"Extreme Trains"

RE: "Extreme Trains"

I caught the show last night..

and yeah, the host could be better..
but apart from that, I quite liked the show!
I thought it showed an aspect of railroading most people never really get to see..
(if you missed it, it was about taking a Norfolk Southern coal train across Pennsylvania)

The filming was very good..very good and unusual railroading scenes..

not the kind of kind of thing you see just standing next to the tracks!


I only caught a few minor annoyances:

In the beginning, he was very clearly saying Nor-(F-word) Southern..
very clearly enunciating the f-word..
he then later changed to the proper Nor-folk..

its "Horseshoe Curve".. its always been "Horseshoe Curve"
no one, ever, says "THE Horseshoe Curve"!
that annoyed me!
He kept saying "The Horseshoe Curve" over and over..


Did you know early brakemen used to stop a train by sticking their feet out in front of the locomotive?
I didnt either..because it never happened!

creative editing messed up the train a few times..
they started out over the Alleghenys with a SD70 in the lead..it later magically changed to a GE!
(it was obviously footage from two different trains, meant to represent the same train)
but probably no one but me would notice that..

I plan to watch more episodes!
I thought overall it was pretty entertaining..
It really showed railroads in a very positive light, talking about how vital and important they are..
which is a good thing for the general public to see IMO..

Scot

RE: "Extreme Trains"

Scott, the local pronunciaton of "Norfolk" (and it's neighbor to the soutwest, "Suffolk") is almost always "-uck" or "-ick", not "-olk," leastwise as I heard it growing up in that neck of the woods. It's one of those quirky pronunciation. (Not that Rochester has any of those. [] )

Personally, I wish he spent a bit more time on Horseshoe Curve (minus the "the"), talking about the museum and whatnot that's available there for people to see. I did like the tour of the Juniata Shops. Seeing that locomotive just picked up like one of our models was pretty friggin' cool, even for a steam guy.

I noticed the change in motive power on the various trains, too, but that's an occupational hazard for me. Those things tend to jump out. I especially liked the one where they shot the helpers on a container train. Credit the editor for not making the differences too glaring.

Later,

K

RE: "Extreme Trains"

I watched the show and although the host was goofy and it wasn't spot on with all the details it was still way better than watching extreme make over or the runway show stuff. Anybody who thinks they're too sophisticated to watch a show that isn't 100% correct in every detail is missing out on a lot in life. I worked 12 years in the coal mines of West Virginia back in the 70s and early 80s. After moving to Florida I worked for a company that built, installed and serviced overhead bridge cranes. The show may have been titled Extreme Trains, but people had a chance to learn a little about coal mines and overhead cranes. As for the coal and the power plant, how many people do you think knew the coal used at a power plant was ground to a dust? Most people think of large chucks when they think of coal. So, I'll be watching every episode. Goofy host or not.

I just finished watching the first episode. The topic is, of course, fascinating and the show has potential but needs to fix 3 serious flaws first:

1) The host is an idiot on camera. He may be a nice guy, and is narration is good, but his on screen presence makes the show unwatchable.


2) Too little information, too much fluff. Spend less money on stupid graphics and more on telling us facts.


3) Accuracy. Folks who make a show about trains should actually know about them. The dynamic brake misinformation is a good example.


Greg C

I watched the first episode this afternoon, and thought it was good. I liked that they actually talked with a real operator and real crews. The guy hosting the show is suppsed to ham it up, guys. This show is geared toward guys like me and Shad. Short attention spans. What are we talking about?

I also liked that they mixed some historic equipment in there.

Not much mention of the wet limestone scrubber shown in all the power plant shots. You know it is a wet scrubber because of the white plume of steam coming from it. The dirty stacks are the ones without any steam coming from them.


All in all, for what it is, it is 95% better than the Dancing with the Stars that MB likes to watch. Talk about mind numbing!!


And I liked that he pronounced the name of the railroad properly. If he was really trying to insult the RR, there are a whole lot more terrible things to say than the proper pronunciation of the city of Norfolk, VA.




EXTREME!!

PS- did any of you crazy old dudes watch "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia" last night? Now that was an extreme show.