This silent, black and white film, shot in the 1950’s — probably 1956-57 — contains various segments, including shots of steam trains and what appears to be the 1957 Presidential Inaugural Parade. The film opens with shots of a heavy Norfolk and Western coal train with two large locomotives coming around a mountainside, engines billowing smoke. The engines appear to be 1200 class “A” fast freight locomotives, similar to Norfolk and Western No. 1218 (which the railroad retired in 1959). The train rolls down the track and out of sight. There are two cabooses on the end of the train :38. Another 1200 class locomotive pulls a freight train toward the camera billowing heavy smoke 1:00. The train passes under a walkway 1:10. The train rounds the tracks and a second engine, located in the back of the train is visible 2:05. Images of the heavily graded tracks leading up into the mountains as a passenger train, pulled by a Norfolk and Western J class streamliner, approaches the camera 2:26. (J class locomotives like this were built to run on the N&W main line between Norfolk, Virginia and Cincinnati, Ohio, pulling the Powhatan Arrow, the Pocahontas and the Cavalier passenger trains as well as ferrying the Southern Railway’s the Birmingham Special, the Pelican and the Tennessean between Monroe, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee.) The train passes 3:15. Another 1200 class N&S locomotive speeds past 3:20. The 1200 class train slowly moves up the heavy grade 3:46. What appears to be the 1957 inaugural parade for President Dwight Eisenhower in Washington, D.C. Virginia Governor Thomas B. Stanley rides past in a convertible. A Republican Eisenhower-Nixon political float from New York lumbers by 4:02. A banner is carried for Eastern High School in Middletown, Kentucky 4:10. A convertible speeds by with Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement 4:16. Men on horseback 4:20. A woman on an elephant 4:30. A float from Indiana and Purdue University’s marching band roll down the street 4:44. A float from Illinois honors Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address 4:55. Next comes a float from Mobile, Alabama 5:04. The nation’s capital in the b/g 5:08. Men in uniform march in unison 5:20. A float from Florida rumbles by the crowd 5:30. A children’s regiment with full coat of arms marches by 5:34. Marchers in varied costumes on foot and on horseback come one after another down the parade route 6:00. Women march holding letters that spell “Arcadia” 6:06. A sign is presented saying “President Ike’s Hometown Band from Abilene, Kansas”. The marching band men wear cowboy hats 6:23. Men and women on horseback 6:32. Cars pass with North Dakota Governor Joseph Jacob Foss, Idaho Governor Robert E. Smylie. and others 6:45. Ornate floats continue to pass the parade watchers 7:00. A float from Guam passes 7:10. American Indians in headdresses pass by on a float 7:32. The Statue of Liberty float 7:40. The next portion of the movie starting at 7:41 was shot at the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway (VBR), an historic short line railroad in central Virginia. The locomotive shown #7 was built by the Lima Locomotive Works. First, we see a woman in a dress sitting on the steps of the train. A sign says, “N.H.R.S Special Coaches, Piney, VA.” Possibly the National Railway Historical Society. 7:44. A pig stares at the camera 8:15. Smoke billows from the stack of a factory 8:30. The #7 locomotive comes out of the station billowing heavy black smoke 8:37. Men climb down from the top of the train 8:57. The locomotive backs into the train station billowing black and white smoke 9:11. A diesel locomotive speeds pass the camera 9:27. Shots of what is probably the Virginia Military Academy. Flags flutter in an open field with people seated and missiles in the foreground 9:46. A marching band gets ready to play 9:57. Cadets march across the field 10:10. Soldiers are lined up in formation across the great field 10:40. The marching band is led across the field 10:55. Cadets with rifles march toward the camera 11:10. People mill about the train station walking on the tracks and riding on the front of locomotives 11:40. A view from inside the train shows the locomotive ahead, a heavy locomotive approaches the camera 12:40. Spouting heavy black smoke, a locomotive makes its way around the bend and toward the camera 13:13. Two women purchase goods from a farmers market 13:36. The screen goes white 14:20. Locomotive #7 footage continues 14:37. Locomotive #7 idles. 15:06.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com