Greetings from this Winter wonderland we call Vermont. Each passing year confirms my belief and relief that our Champlain Valley home really is a "sunbelt" within the Green Mountain State. I'll risk jinxing our good fortune by calling attention to the considerably lower snow levels here. While New England Central Railroad crews were through a flooded Swanton; Central Maine & Quebec and VRS were pushing snow over their combined Farnham-White River Junction route. Temperatures, seemingly frozen in the subzero range, confirms my understanding why some are compelled to join the seasonal flock of "snowbirds. While the Tell-Tale Productions cameras have been in a state of semi-hibernation, our creative juices have been flowing. Can you imagine someone with college degrees in three concentrations-- Media Production, U.S. History, and General Business (sales and marketing) placidly awaiting longer days and warmer temps?!

Thanks for keeping the Tell-Tale banner flying into its fifteenth year. It seems like only yesterday (o.k. maybe a bit longer than that!) when I sold my beloved 1959 Chevrolet Impala to fund a heavy-duty editing computer, digital video software and Mini-DV camcorder. Would you believe our first year's sales ratio was two VHS to every one DVD. A year later, the numbers flipped. We dropped VHS during our third year. While downloads are making in-roads, DVD's keep us chugging along. Over the years, the covers have improved from home-made cut and paste, to professional Photoshop; convenient chaptering was added, and disks receive full-color imaging. Copies of our original photocopied black and white brochures, a collector's item, belong on the Tell-Tale "wall of shame." A number of you have taken these baby steps with us, and we thank you for staying aboard this Love Train.  
 
VERMONT RAIL SYSTEM 2018 EXCURSIONS
Vermont Rail Systems' beautiful full-color brochure offers a nice variety of Brunch Trains, Dinner Trains, Fall Foliage, Fireworks, and Cocktails On The Rails. Check out www.trainridesvt.com or phone 800-707-3530 Mon-Fri 8am-4pm, or e-mail them at passengers@vrs.com      
 
BATON PASSES
Tell-Tale Productions has offered signed railroad books authored by my father, Robert C. Jones, for a decade or so. The remaining inventory of his acclaimed VERMONT RAIL SYSTEM: A RAILROAD RENAISSANCE is down to a few hundred. We have several dozen RIO GRANDE'S LA VETA PASS ROUTE that he published for author Stephen Rasmussen,and a handful of CENTRAL VERMONT RAILWAY volumes 1-3. Every week or so, dad sits down with me and signs another carton. Tell-Tale Productions is your unofficial retail and wholesale distributor for Evergreen Press books. VRS is available, signed, for $32.50 SHIPPING AND TAX INCLUDED. This represents an incredible  50% savings. Come and get 'em! 

WE'VE GOT YOUR BACK... FRONT AND SIDES    
You think it was fun managing two inventories-- VHS and DVD-- back in the day? Who, in their right mind, would carry a product with multiple sizes? How about that glutton for punishment James R. "Jim" Jones? While working up the cover for our next video, scheduled for this Fall, my Photoshop guy (Paul) and I were inspired by the KEESEVILLE, AUSABLE CHASM & LAKE CHAMPLAIN RAILROAD logo. It became apparent, to me, that the world would be a better place if everyone "Put on their KAC&LC." This 5.6-mile phantom shortline hauled passengers and freight from the D&H and Lake Champlain Transportation Company steamships at Port Kent between 1890 and 1924. During its all-too-brief existence, KAC&LC hosted two U.S. Presidents, Thomas Alva Edison, and death-defying antics seen in Silent Film Era movies such as the original Perils of Pauline (1914), and Hurricane Hutch (1921). Quaint standard-gauge 4-4-0's, a 2-4-4T, and 2-6-0 powered most runs. This unlikely home-owned, grassroots operation also lived a double-life as one of the nation's smallest three-rail electric lines from 1905-1911. The fabulous, 244.9 foot long, 158 foot high cantilever bridge (seen on the T-shirt logo) was based on a much larger example Michigan Central constructed over Niagara Falls six years before. How can you say "No" to a poor town-owned railroad that couldn't even afford a wye or turntable at its Keeseville terminal?! It was known as "Old Push and Pull","The Peanut," and "Alphabet Road" for good reason. In our latest video, DELAWARE & HUDSON RAILROAD: LIGHTNING STRIPE, RED AND WHITE, an interviewee joked "they went out of business because they couldn't afford stationary (lots of ink in a name that long!)" This unique T-shirt can be yours, and the price is right! LIMITED EDITION T-SHIRT IN SIZES SMALL-XXXXL. Because I have no idea the ratio of sizes we'll need, I am taking pre-orders to get it right. Shirts ship by April 1st. No fooling!          

Thanks for coming along for the ride. We look forward to seeing you at the shows, or joining you in cyberspace. Warmest regards,
   
James R."Jim" and Marilee C. Jones
Tell-Tale Productions