Trains

Trains Spectacular

Trains Spectacular on DVD: scenery, side trips & steam locomotives!

4 Complete Videos:

All aboard for railroad excitement with Trains Spectacular, the 4-DVD collection of rail videos that explores the great trains and spur-line itineraries, past and present. America by Rail: The West Coast takes you on a 1,600-mile trek along the U.S. Pacific Coast from San Diego to Seattle, highlighting the breathtaking scenery and unusual whistle-stops along the way. Change direction with America by Rail: The Heartland, a coast-to-coast journey from D.C. to California on some of Amtrak's most celebrated trains. Thrill to the steam-powered action captured by multiple cameras in Ohio Steam Spectacular, a video ode to the golden age of the Iron Horse. Challenger 3985 showcases the powerful majesty of the world's largest operating steam-powered locomotive, Union Pacific's #3985, aptly dubbed "Challenger". Whether crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains or pulling in to Denver; aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train or a plume-spouting 1943 steam locomotive, these video rail voyages make! for a true Trains Spectacular.

The DVD Maximum line is an exclusive video series presenting the best from independent producers and filmmakers in 4-DVD boxed sets. Look for other themed boxed sets in the DVD Maximum library, available from TOPICS Entertainment®.

$80 Value if Sold Separately!

RISING FROM THE RAILS: The Story of the Pullman Porter- DVD

**Also available in VHS with limited extras** RISING FROM THE RAILS: THE STORY OF THE PULLMAN PORTER, a documentary based on the best-selling book by Larry Tye, chronicles the relatively unheralded Pullman Porters, generations of African American men who served as caretakers to wealthy white passengers on luxury trains that traversed the nation during the golden age of rail. Unbeknownst to most of their white passengers, porters played critical political and cultural roles, becoming trailblazers in the struggle for African American dignity and self-sufficiency, patriarchs of black labor unions, and helping give birth to the Civil Rights Movement. Ultimately, however, their greatest legacy is that which they left to future generations. RISING FROM THE RAILS is an engaging and moving tribute to these men who rose, with dignity, from the rails.

Travel the World by Train: South America

"Awesome" is the only word to describe the vistas in the South America volume of the Travel the World by Train series. When the train departs from Quito, Ecuador, passengers are permitted to sit atop it, on the roof! (No virtual reality for these thrill seekers.) The conductor warns riders to duck under low bridges as intrepid food vendors make their way along the tops of the swaying cars. We ascend into the Andes Mountains, overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of the natural world.

The tourist excursion from Cuzco, Peru, is cushy by comparison. The views from the train windows may be just as spectacular as those on the Ecuadorian route: 9,800-foot mountains, raging rivers. But here, comely train attendants serve passengers coca tea for altitude sickness. The ride terminates at mind-blowing Machu Picchu, the mysterious lost city of the Incas. Another Peruvian trip provides rare aerial panoramas of the baffling line drawings of Nazca: hundreds of colossal, two-dimensional figures of monkeys, condors, and lizards etched into the desert hillsides centuries ago. The sight of 3,200-square-mile Lake Titicaca, at 12,500 feet the highest navigable lake in the world, is equally stunning.

A wood-powered steam train shoos cattle off the tracks in sleepy, agricultural Paraguay. Journeys through Brazil, Chile, and Argentina (including rugged Patagonia) complete this fascinating train tour of South America; all in all, it's a splendid initiation into the myriad beauties of this vast and varied continent. --Laura Mirsky

Travel five continents in a 55 country rail trip in this ten part series. On this journey, we travel through Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and finally Argentina.

