This never before seen chapter on loading coal trains with color film shot 50 years ago as well as fresh material from 1996 and January 2000. The setting is the beautiful Wasatch Mountain range and its punishing 2.4% grades where helpers are a way of life. The town of Helper, Utah was still a stronghold for Rio Grande units with showcase helper action and sets up to seven units!
The chapter shown here focuses on the Utah Railway that shared the tracks in the region.
Here’s a review of the overall production…
Model Railroad News comments: “Charles Smiley Presents captures some of these moments from the past through heritage film and contrasting those scenes with rail traffic of today in “Reflections on Soldier Summit. This is an interesting collection of images and anyone who is a certified Rio Grande fan will want to watch it. And if you’re not a Rio Grande fan, this DVD will make you at least a little bit sorry it’s gone.”
“Tracking the evolution of the railroad through various avenues, his images convey the awesome territory that the Rio Grande conquered, and the brute force of the trains that did it. One of the hallmarks of the Grande was its use of huge helper sets of six, seven, or more six-axle diesels, sinister with their paint soot-blackened by tunnel dwelling, prowling the twisting, turning rails. Modern yellow diesels of the all-devouring Union Pacific are shown on the same passes, and even though the UP is touted as wanting to avoid helpers, an SD-90 and a pair of high horsepower GEs still need extra oomph to get their coal up the grade—and sure enough, it’s black and orange diesels doing the pushing. Smiley showcases vintage Utah Railway ALCO locomotives, first early RSDs and later, Alligators off the Santa Fe, mostly still in yellow and blue.”
This is an interesting collection of images and anyone who is a certified Rio Grande fan will want to watch it. And if you’re not a Rio Grande fan, this DVD will make you at least a little bit sorry it’s gone.
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A super look at huge trains out West from our full length DVD "Soldier Summit Reflections" available at http://www.cspmovies.com
Yes ! RSD15 running ! You make my day 😊
Workhorse locos pullin all that coal. If i had a 4400 horsepower car, i guess it would pull ? Thanks Charles🎉
EMD F45 is in the video. I really do love the Cowl Units on freight trains.
Why aren’t Cowl Units used any more?
Those old Alcos sure put on a heck of a show.
Burning some serious diesel..
Super. 💙 T.E.N.
I drove flatbed trucks over Hwy 6 around 1998-2000 and loved seeing those monster sets of locomotives dragging long lines of cars through the winding route in the canyon. The loading facilities were quite a sight to see tucked between the river, rails, and rim of the canyon. Regardless of the politics and economics, the yellow, gray, and red highlights of UP motive power always catches my eye. Thanks for another great video that brings back great memories, Charles.
Great video, Thanks for presentation, from Germany
Rare to see that many mid-train power units. All slugging it out!
Have y'all ever tried to put together a DVD on the White Pass & Yukon Route or CN's Newfoundland Railway? You have a very impressive catalog but those are two additions to your library that I'd really like to see.
21:46 I’m pretty sure that’s an EJ&E gondola
Thanks for posting the films of the ALCo RSD-4 and the ex-Santa Fe RSD-15 units! They made me smile!