Charles Smiley Presents

06/30/2026

This re-release on DVD of a favorite video of the SP is revised and better than before. Lots of Bay area magic on the San Francisco Peninsula during various decades of SP operation. Final visions of late steam 'commutes' and freights down the 47-miles double-track main to San Jose. See the famous FM Trainmaster diesels with long, fast commute trains on three-minute headway operation in the seventies. Also Passenger Geeps and SDP45 action in commute service that has long disappeared. Relive the Third & Townsend passenger train experience with inside and platform views. Watch train-after-train cruise by the station's yard tower to the platform area. Visit old Bayshore Yard and see the FM switchers plus a roundhouse full of old SP power. Learn the history of the commute trains into the Cal Train Service era of the 90s. Ride a former SP passenger GP-9 on the Oakland Terminal Ry. Great running on Oakland street trackage to switch freight.

"SP BY THE BAY" Find it at www.cspmovies.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GshZerXNYKE

This re-release on DVD of a favorite video of the SP is revised and...

06/24/2026

This is a short section of a 2 hour and 42 minute DVD production is from the camera work of Gino Pagliaro and many others over the last decades on the SP . The title is of this movie is "ESPEE HALL OF FAME".
www.cspmovies.com
The emphasis here is on manifest trains, transfer jobs and locals. We bring the kind of railroading that has been forgotten. See Davis and Suisun-Fairfield Junction and many trains on the Ione branch. Don't miss the sugar beets to Woodland, California. This video took many years to shoot with nearly every scene in blue skies and with the sun's light on the right side of the train.
Visit "Espee" locations that were in and around Sacramento, CA in the early 1990s. See Elvas and Stockton Junction with the towers that have long ago been removed.

Watch hours of great, original Southern Pacific power that has been sent to the scrap yard since this material was shot. Learn much of the history of the SP and the area involved in this video.

06/24/2026

This video shows many ways to make a portrayal of a rural scene with limited space seem larger than it really is by creating a number of illusions with construction techniques.

Visit our website www.cspmovies.com to learn more about our 3 "BUILDING BETTER MODEL RAILROADS" DVDs!

06/23/2026

This release combines color film shot nearly 20 years ago as well as fresh new material from 1999 and January 2000. The setting is the beautiful Wasatch Mountain range and its punishing 2.4% grades where helpers are a way of life. The town of Helper, Utah is still a stronghold for Rio Grande units with showcase helper action with sets up to seven units! Model Railroad News comments Charles Smiley Presents captures some of these moments from the past through heritage film, and contrasts those scenes with rail traffic of today in "Reflections on Soldier Summit." Tracking the evolution of the railroad through various avenues, his images convey the awesome territory that the Rio Grande conquered, and the brute force of the trains that did it. One of the hallmarks of the Grande was its use of huge helper sets of six, seven, or more six axle diesels, sinister with their paint soot-blackened by tunnel dwelling, prowling the twisting, turning rails.

"SOLDIER SUMMIT REFLECTIONS" www.cspmovies.com

06/21/2026

The history of mergers of C&O, B&O, WM and Seaboard Lines up to the CSXT formation is reviewed. Early film presents B&O, C&O and L&N power plus vignettes of Western Maryland and the small WVN Railroads. See lots of Seaboard and Family Lines power mixed with B&O, Chessie System and CSX colors in big power 'lash-ups' with helpers and meets. The "Cranberry" grade of the Mountain Subdivision, and the Sand Patch grade of the Keystone Subdivision with its beautiful scenery, small towns and great trains are a special visual experience. It was the ultimate "Rainbow-Rails" era that had many people guessing how it would end. Relive EMD and GE locomotives in a sight and sound spectacular, with older engines struggling up B&O's steepest mountain grades!

This full movie " MOUNTAIN GRADES OF THE B&O", brings the story of the many lines that would eventually form the CSX system.

06/21/2026

“Short Line and older power fans will appreciate this offering. This is an in-depth and educational DVD, typical of other high-quality productions from this company. Thirteen Railroads are covered in depth in California, Texas and Oregon and is super for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes mosaic of the railroad industry one normally does not see happening. The long-gone power, clean cars, customers and old stations are priceless images you can no longer see on the rails today”!

D-112 GREAT SHORTLINES WEST www.cspmovies.com

06/20/2026

Revisit the early 1990s on the last years of the D&H and the ushering in of CP Rail to new territory in the US. This was a very colorful era in the Northeast and dramatic changes were still in effect from ripples of the bankruptcy of the old Penn Central days. We cover the history of the D&H and its sad demise. Don't miss the parade of older and borrowed power that came from all over North America.

This was also a time when CP Rail was consolidating its extensive US-based rail lines. We bring you power from the D&H, Soo Lines and from lines such as CSX, NS, Conrail, leasing companies and others.
"NORTHEAST RAILS REMEMBERED II" Find it at www.cspmovies.com