Tag: Railroad

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ATVR Reviews Herron Rail

Reflections of the C&O Volume 1

Producer: James Herron

Locations: Kentucky, West Virginia

Timeframe: 1940- 1971

Length: 76 minutes

Sources: multiple

Old and rare Chesapeake and Ohio films from various sources. Contains black and white, to color films.

Lexington subdivision covers Louisville to Ashland line. The Logan sub and more.

A regular DVD on this one. Main Chapter Menu. Maps and diagrams are included. Narration by Danny Harmon. On/ Off narration choice.

Film quality varies by years. The early black and white footage is fair to good. Color is better. Audio is dubbed with train sounds and music. Script is excellent with many details and history. Still photographs and plentiful maps augment the program.

To the Trains…

Louisville in 1951

C&O 2737 arrives at Central Station in Louisville. Kanawha 2734 2-8-4 is the power. The year is 1951 for this rare scene. IC plus B&O are also shown, along with more C&O locomotives.

C&O Mikado 1166 was one of the 2-8-2 class usually assigned to freight duty. Arrival of Train 295 from Louisville passing MN Tower. Nice mix of freight and passenger moves.

Color is a major step up. The steam in color is hard to find.

In 1959 a rare BL2. This #1841 is a substitution for the regular C&O E8 power. The George Washington train.It arrives at Frankfort, Kentucky.

Electromotive only sold 59 units. This model was a modified F3 design. Several of these Chesapeake and Ohio units were equipped for passenger service. The BL2 was a predecessor to the highly successful GP7 and similar road switchers that followed.

 They were traded into EMD for GP30 locomotives in 1962. Probably cut up at neighbor Pielet Brothers. 

Lexington Yard

Over to Lexington. Train 23 at Lexington yard office. The area is visited with many trains.

Lexington Station

The last L&N led by 607 pulls into Lexington Station in June, 1956.

1971

Train 21 departing Lexington en route to Louisville in this pre-Amtrak scene from 1971.

C&O EMD GP7 5815 brings freight to the L&N yard. Note the modern livery.

B&O E8 at Louisville

B&O 1465 backs it’s consist into Louisville Station in 1969 on a cold day.

MN Tower

L&N GP7 404 at MN Tower in South Louisville.

The 610 en route to Hinton, WV.

Eastbound #93 freight is behind engine 610 as it leaves the Ashland Yard. Additional 1950s steam engines are in color at Russell, Kentucky and beyond.

2716 moves to a museum

The 2716 is donated to a museum in Louisville May, 1959.

Caboose 3545

Reflections of the C&O Volume 1

First. Vintage C&O film is rare. Not much in the marketplace. Generally, there were few filming trains South of Ohio in the East.

This collection is fairly extensive with ten film sources. Several of the mainline stations have highly detailed visits.

Film quality is source dependent. Much is grainy or soft focus 8mm. Especially the black and white footage. Some brief scenes in color are very good. 

Danny Harmon is the smooth announcer on Herron Video. He is their best man.

Vintage Chesapeake and Ohio was seldom filmed. Especially steam era. This railroad was difficult to access in most places. Bad automobile roads in those days. Easier to cover railroads like Baltimore and Ohio or Pennsylvania Railroad were the popular choices.

This show provides an interesting look at assorted C&O as advertised. Well paced and constructed. It moves along quickly. The main caveat is the overall film quality. Historical value is paramount here. Vintage Chesapeake and Ohio is one of those hard to find railroads. Herron has done a good job, considering the old film sources.

Bump this up for the scarcity factor.

Rating: 5 Stars

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ATVR Reviews Broken Knuckle

BNSF Return to the Arizona Forest

Producer: Broken Knuckle

Locations: Northern Arizona

Timeframe: 2004

Length: 2 hours

The original show was filmed in 1996. Broken Knuckle went back 8 years later for more! The BNSF transcontinental across Northern Arizona. Packed with beautiful scenery. The former Santa Fe route is worthy of this return trip.

Second show in this 3 disc set. Two DVD-R for this one. Chapter Menu. On-screen graphics. Narrated. No maps.

Videography is excellent. Live audio with a strong mix. Sounds like you are there. Some wind noise at times.

To the Trains…

Disc 1 of this show. #2 in the set. 1 hour 10 minutes

The narration is good, although more detail on train symbols would be welcome.

October 13, 2004. Flagstaff, Arizona. Milepost  on the BNSF Transcon line. Seligman subdivision. DPU power is widely used now.

Cosnino, Arizona, at a signal bridge. A plethora of Intermodals traverse the territory. Milepost is 333. Mostly, 3rd generation GE units in BNSF colors dominate now. More foreign power is in this sequel. Occasionally, Norfolk Southern is on the point.

Flagstaff Switcher

The Flagstaff Switcher. Two engines. Check the fried paint on the silver Warbonnet. Performing some Mine service at Darling Cinder Pit.

Eagle’s Nest

Eagle’s Nest is the Western end of the show.

