The link at the bottom of this post is to a 28 MB 60-second high definition Quick Time video clip. This is from a show my son, Kenneth Sloan, and I are doing for Winterail 2007. This clip has no music or narration. The clip features photos from California Shortlines in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Railroads like the Bay Point and Clayton as well as McCloud.

The photos in this show were taken by Bill Darrough and/or are from the collection of Bill and Jack Darrough. This is an amazing collection of photographs. In a conversation with Bill Darrough's brother Jack in August of 1988 Jack said, "Bill died in 1942, he was 22 years-old. He suffered from severe teenage acne and they had treated it with massive doses of radiation, which at the time was thought harmless. The radiation cleared his acne but Bill died of cancer." According to Jack, he and Bill came from a railroad family. The members of a railroaders family were then given passes and could travel free on the nation's passenger trains. The period that Bill lived in was near the climax of the era of steam railroading in this country. Jack said Bill would pack two suitcases, one with film and the other with sandwiches and the young man would go on trips alone photographing trains. In my opinion had he lived he would have been one of the greatest railroad photographers of the twentieth century. It is an amazing story and so Ken and I are trying to tell it.

There is a lot more in the show, both mainline steam, traction, more shortlines and logging RR's. I do not know where it will be in the lineup of shows.

This is really a very small test video. I posted this video for Vic to test the CoDec and make sure it would work on a PC. Since I put it on a web server I thought what the heck, why not share it!

[www.edupodder.com]