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Tommy Johnson’s DVD of the Month Review |
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| Title | Denver & Rio Grande Western |
| Producer | Pentrex |
| Format | DVD |
| Playing Time | 1 hr 52 min |
| Purchased From | Railfan Depot |
| Date Purchased | 12/20/2009 |
| Price Paid | $23.74 |
This is one of my favorite DVDs in my collection of over 150 RR videos. I admit to being biased by my affection for the Denver & Rio Grande Western RR and for the beauty along the route from Denver to Salt Lake City. I rode that route in 1960 on the California Zephyr when I was just eleven years old. That experience left impressions on me that remain to this day. Also covered in this video are the routes from Denver to Pueblo and from Minturn over the Tennessee Pass to Pueblo.
The filming took place in 1986 while the Denver & Rio Grande Western was still an independent railroad and the freight trains were pulled by locomotives proudly wearing the D&RGW badging.
We see the Amtrak California Zephyr climb the grade up the Front Range of the Rockies and then watch a freight train pass though the six mile long Moffat Tunnel at the Continental Divide.
Next up is a cab ride through Gore Canyon, a narrow, rugged canyon with the Colorado River white water rapids running through it. The scenery in Gore Canyon is spectacular.
The chapter devoted to the route from Minturn eastward to Pueblo contains some exciting railroad action against the backdrop of golden aspen leaves shining in the sun on the mountain slopes. Helper locomotives are added to trains at Minturn before they tackle the grade to Tennessee Pass.
There is no mention of helpers until they are cut loose at the summit of Tennessee Pass and sent back down to Minturn. One of the shortcomings of this video is the shortage of narration. We are told very little about the trains we are viewing as far as their origin, their cargo, their destination, or the types of locomotives being used.
It was disappointing how few scenes from Royal Gorge were included in the video. The trains on the Minturn to Pueblo route had to pass through Royal Gorge before arriving at Pueblo fifty miles to the east of the gorge.
There was no use of maps in this video and that is inexcusable. They show diagrams of the routes but they are only lines with dots on either end with the names of the locations printed next to them, no map features at all, not even the outline of the state boundary. If the viewer didn’t know beforehand that the subject matter was in Colorado, he would never know it from the video.
Despite the mentioned short comings, I still say this is one of my favorites. As good as it is, it could have been much better, though.