Year: 2012

Title	Utah’s Incredible Soldier Summit
Producer	Railway Productions
Format	Wide Screen DVD
Playing Time	1 hr 30 minutes
Purchased From	RailFanDepot.com
Date Purchased	10/15/12
Price Paid	$24.95

This DVD gives us a good look at Union Pacific’s main line between the Utah cities of Helper and Provo.  Soldier Summit is where the line crosses the crest of the Wasatch Mountains and grades of up to 2.5% must be overcome as westbound loaded coal trains climb up and over the top.  This is accomplished with the assistance of mid train and rear end helper locomotives.  We follow the route from Helper (elev 5840 ft) westward and over Soldier Summit (elev 7477 ft) to Provo.  As one might guess, the town of Helper is named after helper locomotives and is the base of operations for them.

This line was once part of the Denver & Rio Grande Western’s main line from Denver to Salt Lake City but the D&RGW bought the Southern Pacific and took on the SP name in 1988.  Then in 1996 the Union Pacific bought the SP and this track has been Union Pacific trackage since that time.  The BNSF has trackage rights along this route and we see some of their traffic during the video.  The Utah Railway also runs coal trains on this route, both on their own trackage and on UP trackage.  The Amtrak California Zephyr runs this route just as did the original California Zephyr.

Features encountered along the way from Helper to Provo include a rock formation known as “Castle Gate,” the twin Nolan Tunnels, another pair of tunnels at Kyune, Soldier Summit itself, Gilully Loop, and still another pair of tunnels at Thistle.

This video gives us a nice wide screen view of the Price River Canyon where US Hwy 6, the Price River, and the Union Pacific RR run parallel to one another.  The scenery and the railroad action are enough to make this video worth the price.

 

Title	Silver Zone Pass
Producer	Railway Productions
Format	DVD Wide Screen
Playing Time	1 Hr 10 Min
Purchased From	RailFanDepot.com
Date Purchased	10/10/12
Price Paid	$24.95

This is the latest addition to my collection of RR DVDs and it is a very, very good video.

“Silver Zone Pass” gives us an excellent look at the northern Nevada portion of the old Western Pacific right of way from Salt Lake City to San Francisco.  Construction on the WP route from Salt Lake City to San Francisco began in 1906 and was completed in 1910.  This is now, of course, Union Pacific trackage, since their purchase of the WP in 1983.  One special treat in the video is the appearnce at about the 47 minute mark of UP 1983, an SD70 ACe painted in the WP heritage scheme.  This loco is used in regular service by the UP on the old WP trackage.

The image quality is superb and the wide screen format really enhances our ability to appreciate the beauty of the Nevada desert and mountains.  For some reason this old WP line in Nevada has been ignored by the video producers; I don’t remember seeing any other videos on this subject in all of the browsing I have done.  In many scenes there is desert in the foreground and snow capped peaks in the background.  This line is traversed at night by both the westbound and eastbound California Zephyrs so that the spectacular scenery of the Sierras can be seen by the passengers in the daylight hours but it is a shame that this scenery cannot also be taken in by those on board.  Yours truly rode this stretch of track as an 11 year old kid in 1960 when I accompanied my sister on one of her round trips from Chicago to San Francisco (Oakland) as a Zephyrette.  I was sound asleep as we rode along these rails.

The journey begins at Burmester, just west of Salt Lake City, and we head west into Nevada until we are just east of Winnemucca.  There is a 42 mile stretch of track across the Salt Flats that is perfectly straight.   We then encounter the Arnold Loop which was constructed in 1914 to reduce the grade up to Silver Zone Pass to 1%.  The summit of Silver Zone Pass is at 5875 feet in elevation.  West of Silver Zone Pass we see the 5675 foot long Hogan Tunnel, Palisade Canyon, and the Humboldt River, and the Carlin Tunnels.

This is a DVD that I will watch again and again.  I highly recommend it.  Nice job, Railway Productions!