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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.

UP's Central Corridor in Eastern Iowa

“UP’s Central Corridor in Eastern Iowa” shows over 24 hours of action on UP’s Clinton Subdivision both sides of Belle Plaine, Iowa in April of 2012. Part of UP’s Central Corridor between Chicago and Ogden, this former Chicago and North Western main line hums with activity in spite of the downturn in traffic due to the recent recession, the warm winter, and UP’s penchant for running longer trains. UP recently added centralized traffic control to this line along with double crossovers about every ten miles. Wayside signals were also added, doing away with the North Western’s left hand current of traffic running. Belle Plaine is 111 miles west of Clinton and 86 miles east of Boone. In contrast to most of the former North Western main across Iowa, the line east of Belle Plaine has several restrictive cures and grades as it heads into the Iowa River Valley at Belle Plaine. “UP’s Central Corridor in Eastern Iowa” is a two disk set and is 1 hour and 47 minutes in length.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

UP's Central Corridor in Eastern Iowa DVD

“UP’s Central Corridor in Eastern Iowa” shows over 24 hours of action on UP’s Clinton Subdivision both sides of Belle Plaine, Iowa in April of 2012. Part of UP’s Central Corridor between Chicago and Ogden, this former Chicago and North Western main line hums with activity in spite of the downturn in traffic due to the recent recession, the warm winter, and UP’s penchant for running longer trains. UP recently added centralized traffic control to this line along with double crossovers about every ten miles. Wayside signals were also added, doing away with the North Western’s left hand current of traffic running. Belle Plaine is 111 miles west of Clinton and 86 miles east of Boone. In contrast to most of the former North Western main across Iowa, the line east of Belle Plaine has several restrictive cures and grades as it heads into the Iowa River Valley at Belle Plaine. “UP’s Central Corridor in Eastern Iowa” is a two disk set and is 1 hour and 47 minutes in length.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

CSX Blue Ridge Subdivision

The Clinchfield Railroad, now part of the far flung CSX system, which runs through the Appalachian, Valley and Ridge, and Blue Ridge geological provinces of Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina rather than around them, is considered to be one of the best engineered rail lines in this country and certainly one of the most spectacular in the Eastern half of the U. S. CSX’s Blue Ridge Subdivision, the southern half of the former Clinchfield, extends from the former headquarters of the Clinchfield at Erwin, Tennessee, to Spartanburg, South Carolina, a distance of 137 miles. Half of that distance is spent ascending and then descending the Blue Ridge. This video shows portions of four days and one night along CSX’s Blue Ridge Subdivision between Erwin and Sevier on both sides of the Blue Ridge including the famed “loops”, in November of 2011. Once a bridge route for Florida perishables into the Midwest and a route for locally originated coal to get to power plants in the Southeast, today this heavily railfanned line with some of the best scenery in the East is a corridor for coal from mines in Kentucky and West Virginia to power plants in the Southeast. The Blue Ridge sub is also CSX’s testing ground for distributed power or radio controlled slave unit pushers as all unit trains over 75 cars utilize distributed power, the only part of CSX where DPU has replaced manned pushers as of the fall of 2011.  Length = 1 hour and 45 minutes.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

CSX Blue Ridge Subdivision DVD

The Clinchfield Railroad, now part of the far flung CSX system, which runs through the Appalachian, Valley and Ridge, and Blue Ridge geological provinces of Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina rather than around them, is considered to be one of the best engineered rail lines in this country and certainly one of the most spectacular in the Eastern half of the U. S. CSX’s Blue Ridge Subdivision, the southern half of the former Clinchfield, extends from the former headquarters of the Clinchfield at Erwin, Tennessee, to Spartanburg, South Carolina, a distance of 137 miles. Half of that distance is spent ascending and then descending the Blue Ridge. This video shows portions of four days and one night along CSX’s Blue Ridge Subdivision between Erwin and Sevier on both sides of the Blue Ridge including the famed “loops”, in November of 2011. Once a bridge route for Florida perishables into the Midwest and a route for locally originated coal to get to power plants in the Southeast, today this heavily railfanned line with some of the best scenery in the East is a corridor for coal from mines in Kentucky and West Virginia to power plants in the Southeast. The Blue Ridge sub is also CSX’s testing ground for distributed power or radio controlled slave unit pushers as all unit trains over 75 cars utilize distributed power, the only part of CSX where DPU has replaced manned pushers as of the fall of 2011.  Length = 1 hour and 45 minutes.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

NS Trains on the Rathole in 2011

One of the most storied and best known sections of railroad in this country is the second district of the CNO&TP subsidiary of Norfolk Southern between Danville, Kentucky and Oakdale, Tennessee, better known as the Rathole, for the tight, smoke filled tunnels that once existed on this line. This program shows over twenty-four hours of awesome action on Norfolk Southern’s Rathole on the Cumberland Plateau, just north of the Tennessee-Kentucky border in November of 2011. Business is again growing on this busy up and down line that still challenges the modern power of today, and the variety of that power and traffic is amazing with many intermodal, mixed carload, auto, and unit trains clogging the alternating single and two track main line of the Rathole.  2 disk set.  1 hour and 45 minutes in length.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narrtion.

