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Any recommendations for the best rail videos featuring pre-Amtrak passenger operations especially those featuring the Great Northern and Northern Pacific?
PaulB Member # 4258
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Pentrex has a video "Early Amtrak Across Wisconsin". It focuses on early Amtrak and its "rainbow consists", but has some pre-Amtrak footage around Wisconsin and Chicago as well.
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There are two companies that have excellent videos of the streamliner era: Green Frog and Sunday River. Green Frog, www.greenfrog.com, has several programs featuring the 16mm films of Emery Gulash. "Chicago Odyssey, Vol. 1" covers the 50s and (mostly) 60s. There are several sequences along the CB&Q "racetrack" of the Zephyrs, Empire Builder and North Coast Ltd. There's also plenty of Santa Fe action, steam excursions on the Grand Trunk and footage of the North Shore just before it shut down, to name just a few of the subjects covered. Vol. 2 covers the late 60s through the early days of Amtrak and also has some shots of the CTA El. "Top Frog, Vol. 3, Best of Passenger Trains West" has some material from "Chicago Odyssey" but also some nice shots of the CZ in Colorado and Utah, as well as Santa Fe and Union Pacific action. I have a VHS of "Vol. 4, Best of Passenger Trains East" but I didn't see it on the website. Both of these "Top Frog" programs seem to be compiled from most of the other Gulash "Odyssey" programs.
Sunday River Productions, www.SundayRiverProductions.com, has no less than three different videos of the North Coast Ltd. I have two of them, "NCL Crossing Stampede Pass" and "NCL Across the Rockies" (which I like better). Haven't seen the other one, "Bozeman Pass to the Mississippi". Other titles in the Streamliner Series include the Super Chief, Burlington Zephyrs, Rio Grande Zephyr and The (original CP) Canadian. All of these are also very enjoyable. The picture quality from both of these companies are excellent and I highly recommend them to any streamliner entheusiast.
I would also recommend Pentrex's "Union Pacific Streamliner Collection". It covers the enire history of UP passenger trains from the M-10,000 to the "City" Domeliners and also features the Train of Tomorrow and Aerotrain. It even has a collection of UP TV commercials.
Paul, thanks for the link to You Tube. I think I'll try to post some of my own train videos there.
Railroad Bob Member # 3508
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Pentrex is the 800 pound gorilla in the world of RR video; yet there are several small operations that produce some amazing stuff as well. I've never had a problem with Pentrex; they ship quickly and accurately. Years ago there was a guy named Charles Smiley who made some interesting "niche" RR videos; I believe he specialized in the old SP, which is why I liked his stuff.
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