Gosh, Ken, I'm on a limited (fixed income) and can't afford the elite connections. The cheapest package I can get my hands on. Plus the fact, the V company isn't keeping up with maintaining their land lines and pushing us to go wireless. GRRRRRR! My service at times has been pirated and intermittent. It's supposed to be fixed but I wouldn't bet on anything. So, yes in complete agreement with you. Something that is a big help. I switched from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. A much needed improvement. The Note Book, I use is HP's, not Howland Pacific Railroad. Pretty sure the one my son-in-law warned me about before his job was shipped off to China. It is what it is. Not to forget that many of us when downloading, uploading or reloading to You Tube loose considerable quality. Liked your video. Nice cab ride and bridge shot.
Rick- You can always verify your speed with on-line test sites. Even before XP support ended, many sites had upgraded to better perform with Windows 7 and higher. Now anything less than IE9 doesn't work well in many places. Also, as big as they are, YT will have times when they run slowly, with the server loads that do happen. I KNOW your pain with $$$. Even worse, having the "other half" keeping us flat broke, (and could care less), all the time!
I manage to stay broke...all by myself. Inflation isn't helping us and neither are certain laws in place all under the guise of helping us. Someone was telling me there is a law that will devalue the dollar...I advised them that's already happened every time the price of gas goes up, never mind what happens to groceries. But that's getting political and we can save that for another discussion in a different time and place Sigh. I need to add I was glad to see pictures from an area you grew up in. Wish I could find pictures of the Hollister Local, from the 60's. I don't think anyone bothered to capture it. That is Hollister, Ca. as there are other Hollister's in other states.
I know where you are going with only those few words. No need to discuss, as I understand exactly and agree, completely. When I was a boy, I grew up on a branch line which intersected the line portrayed, at a place named Woodinville. Before all business was driven to trucks or otherwise strangled, both of these lines were booming. Trains daily, usually multiples. Now, gone. Progress has given us hiking and biking trails, and everything is trucks by the thousands instead. The Belt Line passed through a town where my dad's business was located, and we could hear the train horns from his store. The other (branch) line, every school level I attended, was sited right next to it! So I saw and heard the trains every day. Here is where the memory downloads would be fantastic.
Ken and this time I have it right. Ditto my friend, ditto. Stopped at Radio Shack to see if they had a RCA plug I could use to share these memories. No such luck...DARN! Here's one just for BoxcabE50:
Nice touch to have "1776" for the steam finale. And there's something almost nostalgic about the feel of those older recordings, the little bit of shake or vibration that's automatically edited out these days (a good thing for some of us) and a difference in the colors...
Rick- This is one of the videos I had in that lost folder of bookmarks. The Dave Wilkie stuff. As the movie opens, and the train heads up a hill, that is Tacoma, behind old Union Station. Then through South Tacoma and "Nalley Valley". (That is Nalley as in pickles and so forth). What was known as their "Prairie Line. It's all quite "developed down there these days, but was beautiful rural timber and farms when I was a boy. Interesting that it was also a Casey Jones excursion. On May 5th, 1957, we were chasing a different steam engine, on the branch near home. My dad was so intent on watching the train, he rear-ended another car which was also chasing. We all had minor injuries. Mom was the worst, requiring plastic surgery on her face, from hitting the windshield. And that ended all such further events. Any time thereafter, when it seemed to her that my dad might be doing it again, she'd come unglued and start screaming and shrieking at him. Oh well.
Ken, Glad you liked the video and I appreciate the locations you identified and the history. To bad about the accident. It can happen all to quickly and ruin a good time or worse. Sorry to hear about that.
Here we go again. Toy Train Television presents Knott's Berry Farm. By now you know what to do and I like to see some of your favorite videos. So jump right in.
That's a cool video! Kinda fun to also hear him talking about the berries. My grandmother had a patch of Boysenberries on the old family farm. We sure looked forward to days when those were ripe.
This one is short and shaky, but it is from my favorite railroad. This is the Olympian Hiawatha. The latter portion of the footage is Aberdeen Division and possibly some Trans-Missouri Division as well. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE_zIRmzRGX6MqqMauhWysw Sorry. But this link will not embed. Reason unknown. P.S. Some might not think this is west enough. On the MILW, anything traveling west of the Missouri River was considered Lines West. And this was their famous train to the far Pacific NW.
Ken, I'm getting server not found when clicking on the link you provided. Not sure what's going on. I agree west is anything west of the Mississippi. The mid-west is something else again. You can start a thread for any region you would like.
Very strange. It's not there any more. I guess it was removed! Phooey. Well, here is another, definitely more western!
A lot of us wonder. Since they went away, extensive financial paperwork has surfaced, which conclusively proves they were not bankrupt, and that the west end was making money, while the east was losing. Fascinating... Anyhow, that video opens in Harlowton, Montana, which at that time was the east end of the Rocky Mountain Division and electrification. What you are seeing, is the other power has been taken off, and a Little Joe is backing onto Train 15, the Olympian Hiawatha. It then passes through some marvelous scenery, into Sixteen Mile Canyon, across Eagle Nest bridge, through Three Forks, (where passengers used to head to Yellowstone Park), then up over "Top of the World", Fish Creek (steel) trestle, and the Continental Divide. From there it jumps ahead, and appears to be comprised of two or three trips, coming into Seattle and Union Station. The view of a light Bipolar running around it's train reminds me that those things could sneak up on a person. Hence ringing the bell and using the horn was vital. They were gearless, so unless you could hear the air compressor kick on, or some rail/wheel flange noise, they were silent when moving!
Ken and of course everyone tuned in here, To have a locomotive sneak up on you now that would be unnerving. Thanks for the explanation. Chard Walker was heard to say he thought that eventually all railroads would go to electric powered locomotives pointing to the MILW Railroad. Here's another Of John Wilkie's videos. One of my favorite railroads but to long a story to tell here.
If you don't know railroad history...well...here is a video that saddens me to this day. I graduated from high school in 1967 the same year... You'll see. When Amtrak reinstated the California Zephyr it ran over Donner Pass.
I wonder what was in the minds of those who turned out to watch? If they were sad, many of them could have been patronizing in the past, and it might not have been discontinued.
I don't mean to sound like a one note song. Promise I'll post something from a different railroad next time! I just thought this is interesting, as the fellow who filmed this and I both attended the same school; he graduated a couple of years ahead of me. We didn't really know each other until a few years afterward.
Ken, Got to say I'm enjoying the videos. The WILW was underestimated and had so much going for it, except for location. It was ahead of it's time in the use of electrical locomotives and thought to be the future of railroading. Keep them coming. I'll rail fan it any day. The folks out to see the California Zephyr off, weren't riders, didn't much care about the train and was actually glad to see it go. My observations of course. Those of us who knew what was happening we were saddened to see it go. Ridership was down in a major way and it was costing the railroads, at a lose to keep them running. Four lane highways, followed by freeways with cars, busses and trucks taking traffic a way from the rails and never mind the airlines. Airlines made it easier to get from point A to point B. Not as comfortable at first but you didn't spend four days getting across the continent. The railroads that hesitated and wanted to keep the passenger service found the steady decrease in ridership, merging of trains and advertising wasn't solving the problem. Santa Fe, Union Pacific and the D&RGW hung on stubbornly running their trains until one by one they folded. An era in train service slowly disappeared into the history pages. See one of the advertisements of the time:
