Steam & Excursion > Greg Scholl passes...

'Just got word that Greg Scholl passed away yesterday. 

Condolences and good wishes to his family and many friends.

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Brother Randy sent this message to the railfan community:

Greg was born Dec 31, 1950 and got his love affair with trains started as his father Warren took Greg and brother Randy out train chasing at a young age. Greg got to see the last years of steam on the N&W Cincinnati-Portsmouth line. Subsequent youth trips for steam included trips to Canada, Mexico and the Colorado narrow gauge. Greg pursued steam overseas with multiple trips to Europe and South Africa.
As photo technology evolved Greg opened his own video business. Greg Scholl Video Productions eventually has grown to be one of the last independent video producers growing a business to more than 250 titles.
Domestically Greg traveled North America in search of diesel and steam trains meeting & making many railway friends along the way.
Greg is survived by wife Kathi and daughter Heather, brother Randy & wife Karen and two nieces Alex and Victoria.
Visitation and service with be at the Moore Funeral Home, Batavia Ohio Moore Family Funeral Homes | Newtown, OH this week. Burial will be in his hometown and childhood village of Batavia Ohio. Memorials  to TBD.
Green signals ahead.
Randy
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Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/23 13:49 by E25.

Sorry to read this news.  R I P.
jb

That's sad news!  I met Greg and Kathi back when 1522 first started running.  Nice people.
Thoughts and prayers for his family.

Sorry to hear that news.

I did a lot of work with Greg over the years.  He put on a couple of charter in Chama in the 1990's that I worked with him on.  Later I assisted him in putting together videos of vintage  D&RGW narrow gauge operations.

God Bless, nothing but high green signals to you Greg.

Sorry for the family's loss. Greg was a great videographer and will be missed!

Chris



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/23 16:31 by Mudrock.

Boy how the years have slipped away…

Greg and I first met for the 1991 Rotary OY event in Chama, along with his wife Kathi and daughter Heather. Even though we were competitors, we kept running into each other and struck up a friendship. Not long after the Rotary I was working with Countertop Video, which later became Topics Entertainment on a project, and they needed specific footage that I didn’t have but I knew Greg did. Thus started our video collaboration. In late 1993 they approached me with a concept for a cross-country rail program that would be marketed to a general audience, not just the railfan community. As I started to realize the scope of what they wanted, the conclusion was reached that there was no way I could do it myself, so I asked Greg if he’d be interested in the project.

After we talked about it awhile, he got on board, and “America by Rail” was born. We looked at various scenarios, and decided to go from Washington, DC to San Francisco, and stop at some of the tourist railroads that were somewhat near the line.

So we were off! I shot all the on-board Amtrak stuff, and we both shot line side. Sometimes Greg would be trackside while I was on board, other times we would go out together after I did my ride. By golly, we chased those silly trains all across the country! The other day somebody told me that what I did was the ultimate in railfanning. Well, let me say this, there was railfanning, and then there was Greg. Unless one spent the time with him that I did, you never saw just how hard he worked. He was willing to drive just about anywhere to shoot a steam locomotive.

When we shot our last America by Rail, “Route of the Southwest Chief” there was one day where we followed that fool train for 550 miles. In one day! We finally had to stop for fuel, knowing that by now we had no hope of catching it because it would be getting onto the 90mph trancon.

One thing the railfan community needs to know about Greg, he was all about ACTION, particularly steam. Greg had a knack for getting steam at work. I helped him shoot AT&SF 3751 on its’ run from LA to Chicago. Those who were there remember that it was mostly pushed by the diesels to conserve water, although it did work on occasion. And, you can guess who got it working….Greg! He got it absolutely blasting out of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, while two minutes later it trundled by me…

Back to America by Rail, it was kind of a mixed bag for Greg. His great love was steam, he really wasn’t an Amtrak fan at all. I know that many folks did not think that a music soundtrack belonged in a train video, but this was absolutely insisted on by Countertop/Topics. Years later we talked about the program segments where we thought the music really worked and where it didn’t do so well. But in the end, the ABR series was a smash hit. At the time, if a railfan program sold 3,000 copies it was an exceptional release. The first America by Rail sold over 100,000 units on VHS before we lost count. And we both learned many years later that many of today’s 20-something fans got their start by their parents putting America by Rail in the VCR.

