Hot Spots 1 Blue Island

Producer: Highball

Location: Blue Island

Timeframe: 1999

Length: 75 minutes

The Blue Island Bridges are the featured hotspot. Filmed in one day in September, 1999. Camera was at the Broadway grade crossing. This was recorded in 11 hours. There are 47 trains filmed. A cornucopia of roadnames and locomotives.

There are 5 tracks at these bridges. Indiana Harbor Belt, CSX and Grand Trunk are the  current railroads here. Metra operates the high line.

A single DVD-R. Fullscreen image. Live environmental audio.

No chapter menu. Hidden chapter advance function. On-screen graphics display Timestamps along with a bit more sometimes. No narration except for introductory information and the odd sentence or two. A map displays the complex. Preview section is also unnarrated. Several sentences at the beginning do not qualify as a narrated program!

Now, I often write additional information on locomotives or assorted details in reviews. To better reflect the actual narrative, almost no extra details are provided in this write-up.

Another Hot Spots which lacks a standard Narrative.

To the Trains…

Canadian National 5932 with GTW sub letters leads GT 5901 on this Eastbound. This being the first train filmed of the day.

Indiana Harbor Belt. Engines 9211/ 9208 travel Westbound over the grade crossing at a brisk pace. Time is 8:24 am.

IHB 8788/ 8740 are good examples of the older switchers.

CP 8560 at 9:10 am. Passing the road crossing tower.

BNSF rolls in with autoracks under the Metra high line.

Soo Line 6043 crosses a bridge at 10:26 am.

Conrail painted CSX 8861 on CSX rails with a double- stack. This is on the noon hour.

Santa Fe 890 leads a freight. The bridges are in the background.

CSX 8437 leads a 4 unit lash-up with a Piggyback.

The Iowa Interstate in a reverse move on the Metra high line overpass in late afternoon.

Hot Spots 1 Blue Island

The videography is excellent. Live audio is clear. Pretty quiet show except for the train sounds. The show is not plagued with a hornfest or crossing bells. Tight edits and it plays smoothly. Clear weather helps with solid scenes.

The lack of narration breaks the camel’s back! Fails to meet the advertised, as a narrated show. Overall, the pesentation is lame.

As with other non-narrated train shows. This style feels like a half baked release. The fact that it is a retail program should include a complete narrative. Value is greatly diminished by not including an advertised narrative. Hence, the lower rating.

Rating: 2 Stars