Steam & Excursion > Hopewell Productions

There have been a few people over at a certain internet video site that have been attempting to preserve old out-of-print video titles for people that were not around in those days.  I've posted some old and obscure stuff myself.

This has led to a fortuitous circumstance, where Rich Melvin of Hopewell Productions and FWRHS fame is working with O Gauge Railroading (which he is former publisher of) to begin releasing his old Hopewell titles to the magazine's channel.  It should be a few weeks before the first of them begins to appear, and I told him I would help spread the word.  This all came about with some back-and-forth about the Chessie Steam Special program "The Train to Everywhere."

He says eventually all of the old releases will be made available with the exception of Nickel Plate Road 765 titles, which he has transferred the rights of to FWRHS.

I'm sure there is plenty of stuff coming that I've never seen, and I'm looking forward to it!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/25 11:01 by MaryMcPherson.

That sounds great !
I have a whole closet full of VHS tapes I can no longer watch. Not sure what to do with them.
 

Great news, I have a couple of VHS titles myself which I can't play but would love to see again.

Tom

get some vhs machines from classifieds? i need to

Cool to hear!

Posted from Android

train1275 Wrote:
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> That sounds great !
> I have a whole closet full of VHS tapes I can no
> longer watch. Not sure what to do with them.
>  

Have you heard of a company here in Chattanooga called Legacy Box? They can convert VHS to digital. An entire closet would be pricey but maybe if you wanted to pull what you consider the "best of the best" it could be reasonable.

Mike Derrick

Posted from Android

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> train1275 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That sounds great !
> > I have a whole closet full of VHS tapes I can
> no
> > longer watch. Not sure what to do with them.
> >  
>
> Have you heard of a company here in Chattanooga
> called Legacy Box? They can convert VHS to
> digital. An entire closet would be pricey but
> maybe if you wanted to pull what you consider the
> "best of the best" it could be reasonable.
>
> Mike Derrick

Would they do copyrighted commerical videos?  I wasn't referring to home movie type videos.

Hmmm...Darn it, that didn't even cross my mind. Yes I fully expect that would run afoul of copyright law.

Posted from Android

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
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> Hmmm...Darn it, that didn't even cross my mind.
> Yes I fully expect that would run afoul of
> copyright law.
>
> Posted from Android

Check the age of the video and the production company.  Copyrights have to be renewed and if they aren't, then the video is public domain.  I have had some commercial VHS tapes transferred to digital because the company no longer exists and the copyright expired.                                        

Be aware that tape, audio or video has a limited shelf life and may be expiring. What happens is the magnetic coating begins to flake off the plastic base. It behooves those who own private or commercial video tape of a certain age (20 years, maybe?) to have them transferred to video. I did all mine some years ago and at that time saw a noticeable degradation of video quality.  Spent my career in advertising production and have witnessed oxide literally disintegrating before my eyes as tapes ran through the player.