It Was Fun While It Was Happening!!!

The locomotive on the front of this post card continues the locomotive theme of the past several blog posts. It is a General Electric U36B.

This picture was taken in 1975, sort of at the height of popularity for this railroad company: Auto-Train Corporation. It was the first well-know company to haul passengers and their vehicles all on the same train. The information below is taken from this website: https://themetrains.com/auto-train-main.htm "You'll never drive all the way again!", said the ad. And for ten glorious years you didn't have to. From December 6, 1971 to May 1, 1981 the auto-train Corporation took happy passengers -- and their cars -- over 1800 miles round trip from Washington, DC to sunny Florida aboard their red, white and purple auto-trains. In the late 1960s, the US government sponsored a study to determine if there was a market for trains that could carry both passengers and their autos as had been done successfully in Europe. The conclusion of the study was "yes". But the government also determined it could be run at a profit and so should be left to private industry. With almost all of the major railroads turning their passenger equipment over to Amtrak in the early 1970s, there would be no takers from among the usual suspects. Enter a young attorney named Eugene K. Garfield. While working as an assistant to the Transportation Secretary, Garfield became familiar with the government's study. The 33 year old used his personal savings to set up the Auto-Train Corporation in 1970. With financial backing from a NY investment bank, Garfield contracted with the SCL and the RF&P railroads to operate a train consisting of Auto-Train Corporation equipment from an Auto-Train terminal in Lorton, VA in the Washington, DC area to Sanford, FL just a few miles from the new Walt Disney World. With dozens of railroads eager to rid themselves of surplus passenger equipment, the Auto-Train Corporation was able to purchase some of the finest equipment ever built -- and at bargain prices. To create this new breed of train, the corporation needed to identify suitable auto carriers. The solution was found in Canadian National bi-level auto carriers. These would carry passengers' cars in enclosed safety and would be put at the front of the consist. And what a consist it was! Every coach was a dome car. The best domes of the Santa Fe, Union Pacific and Western Pacific were brought together with sleepers and diners from the ACL, SAL, L&N, N&W and others. Rounding out each consist was a steam generator car and, in later years, a caboose. The first train left Lorton on December 6, 1971 for the 856 mile trip to Sanford. The service was so successful that soon a second route was added -- from Louisville, KY to Sanford. The new service wasn't nearly as well received and put a drag on corporate finances. The next six years would be a struggle. Even as the Louisville service was reworked and wound down, a trio of accidents took their toll. Insurance premiums went up and passenger revenues went down. On Thursday April 30, 1981, the last auto-trains departed Lorton and Sanford, passing in the night. When they arrived at their destinations May 1, the Auto-Train Corporation was done.

The post card was published by Railcards.com I know absolutely nothing about them except that their mailing address was a post office box in Alameda, California. I have 204 of their post cards; this publisher is third on the list of publishers by quantity in my collection. And, yet, I can tell you nothing about the publisher.

Another Exaggerated Themed Post Card

In three days this post card will turn 114 years old. At least, it will be 114 years since it was mailed.

This is a post card that shows how great Edward H. Mitchell's imagination was. He was able, in 1909 - the copyright is in the upper left-had corder of the front of the card - to superimpose a bunch of oranges onto a gondola of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Then he added "1881 - A CARLOAD OF NAVEL ORANGES FROM __________ ". Another stroke of genius: the purchaser could add the city onto the front of the post card to boast to the reader where the sender was.

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!!

The three locomotives featured on the front of this post card are hauling coal. The train has just crossed the summit of the Allegheny Mountains and

is entering the yards at Clifton Forge, Virginia. It will now have a down grade run along the James River to the Tidewater Area of Virginia. The train is operated by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Its earliest ancestor was the Louisa Railroad, which was incorporated on February 18, 1836. It’s first leg of track of 22 miles was quickly completed by December of 1837. Today, the trackage of the C&O is part of CSX Transportation. This website gives us the following details about the locomotives themselves: https://www.trains-and-railroads.com/ge-u30-b The GE U30B was a diesel-electric locomotive produced by GE Transportation between 1966 and 1975. It was a further development of the U28B, with a 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) 16-cylinder prime mover. The U30B competed with the EMD GP40 and the ALCO Century 430, but was not as successful as the GE U30C. The U30-B was manufactured between 1966 and 1976. They were of the C-C wheel configuration, which means that each truck had 3 powered axels They were 67 feet and 3 inches long with a service weight and adhesive weight of 363,000 pounds. It provided 91, 650 pound force of starting effort and could reach a top speed of 70 miles per hour. The engine that drove this was a V-16 diesel described officially as a GE-FDL-16 and the fuel tank held 3,000 gallons of diesel. All of this provided 3,000 horsepower to the train; it was the first GE manufactured locomotive to offer this. The U30B experienced several upgrades over the life of the production run. I have featured a couple of those changes in the previous two blog posts. About the title of this blog post and logo of the railroad: Wikipedia tells us that Chessie was a popular cat character used as a symbol of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). Derived from an etching by Viennese artist Guido Grünewald, the image first appeared in a black and white advertisement in the September 1933 issue of Fortune magazine with the slogan "Sleep Like a Kitten." The advertisement makes no mention of the cat's name. When the ad generated a positive response, the railroad developed an advertising campaign around the image and chose the name Chessie as a derivation of the railroad's name.

