Steam-Era Railroad TV Show Script Wins Accolades

nathansixchime · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:03 pm **Posts:** 948

(Disclaimer: This is 100% a self-serving promotional post, but wanted to share the favorable news with like-minded folks.)

Quote:

Fort Wayne filmmaker Kelly Lynch has focused on the mid 20th century decline of the railroad industry to produce a screenplay for a limited television series called The Century Builders.

"If the 20th Century was the railroad's Golden Age," Lynch reflects, "The Century Builders is about its end--and the towns, jobs, cultures, dreams and people that vanished with it."

His own fascination with the Iron Horse and its colorful past is driven by the many stories shared with him by relatives in the Lynch family tree, a tradition enjoyed by many American families.

NPR Affililate News Link: https://www.wboi.org/post/local-filmmak ... s#stream/0

A few years ago I began rolling around a storyline about a railroad town caught in the steam/diesel transition era and the many still-relevant themes that were wrapped up in the times. In the last two years, I've been submitting a pilot script for a limited television series to competitions and festivals.

Since then, the script has risen to the top 3% of all television dramas on industry screenwriting site Coverfly and earned a number of finalist awards and semi-finalist placements in the last year and a half. Getting the script some representation is in the cards, too.

This kind of status can help bring the script to attention to agencies, production houses, etc. Of course, it can also be a whole lotta nothing! Maybe someday the project will find its way into a different format or medium.

What's been really satisfying about the journey has been the response from readers/judges about the era and industry in question, demonstrating that there is a market and interest for the material:

Quote:

"A seamlessly written and well-executed pilot. There is built-in tension in a world I haven't seen explored. This episodic drama could pack a punch as a limited series or with its slow-burn tension and tight timeframe (a little more than a day in the pilot.) The railroad era is always a story element but never a feature and the narrative is polished and engaging. As a series, this could really usher in a new angle to this genre."

A one-page website here serves as an overall primer for the story and includes quotes and reviews from film industry readers and judges, a "sizzle-reel" (meant to communicate the look/feel/tone with existing footage from other films) and other details: http://thecenturybuilders.com/

Getting way ahead of myself, I always figured from a production standpoint, you could conceivably recreate a steam-era railroad operation if you film sequences at a handful of vintage rail/tourist operations around the country, with second unit photography occurring at other locations and one or two "hero locations" for principal photography. Through movie magic, it all becomes the same fictional steam railroad, which allows you to get away with using what's restored/operating without needing a matched fleet from the same genuine historic railroad.

And getting even further ahead of myself, I always imagined that a series of mobile displays/exhibits/premieres could pop up at rail attractions around the country as a way to tie into the cultural relevancy.

Should someone from train-world want to listen to me waxing poetic about the era and the project, you can click here to listen to my interview with the local NPR affiliate here: https://www.wboi.org/post/local-filmmak ... s#stream/0

Feel free to send me a PM if you'd like to take a look at the script.

Dave · **Posted:** Sun Jul 18, 2021 1:28 pm

I'm impressed - not only with your progress, but with the demonstration of interest in a story with no vampires, superheroes, or other such creations.

superheater · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm **Posts:** 2605

A fascinating project, a story long overdue in being told.

If you have not done so already, I suggest you read the following:

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=46

The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Clayton M. Christensen

Also get read The Black Swan

Nassim Taleb

Although it is questionable as to whether dieselization was a true "black swan", much of what he writes about how we take the ordinary observations as the affirmation of immutable fact is telling.

(The title of the book comes from the fact that a rejoinder of the obvious in Europe was the once the rhetorical question "Aren't all swans white?" which needed but a single observation of Cygnus Atratus to be demolished as an effective response)

And also

From Steam to Diesel: Managerial Customs and Organizational Capabilities in the Twentieth-Century American Locomotive Industry

Albert Churella

Good luck with the project.

kew · **Joined:** Sun Apr 02, 2017 3:13 am **Posts:** 134

I've never seen a white swan in the wild in Australia. Plenty of black ones.

Hope the tv series gets to airing.

Kelly Anderson · **Joined:** Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:52 am **Posts:** 2477

mspetersen · **Joined:** Fri Feb 25, 2011 11:13 pm **Posts:** 101

In one of the "Last of the Giants" sequels Steve Lee talks about how when diesels were introduced there was an article in the local Cheyenne paper on how it wouldn't;t affect Cheyenne. Something like 5000 worked for the UP in Cheyenne in the Mechanical Department at the time and now Cheyenne has maybe 10 (excluding the Steam Shop.) Same story replicated across North America.

Also I too recommend "The Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb. His books are excellent and he brooks no fools.

nathansixchime · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:03 pm **Posts:** 948

Great recommendations. They're ordered!

I would also highly recommend this out-of-print book, Out of Steam: Dieselization and American Railroads, 1920-1960. It studies the transition era and determining factors at every major railroad in the country.

https://lupress.cas.lehigh.edu/content/out-steam

Quote:

Out of Steam examines how and why American railroads embraced the diesel locomotive and abandoned the steam locomotive that had been the heart and soul of the industry for over a hundred years. It looks at the development of the diesel locomotive, how and why individual railroads decided to adopt the diesel and how the new form of motive power changed railroad operations, business practices, and communities.

Kelly

WhiskeyRiver1919 · **Joined:** Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:53 am **Posts:** 3

Kelly,

After reading through the Show Bible, I’m already hooked. This has shades of what I think might be the best steam railroading novel ever written, James McCague’s “Fiddle Hill.”

Best of luck with this in the future!