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No More Mindless Runbys
Below are the ten newest releases from Big "E" Productions in both DVD-R and VHS format.

CSX I-95 Corridor in the Carolinas DVD

The former Atlantic Coast Line main from Richmond, Virginia, to Jacksonville, Florida, has always been the busiest and fastest route for both passenger and freight trains between the Northeast and Florida.  Nicknamed “The Speedway” in ACL days for its long sections of straight track and one-time one hundred mile-an-hour limit for passenger trains, and later the “A” Line for its ACL heritage, this once double tracked line is CSX’s and Amtrak’s main line from the Northeast to Florida and is best known today as the I-95 Corridor for the interstate highway that it parallels.  This program first shows over twenty-four hours of action in August of 2017 around Ridgeland, South Carolina, thirty-two miles north of Savannah Georgia and then daytime action at Pembroke, North Carolina where CSX’s I-95 Corridor crosses their line from Hamlet to Wilmington.  And all of this action takes place five months after the late Hunter Harrison took over CSX and drastically changed the railroad’s operations, closing eight of twelve hump classification yards including Hamlet and running fewer but longer trains.  Unfortunately, four months after our visit to CSX’s I-95 Corridor, Hunter Harrison suddenly died.  Two of his protégé’s are now running the railroad.   CSX I-95 Corridor in the Carolinas is 61 minutes in length and can be watched with and without narration.

Price: $30.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

NS former southern Railway North Carolina Main Blu-Ray

This Program shows over twenty-four hours of action in August of 2017 on one of the more historic main lines in the southeastern United States – the former Southern Railway, now Norfolk Southern, Washington to Atlanta main line just south of the Virginia border.  Although today almost all of the traffic on this line runs via Hagerstown, Maryland, not through Washington, D. C., Norfolk Southern’s Piedmont Division Main today sees more tonnage than ever before in its storied history thanks to the acquisition of part of Conrail including ownership of the Hagerstown to Harrisburg Line.  This acquisition has greatly increased traffic on this line since our last look in 1998 just before the Conrail split.  As you will see, the Piedmont region of North Carolina is far from level, and there are few straight sections of track in this rolling country between the coastal plain and the Blue Ridge that was once home to many textile, furniture and tobacco related businesses, few of which remain.  This line carries all of NS’s traffic between the Northeast and the Southeast with all carload trains terminating or originating at Linwood Yard, 41 miles south of Greensboro.  NS former Southern Railway North Carolina main is 68 minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $30.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

NS former southern Railway North Carolina Main DVD

This Program shows over twenty-four hours of action in August of 2017 on one of the more historic main lines in the southeastern United States – the former Southern Railway, now Norfolk Southern, Washington to Atlanta main line just south of the Virginia border.  Although today almost all of the traffic on this line runs via Hagerstown, Maryland, not through Washington, D. C., Norfolk Southern’s Piedmont Division Main today sees more tonnage than ever before in its storied history thanks to the acquisition of part of Conrail including ownership of the Hagerstown to Harrisburg Line.  This acquisition has greatly increased traffic on this line since our last look in 1998 just before the Conrail split.  As you will see, the Piedmont region of North Carolina is far from level, and there are few straight sections of track in this rolling country between the coastal plain and the Blue Ridge that was once home to many textile, furniture and tobacco related businesses, few of which remain.  This line carries all of NS’s traffic between the Northeast and the Southeast with all carload trains terminating or originating at Linwood Yard, 41 miles south of Greensboro.  NS former Southern Railway North Carolina main is 68 minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $30.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