October 18. East Williams Jct. Kaibab National Forest.  It splits the signals. The consist should be: 46 loads, 0 empties, 2950 and 4268 for tonnage and length. Kansas City, Kansas to Los Angeles, California, my best guess.

Eastbound travels towards the Arizona Divide. Milepost 371.4.

Disc 2 of this show. #3 in the set. 1 hour 16 minutes

October 18, 2004. Train is S LBTCHI1 17. Long Beach Terminal to Chicago Intermodal… my guess. BNSF 5311 is a General Electric C44-9W locomotive. It leads at Supai Summit. Milepost 370.5. Travels on track two and is Eastbound. The location is 4 miles from Williams.  Local time at 14:22 hours.

H train

Train H DENBARI 16. It has a 6 locomotive lash-up. Boxcars and mixed freight. The consist of 31 loads and 49 empties. Should be a Denver to Barstow move.

Oct 19. Electromotive power works upgrade. Notice the sound of these. Santa Fe 6748 leads the three blue and yellow Warbonnets. The Seligman Local.

Z train at Arizona Divide

The Elevation of over 7,000 feet is at the Arizona Divide.  The highest point on this vast system.  Z LACWSP8 19. Should be a Los Angeles to Willow Springs Intermodal move.

Norfolk Southern power on the head at East Darling. Cross country action. New York to Los Angeles. Engine 9892 is in chargeof the 4 unit lash-up.

The program continues in a similar fashion. The modern era is less interesting than earlier times. A sameness of trains. Railroads have been moving towards standardization for decades. A Wal-Mart and McDonalds in most towns, if you see the similarities.

BNSF Return to the Arizona Forest

This release is fine for the contemporary era. Professional videography. A soundtrack that puts viewers trackside. The narrative is minimal and highlights train sounds. One narration improvement would be to decode symbols. A few are obvious, and many are strange. Inclusion of a map or two would have been helpful.

If this material rings your bell. It should satisfy with a high volume of over the road trains.

By the way. This double feature set is well priced and the way to go. The early merger first show is the hot ticket.

Rating: 4 Stars

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ATVR Reviews Green Frog Prod.

CN North America Volume 4

Complete Set Cover

Producer: Green Frog

Locations: Niagara Falls, Toronto, Windsor

Timeframe: 2005

Length: 90 minutes

Source: Rich Schied

Green Frog continues this series on Canadian National. This one begins at beautiful Niagara Falls. A tour on Canadian National in Southern Ontario is the main feature.

DVD-R. No Chapter menu. Hidden Chapter advance. On/ Off narrative option. No maps. Narration by Peter Youngblood.

As with the other volumes. Available in single releases or the entire set.

Excellent Videography. Natural environmental audio. Unfortunately, at times it picks up too much passing freeway traffic. This is a distraction. On the plus, limited occurrences.

To the Trains…

Amtrak 63 crosses to Canada

Niagara Falls is the start point. Spectacular views. Here is Amtrak train 63 as it rolls across the CN bridge. This scene is viewed from Canada.

Niagara Falls

CP Rail freight pulled by SD40 locomotives. Stunning shots by Rich Schied of this area!

MacMillan Yard

Toronto at the CN MacMillanYard. The largest on the system.

Abundance of area passenger trains. GO Commuter train is Northbound at Toronto.

Toronto streetcar

Toronto has these modern Streetcars are shown at length.

Hamilton Lake

CN auto racks on a mixed freight are seen at Hamilton Bay. Hamilton, Ontario. Noisy freeway traffic!

Hometown of Wayne Greztky

VIA train stops at Brantford, Ontario. The depots vary in architecture. Well preserved and maintained structures.

Early morning at Woodstock, Ontario

Eastbound freight passes Woodstock.

Cab ride sees a GP9 slug set

A Windsor origin cab ride in a Conrail engine to Detroit. Too bad that it was filmed in rainy weather. The train travels through the Detroit tunnel.

CN North America

This show needs maps. Going from town to town across part of Canada. Maps would provide scale to the distances and define unknown locations. After the larger cities, it is hard to visualize.

A high percentage of various passenger trains. Prefer more freight action. However, Canadians seem to prefer these for intercity travel. Some nice, classic depots are fine scene setters. It is what it is.

The previous three volumes were of higher interest. Of course, fans of everything in Canada likely prefer this over the Michigan focused shows.

Reliable Green Frog quality. Volume four covers the advertised. Niagara Falls is memorable.

Rating: 4 Stars

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ATVR Reviews WB Video

Abo Canyon and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway

Producer: WB Video

Locations: Belen, Abo Canyon, Mountainair

Timeframe: 1998

Length: 58 minutes

Source: William Brown.

Abo Canyon is located on the old Santa Fe Chicago to Los Angeles mainline. It has seven bridges. BNSF predecessors and some with original paint.  New BNSF liveries, as well.

The tour begins at the ex: Santa Fe yard in Belen, New Mexico. Circa 1998.

A single DVD-R. Hidden Chapter advance. On screen graphics. Previews. Narration by Tom Jensen.

Videography is solid. Well composed scenes. Natural audio. The narrative is hard panned to one channel or another.

