Welcome to the KillerBee Channel. It features a lifetime accumulation of railroad pictures, slides, videos, movies and audios. I grew up in the Detroit area in the 60's and 70's, then moved to Chicago in 1981, where I have been a career railroader since. In my collection is some 16mm movie footage my grandfather shot starting in the mid 1930's. I started shooting pictures in the 1970's, flipped to slides about 1976 or so, and shot some 8mm video in the late 80's and 90's. Concentrated on just images (slides and digital) in the 2000's, then got back into video around 2018. As I have time, I post more stuff from the collection. So it will grow over time.
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Big dislike. Can’t hear the narration over the excessively loud music.
Appreciate knowing that - thank you for taking the time to comment.
When I went up I43 in the FRV days,the semaphores were mostly gone,just masts.Tavil had some,and were cool to see.Has that area changed.
Ya, a lot of changes over the years. Glad I could capture a little slice of how it was.
Where was the opening 2 ACL scenes?
There is no audio on the right side. 👎
Ya, I was made aware of that earlier and I figured out what happened. But thank you for letting me know. If it wasn't for people letting me know I would not have known.
What days and times do they usually go to Rockwood?
Mon, Wed, Fri. Late morning or early afternoon. Assuming there is the need to go.
@killerbee6310 thanks! I was in town today and they didn't go, but they also seemed to have no cars for them. So that makes sense.
This guy tried it and failed. www.youtube.com/@eastterminalrailway5975
Was this the line that long ago had a caboose or two or three they’d set out for “camping”, or am I thinking elsewhere? Great video by the way!
You remember correctly. Glad you liked it - thank you for taking the time to comment.
@@killerbee6310ohhhh I had to subscribe as well. Great stuff!
@@killerbee6310 ohhh and is there any info about that service as I found it absolutely fascinating.
I love this footage of these awesome trains!
I was lucky to find out about these movies and be able to digitize them
Excellent information. Topic idea: How to contact a railroad to ship your product. Are there brokers? Shipping by truck is as easy as Uber but railroad is impossible unless you're an insider. Visit: East Terminal Railroad (currently YT silent) and his quest to start a short line.
Outstanding movies....
Thank you. Much appreciated coming from you.
Thank you Schlitz.
Indeed.
Great stuff! well before my time.
Me to but I am happy to bring them to life regardless.
Great footage of some very classic trains!!
Yes, I have been glad to bring them to life.
What street is this? Broad Street?
Division St - the old WC, now gone.
Wow... just wow! This video was shot before my time but I recognize most of the locations. Seeing these trains and locations in video is so much better than static photos. Thank you for posting this.
My pleasure. Am happy to post them so everybody can see them.
Thank you for this very educational video. It made me think about the learning curve that the Aberdeen, Carolina and Western Railway (ACWR) had to overcome to make it a viable short line.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
There's a shortline in my area, the Winchester & Western, and over the past 35 years it has grown and grown to much success. In the early days of WW owning the line (formerly Pennsylvania, then Conrail) it was a mess, but as they grew they completely transformed it. They have their own in-house locomotive refurbishment operation, they added a line (including a trestle) to serve a local concrete factory in my area. 80 car mixed trains are not uncommon and they have direct connections to CSX and NS. They were recently purchased by OmniTrax, but I've seen few changes from the point of view of a novice observer and the WW name remains. What a success story, in my opinion. I mean, they were using switch locomotives to pull 7-car sand trains over 50 miles of rough track on their main line in the late 80's and now they're a modern railroad with good track and long, mixed trains. (They have a whole other operation in New Jersey!)
It was not uncommon to see their cars assigned to sand shippers in Illinois years back too. The "Wawa cars". I am always intrigued with the lines that stuck it out and got thru the tough times and hang on and eventually made it a success. A lot of times personal sacrifices had to be made.
The footage Clint shot on board the "Wausauwatha" captured the Milwaukee's bridge over the Wisconsin River at Knowlton. In later years, cars were not allowed over the bridge at the same time a train crossing because of the danger of pulp logs falling of pulp gon loads-the Milwaukee moved a lot of pulpwood out of Northern Wisconsin in those days. One unlucky motorist was crossing the bridge at the same time as an eastbound freight and the log went through the windshield and killed the driver. The bridge was replaced when the Valley Line was completely rebuilt between 1979/1980-81 with the coming of the Weston III power plant and Wyoming coal.
Cool - I was waiting for someone to mention the "old bridge". Also was waiting for someone to point out the stick of pulpwood hanging over the car on the Milw Road wayfreight (opps - patrol?).
Cool. Thank you.
Always glad to accomodate
Obviously you have to have Big Bucks, a know how of what a line does and the ins and outs of maintenance and insurance......now i understand why the big name companies are running everything.......who needs the headache
You still have occasional little guys jumping into the game - a railfan living out a dream. Paul Didelius comes to mind. Sometimes a shipper buys a line out of self-defense.
Great video. I assume the only way a shortline can "get" either trackage rights or outright ownership is when a line is inundated with small 1-2 car daily requiring a LOT of switching and is just not economically feasible at the union labor rate. In addition, their supply of 4-axle switching loco's is dwindling every year making it more $$. What I am surprised is there is not more outsourcing of track maintenance. They've outsourced car repair, locomotive repair (heavy) and heavy MOW maintenance (rail grinding, etc.).
Thank you. Several factors seem to lead to spinning off a line. The track falling into deplorable condition and in need of a major rehab can sometimes spur the decision to shed a line. And sometimes lack of traffic. And sometimes the knowledge that something can be done to increase volume - such as more frequent service - that the big carrier does not want to provide. The one thing that does seem to get outsourced a lot is the signal work and testing.
