In
The Beginning
Ken Rattenne was born to his parents at an early age in San Francisco, California, during what is now known as the "Baby Boomer" era. After brief stays in Seattle and Mill Valley, CA., Ken's family found their way to the Santa Clara Valley (50 miles south of San Francisco) when he was eight.
Ken continued living in the San Jose area (now dubbed Silicon Valley) until 1988 when he moved 90 miles east to Modesto, in California's great Central Valley.
By the late 1970s, Ken was submitting photographs for publication to railfan magazines, quickly becoming a regular contributor to CTC Board, Pacific News (later Pacific RailNews) and Passenger Train Journal (PTJ) magazines. Ken also became a frequent photo contributor to Joe Strapac's popular Southern Pacific Review book series, which also helped to popularize his lens work.
By 1982 Ken saw his first feature article appear in PTJ, covering Amtrak's then-emerging San Joaquin corridor in California's Central Valley.
How Can I Get A Copy? Both volumes of The Feather River Route have been out of print for many years. However, Amazon.com often lists both volumes in their catalog,with both volumes shown as special order items.
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In
1983 Ken took his first step into publishing by releasing his own calendar
featuring the Western Pacific Railroad. Though it
received rave reviews in the railfan press, it was 1983's best kept secret.
However, the calendar had demonstrated to Ken that the Western Pacific was a hot subject. The WP had just been merged into the Union Pacific in 1982, and was the West's first "fallen flag." From a publishing standpoint, it had been several years since a book on the WP had been released. Early marketing surveys revealed that railfan community was more than ready for a serious monograph on the Western Pacific, especially if it covered the railroad through the merger. So began Ken's seven year project
writing The Feather River Route, Volumes I and II. To help make his name even better known in the railfan market, Ken began editing a number of monthly news columns: He began as Amtrak/Passenger editor for CTC Board magazine in 1985, staying with that publication until 1992; then Amtrak news editor for Passenger Train Journal, and a contributing columnist for Pacific RailNews (now RailNews). Ken also continued writing full-length feature articles and was eventually published in every major railfan publication in the United States. In 1990, Ken's Feather River Route, Volume I was published by Transanglo Books (Interurban Press), followed a year later by Volume II. Each volume was well-received and both were nominated for writing awards. Both were sold out by 1993 and currently both volumes are out of print. (2,700 copies of Volume I were printed, but only 2000 copies of Volume II for some unknown reason. ) Complementing each book were a set of articles published in Pacific RailNews to promote each volume. Ken has continued to write railroad-oriented articles, recently authoring "Feather River GP40s" in 1996. This article has been chosen as our second online reprint. |
Beginning
in 1992 Ken began working on a magazine project documenting the pair
of interlocking towers still in operation in the San Jose area. The "San
Jose Sentinels" manuscript was delivered to Pacific RailNews magazine
in 1993, where it was subsequently published in November of that year to
critical acclaim. The "San Jose Sentinels" online
article presented here has been updated to reflect changes
that have occurred since the article was first published. It is the first
of several on-line article reprints planned by Ken.
Ken,
through the auspices of KPR Media Services, has developed several multimedia
slide shows featuring both railroad and non-railroad themes, and has "performed"
many of these shows for a variety of clubs and organizations.
Each show employs a pair of Kodak® Ektagraphic® slide projectors, a Kodak digital dissolve unit and a 4-track (4-channel) AMR cassette deck, used to store a music soundtrack, narration and digital program signal. Ken likes to point out that this type of show is the closest thing to performing a photographer can get!
