Hey again,

I thought I start something new. Of all the film taken of steam in the 50s, most of them are silent. However there were some film that had sounds recorded in sync. Fred McLeod was one of them. So far I have seen these films of the following railroads:

Union Pacific
Norfolk and Western
Deleware and Hudson
Pennsylvania
East Broad Top
Grand Trunk Western
Canadian National
Baltimore and Ohio
Chesapeake and Ohio
Nickel Plate Road

Were there other railroads that were film and sound recorded by McLeod? Any information would be helpful.

Many, many years ago, when I was a new member of the Railroad Club of Chicago, a gentleman came and presented his 16 mm sound color film of the Duluth & Northeastern Railway which was still 100% steam operated at that time. The film was wonderful, and he stated that he had a lot of other railroads on film in addition to the D&NE. I don't recall that gentleman's name. Might it have been Mr. McLeod?

Les

Very interesting Les. I wonder if there is a secret collection of live sound film of steam locomotives somewhere in an American basement.

I found several of these online: https://youtu.be/2BqnDY3NMcA
https://youtu.be/rI99Dvpxo2w

In my experience with those in Northeast Ohio who made extensive still and movie collections of railroads in the 40's and 50's, unless they went out of their way to ensure their work was saved, they largely had families who either didn't realize the value of their work, or didn't care and the films ended up being put out at the curb when they died. The guys who never married and had other fans for friends who cared often had their collections saved, although not the way they had in mind, like Dave McKay, who died an hour short of having a signed will. A couple of distant cousins came out of the woodwork and forced the sale of everything of value, which is how Morning Sun got most of his collection. Otherwise the Akron Railroad Club would have gotten it. Moral, get a will, make your wishes known. Many, if not most, families think we're a little "off" with a nonsense hobby.

I have looked for this one for years. Fox Movietone says it's not in their archives, MIRC claims they don't have it.
This would be downright historic and for a Frisco fanatic like myself thoroughly enjoyable. All of the action took place a mile from my home, but 12 years before I was born.
I hope someone can discover and post this video someday before I croak.
Indiana Jones work.

I thought I bring this up again. I found on Pentrex's New York Central Combo DVD that one of the programs on it called "The Water Level Route" by Bill Warwick had several clips of NYC steam on sound film. I think they were filmed and recorded by Fred Mcleod.

Any information on that?

16mm original film of railroad subjects is rare to begin with, in the 1950s and 1960s there was probably not more than one photographer in 20 who shot 16mm. And 16mm shot at sound speed is even more rare. Hopefully the people who collect and preserve such material appreciate the scarcity of it.

PC

Some 16 mm films of rail subjects were shot at 16 frames per second, common for inexpensive silent films, but are shown at club meetings from projectors that can only play back at the 24 frames per second speed that was common for "talkies".

NRHS has an active project to preserve 16 mm films and convert them to video format.

The society recently received a donation of 16 mm film taken by the late Walt Weible, a Detroit, Michigan based photographer who often used a tripod, rather than trying to hand hold a movie camera.

For more details or to make a donation to support this program see

https://nrhs.com/programs/heritage-film-collection/

Bob H

Fortunately in railroad photography some of the people who used a 16mm put them on tripods, often so they could leave the camera running while they shot slides. A mechanical Bolex Rex V. would run about 35 seconds of film at sound speed on one winding, some of the Bell & Howell cameras ran a little longer. Turret mounted lenses were preferred, the aperture setting on some zooms could flutter with vibration if too close to the tracks. If you wanted "going away" shots it was easier to have a second camera ready to go rather than rewind and turn the mechanical cameras.

Haven't seen anyone use a mechanical 16mm trackside since the early 1980s. It was a lot of heavy equipment to carry around for films that were only shown occasionally.

PC