Category: Rail Flicks

The following is the description that is included on the DVD case for this video, Central Kentucky Rails.  I will let that suffice for a list of the highlights pertinent to this production and I will add my comments afterwards.

Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State and there is so much to see and enjoy. With state-of-the-art camera equipment, our crews have traveled throughout much of the central part of Kentucky searching for the wide variety of incredible action that can be found here. CSX and Norfolk Southern are the major players in this region and plenty of heavy-duty action was filmed from both railroads. In addition, the regional RJ Corman Railroad is highlighted, including their dinner train powered by classic FP7s. We caught everything from ground-shaking ballast trains to the more commonly found auto, manifest, & intermodal freights that polish the rails daily. It’s always an incredible sight to watch new CSX power in La Grange trundling down the middle of a downtown street right past 130 year old buildings! Long steel trestles are common too and we caught several trains crossing these impressive structures. The Paducah & Louisville was captured performing switching duties. Some of Union Pacific’s SD90MAC locomotives found a new home on the Norfolk Southern and we caught some of them in action for you to enjoy. We finish our exciting program chasing trains from 2 different operating train museums in the area. Shot in the late spring of 2015, this is one show you don’t want to miss. This is Central Kentucky Rails!

Pentrex once set the standard for RR videos but in my opinion their quality has been surpassed by several newcomers in the industry.  Most new RR video products are coming out in wide screen format, which is a far superior way to present the action than is the old fashioned full screen mode, but this one still uses the 4:3 aspect ratio.  That is strike one against this video.

The image quality is only “average” and that is not so much a matter of Pentrex quality declining; it is a case of the competition getting better.

The use of maps in this video is a joke.  A plain blue background with black lines representing the route and black dots representing the towns constitute the “maps” used.  It is like using stick figures to represent people.

Another disappointment to me was that we did not get a view of the inside of the RJ Corman Dinner Train.  It would have been nice to see what the dining car looked like from the passenger perspective.

Title: Through the Oregon Cascades
Part 1: The Long Grade
Producer: 7idea Productions
Format: DVD Wide Screen
Playing Time: 2 hours 35 Minutes
Purchased From: Trainvideodepot.com
Date Purchased: 3/28/16
Price Paid $26.49

While I would not classify this DVD as a “must have,” it is a very good one. It would make a nice addition to your collection of RR videos. The viewing time is 2 hours and 35 minutes and there is plenty of railroad action amid the backdrop of the gorgeous mountain scenery of the Oregon Cascades.

The viewer would expect excellent quality videography since this is a 7idea Productions offering; he would not be disappointed. This video is in wide screen format and that very much enhances our view of the natural beauty and the railroad action contained in this video.

We travel southward in this video from Eugene, OR, to Cascade Summit over the 46 mile long Brooklyn Sub and then the 40 mile long Cascade Sub. The Brooklyn Sub has only gentle grades but the Cascade Sub has an overall 1.8% grade which southbound trains must climb. A total of 4458 feet of elevation is gained from Eugene to Cascade Summit.

The Coast Starlight appears in many scenes in this video, sometimes northbound and sometimes southbound. We also see oil trains, double stacks, and mixed manifest trains.

We see a rail grinder in action on Salt Creek Trestle and the sparks look like fireworks. Salt Creek Trestle is the only trestle we see but there are a series of tunnels along the route.

Throughout the video are views so typical of the Pacific Northwest: coniferous trees standing in the mountain mist with rain dripping from their needles.

We get the usual high quality videography that 7 Idea Productions is known for in this DVD. The video was shot in widescreen format which makes the scenery even more impressive as we watch snow removal activities on the Union Pacific’s Cascade Sub in Oregon. Some of the scenes go back as far as 2004 and some are as recent as this 2013.

We see Nordco M7 snow fighters, flangers, and Jordan spreaders in operation. The Nordco M7 has a blade on one end and a snow blower on the opposite end. It is powered by a supercharged Cummins six cylinder diesel engine. There are 16.5 feet blades on either side to push the snow away from the tracks.

Flangers, of course, are similar to cabooses with belly blades to remove the snow from between the rails. There are some nice scenes from a nighttime cab ride in a locomotive pulling a flanger.

Jordan spreaders are the last line of defense on the Cascade Sub and are put to use when the snow is too deep for the M7s or the flangers. There is some very good spreader action and we even get a cab ride.

The excellent snow removal action, the beautiful scenery, and the high quality widescreen image make this video a keeper.

This video takes us to Minneapolis-St. Paul in the spring of 1970 and to Chicago for scenes from 1966-1970.  We see many of the long gone railroads that we remember from our younger days and some that we never heard of.

In the MSP area are: Soo Line; Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern; Burlington Northern; Chicago & Northwestern; Rock Island, and Milwaukee Road.

In the Chicago area we will see: B&O; Belt Railway of Chicago; Burlington Northern, Canadian National; C&O; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Chicago & Eastern Illinois; Chicago & Northwestern; Chicago Great Western; Chicago River & Indiana; Chicago, South Shore & South Bend; Elgin, Joliet & Eastern; Erie Lackawana; Pennsylvania; Grand Trunk Western; Great Northern; Gulf, Mobile & Ohio; Illinois Central; Indiana Harbor Belt; L&N; Northern Pacific; Seaboard Coast Line; Soo Line; Wabash; and the earliest days of Amtrak.

