The Tehachapi Loop - Part 2

On May 16, 2012, I posted a post card with a picture of the Tehachapi Loop near Walong, California. Here is that link: https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/2934863145319975648/8903353205476421380

That post referred to the fact that I have another post card of the Loop. Well, here is that post card. This is a picture of a Southern Pacific train with a bay window caboose. That caboose is rolling over the top of its own mixed freight train as it passes around the loop. This website https://www.american-rails.com/tehachapi.html has an article about the Tehachapi Loop. This website is worth bookmarking for all sorts of interesting information about railroads, locomotives, and many other railroad related information. Adam Burns know a lot about a lot. The Tehachapi Loop is a famous spiral section of a railroad through Tehachapi Pass in Southern California. Built by the Southern Pacific between 1874-1876, it is considered an engineering marvel for its ability to allow trains to traverse the steep Tehachapi Mountains. Its intent was to gain elevation at a manageable gradient and has worked so well for nearly 150 years it has remained virtually unchanged and in regular use. The loop extends 0.73 miles with a diameter of 1,200 feet and a height difference of 77 feet between its highest and lowest points. It is still a vital part of the area's transportation infrastructure and is now a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Today, it remains an important artery of Union Pacific.

This post card was published by Railcards.com It is still a mystery to me as to who this company was.

More Views of the Lookout Mountain Incline

These post cards are more views of the Lookout Mountain Incline Cable Raiway. I wrote about the attraction last week, so this week I will just share the other post cards that I have in my collection about the railway - front and back of course.

This one was copyrighted in 1964 by the W. M. Cline Company; the photo was taken by Walter Cline.

This one was copyrighted in 1956 by the W. M. Cline Company; the photo was taken by Walter Cline.

This one does not say when it was copyrighted but the numbering system puts it between the two post cards above.

This one is postmarked August 31, 1970. It was published by Color-King Natural Color Card, Cline Photo, Inc.

This System is still operating Today

In the top right-hand corner of this trolley car you can see what looks like a

smoke stack. That is because this post card was mailed in 1910 and the incline system that carries this car up Lookout Mountain in Tennessee operated on steam. These two websites have provided the information below: https://www.lookoutmountain.com/incline-railway/ https://ridetheincline.com/history/ The Incline Railway attracts people from around the world and has carried millions of residents and tourists up and down historic Lookout Mountain. The history of the Incline and Lookout Mountain includes Civil War battles, rivalries, and grand hotels. The first Incline up Lookout Mountain opened in 1887. It ran from the 38th Street area in St. Elmo to just below the Point. The second Incline, engineered by John Crass, opened November 16, 1895, and is the Incline that is still in operation today. The success of the second Incline was the primary reason that the first Incline closed in 1899. Originally the cars were made of wood and powered by huge coal-burning steam engines. Electric power was used after 1911, and it now uses two 100 horsepower motors that power the large drums that operate the cable. The cable is made by the company which supplied the cable for the Brooklyn Bridge. Since 1895 the Incline has carried millions of riders up and down the mountain in complete safety. On March 19, 1919, an accidental fire destroyed the upper station and one of the cars causing the Incline to close down for two years while they rebuilt, they also bought new cars at this time for the reopening. The new cars held thirty-two passengers and had heaters under the seats. The incline has had a few famous riders in its time in operation. Teddy Roosevelt rode the incline in 1905 while he was still President of the United States. The famous actress, Elizabeth Taylor, also rode the Incline in the 1950’s. In 1974 Jo Conn Guild Sr. and Linn White, the original designers of today’s Incline, were given the honor of having their engineering marvel be designated as a National Historic Site by the United States of the Interior. Ninety-six years after the Incline’s inaugural journey, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers honored the Incline as its 100th National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in recognition of its innovative design, and the historically significant role that it has played in the development of Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga.

And, rather then write about Lookout Mountain and this incline railway again, (because I have another post card that features this location)I will post a second post card in this blog. This is a distant view of the entire system. This post card was copyrighted in 1955 by the W. M. Cline Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee, the location of this attraction. The back of the post card says,"THE INCLINE UP LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Chattanooga, Nenn., is 4750 gee long from St. Elmo at its base to the summit of the mountain. It is the steepest cable incline in the world, reaching a 72.7 percent grade at one point." The picture was taken by Walter Cline, himself!!

