I just watched the first episode of this show and it was VERY good. They covered Vanderbilt and Rockefeller. It is on Tuesdays on the History channel for anyone interested.
These are the types of shows that History Channel does well. “Ice truckers” and “Swamp people” shows are horrible.
When it comes to railroads the thing Cornelius Vanderbilt excelled at was manipulating stock prices. The story of how he forced down the price of New York Central stock in order to buy it for far less than it was worth is a classic. The story of how he was outfoxed by a man young enough to be his grandson, Jay Gould, is even more interesting.
The History Channel actually aired a show about HISTORY? I didn’t think they aired anything but “reality” shows these days.
I’m sure it was just an oversight on their part. They won’t let it happen again.
The History channel used to be my default channel. If I couldn’t find something elsewhere, they usually had something I’d be interested in. Not anymore. I even like a couple of the shows, but I don’t need to see them all day every other day.
Jeff
Do you have a source for this information that you wish to share with us?
Sadly, that is a good sign of our culture… The movie Idiocracy comes to mind…
Hi RJ, Thanks for the heads up. Good to see your still around here. Still living in Rock Springs?
Let me ask the next question, what RR were used? There was one point where Vanderbilt is looking out over a rail yard with the compression and equipment staging looked perfect for the period. One disappointment was no explaination as to why the train Rockafellor missed derailed on the bridge. While the fall off the bridge was CGI, the open switch point was not and I keep asking “the reason for the accident is…” Well, that is TV for ya.
For Cornelius Vanderbilt and The New York Central see The Fallen Colossus, especially Chapter III The Eastern Destiny by Robert Sobol.
For the Erie war involving Conrelius Vanderbilt with Jay Gould and Jim Fisk see The Life and Legend of Jay Gould by Maury Klein. Also A Chapter of Erie by Charles Francis Adams is available in the internet in the public domain.
I loved it but for crying out loud half the train clips were obviously of British trains.
Did nobody else notice that the steam whistles were replaced with air horn sounds?
I don’t care that the clips were of British trains. I don’t let that detract from a documentary. Besides, how many american locos of the period are available for TV work?
It was refreshing to see the History Channel actually do a show about history. But,using footage of British Trains did bother me … Being an educational show, I feel that accuracy is important. I’m sure there are thousands of hours of footage of US Railroads going back 100 years to be had, they should not be using clips of European trains. Also - there was a CGI scene of a track laying crew working and they had some clumsy looking square blocks in place of spikes holding down the rail to the tie. To many people who watch the show they don’t notice this kind of detail, but the people at The History Channel must know that there are many rail fans who watch the show and will notice the details like this. Same if they are doing a show about the Civil War. You know there are thousands of Civil War buffs who probably throw stuff at the TV if something about the Battle of Gettysburg that is not correct.
Steve
Hi everyone! You know, even the wife noticed the British steam engines. “That’s not an American locomotive! It looks like Thomas the Tank Engine!” There were a few other things amiss, such as Commodore Vanderbilt didn’t have a beard, he had big mutton-chop sideburns. He seemed a bit too dour as well, from what I’ve read about the Commodore he was tough, but he wasn’t mean. AND the actors were speaking in an annoying contemporary Engish, not the more formal English of the mid 19th Century.
I could go on and on, but the show was pretty well done. At least it was history, not another dopey reality show as the other posters have mentioned. And it sure beats another rehash of the Battle of Kursk!
Oh, and about Civil War shows: I did notice a VERY big gaffe on one not too long ago. The Civil War soldiers portrayed were carrying “Brown Bess” flintlocks from the Revolutionary War! Oh, and the Confederate troops weren’t giving the “Rebel Yell”, they were ululating like Bedouin Tribesmen! Oh well…
Steve
The producer shot this in High Definition Video. So he had to use HD cameras. Showing old film clips would be worse than English trains. The action shots were stunning on my 57" flat screen.
I find the first episode of the series almost unwatchable, whoever directed it knew and still knows nothing about trains and railroads. In this story they are an integral part of the story and should have been treated as such, not as a backdrop. In the bridge wreck scene they used clips of 4 different locomotives, and an open switch point on a bridge, hun? If they skimped on this research what else did they skimp on? With all the tourist rr’s , historical ,societies and rr historians around it shouldn’t have that hard or epencive to do the work to get it right. On the other hand, it was neet to see all those clips that I might not get to see otherwise. Glad they used the Strasburg RR for some of the scenes. Oh, yeah, let’s not forget Milw. 261 in GCT. Realy?
Tim