Rikki Durden – Find the Why
Edition 3: Installment 5
It’s a hot day in California in June of 2013. Movie stars, directors, and folks from the other trades of Hollywood are all flocking into a theater to watch the premiere of Disney’s latest feature, The Lone Ranger. Among them, far from the usual suspects of the motion picture world, is Rikki Durden – joined by a misfit cast of railroaders who were responsible for building a railroad from the ground up for the film. Rikki’s own railroad journey began with curiosity, and as she would bombard her many teachers with questions she found herself with more and more opportunities to learn. Working on the film crew humbled her at first, but then encouraged her to keep learning to be a smarter and more capable railroader, all while continuing to ask questions. Today on Behind the Throttle, we meet Rikki Durden: Find the Why.
Rikki and her dad grew up in close quarters, and her dad’s interest in trains became a normal outlet for time they’d spend together. Rikki remembers being put in the car at a young age without knowing where they’d be going, but surely knowing a train would be at their destination. Her dad owned an old motorhome that would become their headquarters for weekend expeditions, and trips to the Chehalis Centralia Railroad – a historic tourist train not far from their home in western Washington state – became frequent outings when Rikki’s father began his involvement with the railroad. As he learned the ropes of conducting passenger trains and working on steam locomotives, Rikki served as his faithful shadow – attempting to make sense of the machines that towered over her. “We learned how to railroad together in a way”, she explained to me, detailing all of the privileges she was given as her enthusiasm to learn was received by the team at the railroad. At age 12, Rikki had already learned the art of firing a steam locomotive, and as soon as she was tall enough to reach the throttle she was given a chance to move the engine! Weekend excursions to the Chehalis Centralia Railroad were at first an oasis where both Rikki and her dad would volunteer their time in exchange for learning new skills, but they both ended up on the railroad’s payroll as they became keystones in the operating staff for the excursions the railroad hosted every weekend. The pair also made trips across the state of Washington and to the other surrounding states to see other historic railroads, visiting the Mount Rainier Scenic and the Oregon Rail Heritage Center and others all while Rikki found more questions to ask and accumulated more grease stains on her child-sized overalls.
As Rikki began to develop her own skillset, she found more ways to be helpful at the railroads she gave her time to. Past high school, she stuck around at Chehalis, now marked up as a conductor and engineer for the little railroad’s excursions. Joining her dad at railroad conferences, she too had become fairly connected within the industry of historic railroading, and soon found herself knowing people across the country who also worked on old trains. Her degree, obtained from a local college near her family home, was good for helping find a stable office job – though Rikki soon found that working for a railroad at a young age had spoiled the possibility of ever being content with a typical 9-5. Her connections in the industry landed her a job working in train operations and as a mechanic with the Iowa Pacific Railroad’s operations in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. The railroad found themselves in a precarious financial and administrative position after about five months of Rikki’s employment; She was assigned several odd jobs and tasks as hours become thin before the railroad cut her position after less than a year of employment. Though, another mutual contact in the industry was quick to provide her with a new opportunity, one that would be a one-in-a-lifetime chance to work on a crew for an upcoming major motion picture.
The Lone Ranger promised to be the action-packed thriller – a modern take on an old western classic that brought the adventurous spirit and heroic archetypes of the wild west back to the big screen. No western film would be complete without a few trains, and the director of the film was heart-set on using prototypes and live action whenever possible. This brought the need for a talented team of railroaders to literally build a loops of train track out in the deserts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah for several weeks of production on the little railroad island, using home-built train cars and mock steam engines – often with actors running atop the trains, slinging firearms and cowboy hats! Rikki got involved as the production was already under-way, hired to be an engineer for several of the shoots while the actors worked on the prop carriages in front of her. Though, some bad habits Rikki had learned working as an engineer at previous railroads proved to be problematic, especially in the unusual circumstances the film shoot required. She was taken out of the engineer role by the film’s railroad director, but stayed on set working to ensure the safety of the actors and the crews during train movements, which included many stunts that would make any railroad safety inspector cringe in fright! The film shoot taught Rikki that having an engineer’s card doesn’t make a person an engineer, but rather a safety mindset and heaps of experience in usual circumstances defines the craft. She left the film crew at the conclusion of the shoot with loads of new experiences and a newfound hunger to relearn how to run trains. The highlight of the shoot though - a kiss on the cheek from Johnny Depp himself!