The picture was taken by Mary Jayne Rowe and she is also the publisher of the post card. I have 243 of her post cards in my collection. As I was collecting the post cards, I noticed that her name appeared quite often. In fact, the only publisher from whom I have more post cards is Audio Visual Designs (333). I wrote to her and asked if she had a catalogue of her post cards; she sent me 42 pages!!

Just Got Traded to a New Team!

When the photo of this locomotive was taken, the new owner of the railroad company was the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN). However, the paint scheme on the locomotive on the front of this post card is that of the Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP), which the BN recently purchased. The Northern Pacific Railroad was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. The Northern Pacific was headquartered in Minnesota, first in Brainerd, then in the state capital of Saint Paul. It had a tumultuous financial history; the N.P. merged with other lines over a century later in 1970 to form the modern Burlington Northern Railroad, which in turn merged with the famous Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to become the renamed BNSF Railway in 1996, operating in the western U.S. It has a long and interesting history, and this website does a very good job of presenting it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pacific_Railway The locomotive on the front of this post card is a General Electric (GE) U33C model. It was a modification of GE’s U30C locomotive, which began production in September of 1967. The U33C (produced in 1968) was one of GE's most powerful six-motored road-switchers, and one of the last models made by GE using the “old technology” before they developed the more technologically advanced "Dash 7" line. The U33C was General Electric's first six-motored model to sport a noticeably flared rear radiator; needed to handle the unit's 3,300 horsepower using the 7FDL16 prime mover. This model of locomotive sold 275 units by the time GE started to produce Dash 7’s. These two websites can fill you in on the details of the U33C https://rapidotrains.com/ho-scale/diesel-locomotives/u33c-u36c.html and one of my favourites https://www.american-rails.com/38213.html

The post card was published by Railcards.com

Is that a "Bluebird" that I See?

This website tells us almost everything we want to know about the front of this post card: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_U34CHU34CH

What we are seeing is one locomotive of a fleet of 32 that were built by General Electric for Erie-Lackawanna and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT). The locomotive is a U34CH fitted with heating equipment to handle commuter trains in northern New Jersey. This picture was taken in 1972. The U34CH is a 3,600 hp passenger diesel locomotive built by General Electric between 1970 and 1973. In total, 33 U34CH units were built; 32 were built for the New Jersey Department of Transportation and operated by the Erie Lackawanna Railway and, later, Conrail, with the last unit coming as a later rebuild of a GE U30C for the New York MTA. The 32 initial locomotives operated with new Pullman Standard push-pull coaches. The units were intended to replace locomotives in suburban commuter service out of Hoboken, New Jersey. The U34CH was the first GE locomotive to use steel crowned pistons to develop 3,600 hp and was the first commuter locomotive built with shaft driven HEP–that is, a Head End Power alternator driven by the locomotive prime mover rather than by a separate diesel. In the next sentence, F indicates a cylinder bore of 9 inches; D identifies the engine configuration with the master and auxiliary connecting rods; and L refers to the service as “locomotive”. To provide HEP at the proper AC frequency the FDL-16 prime mover ran at a constant 900 RPM, so traction horsepower was 3430 minus whatever was going into HEP. By contrast, when not providing HEP, the FDL-16 could produce 3600 traction horsepower at its usual 1050 RPM. To show their NJDOT ownership, the units were painted in a dark blue and silver paint scheme with NJDOT logo and were often called "Bluebirds" by rail enthusiasts. The U34CHs on the weekends were sometimes used in Erie Lackawanna freight service, often being on freight duty from Saturday to Sunday and returning to commuter service Monday morning.

The post card was published by Railcards.com

Yours, Mine and Ours

General Electric Locomotive Division, General Electric Leasing Corporation, Burlington Northern come together to make this post card work. The paint scheme on the locomotives on the front of this post card is that of

