Producer: A&R
Locations: The Brickyard
Timeframe: 1995- 1998
Length: 2 Hours
Source: Chester Kamuda
Chester Kamuda goes trackside in the Altoona area. Filmed at a trackside Brickyard location. Conrail is the railroad, and this begins in 1995. Quickly goes to majority in 1998.
A single DVD-R. No Chapter menu. A hidden chapter advance. A map which has The Brickyard. This show is listed on the rear cover as briefly narrated. A one minute introduction is not a narrated show for a 2 hour length. It is a stretch to even call that as brief narration. Ridiculous!
Videotape flaws from the source tape throughout. Tape quality is fair. Chapter jumps are often not tied to trains and seem random, picking up mid-train. Feels as if there were hasty edits. There are several general subtitles, but that’s all. No specific train information.
Also, this is the three track mainline, not four as mentioned in the introduction!
A brief look at trains…
Chester shoots trackside with live audio. Not a bad foundation for a start. Some bits of handheld camera shake. Above. Conrail SD40-2 6381 (built 8/77) leads a freight past The Brickyard.
This immediately becomes a collection of boring, mindless runbys…
Here are the main camera setups. The embankment, the road crossing and trackside closeby.
Many trains include large sections of the freight cars. Empty flatcars are the least interesting. Like watching raw footage. Some additional edits would move the show along better.
The camera uses repetitive viewpoints. Point it left or right. On the embankment or opposite trackside.
Conrail on the Pennsy Vol 1 The Brickyard
Conrail show is listed as briefly narrated. The One Minute introduction is not a good narrated program, briefly or otherwise.
Now, I saw this show advertised as narrated. Not having access to the rear cover information, I ordered and expected full narration. It is also filmed only by this location. There are 20 minutes in 1995. The majority is 1998.
The viewing experience is similar to watching free online Amateur raw videos. It’s not something I enjoy. Chester’s video is far from what he can film. Amateur type show with a handheld unit.
Almost no information is in this show.
Mindless runbys. What a drag!
Rating: Not Recommended
American Train Video Reviews 