Maybe I should have gone ahead and taken the free pass visit to Sam's Club.
Best Buy always has a good 6 CD set for about $15.99 of vintage steam movies - some aren't the highest quality, but it is authenic footage from the 1930s to 1950s with sound so you can't beat the price.
Recently, I found a 2 DVD set at Big Lots for $3 - disc 1 was winter footage of preserved steam - disc 2 was footage from the Santa Fe right before the BNSF merger. Can't beat the 2 DVDs for $3 price.
I have found a few box sets at Sams Club and Costco. All have been great and the most they have ever cost was $20.
Wow!! I just finished viewing a boxed set of DVD's I got at Sam's Club. It's a 4 disc set called Monster Steam and it's totally fantastic.
Discs 1 & 2 are devoted to Canadian Pacific Hudson #2816 including her rebuilding, break in runs and first cross-Canada excursion. Very interesting rebuild scenes and description. The Canadian scenery is only eclipsed by the beautiful Hudson at work.
Disc 3 has vintage shots of Canadian and US steam from the 1950's. Nickel Plate Road Hudsons and Berkshires, DM&IR Yellowstones, Duluth & Northeastern as well as DW&P, GTW, CP & CN action.
The REAL TREASURE, at least to me, was Disc 4. It was an hour of steam scenes on CP & CN with a running commentary by retired hoggers and railroaders from that era telling stories about operations, particular locomotives and working parts of steam during daily workings. Comparisons of the different types of stokers, coal vs oil operations, different valve gear and many other items make this one disc alone worth the $14.88 cost of the set.
Even if you aren't a Canadian steam fan this is a tremendous collection of vintage action shots and information. The total time is 3 hours and 40 minutes. You can't beat that for the cost. For you diesel fans there a re some great scenes of Alco, MLW and first generation diesels and current motive power at work
Enjoy!
Roger Huber
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