I’ve been viewing a lot of old videos of actual trains on YouTube and I would like to buy a video of the early railroads near Pittsburgh PA in the mid 1900’s before Conrail. I’ve lived in CA for 45 years and mostly in UP country. I was only a kid in PA so I don’t remember much, but I would love to see videos of what was going on then near my hometown as far as the RR gos especially the western area. I’m not interested in the eastern side at all, but if its included well so be it. My question is what key words would I look for when searching for videos? I checked out Green Frog Productions, but I don’t really know what I’m looking at and they have a lot of stuff. Also any recommendations would be welcome as well.
Try Herron Rail videos. I think Jim Herron bought some old PRR stuff and made videos and DVDs from it, but I'm not sure. Green Frog should have some as well. Can't believe I'm (New York Central guy) handing out advice about the PRR (lol). Where in the high desert do you live? I spent 35 years in Lancaster. :tb-biggrin:
Thanks I'll give that a try. I don’t know the whole story about how everything came to be. I’ve been searching for information and I keep coming up with New York Central. I read a little about the big merger on Wikipedia and when I reviewed some of the PRR videos on Green Frog it was almost all about the New York Central. So I’m a little confused about it all. .
I couldn’t find anything at Herron Rail, but I finally got a hold of my brother-in-law and he said he worked for Penn Central and then I remembered that my cousin also worked for Penn Central as a dispatcher. So I’m going to start searching for Penn Central Videos. UPDATE: I found this YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aspM5zizfC0&feature=related and I’m having second thoughts about it. laugh:
Penn Central was the result of the merger between the Pennsylvania RR and the NY Central, which for many prior years were bitter rivals. You might try also searching for the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, which was a division of the NY Central which operated mostly in Pennsylvania and of course Pittsburgh. Their main shops were in Mckees Rocks, PA. :tb-biggrin:
Well that explains why there are so many New York Centrals running in the Green Frog Penn Central Video which does look like a good video. I couldn’t find much in the way of videos for the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, but it did lead me directly to the Bessemer and Lake Erie railroad which is perfect because I’m right in the middle of building the Bessemer Bridge over the Allegheny River on my N-scale layout and it runs right into the heart of Pittsburgh. I also found the “Rails to Steel City” video from Green Frog. It features Conrail, CSX, Bessemer and Lake Erie. It’s a little later time period than I wanted, but everything I’ve seen in the previews is of stuff I directly relate to. I may buy the Penn Central video from Green Frog now that I understand the history of how the PRR and the NYC became the Penn Central. I just wish there were more video in Pittsburgh during the Penn Central days before Conrail. Anyway thanks for all your help today has been a real learning experience. :thumbs_up:
This is where I started: Pennsylvania Railroad - Google Search Here's some help: PRR E7 Videos: Pennsylvania Railroad - Google Search
