Otto Perry's railfan career spanned almost 60 years of railroading all over the midwest and the Rocky Mountain states. He had ammassed a huge collection of great photos from the D&RGW,a nd this video showcases some of his film recordings ont he Denver-Craig route. The film includes a incredibly rare view of the indescribably difficult railroading the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific/Denver & Salt Lake encountered on the fantastic grades and terrifying weather extremes of Rollins Pass. Rollins Pass had 2 seasons: Winter and August. At 11,660 feet of elevation, Spring comes in August! There's a nice amount of footage of the incredible snowfighting atop the pass, and hand-fired 200-class Mallet locomotives wrestle trains up the 4% grade to the summit at Corona, and down the treacherous 4% grade down to Mammoth (now known as Tolland). Watch firemen attmpt to keep up with the voracious appetite of these big 2-6-6-0's. The footage doesn't end there--the biggest of the big steam, the L-131 2-8-8-2's strut their stuff on the east slope, and steam of nearly every description hauls trains up and down the Front Range. A cabride aboard the Yampa Valley Mail from Denver shows incredible footage of the canyons along the Moffat Route, and includes rare footage of the Craig Branch. See landmarks along the branch fromt he cab of the lead PA-1 locomotive.
The show ends with a stellar parade of trains at Plainview--the newest of which are brand-new GP30's!

A must-have for any D&RGW fan!

I have a tape about the Moffat Route; and it showed more steam in action than diesel. That mountainous climb on the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad did represented a grueling challenge for locomotives large and small to conquer up the grade in the most hazardous cold weather.

Additional remarks by Joshua Craig Beytien:
Narration: Just enough.
Would kids enjoy this? Maybe.
Image quality: Good.
DVD Value: Good Value
Recommend to others? Yes.