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.

One of the First!

The locomotive on the front of this post card is one of the first diesel locomotives that was used on the “Monon” railroad. The railroad ordered ten

of the Alco model RS2 in 1949. This picture was taken 24 years later, in 1971 – the same year in which the “Monon” merged with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Here is a very concise summary of some highlights of the “Monon” line. If you would like to read more about this railroad and its history I strongly recommend that you go to https://www.american-rails.com/monon.html or to https://www.monon.org/history.php Begun in 1847 with James Brooks as president, the New Albany and Salem Railroad was simply meant to join two bodies of water (the Ohio River and Lake Michigan) in support of the steamship industry owned by Mr. Brooks. It accomplished this objective in seven years and then the railroad struggled almost through the rest of its life. In 1859 it is renamed the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railroad. From an early period the LNA&C was recognized as the "Monon Route," dating back to 1879 when the community of Bradford changed its name to Monon. While it took more than 70 years for this moniker to become the railroad's official title, most people simply knew the modern Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville by its historic nickname. In 1873 it is reorganized to become the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway; then, in 1881 this railway is consolidated with the Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway. In 1897 it is once again reorganized, this time as the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway. Finally, in 1971 the “Monon” is merged into the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. One of the most noteworthy events in railroad history was the transportation of President Abraham Lincoln's body from Washington, D.C. to his hometown of Springfield, Illinois for burial. The western leg of the Funeral Train's route utilized none other than the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago (LNA&C) from Lafayette to Michigan City during the early morning hours of May 1, 1865. Another event worth noting is that the “Monon” was one of the first Class I railroads to change over completely from steam to diesel (June 29, 1949)

This post card was published by Railcards.com I know absolutely nothing about the company or the people involved in it. Their website is no longer active.

What is in a Name?

In 1972 the Pacific Great Eastern Railway was renamed to the British

Columbia Railway. The picture on the front of this post card was taken in October of that same year in North Vancouver, British Columbia. The following article was gleaned from the pages of this wonderful website by Adam Burns, which is an excellent source of all knowledge railroad-wise: https://www.american-rails.com/pge.html I recommend that you visit it often.The Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) was incorporated on February 27, 1912. The PGE was to be privately operated with funds coming from major American and Canadian investors. Initial plans saw the system connecting the major port of Vancouver along the Strait of Georgia with Prince George where a connection would be established with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. The PGE, however, ran into money problems during 1915 when it defaulted on an interest payment and the government took over the property in 1918. it languished as an unwanted stepchild through World War II. The railroad's fortunes finally turned after 1949 when an effort to complete its original planned route began. On November 1, 1952, a train formally arrived in Prince George with an Alco RS3 bearing the shield "Hello! Prince George, We're Here." Four years later, on August 27, 1956, the PGE completed a connection to Vancouver, giving it a through route stretching 462.7 miles. During the 1960s the PGE saw more growth than it had experienced its entire half-century of operation when new construction connected the road to Fort Nelson, 334 miles north of Prince George. Along this main line spurs were also opened including one to Dawson Creek where an interchange was made with the Canadian National Railway. As mentioned in the first line of this article, during 1972 the PGE was renamed as the British Columbia Railway At its peak BC Rail covered 962 miles, including all main lines and branches. The Railroad initially relied mostly on natural resources such as wood products, ore, and agriculture. However, as the railroad was greatly expanded after World War II its freight was vastly diversified from interchange traffic with major connections (Milwaukee Road, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Great Northern, Northern Alberta Railways, Northern Pacific, British Columbia Hydro & Power Authority, and Union Pacific) to intermodal and general merchandise. After owning the railroad for more than 80 years the British Columbia government announced in the spring of 2003 that all property except the right-of-way would be sold to Canadian National, which formally occurred a year later, on July 15, 2004. Today, CN still leases the former Pacific Great Eastern/BC Rail system from the British Columbia government.

This post card was published by Mary Jayne's Raillroad Specialties, Inc. Her catalog number for this post card is up in the box for the postage stamp. It tells us that the post card was published December 14, 1985. I had the opportunity to correspond with her before she died. She was a lovely person. The photo was taken by Robert D. Turner

An Anniversary to Celebrate, Soon!!!

There is no train on this post card; at least, I can’t see one. But it is a picture of a gigantic celebration of an event involving a train. This is the inauguration of the first train coming into Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This was an event worthy of celebrating. Since 1891, Edmonton’s neighbouring city to the south, Strathcona, had had its own train station and the end of the train line. The Calgary & Edmonton Railway had been stopping in Strathcona, on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River for over 10 years.

