Union Pacific, 10 Discs, 20 Hours (Pentrex Combo Series)

In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act which created the Union Pacific Rail Road. That railroad has grown exponentially and may soon become (with the acquisition of Norfolk Southern) a truly transcontinental railroad. There’s a lot of history there, and we bring you some of that on video.

Blue Mountains Combo For the Union Pacific Railroad in the early 1990s, railroading in the Blues – the 200-mile segment of UP’s Oregon Division Mainline – meant staggering grades, extreme weather, and 3 daunting summits. What a great bit of American railroading to capture!! Video Rails did just that when it set out to film the power of the Union Pacific as it faced its toughest run. Volume 1: La Grande to Huntington Dramatic footage covers all the action from La Grande to Huntington. Climbing out of the Grande Ronde Valley and heading past Oxman Curve and through Burnt River Canyon, Dash 8-40CWs, SD40-2s, C36-7s, and SD60s take on the 2.2 percent grades of UP’s roughest helper district. Trailer trains, container trains, double stacks, grain, soda ash, auto racks, and Amtrak are seen on this exciting journey. Volume 2: La Grande to Hinkle Scale the Blue Mountains from La Grande northwest through Hilgard and Motanic to the summit at Kamela. Ride the cab of a GE Dash 8 and get an engineer’s view from a helper set on the rear of a UP freight. SD40-2s, C36-7s, 8-40Cs, and an SD60 are seen at Meacham Creek Canyon, the Umatilla River, and beyond. Volume 3: Winter in the Blues Travel the 56-mile “snow zone” of the Blue Mountains from North Powder to Meacham in the dead of winter. Climb the steep grades to the summits of Telocaset and Kamela, and then barrel across the Grande Valley through La Grande. A steady stream of UP trains have to battle against heavy snows in this formidable obstacle course and you’ll be trackside to appreciate the challenges they face!

Kansas City Rails The numerous freight yards and rail lines criss crossing Kansas City form the second largest rail hub in the United States. With nonstop action across the metro area, this city is every railfan’s dream! In 1996-97, Pentrex cameras captured all seven major railroads that make their way through Kansas City: Amtrak, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CP Rail, Kansas City Southern, Gateway Western, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific. You’ll visit many hot spots such as Rock Creek Junction, Murray and Argentine Yards, Union Station, Santa Fe Junction, Hannibal Bridge, Truman Drawbridge, the West Bottoms and much more. There’s even the rare appearance of a jet snowblower in action on KCS! Motive power ranges from aging SD40s and SD45s to the modern SD90MAC, and includes fallen flags Santa Fe, Burlington Northern, Southern Pacific, and Chicago & North Western. This metropolitan rail center has a lot to offer and Pentrex covers it all for you. Enjoy great action and excitement on Kansas City Rails!

Union Pacific’s Marysville Subdivision, Part 1 Step back to the late 1990s to experience Union Pacific’s Marysville Subdivision. Here you’ll find high density railroading at its finest. Union Pacific sends up to sixty trains a day across the Sub’s hilly terrain. This primarily single-tracked line spans the sparsely populated region between Kansas City and the junction with UP’s mainline at Gibbon, Nebraska. The rails cut across a rolling landscape rich in scenic beauty, where trains work hard to conquer the uneven profile of the land. Starting at Gibbon Junction, the incredibly active meeting point of the Marysville Sub and the Nebraska Division mainline, we follow the route east along the Nebraska prairie. A new bypass around Hastings speeds trains up and over a busy Burlington Northern line. Soon after crossing into Kansas, the line becomes double-tracked and carries trains swiftly into Marysville, the crew change location and the stopping point for Volume 1 in our tour. Union Pacific’s diesels put on a spectacular show, rushing train after train over the line. The railroad’s newest motive power can be seen pulling heavy coal trains and speedy intermodal freights. The single-tracked portions of the route provide ample opportunity to witness numerous train meets.

Sunrise to Sunset 2, A Day at Rochelle Trains rattle across the diamonds at Rochelle, Illinois, where the double tracks of the Union Pacific and the double tracks of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks intersect. Cameras were set up before dawn at Rochelle on a busy day in 1999 to record every train from sunup to sundown, over eleven hours. An unending parade of intermodal, coal, and manifest trains flow past our cameras, headed by a vast array of motive power representing most modern locomotive types. Train symbols and destinations are shown for all movements across these former Chicago & North Western and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy diamonds. This busy spot draws railfans from around the world like a magnet. To cope with the growing numbers of eager fans, the community of Rochelle constructed a unique railroad park complete with covered pavilion. It was an instant success, but not without obstacles, as you’ll hear from the crusader who fought great odds to make it a reality. Join us for a day at Rochelle where trains just keep on rolling past the pavilion. It’s a fascinating location and an amazing story that’s turned Rochelle into a railfan hot spot on the Midwestern prairie!

