In Transit, "Empire Builder" Film.

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Think I'll watch this on Monday, April 6th. We booked a flight to Chicago for Saturday, then Monday back home to PDX on Amtrak. So disappointed to cancel. Nice to find this film!!

I believe today (4/1) is the final day it's available. They were only sharing it for 7 days, starting March 25.
 
My thanks to TraneMan for posting the notice here, otherwise I'd have missed this opportunity. I am very grateful for the chance to finally see this film, and I enjoyed it very much. The character and setting of long distance trains provides an interval of time and a unique occasion for random, optional, and safe interpersonal interaction. These travelers are not only physically in transit by being on the train but their lives are in transit and the train provides the setting for uncommon human transparency about where lives are going.
 
Finally finished watching this over the lunch hour today. Would have liked to have seen a bit more of Fargo, ND (the closest stop to my undergrad college), but I remember the eastbound Empire Builder always seemed to arrive in Fargo in the wee hours of the morning, so very little to see then. (I'd attempt to sleep in my coach seat as soon as the conductor had inspected my ticket.)
Where did you go to undergrad? I went to Moorhead State University, as it was known at the time, in Moorhead MN.
 
My thanks to TraneMan for posting the notice here, otherwise I'd have missed this opportunity. I am very grateful for the chance to finally see this film, and I enjoyed it very much. The character and setting of long distance trains provides an interval of time and a unique occasion for random, optional, and safe interpersonal interaction. These travelers are not only physically in transit by being on the train but their lives are in transit and the train provides the setting for uncommon human transparency about where lives are going.

TraneMan is the administrator of Amtrak’s Empire Builder page. That’s where I got my information from him originally. He saw the movie in the theater about five or so years ago and raved about it. I’m grateful to him as well for posting this information and it lived up to expectations.

I’d encourage any fan of the movie or the Empire Builder itself to join his group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1595902357358291/
 
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Can you suggest some good train focused content? I have subscriptions to UK streaming services but rather little knowledge of what is available.

@Devil's Advocate


Sorry for the delay getting back to you, internet and computer problems combining. I'll do what I can and be pleased to do so. It will arrive bit by bit so do you want the info published here or a thread of it's own in the appropriate part of the forum, wherever that may be (can you help me there mods?).

Just to get you started though, here is the online guide we use for all UK TV, it can be adjusted to display as much or as little as you want

TV listings guide

Today, 3 April 2020 there are 2 programs both on Channel 5 (C5). The first at 8pm, I have little interest in and have no comment.

The 2nd again on C5 at 9pm (UK time) - 'Around the World by Train' episode 2 with Tony Robinson' is a new series. The main UK format usually is a 'celebrity' takes various train journeys while stepping off the train to visit or get involved in local life or customs. Most of these programs have very little train footage and concentrate on the celebrity and their antics. The first episode had a surprising amount of train involvement and was the best of this style I have seen in a while, although the presenter... (of course my opinion only).

Around the World by Train with Tony Robinson - S2 - Episode 2: South America


There are quite a few other series that appear regularly. If you like train and comfortable interacting with people met along the way then Billy Connolly is the person who I think has the most empathy and connects easily with anybody. There is an ITV series called 'Tracks Across America', here are a couple of links -

BILLY CONNOLLY'S TRACKS ACROSS AMERICA

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...ly-connollys-tracks-across-america-review-itv

Most of the main UK channels have 'catch-up' facilities, you may have to use a VPN I think it's called but with the program title you can find quite a lot. The BBC iPlayer will have various series, the majority with Michael Portillo who I find a poor presenter and the actual involvement of trains has become less and less over the years if he's in it, whatever the title suggests.

There's a start, happy to advise of more as they become apparent or I remember their titles, let me know.
 
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Thank you for your suggestions - I'll be sure to check those out. 👍

The problem with finding UK train programs is that the services which are sold in the US are clumsy to use and limited in scope. For instance...

BritBoxTrains.PNG
It sounds cheap to pay $7 per month until you realize how much is missing and that you need to pay another $7 for each device type. Having BritBox on your phone, television, and computer costs $21 per month and we only get whatever content they specifically license for North America. If it's a BBC program they didn't bother to license or was part of a shared funding project it might show up on Discovery, Public Broadcasting, National Geogaphic, or nowhere at all. I've used iPlayer over VPN in the past but the last time I tried to use it nothing was working right. I've since read that iPlayer has apparently been discontinued and replaced with something else.
 
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Thank you for your suggestions - I'll be sure to check those out. 👍

The problem with finding UK train programs is that the services which are sold in the US are clumsy to use and limited in scope. For instance...

View attachment 17206
It sounds cheap to pay $7 per month until you realize how much is missing and that you need to pay another $7 for each device type. Having BritBox on your phone, television, and computer costs $21 per month and we only get whatever content they specifically license for North America. If it's a BBC program they didn't bother to license or was part of a shared funding project it might show up on Discovery, Public Broadcasting, National Geogaphic, or nowhere at all. I've used iPlayer over VPN in the past but the last time I tried to use it nothing was working right. I've since read that iPlayer has apparently been discontinued and replaced with something else.
If you have Amazon Prime, you could add Britbox via Prime Video Channels, and have it accessible on all of your devices which can access Amazon Prime Video. (That's how we get Acorn TV, for example.) CBS All Access' 1-month free trial isn't available through Prime Video Channels, though, so we're doing that directly from CBS All Access.
 
