Anybody who’s gotten the Steam Giants Across America DVD from Trains Magazine think this title familiar? I did; it’s a re-issue or re-release of material on an older DVD with the same title from Madacy Entertainment Group, Inc. PO Box 1445, St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada H4L 4Z1 copyright date 1998 (I’ve had this older dvd in my collection for years). There are a couple of differences: the older dvd has additional material the Trains one doesn’t; the Trains dvd credits Green Frog and others at the end of the main program and the Madacy one doesn’t have any credits visible onscreen. I don’t want to get into a copyright discussion, just pointing out something. But this does make me wonder - I wonder how much (if any) material Kalmbach puts on their dvd’s is material previously released by other people (and isn’t mentioned as such by Kalmbach)? The Madacy dvd is actually part of a collection of 3 train dvd’s - Steam In The 50’s and 60’s is one and Twilight Of Steam is the other; the boxed set is titled “The Ultimate Rail Experience - American Steam - A Vanishing Era”
I have the Madacy set…got it two years ago at a local Courtenay Future Shop for a whopping $19, five DVD’s and much duplication between the five. Still a pretty good deal considering the footage. I figure the 10 minutes of N&W Y6b and A Class footage to be worth the $19.
But I have seen advert/promos on youtube with the same footage under different guises and different so-called companies. It’s a bit of a racket, really, but…what the hey.
-Crandell
I got mine from a cousin years back as a Christmas present; only 3 discs in the set.
I’m not an N&W modeler, but that footage was definitely the class of the disc.
I guess with the historical stuff there’s nothing new under the sun, just re-packagings.
I doubt that Kalmbach has teams of videographers or photographers filming trains across the states…I would imagine they purchase footage from comerical and professional photographers, lease or purchase the rights to other material, then simply edit it all and release it under their title…not an uncommon practice.
When you consider the age of some of the footage, and that some of the DVDs have “fallen flags” running through them, it would be a safe bet that most of the stuff you see was not shot by the Trains staff, or not shot specificly for this series of DVDs.
Same thing goes on in a lot of the “nature” documentary films on PBS stations and the National Geographic magazine…most of the photos are purchased from freelance photographers, or come from stock footage purchased for just this reason.