Nostalgia & History > Riding Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr & DRGW's Rio Grande Zephyr

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Starting with snow on Donner Pass, this is a home movie shot on silent 8mm film in the late 1970's of a trip from Sacramento, California to Denver, Colorado and back when I was a teenager. Majority of filming was done with a hand held camera from the trains I was riding, starting with the Amtrak San Francisco Zephyr, lead eastbound by and SP unit and Amtrak SDP40F locomotives. At Ogden, Utah there is a scene of Union Pacific EMD E9 locomotive #954 on the point of the Amtrak Zephyr, as well as what was either the Desert Wind or Pioneer with Amtrak F40PH #229 being pulled in alongside the Zephyr by a UP switcher. Next is the trip aboard the Rio Grande Zephyr from Salt Lake City, Utah to Denver, Colorado and back. It was a wintry, snowy scene once east of the Moffat Tunnel. Finally, the last few minutes are the return on the San Francisco Zephyr over Donner Pass, and passing the Southern Pacific's diesel maintenance facility at Roseville, California. The film was transferred to VHS videotape in 1981+/-. Free music was added to cover previously dubbed sound, so you may want to just mute your speakers while watching...LOL![/color]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/21 16:00 by espee51.

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Thanks for sharing a great video and the advice to mute it. lol Serious though, great images of a great time. Its a huge shame that technology was slower than the demise of some of the greatest days of railfanning. Expensive film and developing, 8mm or 16mm, if we were real lucky someone with sound. Now days we have digital camers to take as many pictures as we like and high qualty video that you can shoot for days. Unfortunatly the subject matter is pretty much the same everywhere.

Really enjoyed the film....AND the music!

That's the way we rolled back in the 70's!  Domes, dutch doors, and 8mm film!  Was it even Super 8?
Good quality color with the digitizing!  Was that the Reno Fun train at Sparks, with the F40 and Amfleet?
I'm going to watch it again!
 

mp51w Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's the way we rolled back in the 70's! 
> Domes, dutch doors, and 8mm film!  Was it even
> Super 8?
> Good quality color with the digitizing!  Was that
> the Reno Fun train at Sparks, with the F40 and
> Amfleet?
> I'm going to watch it again!
Ogden
>  

Few things in life are more pleasing to watch than F units leaning into a curve!

Thanks for posting,

-John

My family did the Oakland-Chicago with RGZ side trip in ‘76. Looked much like this so this brings back great memories.

Posted from iPhone

WAF Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mp51w Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That's the way we rolled back in the 70's! 
> > Domes, dutch doors, and 8mm film!  Was it even
> > Super 8?
> > Good quality color with the digitizing!  Was
> that
> > the Reno Fun train at Sparks, with the F40 and
> > Amfleet?
> > I'm going to watch it again!
> Ogden
> >  
It must have been the Pioneer trainset then, but no 10-6 sleeper?

no sleeper at first