Total videos: 26
Total Time: 60 Minutes
Total space: 3.8 GB
In Christmas of 1987, my family got it's first VHS camcorder, bought at the time for $1,000. Take a look below at the details at these first train videos ever taken.
NOTE: THESE VIDEOS WERE TAKEN IN 1988-1991 AND FEATURE LOTS OF SIGNALS AND SP LOCOMOTIVES (COTTON BELT) THAT ARE NO LONGER IN SERVICE.
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Carson St. #1 - The first Carson video taken. An old SP train backs in reverse across the crossing |
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Carson St. #2 - The same train from #1 comes back again, and stops in the middle of the crossing momentarily. |
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Carson St. #3 - Shortly after the train in video #2 leaves, another one on a different track crosses. I seemed to get bored with it so fast that I stopped tape and left. |
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Carson St. #4 - A train gets close enough that it sets off the signals, but it then backs off, and in the process, deactivating the signals. |
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Carson St. #5 - You can see in this video why this crossing was converted to an overpass. The video features lots of cars switching and being uncoupled. |
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Carson St. #6 - The signals get a late start crossing, and this SP engineer doesn't care that they are late. He's getting ready to derail some more cars. The end of the video shows a little more in detail on what it's like in the life of derailing cars, and throwing switches. NOTE: MOST OF THE DURATION OF THE TRAIN IS MISSING. |
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Carson St. #7 - The train that crossed in video #6 blocks Carson St again to unload some more cargo. The date shows July 1992, which is incorrect. The video was taken in July of 1991. |
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Delamo Blvd. - A rather short train crosses the 8" part of a double crossing. |
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Dominguez St. #1 - The train above in the Delamo Blvd. crossing crosses the wigwag crossing. |
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Dominguez St. #2 - Another Wigwag video. This time they don't work properly. |
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Dominguez St. #3 - The second crossing of Dominguez which had 8" lights gets activated by a very short train. |
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Laurel Park Rd. #1 - The same train from videos 9 and 10 on disc 1 sits just next to the Laurel Park crossing, leaving a lot of annoyed drivers going around the gates. NOTE: ONE DRIVER ALMOST GOT HIT ONCE THE TRAIN STARTED MOVING, BUT IT ISN'T SHOWN ON THE VIDEO. |
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Laurel Park Rd. #2 - Another very long train goes past the now closed crossing. NOTE: THERE'S TWO BREAKS WHEN I GOT TOO TIRED OF HOLDING THE CAMERA. I WAS ONLY 11 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME. |
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Manville Dr. #1 - Taken in 1990, a SP train goes along slowly across the crossing, along with a surprise Metrolink train during the middle of the video. |
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Manville Dr. #2 - Shortly after the Manville #1 crossing, another Metrolink train approaches. I'm in a little different position than usual. |
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Manville Dr. #3 - My first video of 1991 features a long SP train going across the Manville crossing from the other side of the tracks. A surprise Metrolink train follows after the SP train immediately finishes crossing. |
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Manville Dr. #4 - Another Metrolink crossing. I'm in a position where I can't see it, but I do get some good signal footage though. |
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Manville Dr. #5 - Yet another Metrolink crossing. This time, I'm standing on a SP track to get this footage. Something I'll never do again. |
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Spring St. - An exclusive Metrolink crossing that still gets heavy usage is a little unusual than other crossings. First off, the bells stop ringing when the gates go all the way down, which was something I was totally unprepared for. Second, the Metrolink train didn't blow its whistle when it crossed, so I was a little off on that one, overall, it wasn't a very bad shoot. NOTE: THIS WAS MY LAST VIDEO BEFORE MY 12 YEAR HIATUS WITH CALIFORNIA. |
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Watson Rd. #1 - One of my favorite crossings. A slow SP train goes across the one track portion of this double crossing. A few minutes later, a malfunction sets off the signals again for another few minutes. |
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Watson Rd. #2 - Kind of the same scenario. This time, there's only 5 SP engines to cross. After finishing, I tried to leave before the malfunction, but as you can see in the last few seconds of the video, I didn't make it. |
EXTRAS
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Carson St. #8 - A car view of the crossing in action. This was the first time I ever got a crossing signal on video. |
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Carson St. #9 - A rare view of Carson St. from the other side of the tracks. The video is a little bumpy. |
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Dominguez St. #4 - Edited video of the 8" signals which totals almost 9 minutes! |
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Dominguez St. #5 - Another wigwag video. The train was switching, and I got bored with it and went to another crossing. |
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Sepulveda Blvd. - A not so good video of some griswold signals that were taken out by a overpass. |
REVIEWS
gtw4070@gmail.com: What a great DVD! Lots of signals and Southern Pacific, Cotton Belt, and Rio Grande locomotives ranging from MP15Cs to GP30s to SD40s to Tunnel Motors! Very cool! Very fun! This DVD is for everyone!
Senko LKE: This DVD is very kewl, because it's all mechanical bells, and because there are some 8" lights too, two things that are my favorites on crossing signals. I specially loved the Carson St. crossing, because of all the train traffic it had, and all the activation time those signals had. Laurel Park Rd. is also kewl, because the signal behave like some of Buenos Aires'. A great DVD for lovers of mechanical bells. My favorite: Carson St. #5, because of the good sounding mechanical bells, the slow flashing pattern of the lights, and overall, all the activation time! After that one, Carson St. #2 sounds very nice too.