the video shows several railroads operating in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area in the late 80s. The video progresses in quality as I learn how best to use my camera and shoot trains. Cameras of the 80s did not have all the frills the new ones do, and I had to learn how to control the screen brightness buy zoom in to eliminate as much sky (and in some cases snow) as possible (which was not always possible). I also learned how to brace myself better to make the shots more stable. However as this video progresses I did manage to get a tripod. the tripod was a game changer because I could still take photos while I was shooting video, and if I timed it right I could make the pan shot and take trailing photos. Even with the tripod it was hard to get a stable shot when zoomed in because I had to operate the zoom buttons on the camera handle, then pan while zooming out. My camera had a "fixed" zoom speed so it was really hard to get the perfect "zoom out" and pan. you will see some scenes where I tried to pulse the zoom button, not a good idea.
This video also has some complete train scenes. I felt that some day in the future someone would want to see what the consists were like so when I could I let the tape roll. What I find interesting 30+ years later is that some trains were still running cabooses, and some autoracks were still open.
The twin cities was such a hot bed of rail activity in the 80s along Warner Rd. in St. Paul, and most of this video was shot there. Warner Rd. (also known as Dayton's Bluff) was basically a railroad funnel and almost every railroad in town passed through that area. Sometimes there were so many trains running it was all I could do to keep up.
7 сен 2024