Greg and I talked quite a bit during our travels about the future of the hobby and how get young people interested, not knowing that we were doing just that. As far as we were concerned, we were just out shooting trains!

After America by Rail we did some joint projects together, and I helped him shoot some Greg Scholl releases, and he helped me shoot some Railway Productions programs.

But I finally got around to getting married, and eventually adopted our daughter, so the days of Greg and I going off for a month at a time were over.

You’ve heard of the “railfan” side of Greg, but I’m going to miss my good friend. He dearly loved his family, his daughter Heather was the apple of his eye. He also talked about the friends he had in the railfan community. Many of you know who you are.

If you want to honor Greg, find a copy of one of his old steam programs. 614 on the coal train, the South Africa stuff, anything with 765. Ignore that it’s standard def 4:3 fuzzy-on-modern-screen video. Turn up the sound. Watch the ACTION that Greg captured. He was all about giving his viewers great value for their money and if you look at even his oldest stuff, you’ll find it. Our hobby has lost a giant, and some of us have lost our friend.

Les Jarrett
Railway Productions

Man that is sad to hear, he made some great videos over the years, he's gonna be missed!

My sincere condolences to friends and family.  I have enjoyed many of his video productions over the years.  He brought many railroads of the country into the livng rooms of so many who could never dream of visiting them.  I am thankful for his contribution to this hobby.

This piece of news saddens me. I have bought many of Greg's DVDs over the years. In my opinion, he was one of the greatest railroad video producers in the country. A legend that will never be forgotten. He will be missed. 

Godspeed, Greg. Long may you ride a steam train over a clear track in Heaven.

Alec

Wow, 
He will really be missed....
He caught many of the "one-time only" Steam Operations run by Ross..
I'm so glad he caught the action.

Like so many have prayed, he'll find the steam gods in heaven ...
What stories they could tell.  
Many of his heroes are there, waiting to welcome him.

RIP ( Rest In Plenty ---- of Steam!

Wes Camp

 

This news took me by surprise.  I worked with Greg on many of his video projects over the past several decades.  He was so good to work with.  Sad news indeed.

Martin

Wow, very sad news. I have always enjoyed his work, and greatly respected his craft. I only met him a couple of times along the way, briefly, but both were enjoyable meetings.

Sincere condolences to his family, fiends and colleagues.

Greg was local to me, although I didnt know him personally. He was a prolific videographer and his contributions to our hobby were great. Those contributions will be missed

Posted from Android

I was aware he had been in declining health in recent years, but damn.  I've enjoyed a lot of his stuff over the last thirty-plus years.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

Wow very sad to hear, his videos were excellent! Condolences to his family

Really sad news, haven't talked much in the last few years but another of those I've known for
many years.  The end always comes too soon!

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/23 22:39 by callum_out.

Sorry to hear this. I also met Greg back in '80's and talked with him several times over the years, even just a few weeks ago.
Although we were competitors, Greg was also a friend. I will miss him.

Jim Herron

Although I never met Greg personally I feel like he was a close friend as his videos have graced my living room so may times. RIP Greg

