This video gives us a look at the Kansas City Southern, a Class I railroad that was founded by Arthur E. Stillwell to connect Kansas City with the Gulf of Mexico.  Construction was begun in 1890 under the railroad’s original name, The Kanas City, Nevada, and Port Smith RR.  By 1893 the railroad had reached Joplin, MO, but the steep grades that would have been encountered in the Boston Mountains forced the line to relocate and by-pass Fort Smith, AR.  Because of this, the railroad was re-named the Kansas City, Pittsburgh, & Gulf RR.  By building hundreds of miles of new line and by acquiring existing railroads Mr. Stillwell reached Port Arthur, TX, in 1897.

The RR experienced hard financial times in 1899 and fell into receivership.  It emerged from bankruptcy in 1900 as the Kansas City Southern RR.  Sadly, the board of directors forced Mr. Stillwell out of the company.

No on screen maps are used but Mr. Plets includes a map insert with the DVD.  I would prefer that the maps be on screen but at least we do have a map to refer to.

A great variety of locomotives can be seen in this video which was shot between 2004 and 2013.  I didn’t check them off as I watched the video but the back of the DVD case lists the following locomotive types as being shown: SW1500, GP38-2, GP40-3, GP40-2LW, GG20B, SD40, SD40-2, SD40-3, SD45-3, SD50, SD60, SD70MAC, SD70Ace, AC44CW, and ES 44CW.  There is also a good mix of trains: unit grain trains, unit coal trains, stack trains, and mixed manifest freights are shown.

Prior to watching this video my only exposure to the Kansas City Southern was the occasional appearance of their locomotives as foreign power in videos on other railroads.  I found this video to be very entertaining and informative.  The KCS is a Class I railroad and it was good to learn about its current operations and its history.

This DVD was extremely enjoyable to watch.  It is another gem from 7idea Productions and definitely lives up to the high standard of excellence for which 7idea Productions is known.  The format is wide screen, the image quality is superb, the camera work is professional, the RR action is good, the scenery is beautiful, the narration is informative, and a nice 3-D map is used early in the video to show us not only the route we will take but the topography of the terrain as well.  It would have been nice if  the map had been referred to from time to time as we progressed westward but it was only used at the beginning.

We travel  westward over the length of Union Pacific’s Green River Sub from Grand Junction in western Colorado to Helper, Utah.  Construction of this stretch of track was finished by the Denver & Rio Grande RR in 1884 and it completed the link between Denver and Salt Lake City.  It was originally narrow gauge but was converted to standard gauge in 1990.  Grand Junction is the division point betwee the Glenwood Springs Sub to the east and the Green River Sub to the west.  While in Grand Junction we see the arrival and departure of Amtrak Train #6, the eastbound California Zephyr.

After leaving Grand Junction we follow the Colorado River into Ruby Canyon where we cross into Utah.  I can still remember seeing the state boundary marked in paint on the canyon wall during my trip on the California Zephyr in 1960 when I was just eleven years old.  That same boundary mark is shown in this video

The most spectacular scenery is encountered on the 37.4 mile long Cane Creek branch line.  This branch line descends 1000 feet in elevation to a potash mine in the Colorado River Canyon.  Beautiful red rock cliffs line the right of way and there is a scene where a train is viewed through the opening of a natural arch known as the Corona Arch.  The trip down this branch line and back is worth the price of the video by itself.

If you like western scenery and good train action, then this video is one you won’t want to miss.

This two DVD set created by Iron Horse America and distributed by Pentrex is a joy to watch. We are taken back to the early 1990s to follow the route of the old B & O main line through the Allegheny Mountains of Maryland and West Virginia. We see the familiar yellow-nosed blue and gray locomotives of the CSX in the power lash-ups along with a few bright blue Conrail units and an occasional Chessie badged locomotive.

Most of the scenes are dated from the winter months of 1993 and 1994 and there are a few snow scenes included. The image quality is very good considering that it was shot twenty years ago and there is some very nice scenery serving as a backdrop to the railroad action.

