Spirit of the Mississippi—Part 3

Genoa, Wisconsin, October 15, 1995.

An accomplished railroad photographer once said to me, “to get great railroad photos, the railroad has to be ‘on’, the weather has to be ‘on’ and you have to be ‘on’. You can’t control the first two, but you can control yourself.”

There are those days where everything falls into place. The morning of October 15, 1995 was clear and bright; I had Kodachrome 25 in my cameras; and Dean Sauvola and I were in place at Genoa along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s double track line parallel to the Mississippi.

We’d positioned ourselves high above the town and waited. Between 9:34 am and 10:32 am the railroad performed and we photographed four trains in nice light. A little later we heard of a southward Canadian Pacific freight on the westbank of the river and reposition to Lansing, Iowa for a productive chase to Postville.

Merger between Burlington Northern and Santa Fe was only a month old, yet locomotives from the two fleets were already beginning to get mixed up. Or so it seemed on this eastward freight rolling along the Mississippi at Genoa, Wisconsin on October 15, 1995. Exposed with a Nikon 28mm lens on Kodachrome 25.

Trains pass north of Genoa. There's nothing like a grand vista to alert you of approaching trains on a busy line. I used my Nikkor f4.0 200mm for this image. I don't know if it works as a stand alone photo but it makes for a nice part of this sequence. — Trains pass north of Genoa. There’s nothing like a grand vista to alert you of approaching trains on a busy line. I used my Nikkor f4.0 200mm for this image. I don’t know if it works as a stand alone photo but it makes for a nice part of this sequence.

At 10:12am Canadian National 5600 leads train 348 timetable east along the Mississippi at Genoa. I exposed this Kodachrome 25 slide and the following one using my Nikon F3t with Nikkor f2.8 135mm lens.

CN 348 at Genoa, Wisconsin. My exposure was f3.5 at 1/500th of second. I've used variations of this image in books. — CN 348 at Genoa, Wisconsin. My exposure was f3.5 at 1/500th of second. I’ve used variations of this image in books.

Later in the day we resumed photography on the east bank and photographed another parade of trains along the former Chicago, Burlington & Quincy at Glen Haven, Wisconsis. By the end of the day we’d photographed eleven trains in clear October sunlight. Tick all three boxes for October 15, 1995!

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