BNSF South Texas Mains Blu-Ray

This program shows at least twenty-four hours of action on all three of BNSF’s main lines into south Texas – the former Burlington-Rock Island now known as BNSF’s Houston Subdivision, videotaped south of Teague, the former Santa Fe Fort Worth to Texas main, videotaped north of Temple, and the former Santa Fe Temple to Clovis line, seen northwest of Temple.  This gives a comprehensive look at all of BNSF’s traffic lanes into and out of south Texas.  BNSF has partial directional running on these lines.  A surfeit of southbounds take the former Burlington-Rock Island line or Houston sub between Fort Worth and Houston, especially manifest trains returning empties to the Texas Gulf Coast chemical plants, while more northbound manifests than southbound ones run via Temple and the Fort Worth sub to Fort Worth and beyond.  Some Powder River Basin bound empty coal trains take the Lampasas sub to Lubbock and then north to Amarillo where they join the normal coal route to the Powder River Basin while loads take the other two lines directly to power plants located on or near them.  The same is true for grain trains with more southbound loaded ones taking the Houston sub than empties. "BNSF South Texas Mains" is a two disk set and is 2 hours and 36 minutes in length.  It can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $40.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

BNSF South Texas Mains DVD

This program shows at least twenty-four hours of action on all three of BNSF’s main lines into south Texas – the former Burlington-Rock Island now known as BNSF’s Houston Subdivision, videotaped south of Teague, the former Santa Fe Fort Worth to Texas main, videotaped north of Temple, and the former Santa Fe Temple to Clovis line, seen northwest of Temple.  This gives a comprehensive look at all of BNSF’s traffic lanes into and out of south Texas.  BNSF has partial directional running on these lines.  A surfeit of southbounds take the former Burlington-Rock Island line or Houston sub between Fort Worth and Houston, especially manifest trains returning empties to the Texas Gulf Coast chemical plants, while more northbound manifests than southbound ones run via Temple and the Fort Worth sub to Fort Worth and beyond.  Some Powder River Basin bound empty coal trains take the Lampasas sub to Lubbock and then north to Amarillo where they join the normal coal route to the Powder River Basin while loads take the other two lines directly to power plants located on or near them.  The same is true for grain trains with more southbound loaded ones taking the Houston sub than empties. "BNSF South Texas Mains" is a two disk set and is 2 hours and 36 minutes in length.  It can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $40.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

Union Pacific's Del Rio Subdivision Blu-Ray

The Sunset Route between Los Angeles and New Orleans was the Southern Pacific’s most important route out of California, and recently this line has been the recipient of considerable investment by its current owner, Union Pacific.  This program shows all the trains for over twenty-four hours on the storied Sunset Route in West Texas between Uvalde and Hondo on UP’s Del Rio Subdivision in May of 2017.  Uvalde is ninety-two miles west of San Antonio and forty miles east of Spofford where UP’s Eagle Pass subdivision that connects with Mexican railroad Ferromex diverges from the main.  Thus we were able to catch not only the trains headed to and from El Paso but also the UP and BNSF trains bound for Ferromex at Eagle Pass.  BNSF has overhead rights on UP between several connections east of San Antonio and Eagle Pass.  And today there are more trains to and from Ferromex at Eagle Pass than there are between Spofford and El Paso, with many of these trains powered by UP’s newest locomotives.  In some months more rail cars cross the border at Eagle Pass than at Laredo although Laredo still has more rail traffic into the city due much intermodal being trucked across the border.  "Union Pacific's Del Rio Subdivision" is 81 minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $32.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

Union Pacific's Del Rio Subdivision DVD

The Sunset Route between Los Angeles and New Orleans was the Southern Pacific’s most important route out of California, and recently this line has been the recipient of considerable investment by its current owner, Union Pacific.  This program shows all the trains for over twenty-four hours on the storied Sunset Route in West Texas between Uvalde and Hondo on UP’s Del Rio Subdivision in May of 2017.  Uvalde is ninety-two miles west of San Antonio and forty miles east of Spofford where UP’s Eagle Pass subdivision that connects with Mexican railroad Ferromex diverges from the main.  Thus we were able to catch not only the trains headed to and from El Paso but also the UP and BNSF trains bound for Ferromex at Eagle Pass.  BNSF has overhead rights on UP between several connections east of San Antonio and Eagle Pass.  And today there are more trains to and from Ferromex at Eagle Pass than there are between Spofford and El Paso, with many of these trains powered by UP’s newest locomotives.  In some months more rail cars cross the border at Eagle Pass than at Laredo although Laredo still has more rail traffic into the city due much intermodal being trucked across the border.  "Union Pacific's Del Rio Subdivision" is 81 minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $32.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

