Railfanning the Northeast in Film

This is a re upload with corrections to the credits and about a half minute of additional material. It's a look at rail activity on the railroads of the northeastern US in the years I was growing up and coming of age. Generally, the order is from New England to the Mid Atlantic states geographically, and forward in time chronologically for each railroad. The credit panel at the beginning identifies the film sources. If there are any issues from the contributors, please let me know. Enjoy!

[@CR7966]

Recognized Ayer, MA right away. Really cool to see it back in the day

[@carbidejones5076]

Iloved seeing the EL transitonal schemes, well documented, thanks.

[@artvandelay0073]

Nice to see the vintage Reading stuff starting at about 25:00 minutes in...😄👍👌✌🇺🇸

[@Steven_Rowe]

Great footage. I was never a great fan of American diesels being British but then I moved to Australia and of course most of the diesels were EMDs or Alcos I learnt to really love these US type diesels The good thing about old diesels of course is the sound they make. Probably one thing is Unique here in that Victoria has the B, class diesel which is double ended and looks like someone has cut two EMD F7s in half and glued them together.

[@MrMopar413]

A time when there was no graffiti painted on train cars , awesome 👍👍👍👍👍

[@JohnR.1968]

Love the 60s-70s freight &passenger vids,keep them coming.

[@JimmyFoxhound]

Even the boxcars were cleaner back then 😢

[@daniellaubach8412]

Great footage of the railroads in the northeast. Ahh yeah I remember the EL passing thru Bloomsburg with a host of road power leading. I recall seeing GP35's alot of Alco pwr some GE's leading going north or south through my hometown on the Bloomsburg branch. Thanks for uploading this step back in time. Brings back memories as a little kid watching trains from my gram's & aunt's house.

[@billyrayvalentine309]

A very nice mix! Thank you.

[@carstrainsandcrossings8639]

I love watching your old videos keep up the good work

[@fmnut]

Thanks

[@danporter2345]

There's just something extremely cool and nostalgic about locomotives from this era! Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed it!

[@BaltimoreAndOhioRR]

Great footage! Happy weekend! ✨

[@terryboyer1342]

Sounds like you and I grew up in the same era. I lived in Saginaw MI where it was mainly C&O but also NYC, GT Western and Detroit & Mackinac ran through town. I was a train nut from an early age and hung around the tracks a lot. Got to know many of the engineers and conductors. Those were the days! Rail roads seem quite boring now in comparison to then.

[@fmnut]

That's why I do these old film videos, reliving the days of my youth.

[@kemaximusw7438]

Can't thank you enough for putting this video together but I will try - THANK YOU!!! I never lived in the northeast but I have always had an interest in the history of railroads in the region.

[@grahamsawyer831]

absolutely bang up job on the sound! really brings these clips to life. many thanks for posting

[@bp4170]

Great stuff. Really enjoyed the Lackawanna territory footage.

[@iusetano]

I had to watch again. Thank you. I loved watching. Amazing footage.

[@Alcorob]

Does seeing Penn Central equipment make anyone else sad? I loved the video but PC stuff always feels like seeing a tombstone for a couple great railroads

[@retr0bits545]

Like the Rock Island? It is the only fallen flag that has actually been revived decades after its forced liquidation by the U.S. government. They go by Rock Island Rail as nobody bothered to purchase the rights and logos after their bankruptcy. But since they are a private company their reporting mark (initially and still is in some cases) RILX.

[@johnsweigart3917]

Thanks so much for assembling this amazing awesome historic footage starting "Down East" and moving westward and south into the mid-atlantic states. Great job. Thank you!

[@AndreiTupolev]

Yet another great compilation. Are those Baldwins at 6:46? Some fantastic Alco clag @ 7:42. ☺

[@fmnut]

6:46 are Baldwin RF16 "Sharknose" diesels. Currently stored on the E&LS at Escanaba MI.

[@guitartrainbillkalkman77]

Loved the Alcos at Benny at 36:15.

[@elsdp-4560]

THANK YOU...for sharing. Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic!!!!!!!!!

[@feetachemail]

Great video! I love seeing these old trains in action

[@artkemberling7764]

Love the sound of those u-boats!

