PASSENGER TRAINS REMEMBERED
By Robert Brewster, Intermountain Chapter, NRHS
The Intermountain Chapter, NRHS is uniquely honored to have among its ranks Mr. Richard Luckin, currently our Chapter Vice-president. Mr. Luckin is approaching his 55th anniversary with our Chapter and has served in many capacities, including the establishment of the Denver area's long-running Rail Fair which brought together groups and individuals with a plethora of rail interests in a large format exhibition hall. Quite an undertaking! But the highest honor is Rich’s production of rail history documentaries, spanning a period of over 25 years, that feature America’s passenger trains with all their grandeur, promotion, and purpose.
Mr. Luckin has been involved in video production for over 40 years and for the last 25 years his programs have aired on many PBS stations nationwide. His passion for railroads, and especially passenger trains, has provided him an opportunity to produce many award-winning documentaries about famous American passenger trains. While Richard has been honored with three Regional Emmy nominations and 44 national and local video awards, his primary interest is not in the awards, but in capturing and sharing stories about American rail history.
Prior to his rail programs, Mr. Luckin spent 6 years producing a series of documentaries and short informational programs for the United States Air Force, Air Mobility Command. Rich also had a career at the Coors Brewing Company in Golden, CO for 20 years where he worked in a variety of positions, including Corporate Television, Training and Development, and Employee Communications. And Mr. Luckin certainly developed his skills at communications as witnessed in his video productions!
Oddly enough, one of Rich’s most popular programs does not involve railroads. It’s called Packard: An American Classic Car. Hosted by the late television/movie actor Edward Herrmann, the documentary traces the history of one of America’s finest automobiles.
Similarly, Mr. Luckin has worked with television actor Michael Gross, of Family Ties fame, for several of his rail productions. Mr. Gross also has an interest in trains, making the pairing quite effective and enjoyable.
Michael Gross, Richard Luckin, Peter A. Hansen by the studio green screen
Richard Luckin first dabbled in passenger train documentaries in 1999 with his self-funded production Silver Thread Through the West: California Zephyr. It remains one of his best selling DVDs and was re-issued with extra footage. Rich’s typical format is to interview people from all walks of life who have personal knowledge of and experience with the subject at hand, while they’re still available. These interviews are interspersed with countless photos and historic film clips that support the narrative. It’s a tricky balance to know just how much discussion to include while viewing the subject trains being discussed - in order to keep the viewer interested.
A lot of information is presented among the photos and video scenes and having the proper pace is critical to keeping the production moving along. I often experience “new material” on subsequent viewings of Rich’s programs - things I may have missed because I was captivated by the visuals during the first viewing. The gift that keeps on giving! And I keep thinking “where did Rich get all of these images and video sequences?” I’ve come to appreciate how much painstaking research goes into each production. And Rich is so pleased when he finds the “perfect” photo or clip that fits into the “perfect” slot.
After the success of the California Zephyr production, Mr. Luckin went on to highlight other famous trains that we’d all recognize. He also waded into more general passenger rail subjects such as Dome Car Magic, Luxury Rides the Rails, and Selling Sunshine: The Florida Trains. Rich also explored railroad passenger stations, one featuring famed Grand Central Station (Terminal) honoring its 100th birthday and including perhaps the last known interview of former New York City mayor, Ed Koch, just two weeks before he passed away.
Rich recently completed his longest documentary to date, Railroad Stations in American Life. At almost 90 minutes long, Mr. Luckin takes a look at numerous famous and not-so-famous stations across the country, many of them featuring narration by individuals who have a personal or special connection to the station. A wonderful script by the late Peter A. Hansen was the inspiration for this program and his widow, Bonnie, facilitated its adoption. Mr. Hansen worked with Mr. Luckin on a number of productions and he is sorely missed in the rail history community. This program is dedicated to Mr. Hansen and is another candidate for airing on PBS.
Other recent productions include at look at General Motors Electro-Motive Division on its 100th anniversary, Journey to Promontory, and a look at the Budd RDC, a personal favorite. Kalmbach Publishing, now Firecrown Media, sponsored Rich’s more recent offerings and most of his DVD productions are available for purchase through that source.
One especially interesting program celebrates Amtrak’s 40th Anniversary. Amtrak commissioned video and interview opportunities. Tough work… Then-Vice-president Joe Biden (“Amtrak Joe”) was one such interviewee, along with some former Amtrak presidents. Lots of great rail video footage, too! This DVD could be more difficult to locate because it was only distributed by Amtrak.
But let’s take a look at 4 programs that tell the stories of these most celebrated passenger trains: the California Zephyr, the Super Chief, the Coast Daylight, and the Twentieth Century Limited. I suspect that these are among Mr. Luckin’s favorite productions because they go into vivid detail on the background of each of these very famous trains and how they rose to prominence and then faded away along with much of passenger rail. He highlights the onboard service levels available and interviews many personnel who worked on these very trains, including a former Zephyrette. They have stories to tell. Then there were the movie stars, politicians, and other celebrities who rode the rails in what was then considered “luxury travel.” The historic film clips, photos, interviews, and print media advertising examples bring these trains back to life, all under one production umbrella.
Of course, all four of these fabled trains still exist under Amtrak operation, some with slight name alterations and certainly all with service level “alterations.” But they do survive, perhaps in large part due to the efforts of their original host railroads to produce the very best product they could to enhance "their brand” among the competing railroads. Those passenger trains were often the pride and joy of the railroads and their employees that made them successful. Many of the cars that ran under these brand name trains still exist in museums or on tourist railroads. Some are in private hands and some even appear on Amtrak trains where they can relive their “glory days.” Rich’s latest release is an update of his 2004 “Ski Train” program which describes how Colorado’s iconic train to the ski slopes was resurrected by a grassroots movement that led to Amtrak’s Winter Park Express ten years ago, in March, 2015. Called Steel Rails to Ski Trails, this 27 minute documentary uses historic scenes from the first program and then morphs into the past ten years under Amtrak operation that include stunning photos and video clips supplied by the vast wealth of local rail photographers and videographers who were all-too-happy to supply Rich with their works. The DVD is available at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, which sponsored the program. And it will likely be seen on Denver’s local PBS station. Mr. Luckin has screened this program locally and he is especially pleased with its production. One more notch on those suspenders!
Finally, I must mention the process that Mr. Luckin and his studio technician, Dirk Phannenstiel, go through to create these informative and visually pleasing rail history stories. And that’s what Rich does, he tells a story about each subject he addresses. I’ve been in the studio a number of times witnessing the meticulous detail involved in creating a seamless narrative, where the photos, videos, narration, and captions must be in the exact spot down to split seconds. It must be perfect! Or it gets done again. Or again. Tedious work. But the result is worth the effort. Rich won’t settle for less.
Thank you, Rich, for all your efforts to tell the railroading stories that you do. They tell future generations what the past generations experienced and enjoyed trackside. Well done!
