"The Rivals" is a look at the waning days of the Boston & Maine Railroad and its competition with the east-west former Boston & Albany route vs it Fitchburg mainline and also the battle between it's north-south Connecticut River Route vs the (now former) Central Vermont Railway. Nearly all of the footage differs from that previously used in the B&M Fitchburg and Conn River videos that were released earlier.

This original VHS tape version of "The Rivals" is being presented here as a preview to the now in production remake version which will appear sometime on DVD

From the comments:

"GE once was the largest employer in Berkshire county. GE has long left Pittsfield and New England area for overseas. Even the once robust paper mills have closed. There is now little industry left in the area so there is a economic depression. The region now solely relies on tourism, retail and the service industry. GE may have moved its headquarters to Boston from CT, but it has little manufacturing left in Massachusetts and New England. CSX now runs through Pittsfield but they no longer stop there to drop off cars. Norfolk Southern and Pan Am now control the nothern route and seem to be putting pressure on CSX but they are still hamstrung from the low overhead through Hoosiac tunnel and the bridges after it."