WWI Troop Deployment on the WW&F (Photo Album)

On the weekend of August 12-13, 2017, the Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum held its Annual Picnic up in Alna, Maine. One of the traditions of this event is a Saturday evening photo special, which typically involves a mixed train and a scripted skit of some sort, in which the the train crew and other participants don period clothing and act out a scripted story. With a group of WWI re-enactors holding an encampment at the museum's Alna Center Station this year, the natural storyline for this year's photo special was that of a local military unit, perhaps National Guard, preparing to embark on a journey to join the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, in the year 1917.

The skit begins with the unit breaking camp and mustering to meet an arriving narrow gauge train that will take them to a connection with the Maine Central, and eventually to the port of New York, where they will ship out. As the platoon loads their gear on the train, a small group of local citizens turn out to wish them well and see them off. The following link will take you to a brief photo essay that captures the events leading up to their departure. Click on the first photo and the right arrows on each image will allow you to page through the story in order:

WWI Troop Deployment at the WW&F

This was a fun event to photograph and a bit more of a challenge than the average photo charter, because once the skit begins, there are only a couple of stopping points. The photographer has to constantly be thinking ahead and planning to be in the right places to catch the key scenes....and staying out of the sight-lines of fellow photographers who are trying to do the same thing. There are no real photo lines here. This is more like real photo journalism than shooting fish in a barrel. I'm not exactly in my element doing this, but it sure is fun giving it the old college try.

Folks who are looking to photograph the WW&F may want to put Annual Picnic on their schedule for next year. Of course, they may also want to put Spring Work Weekend, Fall Work Weekend, and Victorian Christmas on that list as well. The place is an honest-to-goodness time-warp.

/Kevin Madore



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2017 01:17PM by KevinM.