Not much needs to be said about this video.  Reading the list of railroads that will appear in the video should stir something inside the hearts of rail fans.  This DVD gives us a good look at old locomotive types that were commonly used in the late sixties and early seventies, including some Fairbanks Morse, Baldwin, GP series, SD series, and U series.  Seeing the old locomotives proudly wearing the paint schemes of those long gone railroads is a trip back in time.

The image quality is representative of the technology of the time but is still good enough to make it a joy to watch this video.

I think you will like this one.

The IHB is the largest beltline railroad in the United States.  It stretches forty miles from the NW suburbs of Chicago, IL, to Gary, IN, and has three major yards: the Michigan Avenue yard in East Chicago, IN, serving the steel industry; the Gibson Yard in Hammond, IN, switching auto racks exclusively; and the heart of the IHB, the Blue Island Hump Yard in Riverdale, IL, with 44 tracks where 1700 cars per day are humped.

Sixty percent of the IHB’s business consists of service to local customers in NW Indiana and Chicago, with half of that being steel-related.  The other 40% is serving to connect other railroads.

The first 50 minutes of this video is dedicated to the IHB, leaving very little time for the Belt Railway of Chicago.  Since the IHB is the largest beltline railway in the U.S., it is appropriate that so much of this video involved the telling of their story.

This is a very good video for anyone interested in the operation of a beltline railway.  Yours truly will never understand why so many RR videos are produced without maps, and this one falls into that category.  It would have been nice to see where we were at any given time in relation to Downtown Chicago and in relation to other locations covered in this video.

In summary, this is a very good in-depth look at the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad that could have been even better with the use of maps.

This is a very good video.  The eastward journey starts in the Los Angeles area on the San Bernardino Sub and continues over the Cajon Sub and into the western part of the Needles Sub.  Our journey ends at Cadiz, CA.  This route sees 100 trains a day!

Points of interest along the way include Fullerton, San Bernardino, Cajon Pass, Barstow, Ash Hill, Siberia, and sections of old Route 66.  The desert scenery is great and the train action is plentiful.

The producer uses Google Earth to show the viewer the route and the topography that will be encountered.  The video was shot in wide screen format and the image quality is very good.  It looks like RailTrek Media is going to be a reliable producer of railroad videos.  This is my third video of theirs and they have all been good ones.

This one should be in your collection.

This review will be short and sweet.  Well, short and not so sweet.

If you are thinking about buying this one, my advice is to save your money.

The first part of the video we are riding along on a tour bus with a UP employee describing what we are supposed to be seeing, but the problem is we are NOT seeing the things he is talking about.  I guess the people on the bus might be able to see what he is talking about but the viewer of the video is not able to see it.

Too much of the video is shot at ground level and the viewer can only see what is in the foreground.  The second part of the video is virtually devoid of narration.

The image quality is not very good.

I was very anxious to learn some things about Bailey Yard, but I learned almost nothing from watching this video.  I had a hard time watching the whole thing and I kept checking to see how much more was left.

Skip this one!

This video was shot in April and May of 2014 and covers 200 miles of the Seligman Sub of the BNSF mainline. We travel eastward from Needles, CA, to Williams Junction, AZ.

A very good three dimensional map is included near the beginning of the video so that the viewer gets a clear picture of the route he will travel and the topography that will be encountered along the way. The low point on the Seligman is 456’ above sea level at the east end of Topock, just east of the Colorado River which is the boundary between California and Arizona. The right of way reaches to 7300’ above sea level just west of Flagstaff but our tour stops short of that in Part 1.

We are treated to some triple track action at Needles with a train on each track.

The wide screen format, excellent image quality, beautiful desert scenery, and good train action make this a very good video.

What a trip down memory lane! This footage was shot before all the mergers occurred and while we still had the railroads that we older folks remember from our youth. The date range for the scenes in this video is from 1962 to 1973 and the location, as the title implies, is Chicago and outlying areas. The image quality for this video is what you would expect considering the technology of the times or maybe even a little better than you would expect.

I’m sure I will not remember all of the fallen flag railroads represented in this video but we get at least glimpses of the following:

Grand Trunk Western
Chicago Burlington & Quincy
Chicago & North Western
B&O
C&O
Penn Central
Burlington Northern
Rock Island
Milwaukee Road
Santa Fe
Gulf Mobile & Ohio
Illinois Central

We see pre-Amtrak passenger cars in their familar old paint schemes from the Santa Fe, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and CB&Q.
We also get a look at some Indiana Harbor Belt action and some Chicago South Shore and South Bend footage.
An added treat is getting to see those classic cars from the 60s and 70s in many of the scenes.
Train spotting must have been a whole lot more insteresting back in the days before all the mergers. You will enjoy this DVD set and I recommend it highly.
Producer: Green Frog Productions
Purchased From : Greenfrog.com
Format: 2 DVD set
Date Purchased: 4/14/14
Playing Time: 2 Hrs. 30 Min.
Price Paid: $12.98