Was this a Wild Goose Chase?

The locomotive on the front of this post card has the lettering that says it belongs to the Lamoille Valley Railroad (LVR). It is an Alco RS11, Number

3612. The back of the post card says that it is crossing the Ammonoosic River in Bath, New Hampshire. Here comes the Wild Goose Chase: The Lamoille Valley Railroad operates LVR as an affiliate of the New Hampshire & Vermont Rrailroad. It is running on former Boston & Maine trackage. The locomotive was previously owned by the Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railroad before it was sold to the Vermont Shortline Railroad. I tried to find a descrption of the LVR on line. Here is all that I could find that might fit the bill: It is from our friends at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Johnsbury_and_Lamoille_County_Railroad HOWEVER.... I am not sure they this article talks about this railroad??? Here it is:The St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad (StJ&LC) was a railroad located in northern Vermont. It provided service to rural parts of the state for over a century, until track deterioration and flood damage made the line unusable and uneconomical to repair, which forced the line to close in 1995. The railroad began construction in December 1869 as part of the Vermont Division of the Portland and Ogdensburg Railway to connect the Great Lakes with Portland, Maine. It was completed on July 17, 1877, with Governor Horace Fairbanks driving in the silver spike in Fletcher. The Vermont Division was extended to Rouses Point in 1883, allowing it to connect to the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad and provide a direct connection to the Great Lakes.[1] The eastern end of the Vermont Division was leased to the Maine Central Railroad in 1912, and the remainder of the line became a subsidiary of the Boston and Maine Railroad. The Boston & Maine operated their segment as the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad after 1925. This segment was reorganized as the St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad in 1948.[2] Passenger service ended in 1956. Trucks had taken all of the milk traffic by 1961, but bridge line traffic had increased six-fold following the 1953 dissolution of Maine Central's joint operating agreement with Boston and Maine Railroad. However, light-duty rail and covered bridges prevented the line from accepting new heavier "incentive" freight car loadings. The covered bridges were replaced or reinforced so worn out light diesel locomotives could be replaced by larger locomotives; but track conditions deteriorated under the heavier loads.[3] The State of Vermont purchased the line in 1973. The line was then operated by Morrison-Knudsen as the Vermont Northern Railroad for a time. In 1978, local shippers took over the operation and it became the Lamoille Valley Railroad. In 1989, the line was leased to a Florida company and was operated by them until major flooding in 1995 and 1997 damaged the line so much that it was not profitable to repair the track. In 2002, the state of Vermont started converting the 96-mile route into a recreational trail and created the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail.

Here is the back of the post card. It tells us that the photo was taken by Brian Fay. It is also part of the confusion.

Oh, so short lived!!!

The Erie Western Railway began operations with seven locomotives: three Alco C420s and four Alco RS-3s.

The locomotive on the front of this post card is one of the Alco RS-3s. It is seen here in Griffith, Indiana on July 8, 1978. The Erie Western Railway was created because the former main line of the Erie Lackawanna Railway, which went bankrupt in 1972, was not included in the federal government's creation of Conrail. This prompted the Erie Western to be formed by shippers and others who wanted to retain and preserve rail service. The Erie Western was incorporated in August 1977 and began operations under an Interstate Commerce Commission car service order on September 25, 1977, to operate freight service for 158 miles on the former Erie Lackawanna Railway main line from the Indiana/Ohio state line near Wren, Ohio west to Hammond, Indiana. The railroad also operated a 27-mile branch line extending from Decatur to Portland, Indiana. The Erie Western also possessed ICC-granted rights to operate from Hammond to Chicago on trackage rights over the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad. These trackage rights enabled the ERES to interchange with many of the Windy City's major Class Is including the Santa Fe, Milwaukee Road, Grand Trunk Western, Louisville & Nashville, and Norfolk & Western. Operating a railroad, even a short one like the Erie Western Railway, is expensive and the railroad soon failed and discontinued operations on June 24, 1979.

The photo was taken by Thomas J. Golden and the post card was published by Mary Jayne's Railroad Specialties. I have 243 post cards in my collection from her. This is the second largest group of post cards from one publisher in my collection.

Half of the Fleet in One Picture!!

The two Alco RS27 locomotives shown on the front of this post card represent one half of the RS27 locomotives in the Chicago & Northwestern

Railway’s fleet. The back of the post card says that they are being posed for their official portrait. In fact, the copyright on the photo belongs to the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. Later, these locomotives were sold to other railroads: one to Peabody Coal and three to the Green Bay and Western Railroad. Then, the Green Bay and Western scrapped one and sold the other two to the Minnesota Commercial Railway. Here are some of the technical details about the Alco RS27s: Production began in December of 1959; Production ended in October of 1962; They had 4 axels (B-B configuration); The horsepower was rated at 2,400 hp; The engine was Alco’s 251B, a V-16 design, with a 10, 688 cubic inch displacement; They used four GE 752 traction motors, one on each axel; The locomotive was 57 feet and 2 ½ long with a 40 foot 4 inch wheelbase; The wheels were 40 inches in diameter; It was 9 feet 11 1/8 inches wide; It could carry up to 2,000 gallons of fuel; Its tractive effort was rated at 64,200 pound;s Its top rated speed was 75 miles per hour . You can find more information about the Alco RS27 at these two websites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_RS-27 https://www.american-rails.com/640.html

The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs. AVD was started in 1964 by Carl Sturner for the sole purpose of providing railfans with sound recordings of locos and trains as well as with photochrome postcards of trackside photos. These stunning color images were taken all over the country by some well-known photographers such as David Sweetland. The history and product line of AVD can be found on the company's website at www.audiovisualdesigns.com

Where is the Storm?

The three Alco RS2 locomotives are wearing the “Lightning Stripe” paint

scheme of the New York Central Railroad. This picture was taken in 1961, toward the end of the era in which this design was used by the company. The lightning stripe paint scheme was a distinctive feature of their diesel locomotive. This design was very popular in the company in the 1940s to the 1960s. The design is characterized by a series of vertical and horizontal stripes. They were used on many classes of New York Central locomotives, both freight and passenger. Typically, the stripes were dark grey for passengers and black for freight locomotives. The design was a key component of the New York Central’s branding. It was used in several different forms, including the famous “cigar band” oval. The lightning strip scheme was a visual representation of the New York Central’s identity. You can find out more about these lightning stripes in the following websites: https://groups.io/g/NYC-Railroad/topic/lightning_stripe_scheme_and/18455571 https://railroad.net/dates-of-nyc-graphics-t48322.html And here is the back of the post card:

Identity Confusion?

The RS1 by the American Locomotive Company was the first in a long line of Road Switchers introduced by the company in early 1941. The RS36 was the final model that Alco sold in 1963. The picture on the front of this post card is of an RS2. The RS2 started as a 1,500 horsepower locomotive but was increased to 1,600 later in the production line. Our friends at Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_RS-2) tell us this about the development of the RS2 locomotive: “The RS-2 was a further development of the road switcher concept inaugurated with the RS-1. Externally, the RS-2 bodywork was more rounded. A more significant change was the switch from the RS-1's ALCO 539T engine to the ALCO 244, adding horsepower to better handle heavy road service. The new engine was a turbocharged four-stroke V12 diesel engine with a 9 in × 10+1⁄2 in (229 mm × 267 mm) bore and stroke developing 1,500 (later 1,600) hp at 1,000 rpm. Compared to the 539, it had a smaller cylinder and higher cylinder speed. Production of the RS-2 was delayed several months while ALCO worked out the new four-pipe divided low-rise manifold for the GE constant-pressure RD-1 turbocharger. The 244 engine was not a reliable design, however, and was replaced in less than ten years by the ALCO 251 engine.” 377 RS2 models were manufactured from 1946 to 1950. The Lehigh Valley Railroad ordered five RS2 locomotives for their roster. The records that I could find online tell us that the locomotives were numbered from 210 to 214. This picture shows one numbered as 217??? The picture was taken in the yard at Buffalo, New York in 1976; perhaps there were some changes made that warranted a new number for this locomotive. I wrote some information about the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the November 5, 2025, post; you can go back and read about some of its history there. Here is the back of the post card.

