Tracks Ahead: Season 9 – Fillmore & Western Railway

Black-and-orange painted locomotive moving on a city street.

This PBS Tracks Ahead segment visits the Fillmore & Western Railway, home of the “movie trains”, located in Fillmore, Calif. The operating collection of railroad equipment and various sites have been featured in numerous cinematic presentations. […]

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Learning the lingo at Flagstaff

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At Flagstaff, Ariz., where Santa Fe operator Elisa Lindenberg apprenticed in 1943, an operator hands up orders to an FT-powered eastbound perishables train in 1947. Joe Lynch The time was August 1943, the place, Flagstaff, Arizona. My mother, Elisa Ward Lindenberg, and I had come west because Zane Gray’s books had captivated her and she […]

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Drew’s Trackside Adventures: Episode 24 – Florida East Coast revisited

A red-and-yellow-painted Florida East Coast locomotive passes through green vegetation under cloudy skies.

Winter can take its toll on even a hardy soul like MRVP host Drew Halverson. But that’s not the only reason he returned to Florida in January! Drew, along with Mike and Tom Danneman, headed to the Sunshine State’s eastern coastline to explore the Florida East Coast Railway and track down their newest diesels, GE […]

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Drew’s Trackside Adventures: Episode 25 – Quarry tour along the CN main

Close-up view of a rock-carrying conveyor belt in a rail-served quarry.

Through special arrangements with Lannon Stone Products, Inc., a rail-served rock quarry along the Canadian National main line, host Drew Halverson and the MRVP video crew follow knowledgeable employees through the Sussex, Wisconsin, operation. In this industrial-sized adventure, you’ll enjoy seeing unique footage of rock blasting, crushing, processing, loading, and hauling, plus plenty of modeling […]

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Get well soon

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Southern SD45 3134 leaves a pall of smoke over the depot area at Salisbury, N.C., July 17, 1977. Mike Small Growing up in close proximity to a main line, I’ve always valued speed and power in railroading. We lived about a mile south of Jamestown, N.C., where Southern Railway’s Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Ga., route […]

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‘19 west, copy 4, Plains’

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Three NP F units lead a 12-car train 2, the Mainstreeter, through Plains, Mont., in summer 1964. The depot’s train-order signal projects above the third unit, while a mail pouch is ready to be snagged by No. 2’s RPO. Bruce Butler In the summer of 1964 I had just about the best summer job that […]

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Tracks Ahead: Season 9 – C&O in N scale

Jeff Ashby next to a track layout.

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Visit Jeff Ashby’s Chesapeake & Ohio N scale layout in this segment from the hit PBS series Tracks Ahead — available on MR Video Plus before it hits the airwaves! […]

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