No More Mindless Runbys
Below are the ten newest releases from Big "E" Productions in both DVD-R and VHS format.
Norfolk Southern's former D&H - a Phoenix Rising DVD
Norfolk Southern’s takeover of the former Delaware and Hudson south of Schenectady on September nineteenth of last year has continued the slow increase in traffic on the critical midsection of the former D&H that began with the 2004 trackage and haulage rights agreement with Norfolk Southern that resulted in a modicum of profitability for this beleaguered line. The midsection and main stem of the former D&H where we videotaped has long been known as the Susquehanna Division and later as the second or Susquehanna subdivision and is now part of Norfolk Southern’s Freight Main Line, continuing the title and mileposts that under Guilford ownership had been applied to their main line from Mattawaumkeag, Maine to Sunbury, Pennsylvania. The Delaware and Hudson has surmounted many challenges and been near death more than once in the past eighty or so years – first with the loss of the anthracite coal business to oil and gas, then the loss of friendly connections as a result of the formation of Penn Central and later Conrail that led to near death in the late seventies and early eighties before Guilford took them over, the bankruptcy and directed service crisis after the strikes on Guilford in the mid-eighties, and finally Canadian Pacific’s indifference to growing the traffic after failing to find an acceptable buyer for the D&H and their constant cutbacks in service in the past few years. Preceded by Norfolk Southern acquiring haulage rights on much of the D&H in 2004 and a half interest in Pan Am’s line from Mechanicville to Ayer Massachusetts in 2009, Norfolk Southern’s acquisition of the south end of CP’s D&H subsidiary seemed a foregone conclusion but it still took years for the parties to come to an agreement. For the first time since the 1920s the former D&H is arguably entering a stable period where its future isn’t in doubt. This program shows over twenty-four hours of action on the former second subdivision between Delanson where the now truncated Albany main joins the main line and Belden tunnel, sixteen miles from Binghamton, in July of 2016. Length = 61 minutes. This program can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: DVD
UP's Historic Council Bluffs to Gibbon Main Blu-Ray
The Union Pacific main line up the Platte River Valley west of Council Bluffs to the junction with the line from Kansas City at Gibbon is one of the most historic and best known rail lines in this country – the first track to be laid by the first transcontinental railroad. This line is still one of the most important and busier rail lines in the U.S. for freight traffic in spite of the recent recession and downturn in coal that has battered U. S. railroads the past decade. The track structure that we will see today is dramatically different from that spindly single track laid on a dirt roadbed in 1866. Today’s trains are even longer and heavier than those seen during our last visit to this historic line in 2010. Once best known as the Overland Route, this line today is part of UP’s heavily trafficked Central Corridor. This program shows over twenty-four hours of action on UP’s Columbus and Kearney Subdivisions on both sides of Grand Island in April of 2016. UP's Historic Council Bluffs to Gibbon Main is two hours and thirty minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: Blu-Ray
UP's Historic Council Bluffs to Gibbon Main DVD
The Union Pacific main line up the Platte River Valley west of Council Bluffs to the junction with the line from Kansas City at Gibbon is one of the most historic and best known rail lines in this country – the first track to be laid by the first transcontinental railroad. This line is still one of the most important and busier rail lines in the U.S. for freight traffic in spite of the recent recession and downturn in coal that has battered U. S. railroads the past decade. The track structure that we will see today is dramatically different from that spindly single track laid on a dirt roadbed in 1866. Today’s trains are even longer and heavier than those seen during our last visit to this historic line in 2010. Once best known as the Overland Route, this line today is part of UP’s heavily trafficked Central Corridor. This program shows over twenty-four hours of action on UP’s Columbus and Kearney Subdivisions on both sides of Grand Island in April of 2016. UP's Historic Council Bluffs to Gibbon Main is two hours and thirty minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: DVD
Union Pacific's Marysville Subdivision Blu-Ray