Ultimate Beaumont Hill 6 hours on 2 discs! At the border of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in Southern California lies one of the most interesting and scenic mountain passes in the Southwest. Some call it Banning Pass or San Gorgonio Pass, but most railfans simply refer to it as Beaumont Hill. Pentrex is pleased to present complete coverage of Beaumont Hill from West Colton to Indio in six hours of pounding, railroading action! Although it peaks at only 2,591 feet above sea level, Beaumont Hill still presents sufficient hardship to rival taller passes. Flanked by Mount San Gorgonio to the north and Mount San Jacinto to the south, it has a beautiful charm all its own. Known now as UP’s Yuma Subdivision, the 76-mile line is mostly double-tracked and busier than ever. In addition to Union Pacific, you’ll see engines from Ferromex, NS, CSX, BNSF, CEFX, GCFX, plus survivors from C&NW, Rio Grande and SP – and those are just the units we captured on the point! You’ll also see the SP, MKT, Mopac and WP Heritage units. Many engine models are represented, ranging from the SD38-2 to the newest SD70ACe and Dash 840C to the mighty GEVO. We even caught a rare GP15-1 in double stack service! Autos, lumber, and intermodal trains dominate the line. The “Rock Train” and Amtrak’s Sunset Limited are well covered and UP’s Centennial 6936 is seen pulling many passenger specials. There’s much more to see in this unending parade of dazzling color, open throttles, squealing brakes, and serpentine curves!

Doublestacks Over Donner Pentrex traveled to Donner Pass in the winter of 2009-2010, spending several weeks to capture the revitalized action that can now be found on the Roseville Subdivision. The Union Pacific had just finished a 12-month project to increase the clearances in 15 tunnels and snow sheds on Donner Pass so that doublestack trains could again be routed over this crossing of the Sierra Nevada range. Southern Pacific once ran doublestacks over Donner but as larger containers with extra height evolved, the double stacks just wouldn’t make it. SP successor, Union Pacific, had been compelled to route its container trains over the Feather River Canyon instead, and traffic on Donner declined to a trickle of its former intensity. However, in 2008 UP decided it would be worth the cost to “raise the roof” on the shorter, faster line to expedite delivery of intermodal freight by several hours when compared to the more lengthy transit of the former Western Pacific line. As a result, traffic is now flowing over Donner in abundance! You’ll see types of trains showcased here: grain trains, fruit trains, auto trains, general freight, and Amtrak’s California Zephyr. We’ll show them battling the stiff grades and serpentine curves that railroaders face on Donner. The spotlight, however, is on the enormous doublestack trains, some of them up to 9,000-feet long! Once again, the sounds of laboring diesels hauling containers by the hundreds echo off the granite walls of this historic pass. At last you can see those massive doublestacks slugging their way over the crest of the jaw-dropping 7,000-foot summit.

Train Meets Double the Action, Volume 2 This is the second show Pentrex has devoted to that rare, sought-after moment in railfanning when two trains are meeting each other or running side by side. Train Meets 2 continues the pace with an hour and a half of nonstop, screen-filling, multi-train action featuring two and sometimes three trains in every scene. Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific trains are the stars of this show, with an occasional appearance by Metrolink. The action takes place throughout Southern California at Cajon Pass, San Timoteo Canyon, the BNSF Needles Sub, the San Bernardino Sub between Colton and Fullerton, and the Tehachapi route. You’ll see a variety of modern high-horsepower diesels heading up trains at Cajon and Summit on Cajon Pass, the flyover at Frost, Daggett, Colton, and Santa Ana. Some unusual treats include a BNSF passenger special at Colton and a UP officers’ special meeting the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus train on Tehachapi Pass. It’s great viewing.

Southern California Rail Journal 2010 Southern California Rail Journal delivers more trains, more variety, longer running time, and more railroading adventure than ever! All new footage, not used in any other Pentrex show, is presented to you in the same chronological order as it was recorded so you can experience the year’s activities just as if you were side-by-side with our rail journalist as he sought out the best locations and movements in this densely trafficked region. Along your journey, you’ll pay a visit to the Surfline to catch Amtrak and Coaster commuter trains as they battle Miramar Hill and other sites on the route. You’ll be there in May to see former Santa Fe 3751 making her third trip from Los Angeles to San Diego and return on the following day, including the much talked about photo run-by at the Poinsettia Station. You’ll also see the 3751 one week later when she pulls a short train over Metrolink’s San Bernardino line to the Railroad Days Festival being held at the San Bernardino Station. Colton Crossing and the Cajon Subdivision present their own brand of heavy traffic. You can enjoy trains streaming past two of the area’s last remaining wigwags, including the soon-to-be-abandoned portion of Union Pacific’s Riverside Branch. Even more variety was found on Beaumont Hill, Cajon Pass, and busy Pepper Avenue in West Colton.

Tour of the M-10000 In 1934, the Union Pacific Railroad introduced a revolutionary new passenger train by sending it on a whirlwind tour of the country, stopping at more than 65 cities and covering more than 12,000 miles en route. The streamlined, high-speed M-10000 fascinated millions of visitors with its innovative appearance, unique aluminum alloy hull, and distillate engine power plant. Promotional events were staged and special souvenirs were distributed to generate interest and excitement about this new, modern marvel of travel. Pentrex, in cooperation with the Union Pacific Historical Society, has carefully computer-enhanced, re-edited, and added audio to the original silent film produced by the Union Pacific Railroad promoting this significant milestone in passenger train development. Now you can step back to 1934 to experience the M-10000 in action and the gala events surrounding its debut. View photos of the tour, see the throngs of visitors and dignitaries, and take a look at the memorabilia created for it. The film and materials used in this production, which have rested in archival vaults for sixty years, are now available for your enjoyment. Black & white footage.