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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.

CN's Edmonton to Jasper Main west of Edson, AB DVD

This program shows the trains and operations on Canadian National’s transcontinental main line west of Edmonton, Alberta on their Edson Subdivision between Edson and Hinton. CN is arguably the western hemisphere’s leading railroad and usually has the lowest operating ratio of any class I railroad in the U. S. or Canada. The tonnage on this line and on the CN system has grown more than fifty percent in the last decade, by far the greatest increase of any class one railroad in North America, and CN runs some of the longest and heaviest freight trains in North America west of Edmonton. This program shows twenty-four hours of action on CN’s Edson Subdivision between a point just west of Edson and Obed, near the summit of the climb out of the McLeod River Valley at Edson. Obed Summit on the ridge between the McLeod River at Edson and the Athabasca River at Hinton is nearly as high as the summit of Yellowhead Pass through the Rockies west of Jasper and the ruling grade for the usually heavier westbounds is the same – four tenths of a percent. The sound of a thirty thousand ton train grinding its way to the top of Obed Hill is awesome. This well-engineered track is traversed by a continuously expanding number of containers out of the Ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, and the train count continues to grow on this busy and at times congested line. At the time of our visit CN was short of power and leasing everything they could get their hands on. So come along with us as some of the longest and heaviest trains on this continent growl up the grade out of the McLeod River Valley in May of 2018 on CN’s Edmonton to Jasper Main. Two disk set. Length = 3 hours, 7 minutes. This DVD can be watched with and without narration.

Price: $42.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

BNSF & UP Tacoma - Portland Joint Line Blu-Ray

For well over a century the busiest rail line in the Pacific Northwest has been BNSF’s Seattle Subdivision between Seattle and Vancouver Washington on the north bank of the Columbia River opposite Portland, Oregon.  For seventy years this former Northern Pacific main known as the Joint Line carried the trains of the NP, Great Northern, and Union Pacific.  Today BNSF is the owner and Union Pacific and Amtrak are the tenants.  UP has full trackage rights between Vancouver and Tacoma while Amtrak’s Coast Starlight and four pair of Cascades traverse the full length of the Seattle sub between Seattle and Vancouver.    BNSF and UP rail traffic between Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland utilize all or parts of this line and the joint line is also part of UP’s transcontinental main line from Chicago to Seattle.  We caught over twenty-four hours of action on the BNSF and UP Tacoma to Portland Joint Line between Napavine and Kelso in May of 2018.  The tonnage if not the number of trains on the Joint Line is at or near an all-time peak as the number of unit coal, grain, and crude oil trains seems to increase each year.  And northbounds greatly outnumber southbounds on BNSF here as most unit train empties head east at Auburn over Stampede Pass.  The state of Washington has been funding additions to the capacity of BNSF’s Seattle sub in order to add additional Cascades service between Seattle and Portland. "BNSF & UP Tacoma - Portland Joint Line" is 2 hours long and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

BNSF & UP Tacoma - Portland Joint Line DVD

For well over a century the busiest rail line in the Pacific Northwest has been BNSF’s Seattle Subdivision between Seattle and Vancouver Washington on the north bank of the Columbia River opposite Portland, Oregon.  For seventy years this former Northern Pacific main known as the Joint Line carried the trains of the NP, Great Northern, and Union Pacific.  Today BNSF is the owner and Union Pacific and Amtrak are the tenants.  UP has full trackage rights between Vancouver and Tacoma while Amtrak’s Coast Starlight and four pair of Cascades traverse the full length of the Seattle sub between Seattle and Vancouver.    BNSF and UP rail traffic between Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland utilize all or parts of this line and the joint line is also part of UP’s transcontinental main line from Chicago to Seattle.  We caught over twenty-four hours of action on the BNSF and UP Tacoma to Portland Joint Line between Napavine and Kelso in May of 2018.  The tonnage if not the number of trains on the Joint Line is at or near an all-time peak as the number of unit coal, grain, and crude oil trains seems to increase each year.  And northbounds greatly outnumber southbounds on BNSF here as most unit train empties head east at Auburn over Stampede Pass.  The state of Washington has been funding additions to the capacity of BNSF’s Seattle sub in order to add additional Cascades service between Seattle and Portland. "BNSF & UP Tacoma - Portland Joint Line" is 2 hours long and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

BNSF in the Columbia River Gorge Blu-Ray

Where the winds blow could easily be the title of this program.  Large temperature gradients between the west and east ends of the Columbia River Gorge drive the prevailing westerly winds, especially on warm days.  And when we were on standing on the basalt cliffs lining the north side of the Gorge looking down on the tracks, the wind was certainly blowing.  The town of Bingen, Washington where we spent the night is in the heart of this only, near sea level gap in the Cascade Mountains and is almost right across the River from Hood River, Oregon, the windsurfing capital of the World.  BNSF’s former Spokane, Portland and Seattle main line along the north bank of the Columbia hosts almost all of BNSF’s westbound manifest and loaded unit trains bound for all the major cities in the Pacific Northwest from Portland to Vancouver, British Columbia.  And with the number of crude oil and export coal trains growing along with as many as nine grain trains in twenty-four hours, the unit train count on this line can be staggering.  “BNSF in the Columbia River Gorge” shows over twenty-four hours of BNSF and Amtrak action in the scenic heart of the Columbia River Gorge, both sides of Bingen on BNSF’s Fallbridge Subdivision in May of 2018. This video is one hour and thirty minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

