8mm Forum: A Train for Christmas

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Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 22, 2015, 03:26 PM:

The Kingston Flyer under way

A Train for Christmas
1975, New Zealand National Film Unit
(Derann Film Services, 1x200’, Color, Sound)

Let’s hear it for railroad films! This is actually a significant genre of what is available on 8mm film. Crack open a Blackhawk catalog: Kent Eastin himself was a railroad enthusiast and it shows in their offerings. Entire companies existed solely aimed at the railroad film market.

What’s the big deal?

Scripted dramas and comedies shot in studios are wonderful entertainment, but what is special about films like railroad films is they tend to be more based in capturing events and times exactly as they happened. A lot of them aren’t documentaries in the strictest sense either: very often the most interesting ones were some stray railroad fan with a windup camera, a couple of rolls of film and a Model “A” Ford out on the loose many, many decades ago. My first film of any kind was amateur footage captured in 1935 of a long defunct Maine narrow gauge railroad about which I had read everything my teenaged hands could get a hold of. I never dreamed I could actually see it operate, so when I was flipping through a railfan magazine and found out not only was there a film of it in existence, but it was available for sale on Super-8, I bought a copy right away.

–the fact that I didn’t own a projector or a screen be damned!

It was magical: almost time travel. Here I was a kid born 26 years after they pulled up the rails, all of a sudden I was standing gradeside watching these trains running that I had only known from stories and still photographs in books. It’s what got me hooked on collecting films and is still fascinating to me.

That’s what the best of films like these do: they take the viewer to other times and places and give them a window into worlds they can never experience: maybe born too late, maybe on a different continent.

If I had to pick the one film of all the ones I have that is the best at landing a steam locomotive in my living room, it has to be “A Train for Christmas”. It’s time spent with the Kingston Flyer , a steam powered tourist train that once ran on New Zealand’s South Island between Christmas and Easter every year. This service was started only a few months after the final withdrawal of steam from regular service by New Zealand Railways. It met up with a lake steamer at the northern end of the line and allowed people a day out enjoying both. The years since have not been kind, and the Flyer has been suspended and is now up for sale, but you and I can still enjoy it this way.

What makes this film special is the filmmakers set out to capture the essence of steam power and succeeded spectacularly. They were allowed not only to film the Flyer, but actually directed its movements to get the best shots. This wasn’t always to the joy of the train crew: one of them commented “We would have been on time that day if it wasn’t for the ***king film crew!” in a later interview about making the film.

-for the record: this one is a real documentary. It shows a lot of effort and talent and is obviously the work of skilled filmmakers.

This film gets up close and personal with the machine: there are shots of brake pumps and steam electric generators and the open firebox door. There are shots of coaling, inspection of the running gear, turning around on a human propelled turntable and coupling up to the train. There is a wonderful shot taken with a camera mounted on the locomotive’s pilot with the track streaming underneath at what feels like at least 60 MPH. The sound within these scenes is great as well and what makes this the film it is.

In its own way this is a big film: the subject is literally bigger than life and there are a lot of sounds here you never hear indoors. It’s just begging to be released onto the big screen: it certainly belongs there.

I set it free at CineSea 11 a few weeks ago at the Saturday night screening. Between Doug Meltzer’s Xenon GS-1200 and his 10 foot tall screen it did just fine . Normally I keep the films I bring down more general interest than this, but I saw the potential and knew even people not into railroading would appreciate it.

I’m showing my screen shots uncropped for a change: not just the film, but the “theater” too.

-Imagine yourself there on a cool Wildwood night, you brought a comfortable folding chair from home and you have a nice glass of wine in your hand.

We’ll let somebody else run the projector just this once!

Between the fact that this is a small locomotive and it was showing up on a large screen, there are more than a few moments during the film where you are seeing this full size and in close-ups even more.

Derann’s print is wonderful: the color is nice, the image is sharp and the sound is great too. It runs a little on the blue side like many later Deranns did, but it’s not troublesome. The shame here is it’s actually a cut-down. “A Train for Christmas” started out as a twenty-five minute film: what we 8mm folk would call a 600 Footer. It came from Derann as a 200 Footer. What’s missing is a lot of the human interest oriented footage. Since this adds more of a story line, I’d gladly have forked over the difference in cost to see this on my screen as it was meant to be!

