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with the SP, this time with clean Cotton Belt GP40s. Hurley, N.M., provides a cameo of a Southwestern Railroad GP7 in a fancy paint job. The San Manuel Arizona Railroad is next, employing two RS3s and a GP38-2 let- tered either SMARRCO or Magma. Crossing a high wooden trestle is a highlight on this push-pull shuttle operation. By 1991 one of the Alcos had been repainted with Magma lettering. This is a seven-mile, push-pull shuttle run from mine to smelter, followed by a 35-mile line haul to the SP interchange. We next spend some time at various points on the SP main between El Paso and Dem- ing, N.M., catching double stacks with a hodge-podge of clean to filthy power, some of it leased. Next is a repeat visit to Phelps Dodge with newly painted units on the shut- tle to Clifton and SP ups the locomotive ante with decently painted Rio Grande Geeps on this visit. The Copper Basin Railway, sport- ing medium gray GP39s with copper colored safety stripes, is another train swapping ex- ercise with the SP with some very good scenery. Six minutes of Magma Arizona DRS6-6-1500 No.10 in action follows. The Arizona Eastern presents four GP9s pulling hopper cars. For a change of pace, we see some runbys with the Black Mesa & Lake Powell E60C electrics on their three daily round trips of unit coal movements. The Navajo Mine Railroad is a similar operation and appears briefly. The Escalante & West- ern, another coal shuttle operation employ- ing three ex-Baltimore & Ohio SD40s, pres- ents some runbys. Back to the Arizona & Eastern for its GP20s, now in a blue dip paint job at the Miami yard. Cameos of RS3s end the program — San Manuel Arizona No.
8 switching a tipple at the Magma mine, No. 2 at San Manuel, a newly painted SMAR- RCO unit, and more. The cinematographer so liked the RS3s that he bought two of them for the Oklahoma Railway Museum. Bravo! The original movie footage, all shot by
Jim Terrell, varies from excellent to fair. Most is very good, a function of exposure, composition, and degrees of zooming and panning. Everything seems to be hand held, resulting in some steadiness problems when shooting telephoto. The sound, recorded on the scene, varies from very good to hard to discern, with a bit of static. The film transfer is clean and quite good with no jitter and some great sharpness here and there, and the narration is educational and low key. Jim has a good eye for action and locations, especially showcasing scenic features, meets, swapping trains, details in yards, and so on. He shot a lot of film to communicate the complexity of the operations, the topog- raphy, and certainly to document all the ac- tion from many angles. From an editing standpoint, some scenes could have been shortened or eliminated to maintain visual quality without sacrificing the documentary content. One also might have presented all the footage on each railroad chronologically, rather than spread over the two-DVD set and a map would have helped the viewer get his bearings. This is a highly informative pair of programs on a unique and uncom- mon subject, worthy viewing for its presen- tation of remote, industrial America and how captive and common carrier railroads formed a key link in the production process. Many thanks to Jim for making the treks to document it all for us. — TOM KELCEC
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