Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: WAG Jr shoots a baggage cart!

Today we have our own ‘wag216’, Art Gibson himself pinch-hitting for Bill, who he affectionately called “Pop”. As a general rule, whenever they were out shooting together Pop would shoot the Kodachrome stuff while Art took care of the black & white duties, quite often in medium or large format. While shooting solo Art would convert to shooting slides. As a result, Gibson railfan photography was quite thorough. And quite extraordinary, whether it was published a book or a magazine, or seen in a joint slide show extravaganza! I’ll never for get my first “Team Gibson” slide show! It was over 40 years ago now, in Topeka. And after 4 decades I still don’t think I’ve ever fully recovered…

I have a routine when preparing each week’s WAG Wednesday. After I finish photo-editing the image(s) I’ll check with Art for final story details, sometimes emailing the image(s) to him for visual reference. Art surprised me by saying he didn’t particularly like his own shot here. His thinking was even thought the RDC-cum-baggage car was in train and coupled on both ends, he had cut too much of this end of the car out of his frame. But I told him I liked the overall shot for a whole different reason. I love the focal point with the 2 gentlemen standing on the baggage cart, obviously interacting with someone inside. And the trainman on the platform checking over a fresh set of train orders nicely balances the composition. I think it’s a great shot! Classic station stop platform activity, half a century before they started making everybody wear day-glo monkey suits…

1. CRI&P 9016 in consist in train #15 at Topeka, KS on September 29, 1956.
B/W photo by William A. Gibson (WAG) Jr, aka ‘Art’

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/22 23:40 by santafe199.

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While that RDC is "in train', Art did a good job of fooling you into believing it is leading.

What a wonderful 50's era image !
Thanks Art.
Gary

Tell Art he done good !
Dwight in Newton.

Posted from Android

trainman Wrote: > ...  Tell Art he done good ...

(chuckling) YOU just did! He'll be reading this thread as he always does, and may even have a comment or 2...  :^)

Lance/199

I'd swear that I saw some Frisco steam shots some years ago credited to WAG Sr.

You bet! wag2811 amd wag216 (Jr) both shot many Fco steam.  wag216

That RDC would operate solo between El Reno (?) and Ft Worth. North of there it was 'in train' as shown here.