The eastern Continental Divide is crossed as we make our westward journey from Cumberland, MD, to Grafton, WV. There are four torturous grades of as much as 2.8% that must be overcome along the route, one of which is the famous “Cranberry Grade.” Helper units are routine on this sub, which is called “The Mountain Sub.” The area included in these DVDs is also referred to as “The West End.”

We see one train “doubled” during the course of the video. It is called “doubling” when a train stalls and must be brought up the grade in two parts. In this case one of the helpers lost power and that was enough to stall the train.

Good use of maps was made and the maps included charts to show elevation, which really helps the viewer understand how tough the railroading actually is over this sub.

Good scenery, good image quality, great train action, informative narration, and good use of maps combine to make me give this one an “A.” I recommend it for your collection. Too bad it was not shot in wide screen format.

This video takes us east from Kingman, AZ, to Flagstaff, AZ, on a portion of what was once the Santa Fe’s main line across Arizona.  We are on the Seligman Sub which stretches from Needles, CA, to Winslow, AZ.  The area covered in this video is also known as the “Arizona Divide.”

The video quality is excellent and it is presented in wide screen format.  This combination of great image quality and wide screen format makes  the desert scenes come alive.  This DVD is very near 7idea quality and that says a lot.  A shortcoming must also be pointed out, however.  There needs to be a more detailed map than the one presented at the start of the video and it should be referred to as we progress along the sub.  It is impossible to visualize where we are as the scenes unfold.

The first geographic feature we are shown is Kingman Canyon where the double tracks are at different elevations; one set of tracks is located along the bottom of the canyon and one set of tracks is located part of the way up the canyon wall.  We see two trains running in opposite directions in the canyon, one on the lower track and one on the upper track.   We see another train meet a little further east in Crozier Canyon but the tracks there are side by side and at the same level.

As we make our eastward progress we gain elevation and eventually leave the desert behind us in favor of pine forests.  When we reach Williams, we are at 6700 feet in elevation, a gain of in elevation of 3200 feet above our starting point at Kingman.  The narrator informs us that this is the only alpine region along the entire Santa Fe main line from Chicago to LA and we continue our eastward journey until we reach Flagstaff.

This one gets a B.  It seemed that the further into it I got, the less impressed I was.  It was worth the price but could have been better.

Mojave Magic 2

Mojave Magic 2 is a very good RR video, especially if you like desert scenery.  The wide screen format really brings out the vastness and beauty of the desert.  Highball videos can be very good but they can also be very bad with respect to image quality; this is one of their very good ones.

We begin the journey in Needles, CA, and run westward for 167.9 miles on the BNSF Needles Sub Division to Barstow, CA, on the western end of the sub.  The narrator informs us that 60 to 70 trains a day make use of the double track mainline.

It would have been very helpful to the viewer if maps had been used to show our route but that was not the case, which is almost unforgivable.  For maps and other information about the Needles Sub go to www.trainweb.org/brettrw/bnsf/needles.html.

Mixed manifest and double stack trains are pulled with a nice variety of locomotive types in the lash-ups.  We see a Norfolk Southern SD70M-2 locomotive teamed up with the BNSF locomotives on one train.

Places encountered as we make our westward progress are Java, Goffs, Danby, Cadiz, Amboy, Bagdad, Klondike, Ash Hill, Ludlow, and Daggett.  Someone had a sense of humor when they named a place in the middle of the desert “Klondike” and there is another place called “Siberia.”

This video was a good purchase but it would have been so much better if maps had been included along with periodic updates showing where we were on the map.

B&O Odyssey Volumes 1 and 2 can be purchased separately but I bought them as a set. Volume 1 covers the time period from 1954 to 1964 and Volume 2 covers 1965 to 1968. The picture quality is amazingly good considering the scenes were shot in the 1950s and 1960s. There has obviously been some digital enhancing and it was done well.

The Baltimore & Ohio is one of the oldest railroads in the U.S. and it is our nation’s first common carrier railroad.

Early scenes include action from May 1954 in Youngstown, Ohio, and a September 1954 visit to the ore docks at Lorain, Ohio, where we see an ore boat being unloaded by a Hulett unloading machine. The Hulett unloads the taconite directly onto gondola cars from the compartments in the hold of the ore boat. These machines made unloading an ore boat a five to ten hour job whereas it previously could have taken days. You might enjoy doing a little research on these machines. Here a YouTube video of a Hulett in opertaion.

