Nostalgia & History > Rare 1930s and 1940s color fims early Diesels and more

If anyone else has seen these very rare films recently on youtube

 including some color of long gone railroad scenes  very early main line diesels  mainly Milwaukee  Rd but coverage is nation wide in others scenes 


look for Periscope Films page and this title





1930s MIDWEST STEAM TRAINS & STREAMLINERS IN ACTION HOME MOVIE (SILENT) MD86544

Thanks for sharing. The footage of the switchmen running back and forth at St. Paul Union Depot throwing the "puzzle swtiches" with a constant parade of trains and locos running back and forth is priceless. I note GN, CGW, Milwuakee Road, CB&Q (Zephyrs), Northern Pacific, C&NW and one switcher lettered "St. Paul Union Depot". Look at the one guy standing on switch rails directing a train with hand signals!


Let's see how many roads in the entire film we can identify in addition to the above: I note SP, Rock Island, Edaville tourist RR, FEC, an unidentified  Canadian RR, Southern, DM&IR,  Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Seabord Air Line, Atlantic Coast Line, Santa Maria Valley, GM&O and Soo Line.


There are a lot of gems here but the Milwaukee shop switcher, high speed Hiawatha footage, City of San Francisco, a Santa Fe passenger with one of the Santa Fe box cab locos, Milwaukee in Montana, a steam boat at St. Paul?, footage of operators in a tower, an engineer's view in a Zephyr at high speed and steam locos, meets with other trains, and unidentified (to me) streamlined stainless steel steam engine with stainless steel train (CB&Q?), a Milwaukee Doodlebug and trailer,  a Southern mixed with ten wheeler in green, and the 1939 Worlds Fair? At the very end is a tripple-header steam freght I beleive in the St. Paul area with smaller engines.

And there is pacing, footage from the cab steam and diesel.

Thanks again for letting us know about this.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/20 20:46 by wabash2800.

i thought the best with these films was trying to identify the various locations

the Florida color films were very rare... have never seen these early passenger SAL, ACL diesels in color on film this early in their service



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/20 00:45 by bakersfielddave.

Also search for" STREAMLINED " STREAMLINE MODERNE 1930s RAILROAD PROMOTIONAL FILM MD86524TAW

Great stuff. Too bad it's fantasy, probably photoshop or something. We all know with 21st Century expertice that none of this is real; it can't be done. There are too many trains, that are way too clean, moving too fast to be real.

TAW

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great stuff. Too bad it's fantasy, probably
> photoshop or something. We all know with 21st
> Century expertice that none of this is real; it
> can't be done. There are too many trains, that are
> way too clean, moving too fast to be real.
>
> TAW

Your sarcasm is totally unbecoming TAW.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA