Recent viewings:

Railway Journeys : the Vanishing Age of Steam. Thanks to Fiend for this multiple-DVD birthday present, which supplied me with many enjoyable hours.

As with most sets of documentary DVDs from various sources, it's a mixed bag. Some of the contents are better than others. But even the lackluster parts of the set were intriguing to a foaming ferroequinologist like myself, as cinema-verite glimpses into a vanished world of busy railroads and omnipresent steam power. I found myself wondering, as I watched the grainy black-and-white footage, how that world could possibly be recreated in scale model form. Even given excellent visual and three-dimensional scale models and superb scenery and weathering skills, how could one ever duplicate the fearsomely majestic barrage of coalsmoke from a speeding locomotive, the constant escaping wisps of steam from aging boilers and steam joints, or the occasional wheelslips that bespeak the tremendous forces involved in starting a standing train?

Standout elements are an in-depth look at the operations of the Wabash Railroad in southeastern Michigan and an extensive compilation of railfan videos of the last days of the Denver & Rio Grande's narrow-gauge operations in southwestern Colorado.