Eastern Railroad Discussion > What happened to some of the biggest producers of train videos?

What happened to those whom made good quality dvd videos, they were so great at their works. This included highball, big e, broken knuckle video, green frog and many others.....

nick

They were killed by the death of physical media. Why would anyone shoot video and then go through the great expense of creating DVDs, advertising them, and shipping them? You have to wait for customers who have money in their pocket who will order and then patiently wait for the mail to arrive. 

Instead, one can simply shoot video, edit it, upload it to YouTube, promote with shorts on Instagram, etc. The advertisers pay the bill for your basic viewers, so your viewers can watch instantly at no cost. And, for the percentage of viewers who have money to burn, they can subscribe to your premium content. Glory of glories, that monthly subscription comes to you even if they don't watch your content. 

Since the barriers of entry are comparatively lower, I would argue that there are probably more high-quality content producers out there than in the days of physical media. However, for the same reason, there are more inept/lazy/inexperienced creators than ever, churning out low quality content. As a result, it may seem like there isn't any good content anymore. No, it's there, just camouflaged by the bad stuff. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/26 12:50 by Tss515.

Social Media and YouTube plain and simple. In my younger days I would order multiple videos every year. As a teen they made up a large portion of my Christmas lists. I prefered contemporary steam videos. It now seems like ancient history but back then you'd be aware of some steam event. Several months later you'd read a report and see still photos in trains magazine. A few months after that (maybe 6 months after the fact) someone would come out with a video. Or if I was actually there, it was the ultimate souvenier to accompany my poor quality snapshots and grainy home movies. Nowadays when there are events you have people posting live updates. Within 24 hours you have folks far more talented than I am posting very well edited videos. The camera that everyone has on their phone does a better job than the professional cameras of 30 years ago and editing can be done on the fly. I do miss the fun and anticipation of getting new train videos, but the reality is, we have access to almost everything we'd want to watch right in our pockets for no cost.
 

Technically, Green Frog, Pentrex and Greg Scholl video productions are still around So far as I understand. Pentrex made a video covering 4014's maiden voyage in 2019. 

Scholl's death has likely meant the end of new productions but I believe I read his family continued running the business. Open to corrections.

Just like broadcast TV killed the newsreels at movie theaters. 

Another case of video killed the radio star

GP40 Wrote:
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> Technically, Green Frog, Pentrex and Greg Scholl
> video productions are still around So far as I
> understand. Pentrex made a video covering 4014's
> maiden voyage in 2019. 

Pentrex made a video back in 2019 as mentioned and has sold a few new videos since (14 Miles, Cajon Pass for example) but they primarily are sellers of existing catalogs.  Initially this was Pentrex titles but now includes Highball and Green Frog if not others.

7idea Productions still makes excellent videos but besides the physical media market, they are now heavy into YouTube, which I hope is making them a decent return.  They make excellent videos.

It certainly is easier to put out a video on  media than  the history, write the narration and then put the DVD together.  And there has been no easily   media with the digital capacity for today;s cameras and phones to replace blue ray .  In my case I am still selling my  but haven,t made any new ones since 1999.  I make little or no money off selling them but we have customers that still want them.  We are fortunate that we don't need the  from the business.  First the pandemic stopped my traveling, then shoulder  and two knee replacements slowed me down.  Now my wife is an invalid and I care for her 24/7 and seeing my  is top priority.  At 83 I think that I could still do it but my wide comes first.  I can still drive long distances as I was able to get away and visit my son and his family in northwest Illinois where I grew up last fall and see my  play football and volleyball.  The volleyball team got 2 in the state in their class - the smallest -  the football team reached the semifinals.  And we have a new great grandson there - one of 6  kids, 16   3 great  with one more on the way.  My joy was documenting change and writing about it  would like to  the changes that have occurred in the past few years but it is not likely to happen.
Dick 
Big "E" Productions
Greenland, NH
bigeee@trainvideos,com

I made an 11 part Norfolk southern train video of trains at wyomissing, its equilvalent to your longer videos that are 2-3 hours long, but then i also have stuff to cover the NS Danville division, CSX Philly, trenton and lots of stuff at Point of rocks, harpers ferry and duffelds, I have some form of variety in my collections. 

nick

7idea Productions makes excellent Blu-ray DVD'S. He is based in the PNW, and has covered numerous rail lines in the western US. Not so much in the east.
If you are looking for recent high quality DVD'S, these are worth the money

Posted from Android

P Wrote:
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> 7idea Productions makes excellent Blu-ray DVD'S.
> He is based in the PNW, and has covered numerous
> rail lines in the western US. Not so much in the
> east.
> If you are looking for recent high quality DVD'S,
> these are worth the money
>
> Posted from Android

Blu Ray has recently been discontinued as a format. Gone the way of Betamax a generation ago.

Art House

P Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 7idea Productions makes excellent Blu-ray DVD'S.
> He is based in the PNW, and has covered numerous
> rail lines in the western US. Not so much in the
> east.
> If you are looking for recent high quality DVD'S,
> these are worth the money
>
> Posted from Android

And 7idea has also put a lot of stuff on Youtube now 

I have a very extensive train-related dvd collection (probably close to 650).  I've purchased from all of the major producers, and totally agree that new releases are way down.  I'm a huge fan of 7idea, and have 95% of his releases; really top-notch work there.  And actually he has just released Pt.1 of a 2 part series on the CN iron-ore lines in MN.  As a side note, I was on the film crew of Left Coast Rail Videos from 2008 to 2018, which were our last trip to Idaho and Montana.  We received many nice comments from customers and always had a great time, but in all honesty, the  majority of sales-proceeds covered travel-expenses, which was fine.  The owner, who was a one-time TO member, sort of lost interest in it, I guess you could say.  I hope that we can someday get out together again. 

Diverging Clear Productions still exists. Mary McPherson, who runs it, occasonally posts on TO. https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,6170367. 

Isn't she also an Amtrak engineer? 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/26 10:32 by symph1.

Darthsimpletext Wrote:
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> What happened to those whom made good quality dvd
> videos, they were so great at their works. This
> included highball, big e, broken knuckle video,
> green frog and many others.....
>
> nick

Charles Smiley Presents still occasionally releases titles. Right now they are uploading clips of their DVDs on youtube and getting good views from them.

remember there use to be a library you could rent from, think i saw some or got their list decades ago