"Rails Across The Summit" Behind the film........

John and all: Thought I would give you all a glimpse behind the scenes of "Rails".
It was an expensive film to do. When we assembled all the crew, if memory serves, we had sixteen people in the crew. We had four primary teams of three people. Each team had an Eclair NPR (blimped) camera and a sound man using Nagra sync sound recorders. We had one roaming camera on the train, and two remote cameras with remote control located just under the forward part of the engineers side of the cab and one on the pilot beam.

I developed a technique for the shooting script that had many teams "leap-frogging" one another so we could get the same train, same day without worrying about changes in engine numbers or train consists.
From leaving Chama, you see the same train, all shot on the same day...up to the Cumbres stop.

Never heard anyone catching an error in the middle of the film, when we cut in the historic b&w footage of the snow plows. That is the voice of the late, great Ben Greathouse. Marsh LOvrien went out to the CRRM
and borrowed film from Bob Richardson, and there is a quick b&w clip of a rotary, but it isn't the C&TS..it's the RGS at OPHIR!

WB Video is out of business, I am sure, as the owner is now living in Texas...and is retired.

I have the original production print and it has never been cut to DVD...to the best of my knowledge.

The quality of the original is magnificent, and I have considered having it transferred to DVD but it would be expensive. If enough pre purchases were guaranteed, I might do it.

This was a very expensive production. Each Eclair camera (4) cost a little over $100 per day to rent. Frankly...we lost our shirts financially, but I was glad we made the film, as I am convinced that
the national exposure of "Rails" contributed to the ridership in those early years. (Rails was broadcast at least twice on virtually every PBS
television station over a two year period in the 48 states, Hawaii and Alaska....and won a CINE "Golden Eagle" award which meant it represented the United States of America in international film competition, in the documentary film category.

The long lens shot of the train coming in to Weed City was one of my teams shots. I wanted the reflection of the engine headlight on the polished rails. When the flock of birds landed on the rails, it was just pure luck. The crew never let me forget it, and a running joke was.."HEY BOULWARE..Cue the Birds."

Ah....those were golden times for us in those mid 1970's..and I am so glad that we captured Bob Keller at work. He was a very fine person, and we speak of him fondly and with great respect.