This messages was sent by Brady Sanker who doesn't have a TO account but wanted to post his rememberance of Greg...As a child and teenager I collected many different steam videos from several producers, but for some reason I never had gotten any from Greg Scholl. Growing up in Kentucky, my favorite steam locomotive was Louisville & Nashville 4-6-2 #152.  This engine had very few professional shows produced of it, but Greg had two videos on it from its mainline career in the 1980’s.  I had never seen any of Greg’s shows, so I ordered the 2 he had on 152 as a test at age 15 to see if I liked them.  Those shows were so well done and to my liking with no music, minimal narration, and lots of great steam action that I quickly began ordering many more of his videos on all my other favorite engines such as 611, 765, 4501, etc.  He had a great catalog of videos and it was my goal to collect most of them as finances would allow.By 2010 I was a 20 year old crew member on the L&N 152.  Greg came down to shoot a late October weekend and took a cab ride with us too.  He produced a video from this visit, but more importantly, a friendship began between us, mostly through email.  Some days we would exchange multiple emails per day.  At this point in my life I was chasing steam as I could, and shot my own home videos, which were not horrible, but left plenty to be desired.  I would send my videos to Greg and he would critique them on what I could do better or what I was doing right.  Sometimes I thought he was really particular (and he was) but I started learning a lot of the tricks of the trade that is needed to shoot a good scene of a steam locomotive in action.Greg was not getting out a lot by this point in his career, and most of his productions during this time were of vintage film material, however, in the coming years I would see him out every so often shooting engines in the east such as Southern 630 & 4501, and N&W 611.  611 was probably Greg’s all time favorite locomotive and for good reason.  He had seen it and sister class J’s on the N&W’s Cincinnati-Portsmouth “Peavine” line as a kid in the 1950’s, not to mention the 611 is amazingly well built, powerful and beautiful.  By the time 611’s latest life in steam began in 2015, my video shooting skills had improved greatly over the last few years, and I attempted to chase it in Virginia and North Carolina as much as I could.  In 2016 Greg had shot one weekend of 611 trips in Roanoke and his brother Randy filmed a weekend in Manassas, Virginia.  I was there for both of those weekends in addition to others.  Greg saw my video footage of 611 and recruited me to help him make a set of videos on its return to service.  While compensation had to be modest since the video business was a fraction of what it once had been, we agreed to an arrangement and suddenly I had been paid for doing what I loved and was having footage of mine used in a professional production alongside both Scholl brothers.  The end result was a pretty good trio of videos full of great action of a beautiful locomotive putting on an unbelievable show of hardworking, mainline steam railroading.As the years went on and Greg’s physical health deteriorated, it became harder and harder for him to shoot much steam, but he was able to keep editing and producing shows from footage obtained from several videographers, including myself, allowing him to produce shows from very recent steam operations. Some shows I had just a few scenes in, and others were 100% shot by me.  For years Greg had tried to convince me I needed to visit southern Colorado and experience the Cumbres & Toltec and the Durango & Silverton.  I finally did in 2021 and have already made two repeat visits. Some of that footage was used in various recent productions.  While I had always been a fan of the Colorado Narrow Gauge, Greg’s encouragement helped push me to go out there and fully appreciate how great it is. The final set of videos Greg produced were on the Reading & Northern 2102 and 425, mostly from footage shot by me.  These shows were just released a few weeks ago and he was quite proud of them. With 2102 and 425 being among the loudest and most impressive engines running today, they seem like a fitting subject for his final productions.For 13 years Greg was one of my best friends.  Greg was very particular on what he considered to be good steam action and sometimes wasn’t impressed with things I enjoyed, but with good reason; this was a man who had witnessed regular service steam as a child on the N&W, D&RGW narrow gauge in the 1960’s, not to mention numerous trips to Europe and South Africa to see the end of the steam era around the world.  And of course he had been trackside in full force in the U.S.A. in the 1970’s-90’s to capture outstanding steam action from excursion engines such as 2101, 614, 765, 611, 1218, 844, 3985, 4449, 1522, etc.  It therefore took a lot to impress him, but when you saw him smile with a great scene you had taken of 611 or 2102, you knew you had captured something worthwhile. Overall though Greg and I had many shared interests and viewpoints in the world of steam and enjoyed discussing those interests in great detail.Losing Greg is a huge loss to anyone who enjoys watching a real DVD of good steam action.  I’ll echo what Les said and suggest you buy some of his videos from the 1980’s or 90’s and see how Greg was able to preserve great moments in steam operations that have long since passed.  Thanks Greg for all you taught me and for all the great videos over the years.  It was an honor to shoot for you towards the end, but the stuff you shot back in the “good old days” will always by far be the best.Brady Sanker