Five Fallen Flags - Seen from Amtrak in 1987

As a railfan, traveling by train isn't just a relaxing way to see the country, it's an opportunity to see other trains from a unique perspective. However, getting anything close to a decent photo or video of another train presents many challenges. So many factors have to be on your side, including timing, patience, knowledge of your surroundings, a close ear to the scanner to hear chatter about meets, and especially luck. What's sad is that the five class one railroads shown in this video are now "fallen flags"... Conrail, Burlington Northern, Southern Pacific, Denver & Rio Grande and the Chicago Northwestern. This trip was from eastern Massachusetts to Las Vegas, Nevada. Starting with the "Lakeshore Limited", the big score was a Conrail freight with 7 engines including 3 Burlington Northern cabless "B" units at Elkhart, Indiana. The next highlight was a bonanza at Denver, Colorado while aboard the "California Zephyr". This included a beautiful morning closeup look at a BN freight as we arrived, the D&RGW Ski Train and another look at the same BN freight shot from the station platform as it departed Denver. The opportunities took a step in the wrong direction from Denver as a private car was at the end of our train, making shots from my favorite spot (The rear window of the last car), difficult. I was surprised however when I reviewed my raw footage and realized there were no passing trains captured for the rest of this trip. A wonderful visit to Barstow, Tehachapi and Cajon Pass followed for the next several days before making the return Amtrak trip. This time while aboard the eastbound "California Zephyr", there was no private car, and my sleeper car was the last car of the train! I called the rear vestibule "home" for practically the entire trip! (well, almost). I was rewarded with a decent amount of passing freights which included a D&RGW train roaring upgrade on Soldier Summit! Another highlight was a passing train at Omaha, Nebraska with two CNW engines and a CNW caboose! The daylight trip on the eastbound "Lakeshore Limited" was not filmed. Capturing train audio from the confines of an passenger train is rarely possible, so I have dubbed in some classical and other music to most of this video.