Union Pacific Sidney Sub

Producer: MoKan

Locations: North Platte to Cheyenne

Timeframe: 1997

Length: 2 hours

Source: Bob Ernst

Action-packed tour of Union Pacific from North Platte to Cheyenne Yard. Trains galore.

A single DVD-R. Chapter advance. On-screen graphics. No maps or menus. Push play and jump right in. Narrated by Bob Ernst.

Fullscreen 4×3 looks best. Picture quality is better than expected for a MoKan. Not modern video standard. Still, one of the best looking releases from them. Good color balance and lighting. Videography is excellent. Digital reformat in 2013.

Audio is environmental. The mix is rather quiet. Narration is factual with a bone dry delivery. Many subtitles display plenty of  information.

Union Pacific is the star of the show. Chicago Northwestern still has a presence in factory colors. Several odds and ends.

Starts briefly at Bailey Yard in North Platte. Hump and nearby locomotives to diesel service area. Zero access to yard interior. Quickly changes to mainline action.

Birdwell is the West end of Bailey Yard. This Unit Coal is going to Topeka, Kansas. Note the subtitle information. Birdwell to O’Fallon has 150 trains per day!

New Electromotive SD90MAC pair front a Westbound. UP 8148 is the leader. The 8128 trails. This Grain move at Hershey, NE.

At O’Fallons. Older EMD power. 6019 leader. Eastbound Intermodal with several auto racks.

WB Special high and wide moves through Chappell. UP 3694 on the point. Heavy Earth Movers.

At Sidney. Union Pacfic 9349 leads 2 more units on grain cars.

Eastbound IPSX LDS rolls in Potter. CNW leads this move. Note the fuel tender is in this lash-up.

GE 7007 is an AC6000 on a WB Soda Ash MT. Potter.

CNW 8676 is a GE C44-9W locomotive with a trailing Union Pacific engine. A Westbound Intermodal. It races ahead of stormy weather. Kimball, Nebraska for the location. This is about 65 miles to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

There are 5 units on an S curve. Sherman Hill is somewhere in the background.

This show winds up at Cheyenne. Briefly shown in a handful of scenes.

Union Pacific Sidney Sub

In short. Two hours of predominantly mainline action. This from North Platte Bailey Yard. The line tour to Cheyenne Yard.

A very busy route. Trains are constantly moving. Mostly at road speeds. The usual assortment of freight traffic. Plenty of Intermodals. Unit trains and mixed freights.

The Videography is nicely shot. Audio mix is on the low side. Clear narrative. Simply raise the volume, if needed. Levels are balanced. Subtitles with additional information.

Map references would have been very helpful. A bunch of small town locations, in the middle of nowhere.

Union Pacific fans and modelers should find this a bountiful show. One of the clearer appearing MoKan releases, out of the handful that I have reviewed.

Rating: 4 Stars