N&W 1218 - Shenandoah Div. 1991 / N&W 611 - Shaffer's Crossing 1994

My motto is ANY photograph or ANY video is better than nothing.  You never know what you might see or might learn from them.

Watch the 611 one, I just noticed that they left the "Rail Washer" on.

Great footage Jim,  thanks for posting it.  

Big Jim,

Thank you for posting.  We were living in Virginia at that time, and I saw both.  I borrowed a camcorder that I took to see the 1218 run from Alexandria to Charlottesville.  I first saw it about halfway.  I have photographs of the 611 somewhere.

I found the recording of bthe 1218 a while back.  The tape quality is deteriorating, and I have it and some of the children out to my son-in-law who is a videographer to digitize.

I Know the video was from 1218, because I was holding our infant daughter late in the evening when it was returning to Alexandria.  That little girl is getting married this year, and we will be empty nesters.

Thank you again!

if that was May of 91, I was on that trip. And Kevin Rice (now at WMSR) was firing the northbound run. Thanks as well for sharing!

Thanks for posting Big Jim. I looked hard for a close family friend of my parents, Mr. Frank Collins.

I knew he wasn't on the 1218 or at least running the engine, as he could play music with a locomotive steam whistle.................Thanks again Big Jim

It's funny that I live thousands of miles from the nearest NS track, so other people who even saw NS program excursions are rare, more so people who rode on them.

I tell people I rode behind 1218 and 611 in my teens and 20s, and you'd think from the reactions of the younger folks that I remember dinosaurs walking the earth...

As an example:

At about 1:16, I see myself leaning out of one of the windows of the car behind the tool car in this Jacksonville/Valdosta run. I would have been 18 at the time. It's from a commercial video they made of the trip.

Hey Lee that's pretty cool. 

Mark Boyce posted:

<Snip>

I found the recording of bthe 1218 a while back.  The tape quality is deteriorating, and I have it and some of the children out to my son-in-law who is a videographer to digitize.

I didn't realize you could digitize your children now.

Technology seemingly knows no bounds.

On a serious note, you are absolutely correct about the deterioration of videotape.

The worst culprit is something called "Sticky Shed Syndrome" wherein the tape polymers absorb atmospheric moisture and the surface becomes sticky, causing it to stick to itself, the guides in the cassette housing and the guides, capstan and head drum of the video playback device.

I am in the process of digitizing my collection of VHS and Hi8 tapes. So far I've digitized about 120 purchased VHS railroad videos, 21 self-produced VHS cassettes and 10 of 23 self produced Hi8 cassettes. About 12 of the commercial VHS and one of the Hi8 tapes have been rendered unplayable due to the aforementioned Sticky Shed Syndrome. 

I am attempting to rescue those by a technique I read about on video tech sites. I have sealed two of them in a vacuum canister (Foodsaver) along with packets of silica gel desiccant, the theory being that the desiccant will draw the moisture out of the tape allowing it to be played without the stickiness. I only need to get it to play through one time and then I don't need to worry about the videotape ever again.

Digital storage has become fairly inexpensive. Using a couple of multi-terrabyte external drives, I have captured and stored my original footage in DV-25 format, which is of extremely high quality and easily editable. One hour of DV-25 video requires about 12.7 GB of space. A one terrabyte drive will hold 80 hours or 20 full videocassettes.

The pre-recorded train videos were saved in mp4 file format which requires far less storage space, about 660 MB per hour.

Don't forget to backup the files onto another drive because drives eventually fail.  You don't want to learn that the hard way.

One note for any one still using Windows XP.  XP won't recognize any drive larger than 2 Terrabytes. One of my drives is a 4 Terrabyte which I can only use with by Macbook or Windows 7 computers. I use that one as my Master Video Backup, so that isn't an issue for me.

One final note: Maxell High Grade and 3M (Scotch) High Grade VHS cassettes played like brand new, even 30 years after they were recorded.

I had some issues with Fuji High Grade which I switched to in the final years of my VHS recording period (1988-1991)

They were all stored together under the same conditions so I have to conclude that Maxell and Scotch produced a better product than Fuji.

Nick Chillianis posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

<Snip>

I found the recording of bthe 1218 a while back.  The tape quality is deteriorating, and I have it and some of the children out to my son-in-law who is a videographer to digitize.

I didn't realize you could digitize your children now.

 

Technology seemingly knows no bounds.

 

On a serious note, you are absolutely correct about the deterioration of videotape 

Ha, that is a good one, as one could take it as that is what I wrote.  Yes, the wwonders of technology.  lol

Come to think of it, I guess in effect that is what we do.  We no longer have the children as they were at 1 year old, or 5 years old.  That is only a memory whether it is in our minds or on film, tape, or optical disk

Thank you for the information on recovering tape and digitizing, especially backup.  Always backup your gold!

Good stuff Big Jim

Dave Albright posted:

if that was May of 91, I was on that trip. And Kevin Rice (now at WMSR) was firing the northbound run. Thanks as well for sharing!

Kevin is a really nice guy. I have met him several times in Cumberland. Here we are in the cab of 734. I believe Ed took this photo at Helmstetter's curve several years ago.

Big Jim posted:

I was going through my old videos and found these two. That's right, they aren't Oscar material. You will just have to excuse the shaking as I had no tripod. Also, 25 & 22 years ago there was no HD.

The first is N&W 1218 on the Roanoke Dist. of the former Shenandoah Div. in 1991.

 

The second is N&W 611 arriving at 24th. St. (Shaffer's Crossing) on its final trip before mothballs on Dec. 7, 1994. The incessant noise in the background is the shop forces load testing a diesel.

 

 

Sorry, I wrote a "thank you for sharing" but I neglected to hit send.

Excellent footage, Jim.

I was out shooting in those years as well. 1991 was about when I transitioned from VHS to Hi8 format, a significant boost in quality (240 lines of resolution to over 400).

My Hi8 footage stands up well, even today when compared with HD.

1991 sounds about right.  My son would have been 3 and we went to Manassas one night to catch 1218 resting in the yard.  It seemed to be a living thing, panting and wheezing before taking a nap.  I'll have to ask my son if he remembers that as vividly as I do. 

Thanks guys. 

I may be mistaken, but, this may have been the trip where the 1218 broke down on the CSX. It was making a circle trip north from Roanoke to Glasgow on N&W tracks, then over to the CSX at Balcony Falls and east to Lynchburg. Then up the old Southern line to Montview Yard and back west to Roanoke on the N&W. Somewhere on the CSX I heard that one of the spring hangers broke. 

Dave, do you remember anything about that?

I seem to remember that happening on a trip, but not the one I was on. My trip only went to Glasgow around the wye at Balcony Falls and back to Roanoke. If it jogs your memory, it was a Sunday trip. The Saturday trip was Roanoke-Bluefield RT and Monday was a one way trip to Bluefield. Was a great weekend and one that Kevin and I still talk about!