Rikki returned home to Washington state following the film before returning for a brief return with the Iowa Pacific, but then went home once again and found a more steady office job working in the world of corporate. She became a fly on the wall to the railroad world for a few years, keeping an eye and an ear on the state of the railroads around her but not getting involved. Though the railroad bug would continue to bite and soon Rikki found herself with a well-timed opportunity to transfer over the East Coast in an office near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Rikki jumped at this opportunity and migrated across the country, hoping to quickly get back into railroading – mainly working with steam – at the nearby Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Having only worked with oil-fired steam engines before, Rikki expressed interest in learning the art of handbombing a coal-fired steam engine; After a day of shadowing a hostler at the Strasburg Rail Road in 2009 Rikki was attracted to everything about coal firing and was hungry to learn more. A few short months after her move, Rikki was in rules class at the railroad and would soon begin working up train service qualifications while on her days off from the corporate world. Her volunteering soon became a part-time job, and that part-time job soon butted up on full-time hours. A Covid-related layoff from her corporate job in 2020 was the catalyst she needed to plunge back into railroading full-time, and once again, Rikki’s work attire transitioned from business casual to denim overalls.
Coming back into the railroad world, Rikki made sure to take no shortcuts in relearning her skillset. She approached her brakeman, conductor, fireman, and engineer roles all like she’d never done it before in hopes to build a sturdier foundation of knowledge. This more in-depth experience allowed her to see not only how things worked, but why they worked. This mindset, coupled with time in the shops at the TVRM, allowed Rikki to grow as a railroader at an impressive rate. Six years into her employment with the TVRM, Rikki marked up in all the operating roles of the railroad and found her niche on the mechanical side – working with air brakes. Coal-firing continues to be her favorite of the crafts she finds herself in, seeing a great deal of satisfaction in carrying the railroad’s excursions on her back in the time-honored craft. Even after six years, Rikki still asks a few hundred questions every day, hoping to one day piece together the entire puzzle of the railroad universe. She similarly does her best to answer every question that gets thrown at her now, repeating the information that she’s learned through a life spent asking why.
Rikki continues to find excitement in the railroad industry – especially with the plethora of young people that come into TVRM with no experience, and grow into competent railroaders and historians while finding their own way to connect with the craft. For her, it’s a victory when someone she’s trained goes on to accomplish things on their own, and she’s always grateful for opportunities to be a teacher. She feels that the generation just below her – with their increasing presence in the industry – is much better at connecting, both between heritage sites and also with the general public. Though, she feels that an important trait to workshop in the industry is accountability. Her hope is to see preservation sites check on one another, ensuring they’re all maintaining safe mechanical and operational practices, and see that employees recognize their own shortcomings as well as strengths. The accountability realm also extends to personal relationships, and Rikki hopes to see everyone in the railroad world be better to one another, and act in ways that reflect a respectful workplace culture where everyone has an opportunity to grow. Searching for the “why” at every opportunity got Rikki started in the railroad world, and as she continues to search for a new “why” every day, she hopes to always be learning, and passing knowledge along whenever she can.
Thanks all for reading this edition of Behind the Throttle, and thanks to Rikki Durden for sharing her story with us! Tune in next month for another spotlight of a dedicated railroader and preservationist! Be sure to join our mailing list to be notified on our next release. Until then, I’m Max Harris – joined by Nick Martin and Jonah Collins – and I’ll see you down the line.