It wasn’t until 1902 that a train actually entered into Edmonton. This train was owned by the Edmonton, Yukon & Pacific. It was simply a connecting railway between the C & E Railway and the city of Edmonton. The route went down what is now the Mill Creek Ravine's walking and bicycling path and went across the Low Level Bridge into Edmonton. My last blog had some information about the train and the Low Level Bridge.

Three years later, on November 24, 1905 the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) entered Edmonton from the east. That is what they are celebrating on the front of this post card. The entrance of the CNoR into Edmonton.

This post card is foreshadowing the future because the call letters they are using for the Canadian Northern Railway are CNR, of which the CNoR will eventually become a part.

The CNoR eventually owned a transcontinental line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Edmonton. It began as a consolidation of several branch lines around the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) in Manitoba. Two men purchased the shares of all of these lines and established the CNoR in 1899. CNoR's first step toward competing directly with CPR came at the start of the 20th century with the decision to build a line linking the Prairie Provinces with Lake Superior at the harbour in Port Arthur-Fort William (what we know today as Thunder Bay, Ontario) which would permit the shipping of western grain to European markets as well as the transport of eastern Canadian goods to the West. The last spike of the CNoR transcontinental railway was driven January 23, 1915, at Basque, British Columbia.

Unfortunately, along with several other railway lines, the CNoR came upon hard financial times. At first it was absorbed into the Canadian Government Railways (1918) and then into the railway, which is today called the Canadian National Railway in 1923.

This post card was mailed on May 22, 1907 – that makes the card over 106 years old - about a year and half after the celebration depicted on the front of the post card. It was published by the Edmonton Music Company and, like many cards of this time, it was printed in Germany. The message on the back is from a brother to his sister:
“Dear Sister, I guess you will be surprised to hear of me being up here. Will write in a day or so and give you all the news. As ever, your Loving Bro.”

Boy Away from Home

"Trains entering California and Florida through Orange Groves" is a theme that repeats again and again in my post card collection. I posted earlier this year about two post cards with the same scene, one claiming it was in California and the other Florida. This post card is sticking with the California concept. It is certainly a real possibility. When I lived in California there were train tracks that passed next to and through orange groves. I remember one that went through an avocado grove! In the bottom left of the post card, starting the title, is the combination: H-2290. This immediately tells me that this post card was printed so the the Fred Harvey Company could sell it.

In 1878 Fred Harvey was the first to established a chain of restaurants then hotels across the Southwest that provided quality service. Much was done to market the region including publishing large series of postcards depicting Native Americans and local scenery. In 1897 Harvey took over the news stands for the A.T.&S.F. Railroad and began distributing postcards. The Santa Fe Railroad also did a great deal to publicize its Route to the Grand Canyon. A large amount of postcards were produced depicting the canyon and the Railroad’s hotel interests within the National Park.

Fred Harvey himself provided some of the images for these cards until his death in 1901. Between 1901 and 1932 the Company contracted all their cards with the Detroit Publishing Company (that is who printed this post card). These cards have an H prefix before their identification number, but in addition Detroit published many of Harvey’s images on their own. After Detroit closed, many of Harvey’s cards were contracted out to Curt Teich among others.

The message on the back is a son telling his mother that he is okay and in North Bend, Oregon. She lives in Hilltop, Kansas. My short research indicates to me that Hilltop's post office was discontinued in August of 1951. I am not sure if it disappeared altogether, or if it was absorbed into Wichita. There is an area in Kansas that is remembered in Wikipedia as Hilltop, but there is also a district in Wichita named Hilltop.

This is "Hammerhead", but not like in the shark.

The locomotive on the front of this post card, Lehigh Valley No. 211, was originally built by Alco for the Pennsylvania Railroad in December 1953 and was delivered as PRR 8445. It is unique in that it has a raised short hood used to house the dynamic brakes and a steam generator for heating passenger cars. For obvious reasons it soon got the nickname