Travel the World by Train, Vol. 5: Asia

Beginning amid the Buddhist temples of Myanmar, the railroad odyssey featured in Travel the World by Train: Asia takes the viewer aboard trains in six nations in Southeast Asia before leaping to Beijing, where the final leg of the trip is an amazing 5,700-mile jaunt through China and across Kazakhstan to the final destination of Moscow. This video often leaves the rail route for side trips to temple ruins and other equally startling sights in the countries along the way, and the footage of scenery as well as of trains is always professional and often quite striking. The trip through Vietnam, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, aboard the Reunification Express surprises with its appreciation for the natural beauty of the Vietnamese countryside. The video really doesn't offer much information about how Westerners could book such a trip for themselves, and some shots aboard the trains indicate that some of the accommodations (hammocks swinging in crowded train cars and lunches of chicken feet served on skewers) probably wouldn't entice most Western tourists anyway. But what the video lacks in practical instruction it makes up for with glorious footage of trains and remarkable scenery. --Robert J. McNamara

Travel five continents in a 55 country rail trip in this ten part series. On this journey, we travel through six countries in Southeast Asia and across the Siberian continent from Bejing to Moscow.

Great Trans American Train Ride

It's all aboard for adventure as travel expert Doug Jones guides you on a spectacular coast-to-coast journey on 3 of America's greatest trains! You'll experience the breadth of America, from the great cities of the East to the heartland prairies, from the majesty of snow-capped mountains to the Western desert. You'll take the fabled Broadway Limited from New York's Pennsylvania Station, through Philadelphia and Pittsburgh before changing at Chicago's Union Station for the legendary California Zephyr. Then it's across the rolling prairies and soaring mountains to Salt Lake City where you'll climb aboard the Desert Wind as it departs to Las Vegas and the California desert before making it's way, finally, to Los Angeles. The Great Trans-American Train Ride will carry you from "Sea to Shining Sea" on a romantic and nostalgic journey aboard the last great passenger trains of the USA.

Travel the World By Train: Europe 2

The second European volume in the Travel the World by Train series is a grab bag of locations from western Portugal to northern Finland, at the edge of the Arctic Circle. The first trip departs from Paris and traverses the Loire region of France. This line might well be called the "Castle Express." Then one boards the super-fast TGV to the province of Bordeaux, producer of arguably the world's finest wine. Ancient Roman history permeates the very air here. Another train runs through France's Basque country, passing the resort town of Biarritz, a favorite surfing spot. We cross a bridge into Spain and we're now in Spanish Basque country, in the picturesque Pyrenees Mountains. One of the more affecting Spanish sites is the town of Guernica, destroyed by Nazis in 1937 and immortalized in Picasso's powerful painting of the same name.

After journeys through Portugal, it's on to Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland. Memorable sites here include gorgeous Belgian Art Nouveau architecture and dazzling Dutch fields of tulips and windmills. When the train leaves Stockholm, Sweden, we are suddenly in a very different environment. The Scandinavian trains pass towering, dramatic fjords, sparkling lakes, and huge evergreen forests where reindeer run. These trips are shot in summer in a land where the sun barely sets at midnight: the effect is magical. As with all the videos in this series, the cinematography is impressive and the narration enlightening. --Laura Mirsky

Travel five continents in a 55 country rail trip in this ten part series. On this journey, we travel from Paris through Loire and Bordeaux. Spain through the Basque Provinces; Luxembourg and Belgium and finally through Holland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Travel the World By Train: Europe 3

Travel the World by Train: Europe, Volume 3 takes viewers on a journey through Germany and some of the more visually pleasing regions of Eastern Europe. Germany's famously extensive and efficient rail system is given a fine showcase here. On the so-called "Fairy Tale Road," the train stops at picturesque old haunts of those famous fairy-tale collectors the Brothers Grimm: towns such as Bremen (of the Bremen Town Musicians) and Hamelin (of the Pied Piper). The "Castle Road" trip departs Frankfurt on the Intercity Express, Germany's fastest train. This route features massive medieval edifices and such bastions of German romanticism as Heidelberg Castle, interspersed among vistas of verdant natural beauty.

