Virginia and Truckee: The Final Years
Savor the storied history of what was once the world’s richest railroad. Built to access the silver in Nevada’s fabulously rich Comstock Lode, the V&T was said to have hauled more than the combined weight of its own engines, cars, and track in pure silver. See the role that the mine and the railroad played in building our nation, opening the West, and even in the outcome of the Civil War. Follow the miners’ struggle to the end—against danger, suffocating heat, and (yes) flooding—to keep the silver moving out of the mountains. Witness regular steam operations on the line from Reno to Minden, NV in the last years of the railroad, including the connection with the Southern Pacific’s Overland Limited at Reno. Pace the very last trains to operate over the line in 1950 eyeball-to-eyeball across the desert, and then from afar, dwarfed by the snow-capped peaks that overlook their desolate home. This film is a fond remembrance of desert steam railroading. 43 min.

The Complete Sierra
The Sierra is portrayed mid-century at the zenith of steam operations. Locomotives 34, 36, and Articulated 48 haul freights that stretch to the horizon. Engines 3 and 28 appear in different colors and road names as each served the movie industry. We see double-headers and two different triple-headed trains. The film covers the foundations on which the Sierra was built: gold, timber and hydro-power and continues through the period when the railroad became holy grail for makers of Hollywood westerns and the mecca of railroad enthusiasts worldwide. The final steam run is shown and the arrivals of the three famous S-12 diesels. The film closes with the 104-year-old Number 3 as she appeared in 1995 to celebrate Modesto's 125th Anniversary. The Yosemite Valley Railroad, the Hetch-Hetchy, and the Yosemite Short Line are presented in archival black-and-white stills with 4-color maps. Their relationship to the Sierra,  along with other rivalries, is highlighted. The film is expertly photographed by John F. Kirkland, Glenn Beier, Jim Vail, and Mac Owen. 79 min.