Collector's Series, Volume 1

DVD

THREE VIDEOS on ONE DISC!

Feature #1 - “Within the Oval”
Professionally produced by the New York Central Railroad in 1948, this film is a delightful “time capsule” of life on the Central in that era. Only three prints are known to exist today, making this film one of the rarest of all railroad films. Shot in color and sound, it includes scenes of Niagaras, Mohawks, Hudsons, E’s, F’s, PA’s, and Sharks on gleaming streamliners and Pacemaker freights. You’ll see the people, cities, terminals, industry and freight handled by the railroad. There are even a few scenes of Central tugboats doing their duty and a shot of a streamlined Hudson pulling a passenger train out of Detroit that you’ll not soon forget.

Feature #2 - “Three Giant Steps”
Electronics, Automation and Imagination, “Three Giant Steps” toward the future. Installation of CTC on the New York Central main between Erie and Buffalo, the state-of-the-art switching operations at Frontier Yard and the Central’s unique “Flexi-Van” service highlight this film produced in 1957. The scenes demonstrating the CTC installation were filmed from the air in the dead of winter as the “New York State Express” overtakes a slower freight.

Feature #3 - “Freight by Flexi-Van”
"Flexi-Van" was the name given to the first attempt at putting truck trailers on a flat car. This program demonstrates the Flexi-Van concept from start to finish. It shows how a fully loaded tractor-trailer could be put on a rail car by one man using no external equipment in only 4 minutes! This was an idea that was well ahead of its time.