Union Pacific's Texas Chemical Coast Mains Blu-Ray

Refineries and chemical plants along the Texas Gulf Coast stretching from Orange, Texas on the Louisiana border to Kingsville, just below Corpus Christi produce over two-thirds of the country’s  petrochemical output.  The railroad heart of Texas’s Chemical Coast is the two rail lines that run between Houston and Beaumont, a distance of eighty five miles.  This program shows over twenty-four hours of action on both of those lines in late April and early May of 2017 – first the former Missouri Pacific line, now UP’s Beaumont Subdivision, and then the former Southern Pacific line, now UP’s Houston sub.  Kansas City Southern trains running between Laredo on the Mexican border and Shreveport, Louisiana or Jackson, Mississippi have overhead rights on these lines as does BNSF, both from conditions in the UP-SP merger in 1996.  UP began directional running on these lines in 1998 as part of their improvements to get out from under their meltdown in Texas which lasted nearly a year.  Train movements on the Beaumont sub are nearly always eastbound including Amtrak’s Sunset Limited.  While movements on UP’s Houston sub are predominately westbound, the directionality is complicated by trains running both ways from Englewood and Settgast Yards to Dayton where UP’s busy Baytown branch begins and where BNSF has their key yard for sorting manifest traffic in the Houston area.  In contrast to the Beaumont sub, the Houston sub has many customers requiring service from locals. This video is a two disk set and its length is 2 hours, 39 mintes.  This program can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $40.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

Union Pacific's Texas Chemical Coast Mains DVD

Refineries and chemical plants along the Texas Gulf Coast stretching from Orange, Texas on the Louisiana border to Kingsville, just below Corpus Christi produce over two-thirds of the country’s  petrochemical output.  The railroad heart of Texas’s Chemical Coast is the two rail lines that run between Houston and Beaumont, a distance of eighty five miles.  This program shows over twenty-four hours of action on both of those lines in late April and early May of 2017 – first the former Missouri Pacific line, now UP’s Beaumont Subdivision, and then the former Southern Pacific line, now UP’s Houston sub.  Kansas City Southern trains running between Laredo on the Mexican border and Shreveport, Louisiana or Jackson, Mississippi have overhead rights on these lines as does BNSF, both from conditions in the UP-SP merger in 1996.  UP began directional running on these lines in 1998 as part of their improvements to get out from under their meltdown in Texas which lasted nearly a year.  Train movements on the Beaumont sub are nearly always eastbound including Amtrak’s Sunset Limited.  While movements on UP’s Houston sub are predominately westbound, the directionality is complicated by trains running both ways from Englewood and Settgast Yards to Dayton where UP’s busy Baytown branch begins and where BNSF has their key yard for sorting manifest traffic in the Houston area.  In contrast to the Beaumont sub, the Houston sub has many customers requiring service from locals. This video is a two disk set and its length is 2 hours, 39 mintes.  This program can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $40.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

