Producer: Pentrex
Locations: Chicago, Denver, Bay area..
Timeframe: 1920s – 1950s
Length: One hour and 33 minutes
Sources: Gerald Best, more
Three vintage are combined to form this Western Pacific Collection. Black and white, plus color.
A single DVD. Fullscreen 4×3 aspect ratio. Mixed films from assorted sources. HiFi sound, although old soundtracks.
Main menu with choice of the three shows. All are narrated programs. Previews at the end.
To the Trains… 👉
Gerald M. Best’s California Limiteds: Interurban Films 33 minutes
Southern California films from the 1920s by Gerald Best. This show is in black and white. Best’s 1920 cinematography. Narrated with train sounds and music. Chases a Northbound Southern Pacific 4352 and another 4353 at speed along San Fernando Road. Interesting cab ride footage, as well.
Rides a Southbound trains follow. Burbank Jct. Tower sees The Lark.
Downtown LA has The Lark along Alameda Street into the Station with 4355. Look closely and see Los Angeles City Hall in the background.
Additional action with assorted power along San Fernando Valley. The Owl is behind Cab Forward 4125 and paced.
Santa Fe 3726 pulls The Grand Canyon Limited on Cajon Pass.
Union Pacific 7800 class with ten cars traversing Cajon Pass.
He even films some Santa Fe action in Arizona.
Fantastic collection of 1920s railroading. Clean films. Image is generally good. Historical value. Nice soundtrack. Narrator is Paul Ward. Extraordinary!
Rating: 5 Stars
California Zephyr: Sonochrome Picture 30 minutes
California Zephyr in the 1950s. Color film. Similar to the 50s era Railroad promo films. News reporter has a Salt Lake City to San Francisco train. Above is a Burlington Route leaving Chicago area. Short film titled Vista Dome Adventure. Plenty of onboard the passenger cars footage.
Zephyr gets a bath at Denver. 919. Rio Grande power now takes the consist. 46 tunnels on this portion of the trip. 11ms Moffat Tunnel. Beautiful scenery.
Feather River Canyon on Western Pacific. Keddie Wye. Niles Canyon leads into San Francisco and cable cars are shown. A tour of San Francisco area.
Eastbound California Zephyr street loading at Oakland.
On the return the season has changed. This highlights Colorado activities in Winter.
Rating: 4 Stars
Western Pacific on TV: 30 minutes
A made for TV show in 1956. It was called Success Story. Western Pacific episode here. Hosted by Bob Day. He arrives with The General pulling into the station. Black and white film from the TV series. Hartley Sager narrator. This show appears to have been mainly shot on video. Some old television shows were filmed like that. Cheaper production costs .They generally have a murky picture quality.
Tour some of the facilities. The main Bob Day interviews were shot at night and it was raining. Some other parts appear to be in standard black and white. Looks much better, but these are short.
Here is the weakest link of the three shows. Only watching this part once. To do this review.
Rating: 2 Stars
Western Pacific Collection
Perhaps this is best suited for Western Pacific fans. California Zephyr is a decent show, considering is is similar to other railroad films from the 1950s era. All of these are historical value and not modern standards. The sum total is 2 higher rates and 1 below average shows. Give it a bump up for rarity factor.
Overall Rating: 4 Stars
American Train Video Reviews 