With so many self driven, self involved or production company made or just home movie like…of railroad activity, what are the qualities that make it stand out?
-Video quality
I have seen such a broad level of railfan videos on You Tube, I am curious what is considered quality in your estimation?
Danny Harmon’s Distant Signal videos are the best out there - BAR NONE.
His had too much filler in the past. Too much driving around pontificating or talking about some hamburger stand he went to.
In the ‘sub category’ of Anthracite roads, Conrail-era (mostly) and older film/video source I really enjoy the John Pechulis videos with “Big Mike” Bednar narrating most of them. There are others but these, which are actually promos of his longer videos for sale, generally look pretty good to me:
Here’s a random sample —
Regards, Ed
Railfan Dan!
One of the best is Railfan Rowan from Virginia. Unfortunately he seems busy with other priorities and hasn’t had any new content in a while. Jawtooth is another favorite. I agree that Distant Signal sets the bar pretty high.
He’s been spearheading that Shenandoah Rail Corridor thing. I know he did spend some time working for the RR, but that seems to have come to an abrupt end and he pulled a bunch of his videos pretty much at the same time.
Probably a story there. Oh well.
I mostly stick to car videos. But as soon as a channel gets popular and they get sponsors, (almost always starts with hellofresh) the channel goes to crap 99% of the time. People let that clout go to their head. Then they start hawking their mech, their book, their Patreon, their onlyfans, etc…
Probably one of the issues I see across many videos across YT, is the creator makes an unknowing transition of the video subject from Trains to oneself. There seem to be more produced ones that have intros, titles and descriptions on what they will be highlighting, but they do edited overlay commentary.
Then there are the railfans who prefer the minimally edited “we are there” videos and in an attempt to fill the dead audio waiting for a train, they want to talk or share about something going on with them personally. I don’t mind it so much if it is relevant to locating trains or information about the the railroad has operated as of late. In some of the videos I have gotten restaurant reviews, complaints about other drivers, stuff on local politics and not fixing the roads around rail crossings.
I get it, it their channel and they can talk about what ever they want, when they want and perhaps that is the difference.
Channels dedicated to railroads exclusively vs personal channels about people who hang around railroads.
Adding on to say I do enjoy the Mike Bednar videos. One of the few rail videos I will click on pretty quick.
His had too much filler in the past…Zug what about now? Chucks mention sure makes me want to go there. Appreciate the “warning” though. regards mike endmrw1213251400
I have not watched a recent video from him, so I couldn’t say. Maybe he is better now?
I believe Danny is trying to highlight the ambience of the areas he posts in videos and giving railfans from outside the immediate area the sights and flavors that one can look forward to if one railfans the same area.
Since Danny’s day job (now retired) was as a TV professional for one of the Tampa TV stations - he knows the production values that were required in his day job and brings that ethos to his videos.
Hey, if you like that stuff, that’s good.
I’m just more of a “get to the point” when it comes to videos. I don’t even like 30 second intros.
A young many from Plattsburg, NY has been producing videos of mostly regional interest since before he could drive (mom put in a lot of miles). He now has his own vehicle, and is also a volunteer of the Adirondack Railroad. One of his most recent productions was about a recently re-opened freight line in the Adirondacks.
His page is “North Country Trains,” BTW.
Welcome back - you have been scarce around here for a while.
So you don’t want to know who, what, when where or why’s of what you are presented to see.
That can be done without a restaurant review.
I don’t know why you’re taking this so serious. If you like the videos, watch like and subscribe.
I check in fairly often - just not much I care to comment on.