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.
$36.95
|
This tape shows 30 hours of action on the UP's toughest grade - Cima Hill, 80 miles south of Las Vegas, NV, on their line to LA. See UP trains grinding up the 2.2% grade on the west side of Cima Hill and screaming down the other side at speeds up to 70 per in Oct. 1995. 90 minutes.
$32.95
|
This tape shows 30 hours of action on the UP's toughest grade - Cima Hill, 80 miles south of Las Vegas, NV, on their line to LA. See UP trains grinding up the 2.2% grade on the west side of Cima Hill and screaming down the other side at speeds up to 70 per in Oct. 1995. 90 minutes.
$32.95
|
The busy former SP Sunset Route has been the property of the UP since September 1996. This video shows 30 hours of action around Sierra Blanca in West Texas where the former Texas & Pacific line joined the Sunset Route, along with a couple of trains on Paisano Pass in April 1998 when this part of the Sunset Route was severely congested. This video gives an unintended look at how a busy rail line can become gridlocked when power and crews are in short supply. 80 minutes.
$30.95
|
The busy former SP Sunset Route has been the property of the UP since September 1996. This video shows 30 hours of action around Sierra Blanca in West Texas where the former Texas & Pacific line joined the Sunset Route, along with a couple of trains on Paisano Pass in April 1998 when this part of the Sunset Route was severely congested. This video gives an unintended look at how a busy rail line can become gridlocked when power and crews are in short supply. 80 minutes.
$30.95
|
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.
$32.95
|
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.
$32.95
|
This tape shows 24 hours of action on the UP's busy line through the Blue Mountains on Encina Hill between Huntington and Baker, Oregon. Pushers help a stream of trains up 2.2% grades. Videotaped in May of 1994. 65 minutes.
$30.95
|
Come with us as we tour one of Union Pacific’s three helper grades in the Blue Mountains before the age of distributed power and see 24 hours of action on the UP’s main line to the Pacific Northwest. The traffic on this line has increased so much in the past 20 years that UP was planning to double track all of their Blue Mountain grades when this was filmed in May of 1994. Intermodal or "Z" trains, stack trains, long manifests, unit coal and grain trains - they are all here as we show the ear-splitting action on one of the three summits of the Blue Mountains - Encina Hill in northeast Oregon. See what the Nampa reduction is all about as UP tries to speed up operations on this busy line. Length = 65 minutes.
$30.95
|
This tape shows 24 hours of action on the UP's busy line through the Blue Mountains on Encina Hill between Huntington and Baker, Oregon. Pushers help a stream of trains up 2.2% grades. Videotaped in May of 1994. 65 minutes.
$30.95
|
Come with us as we tour one of Union Pacific’s three helper grades in the Blue Mountains before the age of distributed power and see 24 hours of action on the UP’s main line to the Pacific Northwest. The traffic on this line has increased so much in the past 20 years that UP was planning to double track all of their Blue Mountain grades when this was filmed in May of 1994. Intermodal or "Z" trains, stack trains, long manifests, unit coal and grain trains - they are all here as we show the ear-splitting action on one of the three summits of the Blue Mountains - Encina Hill in northeast Oregon. See what the Nampa reduction is all about as UP tries to speed up operations on this busy line. Length = 65 minutes.
$30.95
|
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.
$32.95
|
