Steam & Excursion > Little River Railroad 110

Since she's been brought up in a few other threads, here's Little River Railroad 4-6-2 #110. I made a pair of trips to Coldwater in 2012: in May and October. This montage is compiled from all five days of shooting.

Today's Little River Railroad was a great place to work, as I was allowed to mount cameras and microphones in various locations in the cab, on the tender, and on the engine. The fun thing about mounted cameras like that: you might end up with an hour and a half of footage with no intention of using more than 15 or 30 seconds of each shot. Flash memory sure makes those kind of shots possible! We rented a caboose on a Halloween special, and used it for sound recording and multiple camera angles.

The shot of the oil lamp on the conductor's desk and the coal fire in the cast iron stove were from the Halloween train. The fire in the stove wasn't for show either; it got a tad nippy outside! I thought those shots added a bit of atmosphere; just a glimpse of railroading the old fashioned way. Could it have been the view from a freight on a secondary line in the thirties, perhaps?

Enjoy!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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Wow Mary, that is REALLY impressive!

It sure sounds like that jewel of a pacific needs a bit of attention to her machinery, i.e. valve setting & quartering, as well as piston rod packing. In spite of that, she sure puts on a nice show.

Great job again. I love the men at work sequence. Well done again.

One thing I noticed along with the off-beat cadence, and it doesn't quite translate on the soundtrack, is that she has an almost metallic ringing quality to her exhaust. I've never heard anything like it on a full sized locomotive. Unless, that is, you want to count the Crown 4-4-0s I saw running at Busch Gardens in Florida in 1988; they had that same sonic quality to them.

I think I got lucky with my visits. The May weekend had a Civil War theme, and the Saturday train was longer than I suppose would be usual. In October, they had everything that was operable tied to the drawbar. Made for an impressive show on the hills between Coldwater and Quincy.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

Nice look at 110, Mary.

John.

And here she is on a photo charter in the rain in 2009.

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Wow, very nice video! I got a liking for that little engine this past summer when it worked out of Owosso for the steamfest. I will have to go to Coldwater again sometime when this little jewel is there; I lived in nearby Union City in 1966 to 1968 and took my very first train picture on the NYC Michigan Air Line when I was 8 years old! === === = === JLH

Very nice!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

Love that photo!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

More great video, Mary, and thank you. Some of those shots, the fireman coming back into the cab, the uncoupling and others had to be hand held. You have done an exceptionally stable job with those. I would have been all over the place.

Like I said before, If you look at 'er coming at you, she looks like a 19th century ten-wheeler...

nycman Wrote:
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> More great video, Mary, and thank you. Some of
> those shots, the fireman coming back into the cab,
> the uncoupling and others had to be hand held.
> You have done an exceptionally stable job with
> those. I would have been all over the place.

Thank you!

It's a big camera with the shoulder pad on the bottom and a big handle on top. It's designed for being used that way.

The low level shot of the engine backing by after the uncoupling shot is one of my trademark "handheld while sittin' on her butt" shots.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

I thought it was funny that you mentioned the Crown 4-4-0. When I listened to the video the first time there was a place when I said to myself, gee, that sounds like our Omaha Zoo Crown #119. Interesting......

Thank you Mary. What a fantastic production. Merry Christmas