Mountain Railroading in West Virginia

[WalterS]

I had a great weekend of flying in the mountains of West Virginia. This is my first complete video I have edited with FCPX. While I have been flying for well over a year and a half, I have mainly focused on aerial still photography. With the addition of a P2 and H3 3D, I have started to film a lot more. Comments and critiques are welcome!

Located in picturesque Pocahontas County, West Virginia the Cass Scenic Railroad takes passengers on a journey along the same line built to haul lumber off of Cheat Mountain at the turn of the twentieth century. Follow along as we capture various landmarks such as Gum Field, the s-curve below Whittaker Station and Bald Knob, the 3rd highest point in the state at 4,843 ft, from an aerial perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyJYukzIuUQ

 

[rrmccabe]

Very nice. I like it a lot. Please share more about your control locations, etc.

Great job.

 

[backcountrymedic]

Love it!

 

[bmr528]

That first few seconds, I could have sworn that was a model railroad setup...

nice

djl

 

[TheloniousMac]

Yeah please share where you were when controlling the bird...
I'd love to be able to find a train like this to shoot.
Were you a passenger on the train? If so a hand launch and retrieve from the train would be awesome and must see!

 

[syotr]

Beautiful video. I live in WV and have been to Cass. I had my Phantom with me but did not fly it.

 

[WalterS]

Yeah please share where you were when controlling the bird...
I'd love to be able to find a train like this to shoot.
Were you a passenger on the train? If so a hand launch and retrieve from the train would be awesome and must see!

For this shoot I drove to each location and captured the footage. The furthest away I was from the Phantom was while flying at the top of the mount where i'd estimate that I was 800 ft (244 m) away. For the other scenes I was quite close. Although I do use FPV to frame my shots, I like to be able to keep an eye on my Phantom, especially around obstacles.

Although these particular geared, logging locomotives do move slow enough to make a launch and retrieval from the train possible, I would never take the risk, especially on a passenger train.