Just like Montana Rail, BNSF took it back.
That is a trend now.
Please make more, videos like this one 🙏
I plan to. I have three types of videos I cycle thru - Understanding Railroads, Inactive Lines, and the 8mm movies I obtained from a friend he shot in the 1960s. I do one of each then start the cycle again.
Very cool. Hope you have more to post!?
Yes absolutely. I have three types of videos I cycle thru - Understanding Railroads, Inactive Lines, and the 8mm movies I obtained from a friend he shot in the 1960s. I do one of each then start the cycle again. I takes me a week or two to do one so about a month to do the cycle of three and start over again. But yes, more to come.
Linux TrainTips
It's awesome to see that baraboo/madison footage! Wild how busy it once was
I lived for a long time way down the line in Mount Prospect and even how busy it was in the late 80's-early90's compared to today is amazing.
I allso love are local railroad history to I live right by this line to you came very close to where I live ---milwaukee lake shore and western railroad built this line in 1874 so many businesses it served for so long --so sad it like this now very great video you did thank you sir
Thank you. Yes, sad to see it today - almost wish all traces of it were gone.
I am 67 and this is Awesome
I can relate, yes.
These are such quality videos recorded in a time when film had to be developed to see what you really shot. The content is nostalgic and melancholy.
Makes me wonder how more more footage like this is lurking in peoples attics, etc.
Wouldn't starting with narrow gauge also work? There has been Railroads that started as narrow gauge. Denver & Rio Grande Western and Alaska Railroad started as 3ft gauge instead of standard gauge.
If you were narrow gauge you would not be complimentary to the rest of the North American network - unless you were going to stay strictly on your own line.
@@killerbee6310 It will end up strictly on own line. Yet the benefit of doing 3ft is the locations it can do that standard gauge can't. Maintenance is also cheaper since 3ft gauge is smaller which can use lighter rails that can' be used on standard gauge. 3ft gauge benefits when you are in the mountains as the gaps are tighter. Like eastern Washington State, State of Idaho, and Montana as there are back roads and old track beds may not hold the size and weight of standard gauge.
Like how she goes right thru the town
I think the railfans were the only ones that liked it.
New sub. here ....
Thank you very much. Appreciate it. A lot more to come.
Great video
Thank you. I am just the producer. Hats off to Clint for his foresight to film this back in the 60s.
More please.
Coming....
Neat Neat stuff the good old days of railroading
Thank you. Still more to post, but in Michigan's u.p.
0:46
All my favorites on here. Nice video.
Glad to accommodate!!
Wonderful footage! 👍
Appreciate the comment-thank you.
What treasures!
Indeed. Glad I could make them available.
Foamer eh. Ok.
You like da film, eh?
I'm surprised the rails haven't been taken out.
There is a strategic reason
THIS was a very informative video. You really educated your audience today!
Perfect - then I met expectations. Thank you.
Suppose I wanted to start a passenger rail line, how much would this process differ? Would it even be possible?
Well, can't really help you there as we only turned lines over to parties that were going to generate freight to feed into us. Whenever we heard the words passenger trains or car storage from someone we pretty much wrote them off.
The footage of the C&NW RS-1 with the freight has to be on the Sparta-Elroy Cutoff. Photos of that line in the diesel era, at least in my experience, are rare. Movies even more so. Clint certainly had the eye for composition.
And they may be out of order, as the first two clips were on one reel and the last two clips were on another reel and I didn't know which order to put them in.
Nice piece of railroad archaeology. Manitowoc and Two Rivers are charming towns. My wife and I always stop at the Waverly Inn when passing through. Next time I'll try to walk some of the tracks you explored.
It is fun trying to find little traces here and there of the line. I literally caught the destruction of some of it happening in real time.
Interesting to see the footage of Miwaukee Solvay Coke Co. (at about12:36). I worked down at the harbor for a while and always thought that place was a pretty close depiction of Hell. Most especially so when returning to Milwaukee from Chicago, by train, at night.
Yes, I found the Solvay footage plant mesmerizing and intriguing. Glad you liked it.
This woke me up faster than any cup of coffee could ever do. Once again some truly fantastic footage some of which I remember seeing other items that snuck by or were too far away. Plus it wasn't just the trains but also the scenes like the semaphores at sunset and the views at Duplainville looking down the rail or through the dirty window Thanks again for bringing these to the screen to review history
My pleasure. I am honored to bring these movies to life. And I appreciate the feedback.
As a life time rail fan, I always watch videos of passing or working trains. This type of video was not only educational, it was immersive and very informative about railway operations and exactly how the work and run. Thank you for sharing this! You definitely have a subscriber here.
Thank you very much. I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I plan on doing more such videos. "All I need is time."
im a truck driver, the railroad is the only business that will take it's lines out aka csx. They can't compete no one want car to truck it either train to train or they will leave it on a truck instead. Besides shipping containers. I really don't understand the railroads approach to it. Csx tore our line out put all their eggs into coal. That's been dying since the 90s. I really don't understand why you would cut yourself out of a market. Trucking companies will answer the phone tell you where the load is at what time and everything. Hell I've had a customer call me and ask that I tarped up the windshield on a tractor I was hauling. I'm all for the railroad but the cutting corners mile long trains in my town. What happened in Ohio I'm not okay with.
I spent my whole work career with railroads and some stuff that was done still amazed me too. But sometimes you had to go with the flow.
So we should all put our money together and start own short line passenger rail service?
NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Step 1: get incorporated Step 2: don't get bought by G&W
although...some people eventually want to cash out.
@@killerbee6310 yeah, it was meant to be more of a joke, but it can end up being more profitable to sell