Guilford’s East Deerfield Yard

Producer: A&R Productions

Locations: East Deerfield Yard

Timeframe: circa 1998

Length: 1 hour 24 minutes

Source: Chester Kamuda

The former Boston and Maine East Deerfield Yard in Massachusetts is featured. This was the main classification yard. Guilford era filmed here in late 1990s. The variety of locomotives are the highlight. By this time period, Guilford Gray paint has unified the fleet, as seen here.

A single DVD-R. Fullscreen 4×3 aspect ratio. Shot in Hi 8 video. Picture quality is not modern standards. Videotape flaws are minor but present throughout the show. The colors are good. Live environmental audio.

No menus. Map included. Narration by Aaron Gonthier is smooth with limited information.

To the Trains… 👉

This begins at East Deerfield Yard. He is on a bridge at the West End, which is often used here to film the trains.

Ground level with 621. An ex: Santa Fe SD26 doing flat switching. The hump having been removed. 10ms

Engine #300 pulls forward.

Norfolk Southern 9402 on the West End appears to be going to a ready NS Coal Train.

Elderly GP9 ST 71 also works on assembling a freight. Check the private caboose/ cabin in the background.

Now, having relocated from the yard. Two engines. MEC 350 and MEC 502 switch cars at Gardner.

Springfield Terminal 621, MEC 500, ST 77 drilling cars for an extended time and becomes too repetitive. It runs much longer than needed. Maybe this is a Foamers only ‘never enough’ type segment. Yawn…

Finally, a different train appears. This Westbound makes a setout. 328 lead unit on a 7 unit lash-up.

Guilford Rail System as Maine Central 507 (GP40-2LW) is a former Canadian National locomotive. It fronts a pair of wide cabs on this westbound train, leaving Deerfield Yard.

By this time, very little original Boston & Maine rolling stock is seen. A handful of raunchy looking boxcars testify to a past era.

Guilford’s East Deerfield Yard

A&R Productions are a hit or miss label. While their better ones rate good or better. An occasional loser makes random purchases a bit dicey.

Fortunately, this is a normal show.  Recommend checking the individual A&R show reviews.

Videocamera is handheld. It’s pretty stable, although not like a tripod. Images are very good with minor flaws from source videotapes. The picture does have accurate colors. Composition is fine overall. Some brief camera shake, no deal breakers. There is wind noise, although not outrageous levels. Narration is balanced. One visual issue is a constant horizontal distortion bar at the bottom of the screen.

The pace is leisurely, as one would expect at yard speed operations. Model Railroaders, in particular, benefit from the long scenes. Rolling stock is also included in scenes.

Guilford is uncommon in the marketplace. Hence, an upward bump. If this gets your interest, the release is adequate. A&R delivers as advertised.

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars