To Russia with Love

This locomotive was intended to go to Russia in the early 1900s. The locomotive on the front of this post card was one of hundreds of “Decapods” built by ALCO and Baldwin, destined for but undelivered to Russia because of World War I. Many were auctioned off to US railroads and worked there

for many, many years. This locomotive is shown in use in the United States on the Gainesville Midland Railroad. Our good friends at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-10-0 tell us the following: The first Decapods were built for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the late-1860s. They proved too rough on the track because of their long coupled wheelbase. No more followed for 19 years, until the Northern Pacific Railway bought two for use on the switchbacks over Stampede Pass, while the 2-mile (3.2 km) tunnel was being built. In low-speed service where high tractive effort was critical, these Decapods were successful. Small numbers of other Decapods were built over the next twenty years, mostly for service in steeply graded mountainous areas where power at low speeds was the requirement. The type did not prove as popular as the successful Consolidation (2-8-0) type. Among Decapod users was the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The engines were tandem compounds but their ongoing reversing limitations became the genesis of the 2-10-2 wheel arrangement. The first boost in the number of Decapods occurred when Imperial Russia ordered approximately 1,200 Decapods from American builders during World War I. When the Bolshevik revolution occurred in 1917, 857 had already been delivered, but more than 200 were either awaiting shipment or were in the process of construction. These stranded locomotives were adopted by the United States Railroad Administration (USRA), the body created by the Government to oversee and control the railroads during the War, converted to American standards, and put to use on American railroads. Small and light-footed, these Russian decapods proved popular with smaller railroads, and many of them remained in service long after the USRA's control of the railroads ceased. Many indeed lasted until the end of steam on those railroads.

The post card was published by Railcards.com. Someday I hope to find out information about the company - at least more than what is written on the back of their postcards.

Never Went Bankrupt...

...it only got absorbed into the, eventually, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. The locomotive on the front of this post card used to work on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Here it is working for a Soo Line

special in 1962. It is a Pacific type of locomotive with the wheel classification of 4-6-2. I looked up the history of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad on my favourite website: https://www.american-rails.com/cbq.html The article by Adam Burns is absolutely amazing, partly because he did so much research and partly because the history of this railroad is actually amazing. This railroad company existed for well over 100 years and in all that time, it never had to file for bankruptcy – a rare condition of railroads. Here is the title and author of the article that I strongly recommend that you read, along with the opening two paragraphs. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy: "Everywhere West" Last revised: June 10, 2023 By: Adam Burns Some railroads were seemingly destined to become strong, profitable operations. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy was one such example. Its history traces back to the pre-Civil War period when trains near or west of the Mississippi River remained a relative novelty. During the mid-19th century, the "Q's" earliest predecessor had established through service to Chicago and then spent the next several decades rapidly expanding. Its slogan, "Everywhere West," was quite befitting for this classic Midwestern granger. Again, I strongly recommend reading this article. https://www.american-rails.com/cbq.html

The post card was published by the mysterious Railcards.com.

Would You Like Fries with That?

The locomotive on the front of this post card is sitting in the yard at Palmer, Massachusetts. The city was a crossroads of three railroads; this train is on the Boston & Albany Railroad tracks. The information below about the railroad is taken from this website: https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/capobject/?gusn=171267 The Boston & Albany Railroad Company was formed in 1868 by the consolidation of the Western Rail-Road Corporation and the Boston and Worcester Railroad Corporation. In 1883, the Boston & Albany acquired track then owned by the New York and New England Railroad as far as Newton Highlands, and in 1884, began the construction of a line northwest to its mainline creating a commuter loop. "The Circuit," as this route was called, officially opened in May 1886 providing double-track operation from downtown Boston through Brookline to Newton Highlands, then north into Riverside and four tracks on the mainline from Riverside back to downtown so that commuter and mainline operations did not conflict. By 1889 as many as 35 trains traveled the Circuit daily, providing superior commuter service. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad leased the Boston & Albany for 99 years from July 1, 1900. This lease passed to the New York Central Railroad in 1914. Throughout this era, the Boston & Albany kept its own branding in the public eye. Local service was operated until April 24, 1960, after which only Palmer, Springfield, Pittsfield, and Albany remained stops west of Worcester. The New York Central merged into the Pennsylvania Central on February 1, 1968. A single round trip continued to serve Palmer under the NYC and Penn Central until April 30, 1971; Amtrak declined to continue the route when it took over operations the next day.[6] Amtrak's Bay State, Montrealer, Vermonter, and Lake Shore Limited service that have passed the station since then but have not stopped in Palmer. However, the train station in Palmer is still operating. This website gives us some insight into what it is like today. https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-to-do-in-palmer-ma/ If there’s one thing that brings people to Palmer from across the region, it’s this family restaurant housed in the beautiful Palmer Railroad Station (Union Station). At a major junction, this iconic building was designed by H. H. Richardson in his signature Romanesque Revival style, consolidating two stations. The station opened in 1884 and was originally set in grounds that were laid out by Richardson’s great collaborator, Frederick Law Olmsted, famous for New York’s Central Park. Everything about Steaming Tender is steeped in railroad heritage, from the trains clattering past along the active lines, to the rolling stock on display at the restaurant’s outdoor museum, and an interior harking back to the golden days of rail travel. The menu here is hearty New England fare, like a braised pot roast, Maine lobster roll, fried haddock, lobster mac & cheese, jumbo scallops, New York sirloin strip, and a comforting half-pound cheeseburger.

The post card seems to have been part of someone's collection of train post cards. I have several in my collection, now, that used to be part of this collection. The picture is copyrighted and published by Railway Photograph out of Liverpool, England.

Camels on the Railroad?

The National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri has one of a very few samples of what the railroad industry called "Camelbacks". The "Camelback" pictured on the front of this post card was built in 1873 at the Mt. Clare shops. It is a 4-6-0 "Davis Ten-Wheeler", which is a later edition of the famous Winans "Camelback" design. It was operated by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as Number 173. This locomotive was retired in 1900 to become part of the Purdue University Collection. This website (https://www.american-rails.com/mikado.html) has wonderful details about railroad history, so I have taken the following information from it: By Adam Burns - - - Camelbacks, while not necessarily the safest such design ever conceived were certainly one of the most unique. The Camelback is not a named wheel arrangement like the 4-6-2 Pacific or 2-8-4 Berkshire but a term only meant to describe a distinctive design feature found on some steam locomotives. While Camelbacks were banned citing safety concerns in the early 20th century they proved quite successful to the anthracite carriers, who could use them to burn a cheap and plentiful anthracite coal waste known as culm. The Camelback received its name for the unique positioning of the locomotive cab which sat astride the boiler giving the design a center "humped" appearance. While the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad developed something similar to the later Camelback in the 1840s, given the interesting name of "Muddiggers," it was not until John Wootten (who worked for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, a Reading Railroad predecessor) patented his Wootten firebox and boiler design in 1877 did the design really catch on. This particular designed allowed for the burning of the fuel the locomotive used by providing a very wide, large firebox that produced robust fires yet only utilized a consumed a small amount at a time with a low firing rate. Because the locomotive was developed to burn the very abundant anthracite coal waste, culm, Camelbacks became fantastically popular with the railroads which staked their livelihoods on the resource. While Wootten's design allowed railroads, particularly the anthracite carriers, to gain huge savings on fuel costs it also came at an increased safety risk. Because the firebox on Camelbacks was so large, as to gain the necessary and needed fire temperatures, it forced the cab to be placed astride the boiler and over the driving wheels (so the engineer could gain proper clearance). This not only made for an extremely uncomfortable and hot ride during warmer months for engineers it also made them more at risk to injury if any part of the driving wheel assembly failed while at speed. To make matters worse the fireman was left exposed to the elements back by the firebox, where of course he had to remain to feed fuel to the locomotive. Due to these safety issues the Interstate Commerce Commission began to seriously look at the hazards Camelback steam locomotives exposed to train crews and by 1927 the agency had completely banned new or rebuilt locomotives which featured the Camelback design. In total, nearly 3,000 Camelback steam locomotives were either rebuilt from conventional designs, custom-built by individual railroads, or purchased from manufacturers.

The post card was published by CharmCraft, also out of St. Louis, Missouri. The printing was done by Colourpicture Publishers in Boston Massachussets between 1943 and 1963. Postal Zones were introduced in 1943 and the Zip Code was introduced in 1963. This address has a postal zone.

Happy Birthday, Post Card!!!

Well, at least happy birthday from the day it was mailed. More about that below. The locomotive on the front of this post card is sitting at the Hartford and New Haven Railroad station in Meriden, Connecticut.

The post card was mailed on October 24, 1924. That means that it will be 100 years old tomorrow!! Here is a bit of information about the history of the Hartford and New Haven Railroad taken from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_and_New_Haven_Railroad The Hartford and New Haven Railroad of Connecticut was chartered in 1833 to build a railroad between Hartford and New Haven. It was one of the earliest railroads built in Connecticut and was intended both to improve New Haven's access to the interior of the state, and to provide an alternative to ship transport along the Connecticut River, which froze during the winter. Alexander Catlin Twining was commissioned to survey the railroad's route, originally intended to pass through Middletown, Connecticut. However, Twining decided during his survey that building through the hilly terrain around Middletown would be too difficult, and instead chose an alignment further west, via Meriden, Connecticut. The citizens of Middletown were unhappy about being bypassed, but they would have to wait for more than a decade before a branch line reached their city. The grandfather of J. P. Morgan was an original investor, laying the foundation for the long association between Morgan and the railroads of New England. Construction started from New Haven in 1836, with a temporary halt caused by the Panic of 1837. The first portion of the line, from New Haven to Meriden, saw its first trains in December 1838, while the rest of the line to Hartford opened in December of the following year. From the looks of it, this train station was built in 1882. It is that blue roof with the flagpole on it that tells me it is the 1882 station. Here is a different post card that shows it. Unfortunately, this post card is not part of my collection. Two other stations have followed in the footsteps of the 1882 station.