[@mikedc3]

Great stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!! So many places I've been but way after and too late. Thanks for sharing this!!

[@Alcorob]

Really nice stuff, so many of my favorites

[@bergencountyrailfan]

Cool! EL and CONRAIL used to run thru my town 🤩

[@markwilliams5811]

Truly a Classic! Nice Job!

[@tomt9543]

Now that was great! Sure do miss those days!

[@derrickwong5337]

Northeast passenger and freight are perfect!

[@newyorkcentralrrproduction1505]

Wow nice video gotta loved fallen flag railroad they where very great railroad back then :)

[@Dorpmuller]

Super job! Brings back many good memories.

[@popps2502]

Very good video it was nice to read the railroad names on the cars instead of that nasty looking graffiti and boring unitrans miss them days something awful.

[@davidvanschaick5565]

Super Good Stuff FMNUT; I'm not from anywhere near these, just like old RR vids, ty fmnut; LV paint schemes at about 20 min sweet;white / black lettering; 35min horseshoe stuff nice; at least I think it is

[@jeffreymcfadden9403]

41:25,,the RED BARRON! I saw 3067 one time, in august 1976. Just after CR. Still untouched by CR.

[@RippysRails]

Great footage, thanks for sharing!

[@b3j8]

You did an outstanding job matching up appropriate audio! The only thing I'd say is the RS unit's horn at 10:36 sounds alot better than the real thing did! Those single Alco horns often sounded like some dying animal!😄

[@ELSD45801]

This is fantastic!

[@trainandtruckmodeler786]

I wish I woulda went up to visit BAR but I was to busy on the chicago central

[@justinvreelandmusic]

Great footage! Were any of these shots taken in Orange County, NY?

[@fmnut]

Don't know. Perhaps some of the EL footage.

[@milepost71nodefects92]

Yes, Otisville tunnel and Goshen on the EL

[@jmainiaanimations]

9:24 is at Port Jervis, NY. Anyone know where the rest of the Erie footage was taken?

[@downeastrailfan]

Neat old stuff. It would be nice to see the whole train though, rather than just the head and tail ends.

[@fmnut]

Remember, this is pre-video. A 50 foot roll of film lasted 4 plus minutes, and in relative terms cost about as much as several 2 hour video tapes with film cost and processing. So photographers back then tended to keep their clips really short and only hit the shutter when something of interest to them was in the offing. While seeing the whole train is more interesting to us today as all of the equipment is gone, back then it was "just more freight cars". And filming whole trains could blow a month's film budget with just a few trains passing.

[@downeastrailfan]

@@fmnut Okay, that makes sense.

[@WILLIEB189]

Was audio recorded on a separate track on most of these? I am not really familiar on how things were back with 8mm

[@fmnut]

98 percent of this video has a completely dubbed in soundtrack. The other 2% was done on Super 8mm sound film, to which I added enhancements. Sound film was available from 1973 on, but both the cameras and projectors were very expensive and the sound quality was crap compared to the camcorders of the 80s.

[@coasternamegenerator5611]

@@fmnut wait when was the sound authentic?

[@fmnut]

@@coasternamegenerator5611 If you can't tell, I've done my job adequately. The PC shots at Benny had live sounds enhanced with some Alco bark from another source.

[@_mynewcareer]

D&H PA's ♥️

[@KCDash4400cw]

Listen to those early ge's chug

[@fmnut]

Yes. Hard soundtrack to find.

[@mattcrowley3075]

Around 19 minutes, this could be Roseville tunnel?

[@fmnut]

You are correct, sir. Taken while waiting for the NKP 759 excursion to Scranton.

[@ikonseesmrno7300]

It looks like it. Wonder how NJ Transit is coming along with it's rehab?

[@dc9345]

WHAT YEAR IS THESE VIDEOS?

[@fmnut]

The years is listed on the title screen at the start of the video. Pay attention.

[@buixrule]

Was that Port Jervis at 14:00?

[@fmnut]

Yes.

[@Belugforce]

Everything but the New Haven :(

[@coasternamegenerator5611]

1:12 oi

[@greaterhoustonrailfan]

11:00 ahh

[@billyrayvalentine309]

A very nice mix! Thank you.