I started in September 1978, so we overlapped for a few months.
You would have been wearing one of those yellow beanies Concordia freshmen were required to wear (by school tradition) until the "Cobbers" got their first touchdown of the season. (Most freshmen tossed their beanies in the air at that point, throwing them away; I saved mine as a souvenir.)
 
You would have been wearing one of those yellow beanies Concordia freshmen were required to wear (by school tradition) until the "Cobbers" got their first touchdown of the season. (Most freshmen tossed their beanies in the air at that point, throwing them away; I saved mine as a souvenir.)
Well, I went to MSU. There was no dress code at the time.
 
Lucky you!
I went to College so long ago ( SWTU, alma mater of LBJ and George Strait)that Freshmen wore Beanies, couldn't have Cars, and the Female Students ( we all had to live in Dorms as Freshmen)had to be in on School nights( Sun-Thur) @ 9pm!

If they missed "Curfew" they got Grounded, ie Restricted to the Dorm after 6pm for 2 weeks!!
 
Thank you for your suggestions - I'll be sure to check those out. 👍

The problem with finding UK train programs is that the services which are sold in the US are clumsy to use and limited in scope. For instance...

View attachment 17206
It sounds cheap to pay $7 per month until you realize how much is missing and that you need to pay another $7 for each device type. Having BritBox on your phone, television, and computer costs $21 per month and we only get whatever content they specifically license for North America. If it's a BBC program they didn't bother to license or was part of a shared funding project it might show up on Discovery, Public Broadcasting, National Geogaphic, or nowhere at all. I've used iPlayer over VPN in the past but the last time I tried to use it nothing was working right. I've since read that iPlayer has apparently been discontinued and replaced with something else.

The BBC has been threatened by this Johnson government they will lose their funding as it stands now, which would then mean they would have to source their own revenue through commercial means.
That would also mean much of the public output (which is enormous) would have to be curtailed, not sure even with the large majority Johnson has that they would be able to pass those sort of measures.

Maybe what you have heard is a variation on this? If it is it may never happen as the British public value the BBC too much.

I'm sure there are people on this forum who could direct you how to access each individual channel so you could watch or download live.
 
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Today 4 April 2020 BBC 2 at 8:00pm (UK time) :

Start of a re-run of a recent Michael Portillo series 'Great Asian Railway Journeys'. More his skewed view of Asia than train travel, but if you like travel in general can get something from each episode.
 
Today 4 April 2020 BBC 2 at 8:00pm (UK time) :

Start of a re-run of a recent Michael Portillo series 'Great Asian Railway Journeys'. More his skewed view of Asia than train travel, but if you like travel in general can get something from each episode.
I was really hoping it would be the Empire Builder so that I could travel it vicariously!
 
@Samsbigtrip

Sam?

I think you will find that Billy Connolly rode the Empire Builder in his series Tracks Across America, Part 1. It was shown on ITV so maybe you can find it somewhere?
 
@Samsbigtrip
[...] Billy Connolly rode the Empire Builder in his series Tracks Across America, Part 1.
Thanks hon - I'll see if I can find it!
I've just been looking longingly at the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and thinking of incorporating in my Italian holiday in September - should the elephant in the room have run its course by then. It is REALLY beautiful!
Stay safe, stay well!
Best wishes
Sam
 
The BBC has been threatened by this Johnson government they will lose their funding as it stands now, which would then mean they would have to source their own revenue through commercial means.
That would also mean much of the public output (which is enormous) would have to be curtailed, not sure even with the large majority Johnson has that they would be able to pass those sort of measures.

Maybe what you have heard is a variation on this? If it is it may never happen as the British public value the BBC too much.

I'm sure there are people on this forum who could direct you how to access each individual channel so you could watch or download live.
It would be sacrilege to carry advertising on the BBC - I can feel another march to Parliament Square coming on! Having said that, the BBC should do what it does best: quality public TV with dramas (particularly period dramas) and documentaries that they can sell - and not spend a small fortune on one-off sporting events that will only ever be watched once.
 
In the UK at the moment and for perhaps the last 2 or 3 years there have been a large number of train themed programs on British tv, the interest in train travel there is enormous currently.

In my opinion as 'In Transit' gets closest to the flavour of long distance train travel by quite a long way compared to anything I've yet to see on any UK tv (and I watch everything train travel orientated I can find), I think it could easily be the star of current British rail travel programs, I really do.

Is it possible to mention to the people who own the program/film if they could or wish to offer their film one of the 4 of 5 mainstream Brit tv companies?

I don't belong to Facebook or any other social media except here and an outdoor forum in the UK so can't put my own opinion where they can read it, but I do wholeheartedly agree with you that there would be a lot of interest if a DVD were available.
Would also like to write it is very generous and humane of them to make the program available for free for this week.

Thank you for posting this, it has made both of us very happy.
I'm on Facebook - can I put this on there for you?
 
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