Beginning in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, a train follows "The Romantic Road," passing Neuschwanstein, the grandiose castle built by Bavaria's "Mad" King Ludwig II. Looking like "The Little Engine That Could," a tiny Czech "Rail Bus" chugs up a 3,000-foot mountain in the Bavarian forest. The Hungary trip introduces us to the beautiful capital of Budapest, bisected by the Danube River. Magyar horsemen ride Hungary's sweeping plains. Idyllic farms dot the landscape of the Romania route, which leaves the capital of Bucharest for the Black Sea resort of Constantsa. From Belgrade, Yugoslavia, through Sofia, Bulgaria (the "greenest city in Europe"), the video's last route looks eastward toward the gateway to Asia: Istanbul, Turkey. --Laura Mirsky

Travel five continents in a 55 country rail trip in this ten part series. On this journey, we travel from Germany to Eastern Europe and the Czech Republic.

Travel the World by Train: Central America

Superb cinematography showcases stunning vistas in otherwise inaccessible areas of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Jamaica in the Central America/Caribbean volume of the Travel the World by Train series. The video also opens a window onto the diverse peoples and cultures one meets along the routes.

The footage in Mexico is most impressive. Embarking from the beach colony of Los Mochis on the Gulf of California, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad climbs the arid Western Sierra Madre Mountains. Viewers accompany thrill-seeking tourists on a wild and wooly ride, ascending 10,000-foot peaks and traversing truly treacherous-looking bridges. Vultures soar in the wind, as though waiting for a snack of fallen passengers. The train stops in a village where smiling mountain tribespeople sell handmade baskets. Next, it passes through breathtaking Copper Canyon--four times bigger than the Grand Canyon. The Mexico City-Yucatan Peninsula route stops at the towering ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. This journey is indeed atmospheric: the sticky air clings to the skin; monkeys jump from tree to tree in the jungle outside.

The trip from Guatemala City on the Pacific Ocean to Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic is a market route: antiquated trains on rickety tracks transport adventurous tourists amid Guatemalan families toting livestock. Little separates passengers from the elements: rain sprinkles into the train through glassless windows; the only source of illumination is the conductor's flashlight. Further intoxicating "South of the Border" adventures await viewers of the excursions through Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Cuba. --Laura Mirsky

Travel five continents in a 55 country rail trip in this ten part series. On this journey, we travel through the countries of Central America. Mexico through the Yucatan Peninsula, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, and the Gulf of California.

America's Steam Trains-On the Road With Frisco 1522

The age of steam may be long gone, but in St. Louis there is a link to that bygone era. Frisco 1522 until recently was a fully operational steam locomotive that ran on occasion.

In this program, you'll see 1522, (which is a 1926-built 4-8-2 "Mountain-Type" engine) leading the "Employee Appreciation Special" for the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway, and then pulling a trip at the National Railway Historical Society convention in St. Louis.

While on the Employee Appreciation Special 1522 puts on a great show as she pulls the train from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, then on to Ft. Worth. This is no amusement park train just chuffing along, 1522 really gets up and goes!

Features:
*Running on her old Frisco rails in Missouri
*Pulling the Employee Appreciation Special in Oklahoma and Texas
*Pulling the NRHS convention special from St. Louis to West Quincy and return.
*Plenty of scenes where the locomotive is really working.
*DVD includes chapter menu, crystal clear video and sound.

If you like steam locomotives, then you'll want to see one of steam railroadings shining stars as she helps people young and old relive the mighty days of steam!Approx. 60 minutes. From Railway Productions

America's Steam Trains-Steam in the Spring

Spring is a special time of year to enjoy steam railroading. The budding leaves and melting snow make for a beautiful backdrop to great steam action.

"Steam in the Spring" features a logging train with Heisler # 6 on the Cass Scenic Railroad, Soo Line 2-8-2 #1003 pulling freight in Wisconsin, Pere Marquette 2-8-4 #1225 pulling a passenger extra in Michigan, Ohio Central 4-8-4 #6325 pulling a passenger train, and Cumbres & Toltec 2-8-2's 484 & 488 with action on the entire line between Antonito, Colorado & Chama New Mexico. You'll thrill to the steam action in this program. 1 hour, 45 minutes. DVD included chapter menus and the ability to turn narration on or off.