“Trains have always interested me,” says Robert A. Emmons Jr., documentary filmmaker and Rutgers-Camden professor of film, new media and comics history. His fascination with trains is captured in De Luxe: The Tale of the Blue Comet, his latest New Jersey-based documentary.
The documentary is the story of the Blue Comet train that ran from Jersey City to Atlantic City between February 1929 and September 1941. Billed as “the Seashore’s Finest Train” by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Blue Comet offered first-class service at regular fares. The train’s exterior was finished in Packard blue, Jersey cream and royal blue. A cream-colored stripe ran the length of the train to suggest the surf, sky and sandy beaches of the Shore. Each car was named for a comet, such as Halley and Tuttle, and with speeds up to about 80 mph, the Blue Comet paid appropriate tribute to its celestial namesakes.
Emmons tells the story through interviews with railroad historians, animation and archival and contemporary footage, including an excerpt from the penultimate episode of The Sopranos. which featured a toy version of the legendary train. A section of the 93-minute film is devoted to the Lionel-produced models of the train that are prized by collectors.
“It’s one of my favorite periods of history,” Emmons, 36, says of the Blue Comet era. His earlier films include documentaries on Jersey yard sales, eminent domain in Camden and Mexican aviator Emilio Carranza, who died in a 1928 plane crash in Burlington County.
Emmons, who lives in the Camden County town of Barrington, markets his films through his website, robertemmons.com.