You CAN still see it full length right here:

A Train for Christmas

[ May 22, 2015, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on May 22, 2015, 04:59 PM:

Nice review! I have this film too with the original box....got it for Christmas some years back. It is a very good film and the print quality is very fine.

Bill [Smile]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 22, 2015, 06:06 PM:

Excellent review Steve [Smile]

Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on May 23, 2015, 05:40 AM:

Wonderful review Steve. I too like train films and have a growing collection of prints from DCR, Derann and Barry Wiles. I dont have this one however so will keep a look out if another copy turns up. Super 8 is so lucky to have so many train/railroad films many on low fade stock.

Graham S

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 23, 2015, 03:11 PM:

Thanks Guys!

Graham (Sinden),

Being that you live in Kent, I bet you've been to the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch a few times.

(I can't blame you if you haven't...I'm 53 and I haven't been to the Statue of Liberty even once!)

Maybe you have a one or two of these:

RH&DR (Walton)

RH&DR (Derann)

I live along the Long Island Railroad: considered to be the busiest passenger railroad in the US and one of the oldest. It was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad for decades and was home of some of the great classics of American steam power...

-not an inch of film anywhere! (Something wrong with that!)

Graham (Ritchie) helped inspire me to run "A Train for Christmas" that night, and halfway around the world I let him know too. (-neat thing this internet!)

Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on May 24, 2015, 04:49 AM:

Hi Steve,

Yes I have been to the RHDR twice but as I live in North Kent it's still a drive from here but worth it. I did take some Kodachrome 40 there particularly of the trains turning round on the turntable. I do also have the first part of the Derann release. I recently purchased the 'Golden Jubilee' but when I looked at the leader and first few frames I thought 'That looks familiar, they havent used the same title sequence as the first part, have they'. But when I projected it, it was basically the first part, so I now have two Derann copies of the first part but still looking for the Golden Jubilee. This film came supplied in the original box with the correct Derann label for Golden Jubilee on it, must be a mix up somewhere. Another one will turn up sometime.

In recent years I have visited the Bluebell railway a few times which is still a fair drive from me. I don't see any Super 8 releases from this but there are loads of DVD's today. I did of course shoot my own film there.

I must admit its only in recent years I started collecting Super 8 train films and that has given me a yearning to visit them more. Its a massive feeling of nostalgia and going back in time when life was simpler and watching the Super 8 films takes you away from life today and all the traffic. And of course these films are rare in the sense they are never shown on TV. In some cases these films aren't even on video or DVD and Super 8 is the only way to watch them.

Graham S

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 24, 2015, 12:49 PM:

The strange part of that is the negative for "RH&DR Railway" (part one) was damaged a long time ago and Derann continued to sell "Jubilee" (part two) for years afterwards. "Railway" is much rarer.

I got "Jubilee" off Derann's used list. "Railway" took a lot more digging than that. I don't think I've seen it since, either.

By the way, for $2.5 million(NZ) you can have the real Kingston Flyer. The problem is the price is considered to be too high considering the condition it is in, and as a result the two engines and cars are standing exposed to the elements and deteriorating and being vandalized. The hope is the owner will come to understand this and drop his price before the whole thing is nothing but scrap.

A lot of us think this far into the Diesel age we are in the era of preservation of steam locomotives. Truth of the matter is they are still subject to funding and concerned people. A steam locomotive is a large, complex, skilled labor intensive machine that has a natural tendency to rust back down to the iron ore it started out as. They also require a great deal of space and are much better off being stored under cover.

-a couple of years ago somebody didn't pay their rent for quite a while and an 80 or 90 year old Pacific wound up going to the torch in settlement.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 29, 2015, 04:14 AM:

It looks like the Greymouth people on the West Coast want to buy and use it "sounds good". With the proposed lowering of the trains present status from one to two, this would allow it to be bought outside the region.

I do hope they can buy it, and that the present owner brings the asking price down. Otherwise another winter "at present" being exposed to the elements, the condition of train is going to deteriorate even further...its a real shame that its been left out in the open this long.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 29, 2015, 06:21 AM:

Lovely Steve [Smile]

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 29, 2015, 10:37 AM:

I know Greymouth, Graham!

-that's where Ride of the 480 begins.

(Travel the World with Super-8!)

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 30, 2015, 05:30 PM:

Actually Steve the 480 might be a good one for your next convention [Smile]

Its a nice little film that would be I am sure of interest to all [Smile]

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