We Are Lucky to Have This Picture

In this post card’s picture, the Alco RS3 locomotives are fresh out of the car wash and are headed back to the yard for their assignments. The picture was taken in 1964, not too many years after the company that owned them, the Erie-Lackawanna, was formed.

On October 17, 1960, the Erie Railroad (ERIE) and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DLW) merged to form the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad (EL). The ERIE originally connected Jersey City, New Jersey to Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. It later expanded operations to include Chicago, Illinois. The DLW basically connected Hoboken, New Jersey with Buffalo, New York and primarily was meant to carry anthracite coal from Pennsylvania to markets. Both lines carried passengers along their routes; so they merged those services into one. The DLW lines handled passenger east of Binghamton, New York (halfway between New York City and Buffalo); the ERIE line handled the western part. Starting in 1960 there were some acquisitions, mergers, stock trading and other machinations that eventually led to the Norfolk & Western Railroad owning the EL. Hurricane Agnes caused an estimating to $9.2 million to the railroad, which forced the EL to file for bankruptcy on June 26, 1972. CONRAIL took over EL's operations on April 1, 1976. Conrail's map excluded most of the former Erie main line west of Marion, Ohio. There is a copyrighted (©1985 by Kalmbach Publishing Co.) history of the Erie, the Lackawanna, and the Erie-Lackawanna Railroads at this website: https://erielackhs.org/railroads/

Here is the back of the post card... I would really like to know something about this company.

A History of Triumph and Tribulations, Camaraderie and Community.