Price: $34.95

NS Trains on the Rathole in 2011 DVD

One of the most storied and best known sections of railroad in this country is the second district of the CNO&TP subsidiary of Norfolk Southern between Danville, Kentucky and Oakdale, Tennessee, better known as the Rathole, for the tight, smoke filled tunnels that once existed on this line. This program shows over twenty-four hours of awesome action on Norfolk Southern’s Rathole on the Cumberland Plateau, just north of the Tennessee-Kentucky border in November of 2011. Business is again growing on this busy up and down line that still challenges the modern power of today, and the variety of that power and traffic is amazing with many intermodal, mixed carload, auto, and unit trains clogging the alternating single and two track main line of the Rathole.  2 disk set.  1 hour and 45 minutes in length.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narrtion.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

CSX on Duff Mountain north of Knoxville

There are few manned pusher districts left in the eastern U. S. One of these is on Duff Mountain north of Knoxville in eastern Tennessee. This program shows over twenty-four hours of operations on Duff Mountain – CSX’s crossing in the Appalachian Mountains over the divide between the Cumberland and Tennessee River watersheds in November of 2011. Duff Mountain is on CSX’s KD Subdivision that stretches between Corbin, Kentucky, and Etowah, Tennessee. Part of CSX’s former Louisville and Nashville main line between Cincinnati and Atlanta, this busy line is near capacity with unit grain and coal trains, manifest trains including one pair that used to take the former Clinchfield to the Southeast, and a pair of priority intermodal trains in CSX’s new double digit number series.  This DVD can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $30.95

CSX on Duff Mountain north of Knoxville DVD

There are few manned pusher districts left in the eastern U. S. One of these is on Duff Mountain north of Knoxville in eastern Tennessee. This program shows over twenty-four hours of operations on Duff Mountain – CSX’s crossing in the Appalachian Mountains over the divide between the Cumberland and Tennessee River watersheds in November of 2011. Duff Mountain is on CSX’s KD Subdivision that stretches between Corbin, Kentucky, and Etowah, Tennessee. Part of CSX’s former Louisville and Nashville main line between Cincinnati and Atlanta, this busy line is near capacity with unit grain and coal trains, manifest trains including one pair that used to take the former Clinchfield to the Southeast, and a pair of priority intermodal trains in CSX’s new double digit number series.  This DVD can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $30.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

CSX on Sand Mountain in Northern Alabama

CSX’s climb up Sand Mountain as it crosses the Appalachian Mountains in northern Alabama on CSX’s S&NA North subdivision is one of only a handful of manned pusher districts left in the Eastern U. S. This program shows over twenty-four hours of action in November of 2011 on CSX’s S&NA North subdivision on and around Sand Mountain, which begins at Cullman, Alabama, fifty-two miles north of Birmingham. CSX’s S&NA North sub between Nashville and Birmingham was the busiest part of the Cincinnati to New Orleans main line of the Louisville and Nashville, and today is part of CSX’s busiest north-south traffic lane between the Midwest and Southeast. The one point one percent climb for southbounds up Sand Mountain was double tracked a decade ago and a manned pusher station was then added to assist heavy southbounds up the hill. As part of what CSX calls their Southeast Corridor, the freight train count on this line has more than tripled in the past fifty years as CSX’s other Midwest to Southeast traffic lanes are now at capacity.  This DVD can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $32.95

CSX on Sand Mountain in Northern Alabama DVD

CSX’s climb up Sand Mountain as it crosses the Appalachian Mountains in northern Alabama on CSX’s S&NA North subdivision is one of only a handful of manned pusher districts left in the Eastern U. S. This program shows over twenty-four hours of action in November of 2011 on CSX’s S&NA North subdivision on and around Sand Mountain, which begins at Cullman, Alabama, fifty-two miles north of Birmingham. CSX’s S&NA North sub between Nashville and Birmingham was the busiest part of the Cincinnati to New Orleans main line of the Louisville and Nashville, and today is part of CSX’s busiest north-south traffic lane between the Midwest and Southeast. The one point one percent climb for southbounds up Sand Mountain was double tracked a decade ago and a manned pusher station was then added to assist heavy southbounds up the hill. As part of what CSX calls their Southeast Corridor, the freight train count on this line has more than tripled in the past fifty years as CSX’s other Midwest to Southeast traffic lanes are now at capacity.  This DVD can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $32.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

 

                                                       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