“Hammerhead.” It is the only survivor of a group of five RS-3s built with a high short hood for PRR and Western Maryland Railway, and one of only a handful of surviving Conrail rebuilds where the Alco prime mover was replaced with an EMD. The information above was taken from this website: https://rgvrrm.org/about/railroad/lv211/#:~:text=Originally%20built%20for%20Pennsylvania%20Railroad%20in%201953%2C%20the,hood%20gave%20Lehigh%20Valley%20211%20its%20%22Hammerhead%22%20nickname. This website, one of my favourite websites about railroads and railroad related information is the source of the details that follow below: https://www.american-rails.com/lv.html The Lehigh Valley Railroad was another of the many Northeastern carriers built to move anthracite coal from eastern Pennsylvania. The direct predecessor of the Lehigh Valley was the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad (DLS&S) incorporated on September 20, 1847. Unfortunately, the DLS&S was having difficulty raising capital. Its fortunes finally turned when Asa Packer breathed new life into the operation. Using his financial success, and with the help of investors, he acquired the DLS&S charter and renamed it as the Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV) in 1853. It is unlikely the Lehigh Valley could have survived into the modern era. The LV competed against several carriers in its territory, notably the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and Erie, both of whom also reached Buffalo, while the latter continued on to Chicago. One can reasonably argue that its long decline began with the stock market's collapse in October of 1929. The Lehigh Valley Railroad posted its last profits during the 1950s. The LV would, sadly, show a profit for the last time in 1956 and paid its final dividend in 1957, The depression not only weakened the railroad financially but decreasing anthracite demand further hurt its bottom line. In 1928 the PRR began acquiring LV stock and continued to do so throughout the years in an increasingly futile attempt to maintain its investment within the declining company. By April of 1962 it, incredibly, controlled 90% of the road. As much as the railroad tried it was unable to reverse its declining fortunes. Its last hope for survival occurred when the PRR and New York Central created the ill-fated Penn Central Transportation Company in 1968. As Penn Central literally fell apart from its first day of service it came as no surprise that just two years later, in 1970, it declared bankruptcy. It was one of the numerous bankrupts rolled into Conrail whereupon its routes were considered superfluous.

Short-lived but Important!

Wikipedia tells us that in 1975, the Boston & Maine Railroad Corporation filed to abandon its 73-mile (117 km) "White Mountain Branch" stretching between Concord and Lincoln, New Hampshire. Recognizing the need of the on-line customers and the potential of the line for a sewer right-of-way, the State of New Hampshire purchased the branch and sought a shortline railroad to carry out operations. The first to assume this responsibility was the Wolfeboro Railroad, which operated the line as their "Central Division" in 1976, but soon thereafter ended operations.

The Goodwin Railroad, an extension of Weaver Bros. Construction, was created in 1977 to operate the trackage, and did so until it too ended operations in 1980. The picture on the front of this post card is of one of the locomotives that were used by the Weaver Bros. Construction Company while it operated on the right of way. It is seen here at Lakeport, New Hampshire on February 10, 1978. Following the demise of the Goodwin contract, the North Stratford Railroad stepped in as an interim operator until the state could find a dependable and permanent long-term operator. This website (of the Weaver Bros. Construction Company today) gives us a great big hint about why the railroad would have been named the “Goodwin Railroad”. https://wbcc.biz/about-us/our-story/ Weaver Brothers was Incorporated in 1946 by Carlton and Halsey Weaver. The Weaver Brothers were extremely important in the construction of the highways system in the State of New Hampshire. With their John Deere bulldozer, their 1.5-yard P&H shovel, and rented equipment, they built two pieces of I-89 in Warner, parts of I-93 in Campton and Franconia, stretches of the Kancamangus Highway, and portions of Route 106 in Belmont. In 1951, Herb Goodwin joined Weaver Brothers and eventually took ownership control of the company in 1973 along with partners Richard Smith and Roger Bates. Weaver Brothers Construction was very involved in construction and reconstruction of railroads under Herb’s leadership. In 1994, the Bates brothers, Mark, Peter and Jeff, completed the buyout of the company, Mark acting as President until his passing in 2011. Jeff and Peter Bates are the current owners of the firm and have guided the work required by the State of New Hampshire for the very ambitious I-93 widening project which has represented a large part of the company's efforts in the last decade.

The photo on the post card is courtesy of Ronald N. Johnson. It was published by Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialities, Inc. December 15, 1985 Mrs. Mary Jayne Rowe, age 82, of Covington, died Thursday, October 8, 2015, at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Roanoke after a long illness. She is survived by her husband of 59 years, John Zern Rowe. Mrs. Rowe was born July 15, 1933 in Ackermanville, PA, the daughter of the late Stanley and Helen S. Wasser. A member of this community since 1979, Mary Jayne was a homemaker and assisted with office work for the land surveying company she and her husband owned. She taught Sunday school and was church treasurer at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hollywood, FL.