HISTORIC RAILROAD AND TRAIN BUILDING FILMS, MAINLINE U.S.A., 3 DVD'S -J15 For Sale

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Vintage Railroad History Films Collection, 3 DVD Set!

The history of rail transport dates back nearly 500 years, and includes systems with man or horse power and rails of wood or stone. Modern rail transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s. These systems, which made use of the steam locomotive, were the first practical forms of mechanized land transport, and they remained the primary form of mechanized land transport for the next 100 years.

Fast forward to the early to mid 1900's, and you have the railroad as an integral part of American life. This collection of vintage railroad films, contains rare hard to find footage of early New York Railroads, the Northwest Pacific Railroad, New Haven, Hartford, and much much more. Sure to please any railroad aficionado.

This DVD collection contains over 5 hours of films on 3 DVD's! Each DVD has a fully interactive menu. The list of films on this historic collection is as follows:

DVD 1

At This Moment (1954)

Importance of railroads to 1950s America. Directed by Haford Kerbawy.

2 Parts, Sound, Color, 26:27

Beef Rings the Bell (ca. 1960s)

Beef's importance to American society and economy, and the Union Pacific Railroads's importance to the beef industry. The film starts out with a dreadful animation of a cow ringing a bell indicating dinner. (GET it? BEEF rings the BELL?) After that comes a wonderful plateau of cows roaming the open range, chewing grass, being herded, chewing grass, being branded. "The cows, soon, go in one direction" the narrator says, and yes that's right.. "To Market". Soon, you're just dreading where this film is heading. The film slowly builds on that and takes us through the cows being loaded on (Union Pacific!) railcars, being saleed off, being kept in holding pens, and then.... We cut AFTER the dirty part, the slab of beef is on a hook! Anyways, if you're somewhat disappointed in the skipping of the most obvious step, the actual cutting up of the carcass into different selections of beef will certainly appease you, as the butcher digs in with his knife, fat falling off the carcass, and us losing our lunches. The narrator hilariously says during all of this, 'the thought of this beef, with dripping gravy on fluffy mashed potatoes!' The whole thing ends off with not one but TWO barbecues, with big juicy steaks and plump hamburgers!

2 Parts, Sound, Color, 27:38

The Big Train (ca. 1950s)

Operations of the New York Central Railroad. Producer and director: Victor Solow. Introduced by NYCRR president Alfred E. Perlman. Made by the New York Central Railroad, this 50s film tells us how railroads are modernizing in standard industrial film style. It goes into a great deal of detail about this in a rather dry fashion. Railroad buffs will probably find it interesting. The last part of the film is a lecture by Alfred Pearlman about how the government subsidizes other forms of transportation, but lets the railroads shift for themselves. This is a quite historically interesting record of where the railroads were at in the 50s.

2 Parts, Sound, Color, 26:14

Big Trains Rolling (1955)

Railroads and how they keep the U.S. economy rolling.

Sound, Color, 23:54

Completion of Northwestern Pacific Rail Road (1914)

Golden Spike ceremonies and celebration for the completion of the Northwestern Pacific Rail Road, October 23-25, 1914. Filmed in Willits, Cain Rock, Arcata and Eureka, California. Film begins a short way north of its starting point in Willits (Northern California) and continues over trestles and through tunnels until it reaches the point of celebration at Cain Rock. (The celebration with Mayor Rolph and the Eureka Mayor and other officials. The next day festivities in Arcata, California and Eureka, California are reported.

2 Parts, Silent, B&W, 29:59

DVD 2 Desert Empire (ca. 1948)

Railroad tour through the state of Utah, stopping off at many natural attractions and in Salt Lake City. Shows Arches National Monument and the mineral resources of Utah, including coal and copper. Director: Carlton T. Sills.

3 Parts, Sound, B&W, 29:44

A Great Railroad at Work (1942)

Everything there is to know about the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. This presents a fine time capsule look at railroads, and industry in general in the 1940s. It is especially fascinating to see how trains cars are sorted and switches set before the days of computers and automation.

3 Parts, Sound, B&W, 39:24

Mainline U.S.A. (1957)

Importance of railroads in the U.S. economy, with many great running views of freight and passenger trains.

Sound, Color, 19:04

Mount Tamalpais Gravity Railroad (1917)

Railroad transporting tourists to top of Marin County's highest peak.

Silent, B&W, 1:58

New Horizons (1948)

The "story of a new South whose roots are embedded deep in the honored tradition of the old." Shows the economy of the Southeast, white and African American workers, cities, and daily life, all in the context of railroad business and operations. Producer and Director: Carl Dudley. Script: Herman Boxer.

Sound, Color, 17:54

DVD 3

Redwood Empire Special and Lumber Mills (1914)

Condensed version of Golden Spike Celebration on 10/23/14 for the completion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, held at Cain Rock, Humboldt County, California.

Silent, B&W, 15:32

Safe Roads (1935)

Driving is compared with running a railroad train. With excellent images of steam-era passenger trains.