BNSF in the Columbia River Gorge DVD

Where the winds blow could easily be the title of this program.  Large temperature gradients between the west and east ends of the Columbia River Gorge drive the prevailing westerly winds, especially on warm days.  And when we were on standing on the basalt cliffs lining the north side of the Gorge looking down on the tracks, the wind was certainly blowing.  The town of Bingen, Washington where we spent the night is in the heart of this only, near sea level gap in the Cascade Mountains and is almost right across the River from Hood River, Oregon, the windsurfing capital of the World.  BNSF’s former Spokane, Portland and Seattle main line along the north bank of the Columbia hosts almost all of BNSF’s westbound manifest and loaded unit trains bound for all the major cities in the Pacific Northwest from Portland to Vancouver, British Columbia.  And with the number of crude oil and export coal trains growing along with as many as nine grain trains in twenty-four hours, the unit train count on this line can be staggering.  “BNSF in the Columbia River Gorge” shows over twenty-four hours of BNSF and Amtrak action in the scenic heart of the Columbia River Gorge, both sides of Bingen on BNSF’s Fallbridge Subdivision in May of 2018. This video is one hour and thirty minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

Union Pacific in the Blue Mountains Blu-Ray

As the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company climbed out of the Columbia River Valley near present day Hinkle while on its trek towards meeting the Union Pacific Railroad at Huntington on the Snake River, it encountered the Blue Mountain range in northeastern Oregon. The track that it constructed through this land of snow-capped mountains, sagebrush covered desert, and lush mountain valleys remains one of the Union Pacific’s greatest mountain challenges as trains up to 20,000 tons conquer three separate summits on their way to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. And the most difficult and westernmost of these climbs is the line through the main Blue Mountain range west of La Grande, Oregon, the subject of this program. While multiple helper sets used to roam these grades, today this line is ruled by radio controlled slave units with the power distributed at up to three points in the train. This DVD shows over 24 hours of ear-splitting action on the two percent grades of UP’s La Grande subdivision in the Blue Mountains in May of 2018. This DVD is two hours and twelve minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $36.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

Union Pacific in the Blue Mountains DVD

As the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company climbed out of the Columbia River Valley near present day Hinkle while on its trek towards meeting the Union Pacific Railroad at Huntington on the Snake River, it encountered the Blue Mountain range in northeastern Oregon. The track that it constructed through this land of snow-capped mountains, sagebrush covered desert, and lush mountain valleys remains one of the Union Pacific’s greatest mountain challenges as trains up to 20,000 tons conquer three separate summits on their way to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. And the most difficult and westernmost of these climbs is the line through the main Blue Mountain range west of La Grande, Oregon, the subject of this program. While multiple helper sets used to roam these grades, today this line is ruled by radio controlled slave units with the power distributed at up to three points in the train. This DVD shows over 24 hours of ear-splitting action on the two percent grades of UP’s La Grande subdivision in the Blue Mountains in May of 2018. This DVD is two hours and twelve minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $36.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

The Trains of Northern New England 2018 Blu-Ray

This program covers the trains and operations on all of the regional railroads - New England Central, Central Maine and Quebec, the Saint Lawrence and Atlantic, and the largest, Pan Am Railways, in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine in the spring of 2018.  It shows what has become of the Maine Central and Boston and Maine railroads that once were the bastions of railroading in northern New England and also what became of the Bangor and Aroostook, Central Vermont, Rutland, and Canadian National and Canadian Pacific lines in northern New England.  It is a sequel to our highly acclaimed programs showing the trains of northern New England in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2009.  This program also shows how the railroads of northern New England are coping with the decline in the paper industry in the past decade.  And Pan Am still has an eclectic mix of power including a group of “new” units – twenty-seven to twenty-nine-year-old GEs which are replacing even older EMDs.  This DVD is two hours and four minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: Blu-Ray

The Trains of Northern New England 2018 DVD

This program covers the trains and operations on all of the regional railroads - New England Central, Central Maine and Quebec, the Saint Lawrence and Atlantic, and the largest, Pan Am Railways, in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine in the spring of 2018.  It shows what has become of the Maine Central and Boston and Maine railroads that once were the bastions of railroading in northern New England and also what became of the Bangor and Aroostook, Central Vermont, Rutland, and Canadian National and Canadian Pacific lines in northern New England.  It is a sequel to our highly acclaimed programs showing the trains of northern New England in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2009.  This program also shows how the railroads of northern New England are coping with the decline in the paper industry in the past decade.  And Pan Am still has an eclectic mix of power including a group of “new” units – twenty-seven to twenty-nine-year-old GEs which are replacing even older EMDs.  This DVD is two hours and four minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.

Price: $34.95

Attributes

  • Video Format: DVD

CSX I-95 Corridor in the Carolinas Blu-Ray

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: Blu-Ray