DVD

Great Trains of America Eastern & Western Railroading

Average customer rating:

Misleading editorial review
A Great Ride

Great Trains of America Eastern & Western Railroading
Starring: Great Trains in America
Manufacturer: Goldhil Home Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Documentary | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Locomotion - The Amazing World of Trains
Trains Unlimited - The Golden Age of Steam (A&E DVD Archives)
Trains Spectacular
War Trains
America's Scenic Rail Journeys

ASIN: B00004XMUD
Release Date: 2000-07-07

Amazon.com

An incredible resource for railroad and history buffs, Great Trains of America Box Set looks at historic trains and railroads to understand the emergence of railroads as a binding force in American history. With the help of interviews with historians and railroad experts, legends and folklore are explored as well as the mechanics and maintenance of locomotives. Special segments on the two DVDs include passenger train history, the Pacific Railroad Act, commuter train operations, and the controls on Amtrak's EMD 103 super locomotive; train safety and air brake operations, a how-to guide on operating steam and diesel locomotives, and modern freight train operations are also shown. The DVDs' special features include Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, digital railroad sound selections that make fun use of Surround Sound, and Internet links. --Erik Macki

Customer Reviews:

Misleading editorial review.......2006-08-23

The amazon review of this as stated is misleading. Stating that the content is with history and, well, the overall review is contrary to what is in the DVD set. It appears that a Small Mom and Pop type of company produced it in a manner where quality was not the top priority. The content is mostly from a spectator view. Almost as if the footage was compiled from tourists footage.
VERY little historical or tech data. Simple interisting tech data. The sound is poor. Voice dubbing is misaligned on one of the segmants. The transition from chapters is abrubt and it skips. Regarding the trains, 90 percent of the trains in the content are small Shay and Cg type trains. Only 2 segments have 'real' steam locomotives that the layman would recognise.
The speacial features are very short and some of it is renditions of the chapter content of the main feature.
This set is by any definition inadequate for the price and quality of content and material advertised.

A Great Ride.......2003-02-17

This DVD is a must for train fans. It covers some of the best scenic railroads in the USA. (The Cass Scenic Railroad is a personal favorite--a great trip through West Virginia's mountains in spactacular fall color.)

Great Trains of America: Western Railroading

Average customer rating:

In support of the other review...
Great for some --Miserable for others

Great Trains of America: Western Railroading
Starring: Great Trains in America
Manufacturer: Goldhil Home Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Great Trains of America: Eastern Railroading
Locomotion - The Amazing World of Trains
The World Class Trains: Rocky Mountaineer
The Royal Canadian Pacific
Great Trains of America Eastern & Western Railroading

ASIN: B00004XMUC
Release Date: 2000-07-07

Amazon.com

An incredible resource for railroad and history buffs, Western Railroading looks at historic trains and railroads such as Colorado's Georgetown Loop, the Grand Canyon Railway, Northern California's Big Trees Narrow-Gauge Railroad, Western California Railroad, and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad while exploring the emergence of railroads as a binding force in American history. With the help of interviews with historians and railroad experts, legends and folklore are explored as well as the mechanics and maintenance of locomotives. Special segments include train safety and air brake operations, a how-to guide on operating steam and diesel locomotives, and modern freight train operations. The DVD's special features include Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, digital railroad sound selections that make fun use of Surround Sound, and Internet links. --Erik Macki

Customer Reviews:

In support of the other review..........2006-08-03

...an episode was selected off this disc at random (Grand Canyon Railroad) and by studying both screen seconds and total shots, I found that a ridiculous ONE-THIRD of the show had tourists as the obvious focus of attention, i. e. "cute" kids, elderly people, people looking out of windows, etc... On top of that, the steam locomotive in action recieved only about 5.5 minutes out of the show's 30-minute running time, which is about ONE-FIFTH of the show. Excuse me???

When neither of those things are on screen, it's mostly talking heads. One or two of the speakers are good -focusing on the railroad's history - but the others were terrible - in paticular a conductor who won't stop gushing about "the smiles on peoples' faces" and how "if they're happy, I'm happy."

From my statistics, it's obvious why these shows were produced - simply as giant, half-hour long commercials. That's not a bad thing if you're planning a family vacation, but if you're here to see steam locomotives, turn elsewhere. If that's the case, I highly recommend the far more professionally made Pentrex videos instead of this gettaway-planner schlock.

Great for some --Miserable for others.......2001-07-13

If you want to spend money on a tourist train infomercial this is a good set(I bought east and west in one set). If you were planning a tourist train ride and want a sampler of what is our there this CD set would get you started. Great footage, scenes, maps, times etc. A very good job and a lot of information with wonderful people.

OK now why do I hate it.

Simply, not enough trains and locomotive shots, if you are into trains,trains,trains, you might as well try to use this set to replace your worn out frisbees.

There are way too many interviews, talking heads, stupid tourist scene shots, wasted footage on kids heads, old peoples heads,hungry people, more people. They should have called this "Pictures of people who like trains"

I really dont want to spend my money on a train CD that shows repeated footage of people being fed cheap food in a cafeteria. How about this... the inside of a bunch of offices, with more talking heads. They could have used space for some really good stills etc.

Some of the train engineer interviews are good, and the video conversion is decent, but there is too much "tourist filler ugly wasted moronic footage" and not enough great train footage, if you have ever seen good train videos.

How many people do we have to look at in each section,wasnt this supposed to be about trains??

Sorry, but this is a canned production that would make a Disney hype package look amatuerish on any day,but if you are wanting to take a train trip......then buy this..... it is superb, you could probably find more faster on the Web, and not have to suffer through all the people shots,but it is a great tourist CD package. The side shots of trains being worked on are ok first time around but that becomes filler too.

In all fairness they were trying to capture the whole train tourist experience scenery,the spirit behind it all and present a well rounded CD, so there it succeeds,very very well.

Next time around more trains , way,way,way, less people shots and train rider shots and train robber shots, and kids, and more kids, and more kids, and people on a bench, and people eating and people walking,and people in line and people in offices,and more people (I was amazed there wasnt a bathroom on the train shot) ......IF ITS GREAT TRAINS OF AMERICA... THEN BRING ON THE TRAINS. Keep up the good work!!!

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