Nostalgia & History > SP4449 Heads North, June 1984

From some super8 movies I shot during the 1980's converted to digital video. This short movie clip was made of the World's Fair Daylight returning to Portland in 1984. My then very young sons and I chased the train north. This video is unpublished and features a full daylight train with McCloud steam, SP, Amtrak and even some BCR Alco action. Since the film was silent, some music from the band Everyday Jones was dubbed in to give it a bit of a Winterail flavor.

Hope that you enjoy this video.

~Steve Sloan
San Jose, CA

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Nice Video from the past; however the music that you put on here is inappropriate for it.  Why didn't you put some train song on here?  Just my opinion.  
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Nice video, and the added music gives it a winter feel.
One must be careful nowdays and add home-made or non-copyright music to thier videos to avoid any lawsuits.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Nice video, nice music. Thanks for posting.
Bill Pyper
Salem, OR
 

Liked the vgideo and thought the music was excellent, much better than a train song in my opinion.

John,

Would you like a new rope?


Nudge

Brings back good memories of chasing the train from Sacramento to Cascade Summit with the overnight in KFalls. 

In the video, a single helper is on the point as the train climbs out of Mott.   In a following near darkness scene with Mt Shasta in the background, you can barely see two helpers on the point.     Why the change?

As I recall, the dispatcher desired to have the helper available for a following train and the '49's crew was confident they could make the Grass Lake summit unassisted and agreed to have the helper removed at Andesite.   Hearing the radio chatter, my friend and I headed to Andesite and positioned ourselves well east of the siding.    Leaving Andesite, Doyle opened up the throttle to get the train moving which was quite a show for the few of us trackside.    After the train passed us, forward progress began to slow down and eventually she stalled.

Another call was made for assistance, this time from locomotives on a westbound freight holed up at Grass Lake waiting for 4449 to pass.   Tieing up the freight and repositioning the diesel locomotives as '49's helpers took some time.   Hence the near darkness of the second scene with multiple helpers.    This second set of helper power was removed at Grass Lake and the Daylight continued on to Klamath Falls arriving well past its schueduled time.

With the evening's darkness, we put down our cameras and just paced the train.    Since I was not the driver, I spent several minutes just admiring the sounds and sights of the 4449 rolling into KFalls at speed.    Aside for the marker and cab lights, the only additional light came from the firebox flame flashing.       A vivid memory.      



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/18 22:08 by KMiddlebrook.

ssloansjca Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From some super8 movies I shot during the 1980's
> converted to digital video. This short movie clip
> was made of the World's Fair Daylight returning to
> Portland in 1984. My then very young sons and I
> chased the train north. This video is unpublished
> and features a full daylight train with McCloud
> steam, SP, Amtrak and even some BCR Alco action.
> Since the film was silent, some music from the
> band Everyday Jones was dubbed in to give it a bit
> of a Winterail flavor.
>
> Hope that you enjoy this video.
>
> ~Steve Sloan
> San Jose, CA

I like the music, thanks for sharing.

I agree. The video was nice. however, the music - not so much!