CSX's S&NA North Subdivision Blu-Ray

This video shows over twenty-four hours of action on the former Louisville and Nashville, now CSX, S&NA North Subdivision which runs from Nashville, Tennessee to Birmingham Alabama, a distance of two hundred and five miles.  This is part of CSX’s most important north-south traffic lane between Chicago and Florida which they have nicknamed the Southeast Corridor.  Trains were videotaped south of Nashville in south-central Tennessee, between Cornersville and Dellrose.  This part of southern Tennessee is full of winding valleys and high ridges as the tracks pierce the edge of the Appalachian Plateau and Tennessee’s Southern Highland Rim between the Cumberland River at Nashville and the Tennessee River at Decatur, Alabama.  There is even a fifteen hundred foot long tunnel here although it is inaccessible for videography.  At the time that these trains were videotaped in late April of 2017 CSX was a couple of months into the Hunter Harrison era where dramatic changes in train operations were taking place with many hump classification yards and intermodal terminals being closed and trains combined into 10,000 foot monsters.  As an example, two pair of intermodal trains have been added since our 2011 visit to this line but one pair will be re-routed via Atlanta only a week after our visit.    In spite of the train consolidations, the freight train count on this line is nearly triple of what it was fifty years ago. Length = 61 minutes.  This program can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $30.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

 

                                                       Big “E” Productions

P.O. BOX 75

GREENLAND, NH 03840

Our DVDs show the whole train!

Our web page is at www.trainvideos.com, email us at bigeee@trainvideos.com.

 800-832-1228 or 603-430-3055   Visa, MasterCard, AMEX or Discover Card Orders Accepted.

Last updated 12/14/2023

 

Frequency – twice a year

 

 Issue #179                            December, 2023

May all of you have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

Remember, our DVDs make great Christmas gifts for the railfan in your family.  This Newsletter begins our 32th year of selling train videos.  As long as both my wife and I are in good health we intend to continue selling old videos and I still have some hope to do a few new programs. We will not be attending the Big Train Show in West Springfield, Massachusetts anymore.

 

Again no new programs.  I was recently diagnosed with AFib (atrial fibrillation – fast, erratic heartbeat).  Medication seems to help but it will be some time before I know how much.  Also both knees need to be replaced but it will also be some time before that can happen.  My wife is still recovering from having both knees replaced.  She is using a wheelchair and walker to get around.  I would still like to do more videotaping but this is looking less and less likely.  We hope that all of you are safe and sound.  Our next newsletter will be around June of 2024.  Railfan Depot in Indianapolis is now carrying some of our videos.

 

We have four grandkids playing sports right now – two here in New Hampshire and two in Illinois.  I hope to be able to see their games in person as much as I can.  And then we have 12 other grandkids and one great grandson to keep track of.  I am looking forward to attending the girls state basketball tournament in Illinois beginning in 2025 and the class IV boys baseball tournament here in New Hampshire next spring.

 

No other train video producer shows and explains railroading like we do and our catalogue includes programs on fallen flags ATSF, SP, BN, CNW,  IC, Wisconsin Central, and Conrail.  We almost always show the whole train and most of our videos show all of the action – day and night.  Our newest program is “PSR on CSX’s Chicago Line in Northern Indiana”, part of our look at PSR on eastern railroads.  This is our 49th program to be released in both Blu-ray and in regular DVD.  You need to specify what type of DVD you are ordering with programs available in both DVD and Blu-ray.  All of our DVD’s have chapters and menus and around half – everything videotaped from 2004 on plus a few programs from 2003 - have a choice of being watched with narration and without narration by using the menu or audio and language buttons on your DVD player controller.  321 programs are available in DVD (49 in Blu-ray) and all are listed in the flyers.  No other train video producer shows and explains railroading like we do and our catalogue includes programs on fallen flags ATSF, BN, SP, CNW. IC, Wisconsin Central, and Conrail.  Our shipping and handling charge on orders remains $5.00 with no charge on orders over $100.  We offer year-round discounts on large orders.  See flyers for details.  These discounts are available only by mail and phone.  If you have questions and get our answering machine, please leave your name and number and we will call you back as soon as possible.  You can reach us by email at bigeee@trainvideos.com or on our webpage at www.trainvideos.com.

 

If we are able to videotape again, the focus will be on changes on the western railroads due to PSR.

 

                                              Dick and Barb Eisfeller