Customer Reviews

Great American Scenic Railroads

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love scenic DVDs. I hoped this would be a DVD set that would put me in the seat of various scenic train routes and allow me to ooh and aah at the beautiful sights passing by. However, this DVD package does not do that. Instead, it does something I enjoyed just as much. These DVDs show you detailed footage of day to day operations of various train routes, mostly from outside the train. You will see a little bit of everything including track repairs, snow clearing and such. The quality of the footage is excellent. The narration is perfect. It is detailed but not annoying or full of tech talk that no one but railway fanatics would understand. The sound is also extremely good. Make no doubt, the scenery is beautiful. In fact, most of the footage is what I would describe as awesome. It more than took care of my desire to see scenic footage. This DVD package definitely needs to be part of your collection if you enjoy watching or riding trains. I HIGHLY recommend.

When I was buying this box set, I was imaging bridges, tunnels, forest, mountains, and a lot of american landscapes. Now my family and I are enjoying it. You can see trains in winter, summer, auttum and spring.

The set includes:
1.- Continental Divide & Donner Summit
2.- The Surfline & California Western
3.- The Blue Mountains& Mt. Rainier
4.- Great Mississippi & Shenandoah
5.- Durango & Silverton adn Cumbres & Toltec
6.- Rio Grande & Union Pacific

If your want to see 12 hours of railroading, this is for you.

If you own lots of Pentrex videos/DVDs, you will be dissapointed to find that the Great American Scenic Railway shows are all recycled Pentrex programs repackaged and reformated. However, if you do not have those tapes, or want to upgrade to DVD, this is an excellent collection. The shows themselves are great, with acceptable sound and video. The only other problem with this set is the lack of bonus features. But overall, this is a great show for the railfan in everyone.

"Great American Scenic Railroads" is a 6-DVD set with about 12 hours of rail video. Each DVD typically contains two one-hour programs. The words "scenic" and "journeys" on the cover suggest passenger and/or excursion trains, but about half of the video is freight operations. That's OK by me, as I like both. The freight action is a mix of vintage and contemporary, and the passenger is a mix of excursion and Amtrak. The video quality is first rate, and the mix of narration and natural sound is quite good. So this collection has a lot of positives.

But this Questar product is--perhaps in its entirety--a remix of previously published material. This fact is not mentioned anywhere in the online details or on the jacket or liner notes. Here's where eight of the twelve hours were previously seen:

"Continental Divide" is Wild Rose Productions' "VIA Rail Across Canada."
"Donner Summit" was previously released by Pentrex.
"Surfline" was released by Video Rails in 1993.
"Blue Mountains" is the first hour from Pentrex's "The Blue Mountains Combo."
"Great Mississippi" is an edited portion of Pentrex's "Winter on the Upper Mississippi.
"Shenandoah" is in part the Pentrex video "Winchester and Western."
"Rio Grande" and "Union Pacific" are both Pentrex products.

In some cases, the video footage credits the prior publisher; but in other cases there is no such credit.

Don't get me wrong....the video is of high quality, and this is an excellent "collection." After all, Pentrex, Video Rails, and Wild Rose do great work. But I would have appreciated being told in advance that this collection "contained previously-released video."

If you already have a modest railfan library, be prepared to duplicate some of your current holdings. This risk of duplication makes the video less a bargain than it might have been.

Great American Scenic Railways. That title conjoured up an image for my wife and I that meant we were going to be getting our hands on something we, being a couple who have found we enjoy boat and rail sightseeing excursions, could put to good use as a vacation planning guide. How wrong we were. If, however, you're a rail-fan, Someone whose main focus is trains, train cars, yards, and rails, this set is probably a winner.

Great for railroad buffs and anyone interested in railroads. The filming and narration are excellent. The pictures are in color. Most of the pictures were taken in the 1970's and 1980's. The filming allows plenty of time to view the trains and is somewhat tranquil.

This provides an excellent tour of our National Parks. We are so lucky in these United States of America.

The videos arrived on time and in excellent condition. They are second best to actually taking the train trips!

I have driven between Silverton and Durango Colorado several times and that is one of the most spectacular drives in the US. I was really looking forward to seeing that gorgeous scenery from the perspective of the rails. Unfortunately, most of the images are from either Durango or Silverton, and when there are scenes from along the route, they are highly duplicative. In all of the videos that I have watched, the editors will take one piece of footage and reuse it many, many times. Also, on the Durango-Silverton episode, the photography isn't so great. Poor choice of season for several of the scenes, not full winter, or full summer, or fall colors. Just drab remnants of winter for several scenes.

Furthermore, this series is much more about trains that it is about scenery. Train lovers may love this set, and if I were a train enthusiast I suppose that I would be willing to give three stars. But even if I were a train enthusiast, I would still knock a few stars off because there is so little footage that is used far too much.