Speed Graphic Film and Video | Hollywood Outtakes: In Pursuit of Southern Pacific GS4's @SpeedGraphicFilmVideo | Uploaded August 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
This is the sixth in a series of videos drawn from a pool of 1940's-era Hollywood feature-film outtakes and stock shots. I don't know what film they were shot for, but it's possible that they were for a Sam Katzman-produced movie serial. The plot seemed to involve cars chasing trains.
Regardless, the stars of this show are Southern Pacific's magnificent streamlined GS-4 4-8-4's. We see them in three shots:
0:00 This is train No. 76, The Lark, Southern Pacific's extremely popular all-Pullman train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The location is unknown, but it appears to be morning somewhere in the Los Angeles area. There are twenty cars behind that GS-4.
0:58 Another day, another shot of a 20-car Lark consist. Only this is just the first section of No. 76!
1:43 The rest of this video is one long pacing shot of an unknown GS-4 at the head of an unknown train. It's twilight, and the film was likely underexposed to make it look like night. And while the cameraman sometimes seems unsure of what his subject is, there are some thrilling moments here as that streamlined nose edges in and out of the frame.
The original film is silent, so I've added some appropriate music.
This is the sixth in a series of videos drawn from a pool of 1940's-era Hollywood feature-film outtakes and stock shots. I don't know what film they were shot for, but it's possible that they were for a Sam Katzman-produced movie serial. The plot seemed to involve cars chasing trains.
Regardless, the stars of this show are Southern Pacific's magnificent streamlined GS-4 4-8-4's. We see them in three shots:
0:00 This is train No. 76, The Lark, Southern Pacific's extremely popular all-Pullman train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The location is unknown, but it appears to be morning somewhere in the Los Angeles area. There are twenty cars behind that GS-4.
0:58 Another day, another shot of a 20-car Lark consist. Only this is just the first section of No. 76!
1:43 The rest of this video is one long pacing shot of an unknown GS-4 at the head of an unknown train. It's twilight, and the film was likely underexposed to make it look like night. And while the cameraman sometimes seems unsure of what his subject is, there are some thrilling moments here as that streamlined nose edges in and out of the frame.
The original film is silent, so I've added some appropriate music.
![Old Home Movies, Vol. I: Southern Pacific Steam Power [Silent]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CULbB-p_sJU/hqdefault.jpg "Old Home Movies, Vol. I: Southern Pacific Steam Power [Silent]
This short video brings together three pieces of film from the Prelinger Collection, all taken by non-professional, non-railfan filmmakers.
0:06 : On a beautiful California day, a Southern Pacific Coast Daylight consist arrives at a station. Location and date unknown, though not before 1941, when the GS-4 and the two-unit articulated chair cars seen here debuted. Taken by E. B. Foltz.
0:28 : This anonymous photographers primary job was to take a time-lapse film of a building being constructed. But from time to time, he would turn the camera on the passing trains. Location unknown. The Internet Archive says this was taken in 1947.
0:57 : The Coast Daylight arriving in San Francisco (?) in 1941. Another great shot of a GS-4 and its beautiful consist. Taken by John H. Summers.")
![Reading Iron Horse Ramble, 1960 [Silent]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D1T2c54KBls/hqdefault.jpg "Reading Iron Horse Ramble, 1960 [Silent]
An unknown railfan, probably from the Philadelphia area, took this and a number of other films that ended up in the Prelinger Collection and the Internet Archive. This film shows an Iron Horse Ramble on the Reading Railroad in 1959 or 1960. There is no location information with the film, so thanks to Youtubers rdg2124 and Oren Helbok for help with the following:
0:00 The title shot appears to be taken out the back of an electric on what is now known as the Norristown High-Speed Line.
0:11 At the Readings Norristown Station. The HSL runs overhead.
0:40 T1 4-8-4 No. 2124 backs down onto the excursion train, while the diesels that brought the train out from Philadelphia idle down the line.
1:34 on the move at last, leaning out a window on the right-hand side of the train.
1:41 Approaching Port Kennedy, going under the old bridge there.
1:54 Perkiomen Junction.
1:59 Possibly Phoenixville.
2:08 Mingo area.
2:14 Douglassville station.
2:22 Passing Colorado Fuel & Iron at Birdsboro. CF&I 0-4-0 Camelback No. 4, formerly RDG No. 1187, is trackside. In a few years, No. 4 would go to the Strasburg Railroad.
2:26 Coming into Port Clinton.
3:54 Zehners
4:33 Tamaqua.
5:26 Helpers to head west on the RDG Schuylkill Valley Branch to Pottsville
5:38 Four F-units at the head of a long freight train ease their way slowly through the crowd.
6:12 Fairbanks-Morse Trainmaster H-24-66 No. 867 slides on by the excursion train.
6:33 Photo runby.
7:28 Pike Street in Reading on the return leg
7:44 Laurel Street underpass
7:49 Back in Norristown as the 2124 comes off the train.
8:34 Headed back home again on the Norristown HSL.
I am still working to identify other locations on this film, so please let me know if you recognize something. I cant even pin down the date of this Ramble there were over a dozen that year. Trains Magazine for November 1960 says that No. 4 was trackside for the April 30 Ramble, but this film looks to have been taken in midsummer.")
