The Big “A” One Hour #SRP-1218 $29.95 Big steam both today and yesterday on the Norfolk and Western combined in a single tape. First you see 1218 steaming north to her original home in Roanoke after two years of reconstruction in Birmingham. Then come the first trips on the Bluefield, Blue Ridge, and Christiansburg grades shot from helicopters - the only helicopter coverage anywhere that we know of 1218’s assaults on the Alleghennies. Beautiful photography. All action, no static shots of engine repairs, no lectures. For the last part of this tape we have included Archie Julian’s classic: “Battle for the Blue Ridge." Here are the monsters of the steam era on the Norfolk and Western attacking the Eastern slope of the main line from Bluefield over Christiansburg Hill and across the Blue Ridge: both the A and Y classes, the Y’s spinning out again and again on the 3% grades to the mine branches. 70 MPH run pasts of the J class 4-8-4s, busting their guts on the main line 2% grades. It has branch line operation: Pacifics, a rare breed on the N&W, double and triple heading. Even shows the ‘Jawn Henry,’ the N&Ws experimental steam turbine in helper service. 185 run pasts. Color back