At Toledo we see some 2-10-2’s called “Big Sixes” because they were numbered in the 6000 series and we also see some 0-8-0 switchers in Rossburg Yard.

The last steam locos are seen at about twenty minutes into Volume 1. Near the end of Volume 1 the merger of the B&O with the C&O occurs.

Volume 2 is OK but it is not as interesting as Volume 1 with the good steam action. My advice would be to get Volume 1 and if you find the content toward the end to be interesting, then you might consider getting Volume 2.

By Tommy Johnson

This DVD is the latest addition to my collection and it turned out to be one of my very best railroad videos.
When 7idea Productions puts out a video on a subject, you need to buy a copy, no matter how many videos you might have on the same subject by other producers. When you watch the 7idea Production video you will feel that you are really seeing the subject for the first time. That’s how much better the 7idea Productions videos are compared to the others.

We watch in wide screen splendor as we travel timetable south from Bakersfield, CA, to Mojave, CA, following the Union Pacific’s route through the Tehachapi Mountains. The Tehachapi’s lie between the San Joaquin Valley to the north and the Mojave Desert to the south. The view of the railroad action is virtually unobstructed since these mountains are covered by grass and shrubs with no large trees.

BNSF has trackage rights on this sub and we actually see more BNSF action than UP action.

The grade is 2.2% for much of the climb to the summit of Tehachapi Pass near the town of Tehachapi. The word “Tehachapi” means “hard climb” in some native American language. We encounter two very interesting sections of track on our way to this summit, Caliente Horseshoe and Tehachapi Loop.

The Caliente Horseshoe is a place with some good RR action as trains climb out of Caliente Canyon. We can see portions of the same train going in opposite directions at this location .

The time spent at Tehachapi Loop makes this video worth the price of admission. It is absolutely fascinating to see trains looping over themselves. The head end of the train passes 77 feet above the trailing cars as they go through the tunnel.

This video comes with my highest recommendation. I think any rail fan would enjoy this one.

By Tommy Johnson

This DVD was interesting, informative, and entertaining; it was well worth the purchase price. The action takes place between 1995 and 1998.

We watch Norfolk Southern’s “Timber and Surface Gang 1” as they use tie cranes, spike pullers, spike loaders, anchor spreaders, tie pulling machines, tie insertion machines, tie plate machines, spike driving machines, anchor machines, ballast regulators, and a tamper machine. It is a fascinating process to watch.

We get so see an undercutting machine in operation a little later in the DVD. This machine pulls the ballast out from under the rails and uses a vibrating machine to separate and remove the dirt and debris. The good ballast is redistirbuted and the dirt is piled alongside the tracks.

Things get even more interesting when we see the P-811 concrete tie laying machine in operation. This machine, the flat cars hauling new concrete ties, and the flat cars used for collecting and hauling the old wooden ties that have been removed make up a work train.

The DVD gives us a break from maintenance of way action and takes us to the NS car re-body shop in Roanoke, VA, where gondola cars are stripped down to the center beam and the trucks and are given completely new bodies.

We also visit the NS Pochahantas Division Dispatch Center in Bluefield, WV. The Chief Dispatcher is a guy by the name of Tommy Johnson. With a name like that, you know he just has to be one very cool dude, right?

This DVD will make a great addition to your collection. I think it will be one that you will watch several times over the years.

This is a very enjoyable video that shows the narrow gauge Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad being cleared of snow in early May of 1997 by a steam powered rotary plow.  The C&TS RR runs the 64 miles of track between Chama, New Mexico, and Antonito, Colorado.  This is a section of what was once Denver & Rio Grand trackage that  ran from Alamosa,CO,  to Durango, CO, and was abandoned in 1968.

The viewer is given a very informative tour of the features and the controls of the rotary at the beginning of the video.

Even though it is early May, there is still 4 to 6 feet of snow over the track near the summit of Cumbres Pass, which is at 10,015 feet in elevation.

The scenery is great and the camera work is very good, capturing the snow plow from all angles.  There are good, tight shots of the rotary in action and also some nice vista shots.

This is a good video and is worth the price.