RAILROAD VIDEO QUARTERLY ISSUE #81 - Fall 2012
how the use of night lighting allowed Link to strengthen his composition by focusing at- tention on only a few key components of a scene,
eliminating distracting elements
which would reduce the photo’s impact if the sun had been up. The book closes with an afterword by
1. Changes Up North: “Northlander”; “Polar Bear Express”
FALL 2012 MANIFEST: Two Hours
2. Union Railroad and the Steel Industry 3. Pittsburgh PCC “Night at the Museum” 4. Norfolk Southern Steam 2012: Wanderings of NKP 765
5. 20 Years Ago with the U.P. Challenger 6. Aboard Ex-ERIE 1947 Alco S-1 #310 at Hoosier Valley RR Museum
9. Mill Creek Central Miniature Railway 10. 3- Ring Model Train Complex
7. Taltree Garden Railway at Valparaiso, IN 8. Mt. Washington Cog, Conway Scenic and NY State tourist lines
11. Nebraska Zephyr takes to the main once again & other BNSF Action
12. Album of current news and short items This issue is $29 Ppd, or SUBSCRIBE AT ONLY $69 FOR ONE YEAR (4 Issues)! Check or M.O. to:
RVQ - BOX 129, TALLMADGE, OH 44278
CANADA Off Season Riding a Legend Across the White Dominion.
Link’s only son, Conway, who affectionately and poigniantly describes his often distant relationship with his father, helping us, too, to understand the man behind the images. The book is accompanied by a 21-track, 50-minute audio compact disc of sounds that were recorded while Link was making his photographs. He also shot a bit of 16 mm movie film, but that’s yet to be seen. The sound clips are mostly short, but it’s fun to listen to Link’s Brooklyn accent as he talks and jokes with his railroad friends while riding the vestibule of a regularly scheduled passenger train behind 4-8-4 No. 611 with its deep steamboat whistle, stands on the deck of a Y6b as it pushes a freight up the Blue Ridge, and on the final cut, an ex-Chesapeake & Ohio 0-8-0 switches the Roanoke yard, chuffing off as another crew arrives with a GP9 to end the album and, symbolically, the Norfolk & Western steam era. With its excellent reproduction and high production standards, this book (and CD) would have been a bargain at $65.00 — at $40.00, it’s a steal! — WALT LANKENAU
VIDEO REVIEW
Pillars of Smoke in the Sky Herron Rail Video, 2016 N. Village Ave., Tampa , FL 33612;
www.herronrail.com; 800/ 783-3886. DVD only, 45 minutes. $34.95 plus $6.00 shipping; FL [and PA ??? – see website] add sales tax.
No crowds, a relaxed crew, gliding along a vast white carpet, muted wheels on rail enhance the ethereal beauty outside as a full moon edges above snow caked white birch and firs in endless proces- sion. There is live folk music in the Park car ob- servation lounge. We also see a bit of CP Rail winter freight action in the Selkirks, and even visit the MacDonald Tunnel Control House. Experience CANADA OFF SEASON! 1 hour 50 min $29 postpaid.
TIME of CHANGE - Iron Rooster 2012
This is a remarkable program that all fans of the Norfolk & Western should see. It tells in substan- tive detail how coal trains were muscled east from Roanoke, Va., to the Norfolk piers and consists of very well shot and fabulously edited 16mm Kodachrome
Two back to back Revelation Journeys spring tours: South China Circle, and Best of Steam. The busiest steam venue remained at SANDAOLING, a large open pit coal mine in the NW. FUXIN, PINGZHUANG, YUAN- BAOSHAN, and BAIYIN, along with the narrow gauge SHIBANXI. The second hour focuses on the changing general rail scene, from local service to high speed. Rail Museums in Shanghai and the Shenyang "Training Facility" are viewed here for the first time. Four week's worth of trains, ships, people and landscapes condensed into 2 hours. $29 postpaid
Credit Card. Ohio Residents add Sales Tax Revelation Video,
Box 129, Tallmadge, OH 44278 Credit card orders: Call 330 630 9817.
