I bought a couple off of eBay about a year ago that I really like. One is of general railroad history showing various roads, and the other is about the Nickle Plate Road Berkshires in the 1950s and the Pennsy during the transition era. I think I got both of them for under $10.00 including shipping and all…
I have three from Green Frog, “Steam in the 50’s,” “Steam in the 50’s and 60s’,” and “Classic Steam of the 20’s through the 40’s”–and they’re excellent! The first and second are all color and mixed color/b&w, while the third is mostly b&w, all American steam, beautifully shot–and with synchronized sound. (I have an earlier VHS tape, “Golden Age of Steam Trains,” bought from Publishers Clearing House about 15 years ago, that has unsynchronized sound that sounds fake, and mixes foreign trains in with the US stuff, and it’ll do only if you can’t find anything else.) The 20’s-40’s video has everything from articulateds/mallets to little stuff hustling cars in New England.
Video Rails has an excellent 3-volume set of Southern Pacific steam covering operations in California, from the Sierra Nevada to the Coast Line to the Valley lines. There’s all kinds of SP steam, including some great footage of cab-forwards and GS Daylight locos.
And if you’re a lover of BIG steam, you can’t get much bigger than one called “DM&IR Yellowstones–Giants of Steam” put out by Greg Scholl Video productions. Wonderful tracking shots of these behemoths pulling long ore trains. I was amazed at how these giants could really PULL OUT with a huge, long train. Very impressive. The video is a too-short 30 minutes long, but worth every minute, IMO.