8mm Forum: Freedom in Texas

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Posted by Will Trenfield (Member # 5321) on August 04, 2016, 06:00 PM:

I've yet to find any cine films in charity shops. This week, I visited a local antiques centre where loads of traders rented compartments to display their goods. As I wandered around, thinking I was wasting my time, I came across a pile of cine films on a shelf. Unfortunately, as I was meeting friends for lunch later, I didn't have much spare cash. I picked a 200' film in a white box with the title "Freedom in Texas" hand-written. It turned out to be professionally produced footage of the Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 steam loco 610 on it's test run after restoration in 1976 as well as other footage of it. I understand it is now on static display at the Texas State Railroad museum as the sole surviving example of its class. Sadly, the film has the dreaded red tint but that doesn't detract from the appreciation of this great locomotive. Not a bad buy for £3 ($4).

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 04, 2016, 09:08 PM:

Will,

You've found your first Sunday River Productions print. These would be a guilty pleasure of mine if I felt guilty about it.

These are railroad films for people who appreciate film. Every one of them is either a great film or a rare film, sometimes both. Their major specialty was finding old 16mm footage of extinct lines and printing it on Super-8, but as business got prosperous they produced new ones too. You have one of these.

It was new print from them when I was a teenager that brought me from just a train nut to a film nut too. Without that print I might just be scribbling away on a model railroad forum instead of here!

You actually have one I don't, but the 60 I do have are consolation enough! (#61 is in the mail.)

It's a shame about your fade: most of mine have held up beautifully.

Posted by Will Trenfield (Member # 5321) on August 05, 2016, 07:29 AM:

That's the one, Steve! It's a good viewing despite the redness. Why does it happen with some films and not others?

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 05, 2016, 08:05 AM:

There's various ideas regarding how the film was initially processed in the lab.

I think in too many cases what we are up against is the way people stored their films. In a lot of cases once the novelty wore off they were shoved in attics and garages and cooked every summer.

I have a lot of these prints that were well taken care of and the color is just stunning.

My one big gripe with Sunday River is once they broke the sound barrier it took them a while to figure out how to handle it. Early on somebody got the idea that the viewer expects the whistle to be blown every scene. Not so: it wears thin pretty fast!

Later on they figured it out. I have a two-parter called "Narrow Gauge in Portugal" that is borderline Art it is so nicely produced. It's more than just trains: scenery, buildings, people. The guy with the camera was obviously very good at his job too.

Collecting these is a little like going fishing: you dangle your hook in the water for sometimes a year at a time and get absolutely nothing, then all of a sudden you are pulling them into the boat right and left. For example I've caught five of 'em since the beginning of July, and let another two go because I already had them.

Posted by Will Trenfield (Member # 5321) on August 05, 2016, 09:41 AM:

Thanks, Steve. I have some family films which are over 50 years old and the colours are still as good as they were when processed. They've always been kept in cupboards at stable temperatures. As you say, an attic probably isn't the best place to store film. I'll be back at that antique centre next week to see what else I can find. I seem to remember seeing a 400' colour and sound digest of "Singing in the Rain" for £10.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 05, 2016, 11:26 AM:

I recently got an 800 foot reel with kind of an amalgamation of two Singin' in the Rain digests.

-great entertainment!

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