HOME MOVIES: 1937 INDIANAPOLIS 8MM

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1937

Format: 16mm

Description: This extraordinary, 1937 silent 8mm home movie depicts a rail fan trip. This took place in and around Indianapolis, Indiana aboard a the New York Central Railroad train. The steam locomotive featured is #4860, an Alco Schenectady, 1907, class K-2c 4-6-2 locomotive. This was a "Pacific" type, one of 418 built for the railroad by American Locomotive Co. The Class K-2s had 79" diameter drivers, 22" x 28" cylinders, a 200 psi boiler pressure and exerted 29,100 pounds of tractive effort. The film includes a lot of interesting sights including passing train yards, railroad personnel, and a roundhouse turntable (TRT: 8:15). It's not clear what line is shown, possibly the tracks are part of the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati circuit. A trainyard with a railroad switch, splitting divergent tracks. A steam locomotive engine billowing smoke drives toward frame left, carrying a train of passenger cars (0:08). A pair of locomotive engines recede into the distance, trailing smoke. A brief shot of a fuel car, its bunker loaded with coal (0:27). A sign advertises the "Vagabond Special," with blank space for a sponsor (0:46). Footage taken from out the window of a passenger train car shows passing electrical poles, trees, an engineer leaning out of the train engine’s cab ahead (0:50). A view from the train’s caboose shows passengers in silhouette, train tracks extending into the horizon in a mostly barren landscape. A coal silo, crossing signs and boxcars (1:09). A man’s forehead and windswept hair enter the frame. Passing modest wooden buildings, a grove of trees, another locomotive headed in the opposite direction. Coaling tower (1:38). The engineer waves as another oncoming engine approaches (1:54). A young woman watches the passing landscape from a passenger car’s window (2:34). Passing a train station, an engine, a tank car, and boxcars can be seen. Industrial factories or warehouses (3:14). A complex lattice of criss-crossing railroad switches. A conductor stands alongside a steam engine at rest outside an open-air train platform. The train carrying the camera slows to a halt (3:43). A steam locomotive engine in profile shows its headlight, smokestack or chimney, and stenciling, "Cincinnati Union Terminal." A trainyard shows a variety of non-working engines at a standstill (4:23). A portrait of a man in a white shirt and tie. The young woman with her hair in buns glances back over her shoulder, with a man in glasses smiles and waves (4:50). Inside a train station roundhouse, a trailway turntable rotates in front of onlookers (5:02). A ¾ view of a steam engine traveling in reverse while a man in a white hat watches. Once on a turntable, the engine rotates into position (5:12). The woman climbs aboard a passenger car, turns, smiles, and looks into the sun (5:35). An engineer checks the couplings between train cars while a man in a cap and a young boy watch him work (5:47). New York Central steam locomotive 4860. This is a Schenectady, 1907, class K-2c 4-6-2 locomotive. Three African American porters or train conductors in caps, ties, and uniforms. The train on the move again (6:00). A trainyard crossed by an overhead bridge. On the bridge, a locomotive pushes boxcars from behind (6:21). Men refill the engine’s water supply at a stop (6:42). Passing a residential area with 1930s automobiles, homes, waving pedestrians (7:04). At a stop, pedestrians stand alongside the train. A closeup of a running gear shows the large wheel sets and axleboxes in detail. A railman rests on the 4860 (7:18). The train pulls away, then returns, with men standing atop the caboose and waving (8:03). Several men help to rotate the train’s engine on a turntable, pushing with great effort (8:21). A heavy-set man walks down a residential road. An engineer smiles subtly (8:38). On the move, the train passes through a verdant forest (8:44). A crowd of bystanders in a rural area. A man peers into the camera in closeup, then breaks a smile. A woman seated in a dining car relaxes (9:30).

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