Recently a Youtube channel appeared called View From The Head End, that was posting complete head end cab videos from Amtrak trains. These were not the more typical "reversed" videos taken from a rear facing window, but legit head end videos that documented both signals and signaling. More significantly the videos were up to date, likely all recorded within the last couple of years. My first thought was that someone had recently retired because since the early 2000's Amtrak (and I assume most railroads) have been somewhat anal about employees moonlighting as content creators. Well, I guess they hadn't retired because if you haven't noticed the link is broken and the entire channel is gone.
While the practice of workers recording head end videos to feed Youtube channels seems to be quite common in Europe (where I should add its practically impossible to fire railway workers), there are surprisingly few full-line inside-the-cab videos from North America. Up through the early 2000's there was a cottage industry head end videos being sold at "Train Shows" on either VHS or DVD. Some of these were professionally produced by outfits like Pantex, while others were made by AV savvy employees with access to a Hi-8 camera and a capture card. Unfortunately the rise of The Internet brought this wildcat era of video to an end as the speed of information made it easier for previously underground works to become known by regulators, the media and lawyers.
In the early years of Youtube, spotty internet connections and the more ephemeral nature of online data encouraged folks to save off important video content like head end videos. This practiced has decreased as the internet became more reliable overall, however when you find something that seems too good to last, you might want to leap into action and save off a local copy. In a sliver of good news I was able to watch some of the videos before they vanished and resolve some outstanding signal questions I had.
Meanwhile if you'd like something similar to watch I can provide two pairs of videos from the late 2000's covering an Acela trip from Boston to NYP (head end) and the Former Conrail Chicago Line between Buffalo and Albany (rear facing). Intended for Train Show (tm) sale both had been scrubbed of ambient cab sounds and the Chicago Line also being video reversed (which I was able to undo). Although mostly silent, the Chicago Line video in particular captures the NYC/Conrail signaling immediately before its complete replacement ~2010.
Since these videos from "View From the Head End" are from all over the country I assume they're not the work of one retired engineer. I suspect someone got a hold of some Amtrak training videos and is slowly releasing them on YouTube. You're correct in that you should probably download them and save them before Amtrak DMCA's them out of existence. Being that this YouTube channel has been up for a while now I'm surprised Amtrak hasn't acted already.
ReplyDeleteThe NEC ones appear to be one to two years old. The New York to Philadelphia video shows construction on the new Portal bridge just starting. The Seattle to Portland video shows Horizon cars.
They were clustered in the Northeast along with, if I can remember correctly, a Cascades and a western LD. From my experience with VHS era train videos this tracks with someone who is based in the northeast and then talks their way into the cab while on vacation out west.
DeleteWas there any evidence in the audio (which I didn't get a chance to hear) that these were training videos? There was no "value added" in the form of landmark names or speeds displayed on screen. There's a set of rear facing engineering videos floating around that have real time speed and milepost info.
Getting head end access is a process that is easiest in one's home division and gets increasingly harder as one travels farther away. While many of the videos are in the Northeast, they range across divisions and even extend into Canada. Could this be a young engineer who could reasonably make claims about wanting to qualify on more territory? Or perhaps this is an older road foreman type who could legitimately get into cabs nationwide?
Another nod towards being either new or a veteran is that both a niave young kid and a tech ignorant veteran could be unaware of how they would get caught posting the videos.
And they're gone, DMCA'ed into non existence. That was quick. This makes me think they were Amtrak videos that this person somehow got a hold of and not some dude who talked his way onto the head end. Hope you saved a few of them.
DeleteThe channel was pulled, not the videos. It happened before I even made the post. I doubt this was a DMCA request. This was someone got an e-mail telling them to take the videos down or they would face discipline.
DeleteAmtrak would be on uncertain legal ground re: DMCA in any event seeing as how they are a quasi arm of the Federal government and you can FOIA most "content" they produce.
Anyway do you recall what the sound track on the videos consisted of?
None of the videos I watched, and I watched about 6 of them, had sound. If you have the right equipment you can remove audio tracks from videos. I assume this was done to avoid ID'ing the engineer. You know the whole FRA ban on electronic devices on the head end due to that little Metrolink UP incident so many years ago.
DeleteBack during my BNSF dispatching days I had access to videos that were shot from the rear of the geometry test car. Other than people talking in the back ground there was no information given. The company told us that we should watch the videos in leu of Road Trips. The ATDA raised a stink about that and the company backed down. Being the railfan that I am I did watch quite a few of them, even on territories I wasn't qualified on, at home. I'm still waiting on those to turn up on YouTube someday.
Got pulled down just as I was watching the IC trip. (Chi to Carbondale). Thankfully youtube will let you finish a video even if it is yanked. One of the videos had a goof and part of it was audible on the audio side if you turned it up. (The climb to Winter park through the Moffat tunnel from Denver). There were three people in the cab. Amtrak policy only allows a non crew rider in the cab only if two engineers are called and in the cab. So I am leaning towards these being training videos, or the raw video to be edited into training videos. The third person in the cab was not familiar with the route. In the last few days before it was pulled, there was a flurry of video posts.
ReplyDeleteOhh and here is some quick stuff that I remember. Hoffman NY to Schenectady NY. Still has searchlights. D&H still has lots of searchlights, and part of the way someone is burying a pipeline along part of the D&H. Plenty of Conrail signals still on the B&A. I think the fumiest thing were the printed plastic signs someone stuck up in the Amtrak signals around Albany that say "NO FIXED ABS" with a ban symbol over it lol.
ReplyDelete