Big “E” Productions
P.O. BOX 75
GREENLAND, NH 03840
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.
Frequency – six times a year                                   Issue #114                                              March, 2008
Our new web page is on line and you can now order videos or DVD’s on line and view clips from our latest programs. This month’s new programs feature CN, CP, and Via Rail action in eastern Canada. These new programs have been edited digitally and are available in both DVD-R and VHS format. 184 older programs listed below are also available in DVD. 207 programs are still available in VHS. One additional older program has been converted to DVD – The D&H in Transition – one of our oldest programs. All of our DVD’s have chapters and menus and the 44 newest ones have a choice of being watched with narration and without narration by using the audio or language button on your DVD player controller. No other train video producer shows and explains railroading like we do and our catalogue includes programs on fallen flags ATSF, SP, Wisconsin Central, and Conrail. Our shipping and handling charge on repeat orders remains $5.00 with no charge on orders over $100. We offer discounts on large orders and have a number of older videotapes specially priced. See flyers for details. 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. 
 
The end is getting near for VHS. VHS sales last month were 11%, the lowest percentage yet. I foresee keeping VHS only for another year or so unless equipment failures force us out sooner. I would like to preserve our older programs that are currently unavailable in VHS. As time permits I am going to try to convert the older programs unavailable in DVD to DVD without re-editing them. I tried to re-edit the D&H in Transition but the original, 15-year old source footage was no good. It didn’t even have a timecode on it. These older programs were mastered in SVHS using only a consumer VCR and these old masters are dying. In other news I will have become a senior citizen by the time most of you read this. So far no plans to retire.
 
New this month is “Canada’s Corridor in Eastern Ontario” and “CP’s Expressway in Eastern Ontario”. This powerful program shows all the action on the busiest rail line in eastern Canada - the Canadian National and Via Rail Corridor between Montreal and Toronto. This line, known in Canada simply as the Corridor and owned by CN, is at least two tracks with CTC throughout and currently hosts twenty Via passenger trains on weekdays along with at least twenty CN freight trains. And these are not just any freight trains. CN is the most efficient railroad in North America and 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. We caught over twenty-four hours of action in September 2007 on the Corridor around Gananoque in southeast Ontario where the limit for passenger trains with LRC cars is a cool 100 miles an hour. “Canada’s Corridor in Eastern Ontario” is 78 minutes in length and sells for $32.95 in DVD and $27.95 in VHS plus the usual $5 for S&H.    Canadian Pacific’s main line between Montreal and Toronto is their busiest line for freight traffic in eastern Canada. Just west of Perth, Ontario, CP’s Montreal to Toronto main runs through the southern end of the rocky Canadian Shield. In 1996 CP started new piggyback trains between Montreal and Toronto that they initially named Iron Highway trains. The moniker for these trains was later changed to Expressway trains when new flat cars were received. Thus a fitting name for CP’s Montreal to Toronto main is their Expressway. “CP’s Expressway in Eastern Ontario” shows over 32 hours of continuous action on the most scenic part of CP’s Montreal to Toronto Belleville Sub main west of Perth in October of 2007. It is 58 minutes long and sells for $30.95 in DVD and $25.95 in VHS plus the usual $5 for S&H. Like the next 42 programs, the DVDs on these programs have the option of being watched with or without narration.
 
New last month was “UP in Meadow Valley Wash”. Meadow Valley Wash, which begins fifty miles north of Las Vegas, is the defining feature of Union Pacific’s historic, 102 year old, Salt Lake Route between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. This defile, together with adjacent Clover Creek Canyon, was the only reasonable route for a rail line from Salt Lake City to Southern California through the many mountain ranges in southern Nevada. This program shows 28 hours of action in the most rugged part of Meadow Valley Wash, the eastern or geographically northern end of the canyon between Caliente and Lyman Crossing, in June of 2007. Train lengths have increased and UP’s newest high tech diesels get down on their knees on the one and a half per cent grade and eight degree curves in this most picturesque and flood-prone part of Meadow Valley Wash.
 
New three months ago was “BNSF in California’s Central Valley” and “UP’s I-5 Corridor around Redding, CA”. BNSF Railway’s high-speed Bakersfield Subdivision between Bakersfield and Fresno is home to a growing number of transcontinental intermodal, manifest, and unit trains headed to and from the Bay Area or BNSF’s terminals around Stockton, along with six pair of state-supported Amtrak San Joaquin service passenger trains that run between Bakersfield, and Sacramento and Oakland. “BNSF in California’s Central Valley” shows all the trains on BNSF’s Bakersfield Sub between Wasco and Hanford for twenty-four hours in June of 2007. Union Pacific’s spectacular trackage around Redding in Northern California, is part of their so-called I-5 Corridor which stretches from Los Angeles to Seattle. The UP main around Redding covers a variety of terrain – the winding and deep Sacramento River Canyon, high bridges, and some high speed running through the foothills south of Redding. “UP’s I-5 Corridor around Redding, CA” shows all the trains for over 30 hours both sides of Redding on UP’s Valley Subdivision in June of 2007. 
 