The post card, at the top of the blog post like last week’s post card was published by the Detroit Publishing Company using the “Phostint” method of printing.

Welcome to Tucson

The picture on the front of this post card is not of a locomotive. I know. I am shocked, too!! However, it is the next post card in line in my collection to be featured here, so here we go...

Our friends at Wikipedia say this about the station: The depot was built in 1907 by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). It was designed by the SP's architect, Daniel J. Patterson, who designed a number of depots during the same era, including the San Antonio Station. In 1889, Patterson moved to San Francisco to establish a practice there. His work caught the attention of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), which had its headquarters in San Francisco. They had him design a number of their stations and other facilities, many of which survive. Among these were the San Antonio Station, Berkeley Station (1906), the Salt Lake City Union Station, the Tucson Station, and the Willits depot. He was also the architect for the Union Station (1911) in Seattle, Washington. He designed three of the SP's hospitals, in San Francisco, El Paso, and Houston, as well as many of the railroad's industrial structures, such as electrical sub-stations and the Alameda Shops. This website gives us a bit more detail about the history of the station - and its prececessor: https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/tucson-az-tus/ The Tucson depot is today the pride of downtown. Originally designed in 1907 by Southern Pacific Railway (SP) staff architect Daniel Patterson and staff engineer J.D. Wallace, the original brick structure was in the Spanish Revival style then so popular throughout the southwest. The building, costing $665,000, featured a center portion with a hipped red tile roof flanked by two end towers that framed the entire composition. The windows of each tower displayed elaborate ornamentation in the Churrigueresque style, marked by expressive, sculptural detailing generally associated with Spanish architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries. A circular drive allowed visitors to pull up to the front entrance to pick up and drop off friends and family who could linger underneath the shade of the front arcade. Although quite beautiful and impressive, the 1907 depot was actually the second on the site. When the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived from Yuma in 1880, the company built a wooden station with deep eaves and windows featuring colorful awnings; President McKinley stopped here in 1900. This building was replaced because passenger and freight traffic outgrew the space. The 1907 station complex was sold to the city of Tucson in 1998 by the Union Pacific Railroad for $2.1 million dollars.

The post card was published by the Detroit Publishing Company. It was printed using what they called the "Phostint" method. After negotiations with Orell Fussli, Detroit became the sole American company to license the Swiss photochrom process, which they would eventually register in 1907 under the name Phostint.

It Must Have Been Exciting While It Lasted!

While the operation pictured on the front of this post card is technically not a train, it does employ what looks like train tracks. Therefore, I have included it in my collection. The operation using the train tracks is a funicular that takes one up to the top of a canyon which is the home of Seven Falls. This is in South Cheyenne Canyon, Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is just a few miles north of Vail, Colorado; or at least it was. The following description was taken from these two websites: https://springsmag.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-visit-to-seven-falls/ and

https://thelocaltourist.com/hiking-the-broadmoor-seven-falls/ Both the north and south sides of Cheyenne Cañon are deeply entwined in Colorado Springs history. Seven Falls first private owner was Nathaniel Colby who received the homestead patent in 1872. Neighboring homesteader James Hull bought the parcel in 1882, reportedly to protect the area from logging. Hull began building a road to Seven Falls in 1883. He also put up a gate and began charging admission: 10 cents. Hull’s sons built stairs alongside the waterfalls, first made of wood, then iron. Seven Falls changed ownership through the years but always operated as a tourist destination. A burro brigade used to carry visitors up the road to the observation point. A taxidermy reindeer was a popular photo prop for years. Al Hill bought Seven Falls in 1946 and quickly added lights for night viewing. Through the decades, he added the Eagle’s Nest observation area and its elevator tunneled into the canyon rock. It had its own set of stairs, but by 1949, a funicular provided easier access than the 185 steps. The incline cable car operated until 1985. Through the mid-century, visitors loved feeding the local chipmunks and watching Native American dancers perform. In 2013, devastating floods scoured the canyon, destroying the visitor center and road to the falls. The Hill family closed Seven Falls, then sold it to the Broadmoor in 2014. The site was reimagined, renovated and reopened in 2015 with the addition of Restaurant 1858.

