Great Scenic Railway Journeys On KRWG-TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ga-lNwIBK8

KRWG-TV

Thursday, 3/7 at 7pm

Saturday, 3/9 at 1pm and 7pm

Sunday, 3/10 at 3pm

Monday, 3/11 at 7pm

Saturday, 3/16 at 3pm

Sunday, 3/17 at 9am and 9:30pm                

From the dawn of man until 1830, a person could travel only as fast as a horse could gallop. Then came the steam engine – the iron horse that blazed a trail linking the east to the west, transforming the United States and Canada into industrial giants.

Only a few steam engines remain operational, painstakingly and lovingly preserved by a dedicated army of mostly volunteers scattered throughout the U.S. and Canada.  “Celebrating North America’s Steam Railways,” a two-hour documentary, captures the nostalgia, excitement and passion that ordinary people feel for these important links to our past. 

The program is the latest installment of the Emmy Award-winning series, “Great Scenic Railway Journeys." The show and the series were the concept of producer Robert C. Van Camp, whose goal is to draw attention not only to the need to preserve our steam railway heritage, but also our public television system. The documentary is airing on PBS stations nationwide; Van Camp travels across the U.S. appearing on many of their fundraisers. His last show, “Celebrating 175 Years of the American Railroad,” received three Emmy Awards and has raised more than $3.5 million for PBS stations.

Van Camp’s love for both public television and the history of railroads dates back to his childhood. He has fond memories of watching children’s programming like “Zoom” and the “Electric Company” on the Boston PBS station, WGBH, while growing up in the historic town of Concord, Mass. And he remembers vividly a summer vacation trip to the North Carolina Mountains and visiting Tweetsie Railroad with his family when he was 4 years old. He still has the family photo of his brother and sister with him in the cab of the engine.

The first documentary in the Great Scenic Railway Journeys series was on the history of the “Murphy Branch” railway through the southwestern mountains of North Carolina. The line was sold to the state 20 years ago and gave birth to N.C.’s first tourist railroad, the Great Smoky Mountain Railway. At the time, Van Camp was a fledgling documentarian who had begun his career as a television news photojournalist and producer at WBTV in Charlotte. “I can’t tell you how much that job helped me get to where I am today. I was working at the best station in the southeast. We had all the latest equipment and the most experienced staff. I learned so much from those folks -- how to shoot, produce and edit.”

Some years later, after also being a producer at WFMY in Greensboro, Van Camp began to feel the limitations of television news. “I longed for the chance to tell the whole story, in a long format, not just in one-and-a-half-minute news segments,” he recalls. The Great Smoky Mountain Railway documentary became the first in a series of railroad shows, as well as several local and regional programs like “Keeping the Faith,” a documentary on Old Salem, and “Blurred Lines,” about the tragedies resulting from drunk driving.

Along the way, Van Camp has garnered 10 Emmy Awards and 41 Emmy nominations. “Who would have thought that a little documentary about the Great Smoky Mountain Railway in North Carolina would have led to a career of making programs chronicling the men and women that preserve these living relics,” Van Camp says.

Telling the Story of Steam

“Celebrating North America’s Steam Railways” crisscrosses North America, from the frozen tundra of Alaska to the high desert of Arizona, the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the Black Hills of South Dakota, and through the prairies and mountains of Canada. Seventeen of the continent’s most historic and scenic tourist steam railroads are captured in high definition; also featured is the Steam Town National Historic Site in Scranton, Penn.

Viewers receive a first-hand lesson on how steam engines work and the incredible amount of labor necessary to keep them in operation. Volunteer mechanics describe how every steam engine is a living, breathing being with its own personality -- an “iron lady” with “good” days and “bad” days. The volunteers share their very real concerns that, as they age and pass away, too few young people are learning the mechanical skills necessary to carry on the tradition. Most important, the viewer gets to ride along with pre-schoolers and senior citizens, enjoying the breath-taking landscapes that can only be seen by train and listening to passengers’ thoughts about how a ride on a steam train is like traveling through the past on a time machine.

Van Camp already has more plans in the works for further installments of “Great Scenic Railway Journeys.” In March and April, he will film historic railways in New Zealand for a documentary scheduled to be released at the end of the year. In June he will film a one-hour documentary about the Royal Canadian Pacific railroad, known as the world’s most luxurious train, and another one-hour show about the “Gold Rush” train of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.

In 2007 the Great Scenic Railway Journeys series was picked up by the Travel Channel UK, which broadcasts throughout Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.