This picture is of the 1882, but not my post card.

This station is the 1942 version of the train station:

And this is the latest version of the Meriden train station. It is from 2007.

The post card was mailed on October 24, 1924. That means that tomorrow will be the 100th anniversary of the mailing. The card is actually older than that, but I can celebrate only what I know. The post card was published by The August Schmelzer Company from, of all places, Meriden, Connecticut. The company existed from 1906 to 1912. This post card was already about 12 years old when it was mailed. I did some research looking for August Schmelzer. This is what I found. It is part of his obituary. “President of August Schmelzer coal company and a director of Meriden Hospital. Came to the U.S. in 1870. In 1873 he opened a stationary store in Meriden and for several years he was in the trucking business. Served on the Meriden Common Council.” So, it looks like the company that published the post card was a temporary stop on the way to business success for Mr. Schmelzer.

If it is a Mikado, shouldn't it be in Japan?

Th locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is of the type commonly called the "Mikado". The wheel arrangement is 2-8-2 in the Whyte classification system. This particular locomotive is shown in the 1940s working on the Northern Pacific Railroad. This website (https://www.american-rails.com/mikado.html) has wonderful details about railroad history, so I have taken the following information from it: Written by Adam Burns. The Mikado type was the workhorse steam locomotive for the railroad industry during the 20th century and prior to the switch to diesel-electric technology. The design is often regarded as the classic American steam locomotive for this very reason. The 2-8-2 design (a blend of the 2-8-0 and 2-6-2 wheel arrangements) offered just the right amount of power, pull, and speed to be used for about any type of service, from passenger trains to freights moving over stiff grades. Additionally, they were built to both standard as well as narrow-gauge applications. The very first locomotive ever operated as a 2-8-2 design is said to have been an experimental built by the Lehigh Valley. The railroad took one of its 2-10-0 Camelbacks and cut it down into a 2-8-2 with the belief that it would reduce flange wear on the rear set of drivers. While the LV went on to become one of the early pioneers of the 2-8-2 the wheel arrangement was mostly shelved within the U.S. railroad industry for the following two decades. Ten years after the LV's first experiment Baldwin Locomotive Works built a fleet of narrow-gauge (three-foot, six-inch) 2-8-2s for the Japan Railways in 1893. It is here where the term Mikado, which refers to a Japanese emperor, is said to have been applied to the 2-8-2 design. The first 2-8-2s employed in standard road service that featured the larger fireboxes and boilers (for increased steam pressure, and thus, more power) is often credited to the Virginian Railway; in 1909 the coal-hauler acquired a fleet of 42 units from Baldwin (#420-461) listed as Class MB that provided tractive efforts greater than 53,000 pounds. Other railroads to use early examples of the 2-8-2 include the Bismark, Washburn & Great Falls Railway which used a few starting in 1903 and the Northern Pacific's initial batch of 1905 (often credited with kicking off interest in 2-8-2s as main line road power).

This post card was published by the company I only know as Railcards.com I have not been able to find any information about them on line at all.

Life after Retirement

The locomotive on the front of this post card belonged to the Northern Pacific Railway. It is seen here at Spokane, Washington waiting to have some maintenance done. It is a 4-4-0 ("American type”) locomotive.

Washington railroads date back to 1851 when the Cascade Portage Railway opened six miles of railroad between Hamilton Island and Stevenson, Washington (the railroad operated until 1907). By 1883 the first of the “Hill” lines reached the Puget Sound with the Northern Pacific Railway opening its main line between Minneapolis and Seattle that year. By: Adam Burns from the website www.american-rails.com The Northern Pacific Railway (NP) is often overshadowed by the Transcontinental Railroad. The latter was completed by the Union Pacific (UP) and Central Pacific (CP) in 1869, running the 42nd parallel between Omaha, Nebraska Territory and Sacramento, California. It offered the West its first efficient means of transportation for greater economic opportunities. For all the Transcontinental Railroad's accolades, the NP carried its own great story. It undertook a similar endeavor to reach the Pacific Northwest but did so without the aid of federal loans. At first, it appeared the railroad would be built without difficulty as noted banker Jay Cooke secured several million dollars in financing. However, fortunes soon turned and the NP slipped into bankruptcy. As Northern Pacific languished it seemed unlikely the project would ever be finished. In time, several individuals stepped forward and oversaw its completion, thus establishing the first through route to the Puget Sound. After 1900, fabled tycoon James J. Hill gained control and the NP joined his so-called "Hill Lines" which included the Great Northern; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; and subsidiary Spokane, Portland & Seattle. After numerous attempts the four became one in 1970 when Burlington Northern, Inc. (BNI) was formed.

The post card was published by Railcards.com. I know nothing about the publisher.