60 Minutes covered the vintage Market Street film, including current footage of PCCs and Milan cars in service. A local historian has traced the source of the film and dates its production within just a few days of the 1906 earthquake.

Wesley

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/14/60minutes/main6958102.shtml

Nice to hear that 60 minutes is right on top of timely topics. That video made the circuit about a year ago and back then it was known to have been shot days before the earthquake. Good to see they haven't changed their style since I stopped watching them many years ago.

Later!
Mr. Ed

I'm not sure why the mocking tone. The implication is that some 100+ year old film gets uncovered and 60 Minutes should immediately jump on it like breaking news. Why? Between the news items that are truly timely and their usual long lead time pieces I'm glad they slotted it at all since it touches on a good number of things that many of us are glad to expose the mass public to including both film and railway preservation.

Steve

While the film featured on 60 Minutes was a professionally produced film, one can only imagine the treasure trove of images resting in film cans of rail enthusiasts over the past 100+ years. Maybe such exposure (no pun intended) will encourage owners of amateur railroad films to consider seeking help in archiving the films. -- Ray

One of the other copies of the film has been available on line for several years as part of the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress.

The Technology and Industry section has lots of other railroad-related material. The Edison Companies collection is a good place to start.

The reason one short film ("A Trip to Berkeley, Cal.") survived is interesting. It survived as a "reference print" -- in the early days of film, the Copyright Office required a physical print of every frame in a movie in order for it to be copyrighted. This video was digitized from such a book of prints rather than from an old nitrate-stock film. That rule did not last very long!

The Library of Congress had incorrectly dated the film. The story of how the true date was arrived at -using tiny clues located within the film, is fascinating in and of itself.

Stephen

Amatuer movie cameras did not exist before the late 1920's. Professional cameras and movie film were extremely expensive. I personally have not seen any amatuer railroad movies shot before the late 1930's. Early Kodachrome was not color stable.

Perhaps a central archive of amatuer railroad movies would be a good idea if someone wanted to fund it.

David Kiehn, the curator of the Essay Film museum is a friend...

He is as good or better researcher than most of the Railroad guys I know... I was in the theater for the 60 minutes filming...

The detective story was what brought 60 minutes... a film with an unknown history... a history discovered... There is a lot more to the story... The film is a single 8+ minute shoot... technology developed for prize fights... film stock purchased for a prize fight that went short... What do you use with the film... two movies... down Market street and down Mt Tamilpias... both railroad based... because trains were more stable..

Keeping to trains, the Essay Museum is located across the tracks from the Niles Canyon Railway's Niles depot... Near the preserved 1904 Niles depot... and freight depot. A few miles from the Centerville depot, a couple more from Ardenwood and the SPCRR's museum

It is good...

Many of the early railfan movies of action in Southern California can be credited to men who worked in the movie industry and had access to pro-grade cameras and film (call it "raw stock" if you really want to sound like "Hollywood insider").
I just received my copy of 1906 Trip Down Market Street. Not only does it have streetcars (cable-hauled, horse-drawn and electric) and those new-fangled gas buggies, it also illustrates the wide variety of horse-powered vehicles that kept the city running in those days. Well into the 1920's the Market St. Ry. had a special sling which was used with crane 0130 to rescue stranded hayburners.

Just for comparison, some movie footage, in color, from the late 1940s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzqs6DF_ ... re=related

And here is a YouTube copy of the film--but turn off the sound, the music picked for the soundtrack is a bad fit and is just plain awful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oubsaFBU ... re=related

folks,
This film has been following the fan based technology as it advanced. I first saw it on a super 8 mm format, then VHS tape and I am sure by now it is on DVD some place.

The Library of Congress has it and I'll bet the film archive at the Museum of American History, has a copy in some form.

After more than 50 years as a museum ship the Star of Alaska ex Balclutha turned up in some moving picture film taken in 1928. You can watch it aboard the ship at the Hyde Street Pier here in San Francisco.

Ted Miles