The post card was published by Sanborn Souvenir Company out of Denver Colorado. They were a publisher of books and postcards of the American West, but mostly of Colorado and Wyoming. They first produced real photo postcards carrying the Sanborn name. They latter went on to produce halftone lithographic postcards and eventually photochromes. They existed from 1920 to 1976. It was printed by Dexter Press. Thomas A. Dexter began Dexter Press, a one-man shop in Pearl River, New York, in 1920. With the production of the very first natural color post card in 1932, Tom Dexter established a tradition of innovation and craftsmanship that would be associated with the Dexter name for years to come. While all the photochromes printed by Dexter bore the words Genuine Natural Color they went through a variety of phases. Their early photochromes went under the name Dextone and tended to be flat and somewhat dull in appearance. As years went by their optical blending techniques improved producing richer and more varied colors.

This is a National Historic Landmark!

The curve shown on the front of this post card is "world famous". There are three train tracks on this curve on Norfolk Southern Railway's Pittsburgh Line 5 miles west of Altoona, Pennsylvania. The curve has a diameter of about 1,300 feet and is about a half-mile long. In the early 1850s, the massive front of the Allegheny Mountains, standing 2,161 feet above sea level, blocked westward advance. This obstacle culminated in the creation of the Gallitzin Tunnels and the Horseshoe Curve, both of which were dug out of near-impenetrable geographic formations. Using switchbacks, excavations, and pure innovation, engineers reduced grades and effectively conquered the mountains. To conduct these laborious endeavors, the Pennsylvania Railroad hired job-hungry Irish immigrants. The hazardous work lasted three grueling years. The end result was nothing less than monumental. The Curve became known as one of the eight engineering marvels of the world. The completion of the Curve was widely celebrated and heralded throughout the state as a grand opportunity. The now-iconic railroad link opened for business on February 15, 1854. Over the next century-and-a-half, the landmark also became a tourism destination, a target of Nazi spies, and one of the primary east-west arteries of railroad travel in the nation. This website is the official website for the National Historic Landmark: https://www.railroadcity.org/horseshoecurve The post card was published by Beauty Views J.P. Walmer Box 224, Harrisburg, PA. I know nothing about this publisher.

Where did it go?

This is a real photo post card of something that no longer exists.

This website provides the most information I have found about what is on this post card: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=70443 The marker says, "Erected in honor of Sir James Hector K. C. M. C. Geologist and explorer to the Palliser Expedition of 1857 - 1860 by his friends in Canada, the United States & England. One of the earliest scientists to explore the Canadian Rocky Mountains. He discovered the Kicking Horse Pass through which the Canadian Pacific Railway now runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean." The marker is no longer there, but it was located near 51° 25.441′ N, 116° 10.748′ W. The Canadian Pacific Railway’s completion in 1885, along with the creation and promotion of Canada’s first national park, brought thousands of visitors to the Rockies and made it possible for mountaineers and explorers to venture out into the Great Divide area. Tales of their adventures spread far and wide, attracting attention to the area. By the end of the 19th century, the Canadian Pacific Railway responded to the growing interest in mountaineering in the Rockies by giving seasonal contracts to Swiss guides. They led mountaineers and tourists in explorations of the area. Meanwhile, to the north, tourism in the region was also gathering momentum with the establishment of Jasper National Park in 1907 and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway reaching Jasper in 1911. The post card was published by Gowan Sutton, Ltd in Vancouver, BC Canada. They were publisher of real photo and printed postcards of the Canadian West. Not only did they produce cards depicting large cities, they captured many hard to reach views within the Canadian Territories. Many of their cards were hand tinted in a simple manner striving for style rather than realism, which created cards in vastly differing quality. While the real photo cards were made in Canada their printed cards were made in England. They existed from 1921 to 1960. The marker was erected in 1926, so this makes sense to me.