Millenium Charter High gathers intel to craft a documentary on the Del Monte Express.

The train spent the night by Lovers Point, near the forest that shares its name. It rose early, departing for San Francisco every morning at 7am and arriving three hours later, after a few quick stops along the way. It made the return trip to Pacific Grove at 4pm, arriving just in time for dinner. Six hours of riding, six hours on the town, zero hours driving. Not bad for 1890.

The Del Monte Express ran until 1971, and its history, as well the future of rail transportation in Monterey County, are the subject of a 60-minute documentary being filmed by students and staff of Salinas’ Millennium Charter High School, a school in its first year and that specializes in media arts education.

The film is the first in a series of 10 documentaries that Millennium staff have planned, and is the brainchild of Hamish Tyler, director of the County Office of Education’s Media Center for Arts, Education and Technology. “When I was a kid I rode on it,” Tyler says of the Express. “It was special… even movies were filmed on that train.”

Two key principles guide the Millennium student project, Tyler says. The first reflects a reality of the media industry: “The trick here is to make it compelling television,” Tyler says. The second is more reflective of a typical high school’s mission. “We’re trying to engage students in everyday issues that affect them. About the way mass transit affects them, the way it used to be, and how it could be going forward,” he says.

To help ensure it’s compelling television, and to teach students the tricks of the documentary filmmaking trade, Hollywood veteran and Carmel resident Jacqueline Beaudette was brought on to pen the script. “We’re going to teach the students how to make a documentary, from zero to hero,” says Beaudette, who worked several years for the History Channel. “Go in, get the details, and get out.”

Beaudette’s script, she says, is broken into three elements: a nostalgic look back at the history of the Del Monte Express, a look forward to future possibilities of rail in the area, and what she calls a “bullpen component” – students in the newsroom unpacking what they’ve learned and plotting their next move.

The film is being directed by Michael Buffo and produced by his wife Brittney Buffo; both are teachers at Millennium. “[The students] will be learning all the positions of the film set,” Michael says. “Sound, lights, camera.”

Staff is putting out the call to the public for any material or memories they might have on the Del Monte.