Producer: Green Frog
Locations: Western Ohio, Raton Pass
Timeframe: 1990’s
Length: 152 minutes
Source: Steve Neff
The main feature is CSX, Grand Trunk and Conrail operating in Western Ohio. There are many locations. A bonus section of Santa Fe hauling unit coal at Raton Pass, New Mexico. I don’t know why UP is listed.
A single DVD-R. Main Chapter Menu. On-screen graphics. No maps. Chapter search. On/ Off narration. Joe Osgood calls this show.
Plays in fullscreen 4×3 format.
Picture quality is fine. Live environmental audio soundtrack. Videography is excellent!
Attention Model Railroaders. Plenty of freight cars are included. Still are many Railroad owned box cars. No graffiti. Nice, clean cars. Albeit some older ones are severely faded.
To the Trains…
Grand Trunk 5815 leads train GT 473 Northbound. Former Erie/ DT&I diamond.
At Quincy. GE Family Lines 3137 crosses with auto racks.
Chessie 2108 prepares to get on the mainline.
CSX 8443 is paced along SR65. Trains are paced between Ottawa and Columbus Grove, Ohio.
A Southern GP30 in Cincinnati. The Interstate 75 is in the backgrounds. Multiple trains around this location are filmed.
Nearing Queensgate Yard. A Grand Trunk EMD pair 6402/ 5714 on an Intermodal.
Conrail COSR is a transfer move.
An hour into this show. Brand new Santa Fe Dash 8-40CW and Dash 9-44CW units lead some trains. These are York Coal trains on Raton Pass line. Well filmed, although the narrative dissappears.
Back to the main feature and narration returns. Various Conrail moves. Track maintenance Rail grinder is shown.
Norfolk Southern 3 unit lash-up with a consist of a Grand Trunk Grain Train is at Thackery. NS 7086 leads this as local switching is performed.
Canadian National unit 6401. Here is a repainted DT&I 401 locomotive. Waiting on a siding for opposing traffic.
Several times, a Conrail Office Car Special appears. This one meets a CR Widecab at Crestline.
Grand Trunk is still fielding some cabooses.
Fallen Flags in the 90s Volume 2
A rather leisurely paced program. It bounces around rural Ohio. Small towns and no maps. Steady camerawork and natural sound. Slow speeds offer good views of freight cars.
The simple narrative does not offer history or even much detail. Nevertheless, it still beats a non-narrated by a country mile.
A bit of another bonus on this Green Frog. Official time is listed as 1 hour 12 minutes. Actual runtime is 1 hour 52 minutes. That is 40 minutes longer!
Summary. A basic, solid release. Good variety of mainly 2nd generation power. Not everything is an authentic fallen flag. CSX and Norfolk Southern are obvious. However, the videography carries the show. There is still plenty of predecessor paint throughout.
Rating: 4 Stars
American Train Video Reviews 