This video covers Hinkle to Huntington Oregon of Union Pacific's line from Cheyenne to the Columbia River Gorge, which runs up to 2.2% grades through the Blue Mountains in northeastern Oregon. Before the UP-SP merger, this was the steepest grade on the Union Pacific.

<p>The program starts out at Spring Creek with a double stack train on the 2.21% grade. Instead of following the line from one end to the other, this program moves back and forth from one area to another, making it difficult to follow. The video follows the calendar – first seeing the line during the summer of 2000, then the winter of 2001, then the spring of 2001. Big power fans will be disappointed with this video – very few SD90MACs and AC6000CWs are seen. Most trains have older GE C40 series 3000hp engines. Most trains have 4 or 5 engines on the point with 5 more DPUs. In the first half of the video, I did see several unpatched Southern Pacific engines, mostly tunnel motors, and one train with unpatched Rio Grande engines.

<p>Narration could have been a bit better. I had trouble understanding the names for several locations (I'm an old fart with less than perfect hearing...) and there are no location (or train symbol) markers...until about 60 minutes into the video when we see markers for a few locations, followed by many more scenes without markers. The narrator does provide symbols for most of the trains. The photography is very sharp and crystal clear, doing a very good job of showing off the spectacular scenery. You might want to turn the volume down a bit...this video is louder than usual, giving the subwoofer a workout. The running time is incorrectly listed as approximately 60 minutes on the liner notes – according to the display on my DVD player, the running time is 90 minutes.


Additional remarks by Armchairrailfan:
Narration: Could have used more.
Would kids enjoy this? I doubt it.
Image quality: Excellent!
DVD Value: Excellent Value!
Recommend to others? Definitely.