This picture on the front of the post card is of a locomotive on the Morristown and Erie Railroad. This article below is taken from the website of today's Morristown & Erie Railway. Here is their website: https://www.merail.com/about The Morristown & Erie is a short-line with a long and proud history of serving the communities along its rails in Morris and Essex Counties, in northern New Jersey. For more than a century, the M&E has hauled freight down its short but vibrant mainline, built originally to serve the paper mills in Whippany, NJ. The big railroads, which traversed the landscape by the late-nineteenth century, were promulgated by the railroad barons and their monopolies. The progenitor of the M&E, Robert McEwan, was no railroad baron. McEwan was a Scottish immigrant who had come to the United States in early manhood, penniless. Through hard work and determination, he and his seven sons built themselves a small fortune in the paper industry. Though, without direct rail service, the McEwans realized the continued growth of their enterprise was hindered. The nearest railroad, the Lackawanna Railroad in Morristown, was four-miles distant over poor roads, making transportation costly. To bridge this gap, the McEwans endeavored to build their own rail line, aptly named the Whippany River Railroad, for the meandering river it was to follow. With their expertise being the manufacture of paper, the McEwans retained a local railroad contractor to construct and operate their railroad. However, within a year, its route had to be largely realigned and rebuilt. The McEwans took charge and sought to grow their little railroad and tap new markets. They formed another company, the Whippany & Passaic River Railroad, to construct a six-mile eastward extension. The new line tapped the Erie Railroad in Essex Fells, NJ, affording the railroad’s growing clientele access to more competitive freight rates. The two Whippany railroads were merged on August 28, 1903, forming the ten-and-a-half mile long Morristown & Erie Railroad, so named as it connected Morristown with the Erie Railroad. The McEwans sought to develop new industries which kept the railroad’s two freight trains exceptionally busy, delivering dozens of carloads daily. Passenger service was operated, too. The railroad’s genial conductors would entertain their passengers with harrowing tales of the railroad’s earliest days, endearing themselves to the local populace. The M&E even ferried passengers in a self-propelled railbus, for a time. Passenger service was discontinued in 1928 In 1929, the Great Depression struck the nation with devastating effects. Freight tonnages shrank as did the payroll. The remaining two-dozen-or-so employees, many of whom had been with the M&E for decades, persevered. They accepted a pay cut or a reduction in hours so that the little M&E might continue to operate. Through their resolute determination, and that of the McEwan management, the railroad overcame the economic calamity. In 1940, the M&E proudly announced that it had paid off the last of its indebtedness. The M&E played its patriotic part during WWII, and the freight business swelled. For a time, train crews were so busy that they found it difficult to meet the demand of the incredible number of carloads handled daily. To solve this problem, in 1944 and 1946, the M&E purchased the three most powerful steam locomotives in its history. Even after WWII had concluded, the railroad continued to prosper. The M&E hauled countless carloads of building materials that built hundreds of homes, and the schools, fire and police departments, and infrastructure needed to support them, in the postwar housing boom. Despite a period of prolonged prosperity, storm clouds gathered for the M&E and most of the northeastern railroads. The trucking industry gobbled up a lot of the railroad’s freight business. The suburbanization of Morris and Essex Counties, which had been a boon to the M&E, consumed a lot of valuable industrial land. Coal tonnages, which had once been a staple of the M&E’s business, precipitously dropped as homes and local industries switched to fuel oil. In 1952, to reduce costs, the M&E retired its three costly steam locomotives and replaced them with a diesel-electric locomotive, purchased new the American Locomotive Company (ALCo). Compounding ongoing misfortunes, the new diesel was heavily damaged in a 1960 fire that consumed the M&E’s Morristown shop complex. The McEwan family, by then in its third generation declared bankruptcy in 1978. A group of local businessmen, driven by a desire to revitalize the railroad acquired the railroad in 1982. Led by Benjamin J. Friedland, these businessmen worked to reinvigorate the railroad and its image. New corporate colors, as well as a new corporate herald, were unveiled on a set of four newly acquired ALCo locomotives. Finally, the railroad rebranded itself under a new corporate identity, the Morristown & Erie Railway, Inc. The resurgent M&E worked with Morris County to save and operate four railroad branch lines, discarded by Conrail as unprofitable, and attracted new business to them. A contract was secured with Bayway Refinery, a sprawling oil refining facility in Linden, NJ, to provide in-plant freight car switching services. Over the ensuing years, with its big red ALCOs (longtime favorites of local rail buffs), the M&E grew to become a vibrant and visible part of northern New Jersey’s railroad freight operations. The M&E operated other rail lines too, under contract, beyond New Jersey over the years. No matter where it operated, the M&E provided the same level of professional and personal service that has been the hallmark of its operations since 1903. The M&E has also worked to diversify its traditionally freight-centered business model. The M&E has turned its Morristown, NJ, shop complex into a nationally respected passenger car rebuild and repair facility. The shop complex, coupled with the redevelopment of the Whippany, NJ, yard as a private car storage facility, makes the M&E a premier location for Amtrak-certified private passenger cars. The M&E operates, annually, The POLAR EXPRESS™ train ride for Rail Events Productions, one of their most successful operations nationwide. Also, the M&E had been a proud participant in the preservation of railroad history, frequently working with the Whippany Railway Museum, United Railroad Historical Society of NJ, and Tri-State Railway Historical Society, all 501c3 nonprofits, to support their efforts. The story of the Morristown & Erie – now over a century long – has always been that of overcoming obstacles and adapting to changing times. Since its founding, the M&E’s small but dedicated team has been big on personable and professional service to its diverse set of customers, living up to its slogan, “Service is Our Business.”

The post card was published by the same mysterious company as last week's post card. I have 204 post cards in my collection from this company.