North Coast Limited Video April 1968

[Steve Thompson]

I finally got my old 8mm movies of the NCL digitized, edited and posted over at Vimeo NCL Video

I rode the NCL from East Auburn to St. Paul during spring vacation when I was 16 and shot 8mm movies from the Vista-Dome. I wish I'd shot more and caught our train from the ground, but there are some pretty nice scenes in here. My favorite is meeting the westbound NCL about 6 min and 30 seconds into the video.

Steve

 

[Jackrabbit]

Exellent videos. Thanks for sharing. I'm a big NP fan, so it was nice to see operations from back in those days.

By the way, I could ID quite a few of your numbered locations in the Centralia to Vancouver video. Some of it seems out of order though, like the area near Woodland showing up before the famous MP 111 crossover. Great stuff though.

Ken

 

[Steve Thompson]

Centralia to Vancouver locations

Ken,

Out of order? You bet they are! The were on 50' reels of 8mm film, mixed in with family stuff, in no particular order when I started. I've ridden that line quite a few times, but not enough to recognize many of the views.

I'm hoping that others will do the work for me If you could post a list of the spots you know, I'll do some re-arranging of clips. Once I've got them in the right order, I'll do a final version with better titles, transitions, music, etc.

I have a series of color slides at many of these locations from the same era. They are identified, but only a couple are the same views. These were taken by Tom Miller, an NP engineer friend who left them to me. I'll add them to the show as well.

Steve

 

[Jackrabbit]

Steve,

Watched the video again, here are a few observations:

- 00:44 is just south of Solo Point ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=dupon...c=6&hnear=DuPont,+Pierce,+Washington&t=h&z=18 ). If you look closely on the right, you will see the old narrow gauge tunnel under the main that Dupont used.

- 2 is just south of Vader, climbing the hill there southbound ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Vader...src=6&hnear=Vader,+Lewis,+Washington&t=h&z=17 ). In my dumber days, a friend and I crossed the bridge on foot there and climbed that hill. Great photo locations, but the northbound trains sneek up on you.

- 3 is further south crossing the Cowlitz River ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Vader...src=6&hnear=Vader,+Lewis,+Washington&t=h&z=17 ).

- 4 I think is crossing the Lewis River bridge northbound.

- 5 is possibly just south of the Cowlitz River bridge.

- 05:30 is north of Woodland. The highway on the left is now the northbound lanes of I-5. The southbound lanes would be built in the area of trees on the right.

- 10 is northwest of Woodland and just south of where I-5 southbound now crosses over the main ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Vader...src=6&hnear=Vader,+Lewis,+Washington&t=h&z=16 ).

- 11 is the Kalama River bridge. The area to the right is now a huge elevator complex ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=kalam...=6&hnear=Kalama,+Cowlitz,+Washington&t=h&z=17 ).

- 12 is the famous crossover at MP 111 just south of Kalama. Photographers frequent this area in June when the light is good to get a shot of both train and river together ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=kalam...=6&hnear=Kalama,+Cowlitz,+Washington&t=h&z=17 ).

- 13 is likely where the Yacolt branch cuts off of the main ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=ridge...&hnear=Ridgefield,+Clark,+Washington&t=h&z=16 ). Notice the bridge and the high tension power lines crossing the tracks.

Hope this all helps. I will see if I can get some of the other areas nailed down when I have more time.

Ken

 

[Steve Thompson]

locations

Thanks a bunch Ken!

That will really help.

A question for all, I have 40 or so color slides taken by NP engineer Tom (TC) Miller that are from the same era and similar scenes, but much sharper of course. Should I include them in the video, mixed in with the film in appropriate spots, at the beginning or end, or not at all? If I include them, how long should they stay on the screen while the video is playing? 8-10 seconds?

Also, I have many hours of recordings about the various jobs working out of Tacoma, made by my father. These are telling it like it was in the mid 50's to the early 60's. Should I include any of these? I have several of them on my website already. There's some great stories here!

Steve

 

[ES44AC]

I recognized the whole scenery on the Stampede sub, it all looks the same to this day except the removed telegraph poles and the trees are taller, Tunnel #4 is still the same, some sidings have been removed, the second main between Lester and Easton has been shortened at Easton and it's all single main from Lester to Tunnel #4.

 

[ES44AC]

The fan house at Tunnel #3 was removed and there are concrete snow sheds at both ends which was installed back in 95 during the rebuilding of the whole sub.

 

[Burt Foster]

xcellent footage, loved the NP. In high school we chartered the NP from Minneapolis to Fargo.

 

[Ragnar]

A question for all, I have 40 or so color slides taken by NP engineer Tom (TC) Miller that are from the same era and similar scenes, but much sharper of course. Should I include them in the video, mixed in with the film in appropriate spots, at the beginning or end, or not at all? If I include them, how long should they stay on the screen while the video is playing? 8-10 seconds?
Steve

Mr. Thompson,
Your contributions to the 'net are always great! This film was really cool. Thank you for it.

As for editing, I think you've got a good eye for what looks good, so whether you choose to put the still shots from TC Miller into this video, or make a separate video just for them, the results will be just fine.

Can't wait to see your next creation.

 

[Geared Steam]

Enjoyed the clip, especially & 3:44, climbing up the west side of Homestake Pass, and paning to the right to see the valley and Butte MT.

 

[rrboomer]

Liked your movies!!

In Sept '63 rode NCL west from Chicago-Spokane. My most vivid memory of the trip is crawling up Homestake and then suddenly the whole valley spread out in front of us as we dropped down to Butte. There was actually an audible gasp from several passengers.

rrb