18 DECEMBER 2012 •
RAILFAN.COM Order Today by Check, Money Order or
movies made during many trips circa 1957. With the full cooperation of the railroad, so- phisticated amateur cinematographer E.C. Eddy and his wife shot lots of film trackside as well as aboard N&W articulateds as they plied the eastbound Blue Ridge grade. Eddy edited it all himself decades ago and added his separately recorded live sound track to the custom-striped final film. This program brings to life the countless pages of text and still photos published by others who docu- mented N&W’s coal operations on this fa- mous stretch of track. If you own O. Winston Link’s sound recordings and have created in your mind’s eye what happened, the visuals here will confirm your vision or set you straight. Last shown in Roanoke about 40 years ago, this film was released from a vault for video transfer with the assistance of Schrader Enterprises, who knew Mr. Ed- dy prior to his passing in the early 1970s. After some nice preliminary scene setting shots the program begins at the Shaffer’s Crossing roundhouse and our doubleheaded locomotives shuffle through the yard to cou-
ple onto their coal train, depart eastbound, engage the pusher at Boaz, assault the grade with “two on the front and one on the rear,” and cut the pusher off on the fly at the summit. Some runbys also show coal trains east of Blue Ridge heading to Lynchburg. The content highlights the use of many unique camera angles on the locomotives, made possible by tripods on tender decks and special brackets used as outriggers to provide steady shooting platforms. Addition- al varied scenes and angles from trackside combine to tell the complete story of this unique operation. The overall result is simi- lar to Hollywood movies that employ story- boards — many carefully-planned scenes are smoothly interwoven to tell a story. This program is very, very far from modern day cut-and-paste runby videos.
Some of the great scenes in this produc-
tion include shots off the rear of an east- bound passenger train as a Y6 pusher, and ultimately the lead engine, are passed split- ting signals; watching head end and pusher operations on and near the famous wooden overpass west of Blue Ridge station; riding tenders both upgrade and drifting down- grade back to Roanoke; meets while riding the tenders; and in-cab shots as a pusher signals the head end with its hooter whistle, and vice versa. And of course, shots of the railroaders in period dress complete the scene. The Eddys spent a long but justified time at the elusive Boaz pusher siding east of Roanoke observing crews and locomotives awaiting a call, watching meets with freight and passenger trains powered by Jawn Hen- ry, J, A, and Y6 locomotives, and watching trains pull up and stop for a pusher to couple on to a caboose and then departing. Closer to the summit, on the sweeping right-hand curve, the images switch back and forth from on-engine views to trackside pans of the heavy action. One amazing sequence was possible due to the long spring wind of the Kodak K100 camera — as a ponderous eastbound coal drag approaches the wooden overhead bridge, it is overtaken by a J on passenger roaring east on the westbound main. The program ends as a pusher disen- gages from an eastbound coal train, its engi- neer shoves in the throttle, and the coal drag recedes in the distance.
The original films are quite stunning in their vantage points and composition and the sharpness, color, and exposures range from good to excellent. The original sound is not always the best but is generally satisfac- tory, as is the unobtrusive narration. (The audio has been tweaked a bit.) The editing is quite remarkable in that many trips to Roanoke were skillfully combined into this one final product which documents the pas- sage of an eastbound coal train over the Blue Ridge grade. That the journey is a com- posite will be evident to sharp-eyed viewers who notice seasonal changes, different loco- motives on different days, and so on. No matter. That the N&W willingly coop- erated with the Eddys (and with O. Winston Link around the same time) indicates the railroad knew it had something special to be preserved for future generations and, as Southern gentlemen, were gracious to out- siders from the North. This is a must for N&W and big steam fans as well as those who can appreciate the work of a skilled and passionate craftsman who did his best to document one of the last stands of steam railroading. — TOM KELCEC
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