Photography by Ken Rattenne |
Vacation In Dairyland In
August of 1989 Jon Pullman Porter and myself flew to Wisconsin to do a
little railfanning. It was a time of transition for railroads in that state,
and we wanted to capture on film the new companies and preserve the old.
To that end on August 3rd of that year we found ourselves in the little
town of Plover to shoot the Green Bay & Western.
On August 3, 1989 we chased Green Bay & Western's Plover Local which brough us to the location of the photo above. The Plover local was preparing to cross Little Plover River with an Alco "baby Century," C-424 313, just before three young locals were about to use the bridge as a diving platform. When they saw us with cameras their curiosity was piqued, especially after we announced there was a train coming. Instead of diving into the water below, the three young men scrambled off the bridge towards us. One of them asked us what we were taking pictures of. "The train that's coming," Jon answered as we got into our rental to go set up. When we offered up that we were on vacation from California they all chuckled. "Why would you come to Wisconsin on vacation?" asked one of them. "Well," I said, "when you live in a vacation land you go somewhere else for vacation."
Throughout 1989 GB&W's venerable Alco fleet continued to operate system-wide. In fact, late that year it was expanded when the railroad purchased six RSD15s from Lake Superior & Ishpeming, and leased them to the fledgling Fox River Valley Railroad. Today, both of these Wisconsin regionals are history. - Ken Rattenne
Photo Details Both images were shot with a Nikon FM2 equipped with a Nikkon E Series 70-210mm lens, and shot on Kodachrome 64 film. The frame was exposed at f5.6 for 1/500 of a second. Text and photographs copyright ©2000-2018 by Ken Rattenne & KPR Media Services |