Old timers would not recognize the way that the Union Pacific Marysville subdivision looks today. This line stretches from Topeka, sixty-eight miles west of Kansas City, to Gibbon, Nebraska where the triple track main to North Platte begins. UP’s Kansas City main today is two main tracks on wide centers with centralized traffic control as compared to the single track CTC line with 110 car sidings as late as the early 1970s. With little straight track until its gets close to Gibbon, most of this line is quite different from UP’s Omaha main with its long tangents up the North Platte Valley. The St. Joseph and Grand Island which UP had a difficult time maintaining control of due in part to the restrictions in their charter against building branch lines, is a busy main line today with at least half of the trains being coal trains to and from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. During the previous decade almost as many trains would head southeast at Gibbon onto the Marysville sub towards Kansas City than proceeded straight on the main line to Omaha. But these are not normal times and the coal traffic is way off with the low price of natural gas and bloated utility stockpiles due to a warm winter. This program shows over twenty-four hours of fast paced action on UP’s still busy Marysville Subdivision both sides of Fairbury, Nebraska in April of 2016. Union Pacific's Marysville Subdivision is 77 minutes in length and it can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: Blu-Ray
Union Pacific's Marysville Subdivision DVD
Old timers would not recognize the way that the Union Pacific Marysville subdivision looks today. This line stretches from Topeka, sixty-eight miles west of Kansas City, to Gibbon, Nebraska where the triple track main to North Platte begins. UP’s Kansas City main today is two main tracks on wide centers with centralized traffic control as compared to the single track CTC line with 110 car sidings as late as the early 1970s. With little straight track until its gets close to Gibbon, most of this line is quite different from UP’s Omaha main with its long tangents up the North Platte Valley. The St. Joseph and Grand Island which UP had a difficult time maintaining control of due in part to the restrictions in their charter against building branch lines, is a busy main line today with at least half of the trains being coal trains to and from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. During the previous decade almost as many trains would head southeast at Gibbon onto the Marysville sub towards Kansas City than proceeded straight on the main line to Omaha. But these are not normal times and the coal traffic is way off with the low price of natural gas and bloated utility stockpiles due to a warm winter. This program shows over twenty-four hours of fast paced action on UP’s still busy Marysville Subdivision both sides of Fairbury, Nebraska in April of 2016. Union Pacific's Marysville Subdivision is 77 minutes in length and it can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: DVD
CN and CP Montreal to Toronto Mains Blu-Ray
Welcome to the land of big trains. This program shows at least twenty-four hours of action on the two busiest rail lines for freight and via Rail passenger trains in eastern Canada - the Canadian National and Via Corridor between Montreal and Toronto and Canadian Pacific’s Belleville Subdivision, part of their Montreal to Toronto main line in October of 2015. The Canadian National line, known in Canada simply as the Corridor currently hosts twenty-six Via passenger trains on weekdays along with at sixteen CN freight trains. And these are not just any freight trains. CN runs some of the longest and heaviest mixed carload and intermodal trains on the planet on this high-speed and superbly engineered 334-mile line between Montreal and Toronto originally opened by the Grand Trunk Railway in 1856. Canadian Pacific’s main line between Montreal and Toronto is one of their busiest lines for freight traffic in eastern Canada and it showcases the changes made by its new president, Hunter Harrison who used to lead CN. Ethanol and crude oil have recently added to the tonnage on these lines. This program first shows over twenty-eight hours of action on CP in the middle of their Belleville subdivision around Trenton, Ontario and then over twenty-four hours of action on the CN and Via Corridor around Gananoque, Ontario, about eighty miles east of where CP was videotaped. This DVD is 1 hour and 45 minutes in length. It can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: Blu-Ray
CN and CP Montreal to Toronto Mains DVD
Welcome to the land of big trains. This program shows at least twenty-four hours of action on the two busiest rail lines for freight and via Rail passenger trains in eastern Canada - the Canadian National and Via Corridor between Montreal and Toronto and Canadian Pacific’s Belleville Subdivision, part of their Montreal to Toronto main line in October of 2015. The Canadian National line, known in Canada simply as the Corridor currently hosts twenty-six Via passenger trains on weekdays along with at sixteen CN freight trains. And these are not just any freight trains. CN runs some of the longest and heaviest mixed carload and intermodal trains on the planet on this high-speed and superbly engineered 334-mile line between Montreal and Toronto originally opened by the Grand Trunk Railway in 1856. Canadian Pacific’s main line between Montreal and Toronto is one of their busiest lines for freight traffic in eastern Canada and it showcases the changes made by its new president, Hunter Harrison who used to lead CN. Ethanol and crude oil have recently added to the tonnage on these lines. This program first shows over twenty-eight hours of action on CP in the middle of their Belleville subdivision around Trenton, Ontario and then over twenty-four hours of action on the CN and Via Corridor around Gananoque, Ontario, about eighty miles east of where CP was videotaped. This DVD is 1 hour and 45 minutes in length. It can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: DVD
CN around Nakina in Northern Ontario Blu-Ray