Other recent releases include “Pan Am’s West End”. This program shows the trains running in July of 2007 on Pan Am’s historic West End or the Fitchburg Route main line of the former Boston and Maine between East Deerfield and Mohawk Yard in Glenville, New York including a day and a half of continuous action. This line includes the historic Hoosac Tunnel that gives Pan Am the easiest crossing of the Berkshires. “The Trains of Colorado’s Joint Line” shows nearly 30 hours of ear-splitting BNSF and UP action in June, 2007 between Larkspur, nine miles north of the summit and beginning of single track at Palmer Lake, and Crews, south of Colorado Springs, where double track begins again and includes action through the Springs. “KCS Meridian Speedway in 2006” documents the growing traffic on the KCS’s Meridian to Shreveport line known as the Meridian Speedway by showing all of the trains on Kansas City Southern’s Vicksburg Subdivision between Monroe, Louisiana and Vicksburg, Mississippi in October of 2006. “CSX West of Russell Yard” shows over 24 hours of heavy duty action in October 2006 between RJ Cabin at the west entrance to Russell Yard and NJ Cabin where the lines to Cincinnati and Columbus divide. This two and three track main isn’t as busy as it was in C&O days, but still handles nearly 30 trains on a good day including locals and Amtrak’s Cardinal. One of the most fascinating small town junctions on the far-flung CSX system is Flomaton in southeast Alabama where the CSX main line from Birmingham to New Orleans joins the CSX line from Jacksonville and Pensacola. “Flomaton, Alabama – CSX Hot Spot” shows over twenty-four hours of action on CSX’s M&M Subdivision between Flomaton and nearby Atmore in Oct. 2006. 
 
“CN’s ex-IC Yazoo Subdivision” shows the trains on the former Illinois Central, now Canadian National, Yazoo subdivision around Yazoo City, Mississippi in October of 2006. Yazoo City is 171 miles south of Memphis and 45 miles north of Jackson. The Yazoo Sub is nearly level, as most of it lies in the Mississippi Delta, and sees some of the heaviest manifest trains in this country.  “NS Greenville to Atlanta Main” shows the trains and operations including Amtrak’s Crescent on the historic Washington to Atlanta main line of the former Southern Railway System around Clemson, South Carolina also in October of 2006. Clemson is 119 miles north of Atlanta and 30 miles from Greenville in the rolling Piedmont Region of South Carolina. The slogan “get your kicks along Route Sixty-Six” certainly applies to railfans. With upwards of 100 trains a day, the BNSF’s Chicago to Los Angeles main line known as the Transcon is arguably “the greatest show on earth”. “The Show Along Route 66” shows over 24 hours of incredible action between the mouth of scenic Crozier Canyon and Kingman on the Transcon alongside Route 66 in northern Arizona in July of 2006. “UP Sunset Route in 2006” shows how the storied Sunset Route is faring in the summer of 2006 by showing all the trains around Willcox in southern Arizona. UP is spending big money to add a second main track to the 760 mile Sunset Route. UP’s Moffat Line between Denver and Craig in western Colorado is arguably the most spectacularly engineered rail line in this country. “UP’s Moffat Line in 2006” shows 24 hours of action including BNSF trains and Amtrak on the Moffat Line in Colorado in July 2006 between Fraser and Kremmling. “Norfolk Southern’s New Castle District” shows the trains on the north end of Norfolk Southern’s New Castle District in northeastern Indiana between Muncie and Fort Wayne in May of 2006. “Norfolk Southern’s Columbus District” shows over a day of action on Norfolk Southern’s Columbus District between Chillicothe and Portsmouth in the beautiful and pristine Scioto Valley where it slices through the northern edge of the Appalachian plateau in May of 2006. New a year and a half ago was “The Trains of Southern New England 2006” which shows action on the regional railroads and most of the smaller railroads of southern New England in the spring of 2006. The railroads covered include Amtrak’s Springfield Line and electrified Northeast Corridor, the Providence and Worcester, New England Central, Housatonic Railroad and a couple of shortlines. 
 
Other digitally edited programs that can be watched with and without narration in the DVD version are “Montana Rail Link around Bozeman Pass”, “Canadian Pacific’s Alberta Mains”, “Canadian Nationals Alberta Main”, “Midwest Regionals 2005”, “Canadian National’s Drummondville Subdvision”, “NS Chicago Line in Western Ohio”, “CSX at Point of Rocks”, “The D&H North End in 2005”, “Norfolk Southern’s Harrisburg Line”, “CSX Mountain Sub – the Historic West End”, “UP’s ex-MP & SP Arkansas Mains”, “CSX & NS at Princeton, IN”, “The Transcon in Kansas – BNSF around Lebo”, “BNSF in the Ozarks – the Thayer North Sub”, “The Chicago & Iowa – BNSF’s Twin Cities Main”, “Hot Times on UP’s Geneva Sub”, “CSX and CN at Effingham, IL”, “The Trains of Northern New England 2004”, “Guilford Rail System in Northern New England 2004”, “Ohio Regionals 2003”, “Hot Times on the Overland Route”, “Canadian Pacific’s Saskatchewan Main”, “Canadian National’s Saskatchewan Main”, “24 Hours at Greenwich – New Crossroads of CSX”, and “Hot Times on the Golden State Route”. DVD’s on all of the above programs have the option of being watched with or without narration.
Our next release in late May should be a program on eastern Canada Regionals. 
                                         Dick and Barb Eisfeller