpers, as well. The tail end of the Transition Era.
This Kantner Collection is many brief snippets. They are edited together by year. Mike Bednars gives a brief commentary on each one.
The difference between this and a Kosin? These Kantners are more focused on the locomotives. Perhaps, more passenger trains. Typically, a Kosin offers alot more consist focus. Hence, freight cars and cabooses.
Film restoration is mostly excellent. While watching, there is some flaring present. The soundtrack is railroad sounds. Fine.
Excellent overall. Flaring keeps it from highest rating.
Rating: 4 1/2 Stars
American Train Video Reviews 