Canadian National’s Caramat Subdivision that runs across the Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario is on their transcontinental main line, part of which was built as the National Transcontinental Railway or NTR in 1911 and 1912, and with most of the rest constructed by the Canadian Northern in 1913. The area around Nakina was then a rocky wilderness with thin soil that was spliced by peat bogs and marshes and inhabited only by Indians, trappers, and prospectors. Nakina became a crew change and division point in 1924 after the Canadian National completed their first major construction project – a cut-off between Longlac on the former Canadian Northern main line and Nakina. At that time Nakina could be accessed only by rail. Today, trains no longer change crews at Nakina and the town is no longer dependent on the railroad or the pulp and paper industry as a large mill was once located near Nakina. The town does have a small airstrip where outfitters fly hunters and fishermen to lodges and camps in the Great North. The business on CN’s transcontinental main has grown dramatically in the past few decades as CN has eclipsed their rival Canadian Pacific to the south. And CN has recently begun running two and a half mile long trains on this superbly engineered line. Although many intermodal schedules have been slowed from the ‘go-go days” of 2000 when CN introduced their “need for speed” trains on fastest ever schedules between Toronto and the major cities in the West, CN puts on an incredible show with their huge trains, some with the power distributed throughout the train. This program shows over twenty-four hours of action on CN’s Caramat subdivision around Nakina, 250 miles northeast of Thunder Bay as the crow flies, in October of 2015. This DVD is 59 minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: Blu-Ray
CN around Nakina in Northern Ontario DVD
Canadian National’s Caramat Subdivision that runs across the Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario is on their transcontinental main line, part of which was built as the National Transcontinental Railway or NTR in 1911 and 1912, and with most of the rest constructed by the Canadian Northern in 1913. The area around Nakina was then a rocky wilderness with thin soil that was spliced by peat bogs and marshes and inhabited only by Indians, trappers, and prospectors. Nakina became a crew change and division point in 1924 after the Canadian National completed their first major construction project – a cut-off between Longlac on the former Canadian Northern main line and Nakina. At that time Nakina could be accessed only by rail. Today, trains no longer change crews at Nakina and the town is no longer dependent on the railroad or the pulp and paper industry as a large mill was once located near Nakina. The town does have a small airstrip where outfitters fly hunters and fishermen to lodges and camps in the Great North. The business on CN’s transcontinental main has grown dramatically in the past few decades as CN has eclipsed their rival Canadian Pacific to the south. And CN has recently begun running two and a half mile long trains on this superbly engineered line. Although many intermodal schedules have been slowed from the ‘go-go days” of 2000 when CN introduced their “need for speed” trains on fastest ever schedules between Toronto and the major cities in the West, CN puts on an incredible show with their huge trains, some with the power distributed throughout the train. This program shows over twenty-four hours of action on CN’s Caramat subdivision around Nakina, 250 miles northeast of Thunder Bay as the crow flies, in October of 2015. This DVD is 59 minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: DVD
Canadian National's Western Manitoba Mains Blu-Ray
This program shows the trains and operations on both of Canadian National’s main lines in western Manitoba – the transcontinental main line through Rivers and around Dauphin on CN’s secondary main line known as their Prairie North Line that diverges from the main line at Portage La Prairie, just west of Winnipeg. CN is arguably the western hemisphere’s leading railroad with by far the lowest operating ratio of any class I railroad in the U. S. or Canada. In 2000 CN began lengthening their sidings on their transcontinental main line between Winnipeg and Edmonton and today CN runs some of the longest freight trains on this continent between those two cities on what was once nicknamed the Bee Line across the prairie. This program shows twenty-four hours of action on CN’s Rivers Subdivision west of Rivers between Arrow River and a point just east of Uno where CN’s main line drops down into the Assiniboine River Valley. This well-engineered track is traversed by a growing number of containers out of the Ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, and oil from Alberta headed to both the States and to eastern Canada, and the train count has grown on this busy line. The second part of this program shows several trains on CN’s Prairie North Line both sides of Dauphin. So come along with us as some of the longest trains on this continent thunder across the Canadian Prairie or growl up the grade out of the Assiniboine River Valley in October of 2015 on CN’s Western Manitoba Mains. This DVD is a two disk set. It is 2 hours and forty minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration.
Attributes
- Video Format: Blu-Ray