Sound, B&W, 7:39

This Is My Railroad (1940s)

Operations of the Southern Pacific Railroad, with many images of the territory that it serves. With excellent footage of snow management and removal operations in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Sound, Color, 28:57

Wheels of Progress (1950)

Operations of the Rock Island Lines. Includes shots of high-speed "Rocket" freight trains; the operation of classification yards; and scenes of agricultural and industrial areas served by the railroad. Writer and Director: John A. McGee.

Sound, Color, 19:02

DVD Menu Sampler:

DVD format and quality

All of our DVD's sold are formatted NTSC, without region coding. This means that they will play on any NTSC DVD Player in the world. The standard in USA is NTSC. For those in Europe, your DVD player may be a PAL format, which will not work. For those overseas customers, please verify that your DVD player can play NTSC disks.

Please note, that most of the films on our disks were made 40 years ago or more. Some perhaps as old as 80 or 90 years! As you can imagine, the movie making equipment of the time was a lot more primitive than the high tech equipment that they use today. Also, many of these films were stored improperly for decades before being digitally coded. As a result of this, these films are not what one would consider to be "DVD quality" today. Many, if not most, are black and white. The sound and picture quality is not perfect. There are those occasional "snap, crackle, and pops" across many of these films. We feel that these imperfections add to a film's charm, and provide for a more authentic viewing experience. WIth that in mind, this collection may not be for those wishing to find digitally remastered and professional recolored duplications of the original work in perfect DVD quality. Please keep that in mind prior to purchase, since we have fully disclosed that to you.

Catalog Number

This item is our catalog #J15. If you purchase another item with this same catalog number, you will get two identical items. Given this, we cannot offer refunds for customers who accidentally purchased two identical disks without reading this sale fully. Questions and Answers:

Why should I buy from you? There are lots of places to buy similar stuff on . What makes you so special?

What separates us from the rest is that we want you to be happy. If you're happy, you'll buy from us again and tell your friends. Getting one sale from you is great, but we want the next sale from you and the next one after that. It isn't worth a few bucks to us to have one unhappy customer. If you are unhappy, tell us and let us try to fix the problem. How many sellers will say that?

Yeah, so, there are lots of other sellers on . Are you saying the rest of them will rip me off?

No, of course not. But, beware of what people sell on . Many sellers on here will charge you an exhorbitant amount for shipping. Many will "claim" to provide discount shipping only when you contact them, they'll tell you they'll take a quarter off the shipping price for each additional item. We never do that. Our combined shipping policy is clearly spelled out for those to see. No tricky or cheap discounts. Just Buy 3, Get One Free. Simple as that. Also, when comparing our films to those of others, take note of not only the price of the item, but also the content. You'll see that we not only offer more films per package then our competition, and not only at the cheapest shipping, but also at the cheapest price too.

I live in country ABC, will your DVD work in my DVD player?

Short answer, probably. Long answer, it depends. There are two formats of DVD in the world. NTSC and PAL. NTSC is the standard for the US and I believe Japan, along with some other countries too. PAL is popular in Europe. If you have an NTSC DVD player (all USA customers), this disk will work for you. If you have a PAL player, this won't. Also, many commercial DVD's out there have region coding. Without getting in a long discussion on it, none of our DVD's have any region coding, so that won't be an issue. All you need to know is whether or not your DVD player is an NTSC format.

What if my disk arrives damaged?

We offer a no muss, no fuss guarantee that all damaged disks are replaced free of charge.

Testimonial emails from customers:

"Just got it,and I love it. Where did you find this stuff? I've been looking for these films forever. I'm a high school Social Studies teacher and a big part of my lesson plan is World War II. These films are invaluable, and they have been keeping my students engaged. Thank you so much." Andrea P., Memphis, TN.

"My father served in WWII and I bought these films from him. Many of them brought a tear to his eye. We will treasure this collection." Jeff H., Trenton, NJ.

"...Very moving and hard to watch. I couldn't watch the whole thing. Just brought tears to my eyes." Lucy N., Atlanta, GA.

"Those old fair films are absolutely amazing. It really is like watching another world like you said. I was glued to them for hours." Jake P., San Diego, CA.

"My uncle was a firefigher for 36 years and I bought this collection for him. He just loves it. Thank you." Sarah P., Boston, MA.

"I'm a high school physics teacher and I bought your A-bomb films for my students. Unbelievable footage. Its hard to believe that we lived in fear all those years, and we are getting back to that time again." Robert S., New York, NY.

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USA CUSTOMERS: Most times, your package will arrive in about 1 week after we ship them depending on where you are at. However, lately the Post Office it seems has not been very cooperative with us and we've had a couple of customers wait a few days longer than that. If the item does not arrive, please email us directly and let us know, and we will make it right.

NON-USA CUSTOMERS: Same deal above, except your packages typically have been taking about 2 weeks or so after we ship them. We've noticed that maybe 20% of overseas customers have been waiting as long as 4+ weeks for these shipments. The only explanation we can come up with is that it must be stuck in some container in some dock waiting on customs clearance. It happens, and for those 20% of customers, we apologize, but there is very little we can do about that. Your disk will arrive or we will replace it.

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