B&O and C&O Steam in the 1950s and ’60s, with Live Sound

Live sound, recorded on 16mm film at the time shooting the footage. The program really brings the B&O and C&O steam era to life. This is the mid-1950s. We’ll see freight trains, including freight with B&O’s giant EM-1 in the mix, it’s always a good day when you see a 2-8-8-4 articulated! We’ll also see freights with 2-10-2’s and 4-8-2s and then passenger trains pulled by Pacific and Mountain types.

In the 1950s, sound-on-film as it was called was quite rare with the home/hobbyist market. The equipment needed to do this was bulky and quite expensive. Fred McLeod offered films of trains for sale in the 1950s and 1960s, so he was a cinematographer who could afford the equipment. He used a 16mm Auricon camera to capture these scenes. The Auricon required considerable effort with the camera, tripod, recorder and used automobile batteries for power.

When we get to the the C&O, we see mostly the famous 2-6-6-6 H-8 class Alleghenies! We’ll also watch one scene of a streamlined 4-6-4 on a passenger train, and then a Mikado pushing a train to get it started. Film of C&O steam power, particularly the Alleghenies, are extremely rare and hard to find, so this is a show you will want to watch more than once!