To the Trains…

Belen

Belen Yard is briefly seen. Quickly, moves along to the first bridge. The longest of the seven. Double-stack traffic is dominant in this show. The tour on the first half is Eastbound to Mountainair.

Bridge One

Ten locomotives on the over 500 foot long Bridge One. Likely, a power balance move.

2

Bridge 2 is  on a slight curve. Original Santa Fe scheme on the leader.

4

Bridge 4 hosts a quadruple set of BN green plus one Blue Santa Fe.

Newest BNSF scheme in front

Two different BNSF paint schemes on the point of this double-stack.

BNSF lettered Warbonnets

BNSF reletters on Santa Fe warbonnets are seen on bridges four and five.

5

A blue and yellow warbonnet SD45 is on the point of an Intermodal at Bridge Five.

Abo

Abo, New Mexico is at milepost 862. BNSF 4924, 4311 in orange and green. Relettered SF Warbonnet 742. Dash 9- 44CW engines with a mixed freight.

BNSF 8205 at Mountanair

Mountainair Depot. A grimy 8205 on a trio with a double-stack train. Turnaround and back towards Belen is next.

Bridge 7

Westbounders are next. Similar to first half of this show. Note the black cow, seems oblivious to the passing train above. An untouched Burlington Northern SD40-2 leads.

Bridge 6

General Electric C44-9W on the point. All of the pre and post merger paint schemes are present in this lash-up. Bridge six.

Abo Canyon and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway

Extensive coverage of Abo Canyon. This is from both directions. Videography is excellent. The soundtrack is very good. Although the narration is oddly placed, either left or right.

In summary.  This is an out and back tour covering around 15 miles through Abo Canyon. Early enough in the merger years to see a variety of locomotives. Paint ranges from original to the then current BNSF liveries.

A satisfactory program. Script is on the lightweight side. Little in historical background. Mainly, it is power focused, and locations are well documented.

Fine visual coverage of the route.

Rating: 4 Stars

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ATVR Reviews Pentrex

Donner Combo DVD

Producer: Pentrex

Locations: Roseville, Truckee, Sparks

Timeframe: 1992

Length: 3 hours

A pair of Southern Pacific shows on this DVD. The Battle for Donner Pass, plus Across Donner Summit. Circa 1992.

Southern Pacific fights heavy snowfalls to keep the route operational. Snow Service crews utilize specialized equipment to do the jobs.

A single DVD. Main Chapter Menu. On/ Off narration.

To the Trains…

Battle for Donner Pass 1 hour 16 minutes

Producer: Bill Lambert, Video Rails

Cameras: George Llamas, Bill Lambert

Narration: John Leslie

The Sierra Nevada Mountains are where Donner Pass is located. Truckee is the local base for Snow Service. Snow Service Employees add insider commentary.

Spreader moves alot of snow

The Spreader is a key piece od snow fighting equipment. Crews are experienced in these demanding positions.

A derailment! The Spreader and one truck of an SD40T-2 #8237  are grounded. Get the shovels going, men. The snow continues to fall. A helper set arrives behind SP GP40 7130. Amtrak runs on a slow order and bears witness to the scene.

The Spreader is covered next. It pushes tons of snow away from the tracks. One unit on each end.

Chainsaw versus icicles

Ice must be cleared from inside the tunnels. Much manual labor is necessary. A shotgun is used for icicles. Det cord for stubborn formations. Chainsaws and shovels are also used.

Rotary Snow Train

Hardcore Snowfighting! An SP Rotary Plow is called into the battle.

Rotary can throw snow 200 feet. Awesome piece of equipment. Checkout the signal bridge. Unique show.

Across Donner Summit

Producer: Pentrex

Length: 2 hours

Narration: David Drui

Roseville Yard is the initial location seen. Richard Steinheimer appears in this show. He has additional commentary. Some of Richard’s vintage photos are interspersed.

Mountain railroading

Four units round the curve at Rocky Point.

5 units on an upgrade with 6871 in front. Blue Canon.

Perfect for Model Railroad scene

Model railroaders take note. Train exits a tunnel or snowshed structure. Cut rock retaining wall. Earth and rock on the frontside. Add trees to taste.

6802 with a faster train routed over the sidelined freight.

Trio of tunnel motors

A trio of tunnel motors on the lash-up. Haul a consist of mixed freight through stunning scenery.

A freight exits at Norden. Plenty of action around the snowsheds. The summit is at 7032 feet in elevation.

Truckee based Flangers and Snow Service GP38 units

Snowfighting is the last chapter. Remember,  these are two seperate shows combined on this release. Different coverage compared to the mass snow in the other show.

Donner Combo DVD

Donner Pass is toured in good weather and during a heavy snowstorm. The contrast is striking.

A bargain 2 for 1 release! Both shows are excellent.

Great for Southern Pacific fans. Much here for Model Railroaders, as well.

World famous Donnar Pass can be a highlight in anyone’s collection. Family friendly viewing. The snowfoghting can amaze most people.

Rating: 5 Stars