the General Electric Leasing Corporation (LMX). Not only did General Electric (GE) build locomotives, but they also leased them to railroads. The General Electric Leasing Corporation was acquired by Wells Fargo in September of 2015. This was then merged with Wabtec to form Wabtec Freight, which has continued to operate General Electric’s leasing operations. The locomotives themselves are Dash8-39B models from General Electric. This website gives a good, concise history of this model of locomotive. https://trains-and-locomotives.fandom.com/wiki/GE_B39-8 The General Electric B39-8 (Dash 8-39B, or simply "Dash 8") is a type of four-axle, 3,900hp diesel locomotive first built in 1984, and again from 1987-1988. 145 were sold only to Southern Pacific (SP), LMX Leasing, and Santa Fe (ATSF). During the mid-1980's, railroads became interested in purchasing more modern, high-horsepower, fuel-efficient, and otherwise more economical diesel locomotives to replace the preceding so-called "ancient" diesels. To meet these needs, GE developed the Dash 8 line of revolutionary, economical, high-tech, high-horsepower diesel-electric locomotives which included microprocessor controls that monitored everything under the hood via computerized sensors and displayed stats from a panel located the cab of the locomotive. Other features included automatic engine starters, a doppler-controlled wheel-slip system, as well as having an advanced engine cooling system reminiscent to EMD's “Tunnel Motor” cooling system design used on the SD40T-2 and other subsequent "Tunnel Motor" series models, while also retaining a similar design found on previous GE models. The testbed line for the early Dash 8 models officially debuted with the introduction of the B36-8 and C36-8 between 1983-1984. The B39-8 was a complete success and became an almost instant contender to EMD's GP60. Yet not too long after the B39-8's initial production, the more popular and externally similar B40-8 was introduced, thus eliminating the B39-8 entirely from GE's catalog, and the six-axle C40-8 overtook the latter in 1987.

The picture on this post card is taken on the Burlington Northern line at Loram, Montana in 1992. The post card was published by Railcards.com and he usually did not give photo credit for the pictures on the post cards he published.

Dashing through the Line-up

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is the successor to the

locomotive featured in last week’s blog post. This website gives us the details about this new model of locomotive: https://grokipedia.com/page/GE_Dash_8-40C The GE Dash 8-40C is a six-axle diesel-electric freight locomotive built by General Electric Transportation Systems, featuring a 4,000 horsepower GE 7FDL-16 V16 turbocharged diesel engine and microprocessor-based control systems. A total of 584 units were produced between December 1987 and 1992, primarily for heavy-haul service on North American Class I railroads. Developed as an evolution of the earlier Dash 7, the Dash 8-40C represented GE's push into advanced electronic controls, becoming the first locomotive in any major series to incorporate fully microprocessor-equipped engine management for improved efficiency and reliability. Production began with the first unit delivered to Union Pacific in late 1987, and the model quickly gained popularity due to its robust design suited for intermodal, coal, and general freight trains. Major original purchasers included Union Pacific (256), CSX Transportation (147 units), Norfolk Southern (75 units), Chicago & North Western (77 units), and Conrail (25 units). Key specifications include a length of 70 feet 8 inches, a weight of approximately 391,000 pounds, a 4,600-gallon fuel capacity, and a top speed of 70 mph, with standard features like dynamic braking, GE 752 traction motors, and 83:20 gear ratios. Early units used Rockwell International FB-3 trucks, later transitioning to Adirondack castings, and production saw minor phase changes such as relocated dynamic brake intakes and enhanced anti-climber designs for safety. The Dash 8-40C's success led to variants like the wide-cab Dash 8-40CW (built from 1989) and cowl-bodied Dash 8-40CM (1993–1994), extending the lineage until GE shifted to the Dash 9 series in the mid-1990s. Many remain in service, often rebuilt for continued freight operations. The railroad for which this “Dash 8” is working is the Chicago & Northwestern. It is seen here at the Proviso Yard in West Chicago. While I have compiled most of the concise history of the railroad below, I recommend that you go to this website for a comprehensive history: https://www.american-rails.com/cnw.html The Chicago & North Western's founding predecessor was the Galena & Chicago Union chartered in 1836. The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad (G&CU) was the first railroad constructed out of Chicago, intended to provide a shipping route between Chicago and the lead mines near Galena, Illinois. The railroad company was chartered on January 16, 1836, but financial difficulties delayed construction until 1848. While the main line never reached Galena, construction to Freeport, Illinois, allowed it to connect with the Illinois Central Railroad and provide direct service to Galena. The G&CU is notable as not only being Chicago’s first railroad but also the first to operate a steam locomotive out of the city. After a very long and complicated history, including the purchase of the railroad by its employees in 1972, the Union Pacific Railroad took full ownership of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad in 1995.

The photo credit for this picture goes to Doug Koontz. I found this description on this website: https://www.tumblr.com/norfolksouthern/190314271822/doug-koontz-a-norfolk-southern-foreman-is-no. No guarantees that this is the same Doug, but if push comes to shove, I might bet some money that they are the same person. "Doug Koontz, a Norfolk Southern foreman, is no stranger to photography. Before joining the railroad six years ago, Koontz was a newspaper photojournalist in Maryland. Near the end of a freezing winter day, Koontz happened to be near Fort Hunter Mansion and Park just north of downtown Harrisburg when he saw this NS merchandise train passing over the Susquehanna River on the Rockville Bridge. He took advantage of the colorful sunset view just in time. The icy waters of the Susquehanna, juxtaposed by fading sunlight, serve as a reminder that NS runs 24/7, in all weather conditions. Koontz recalls a saying he once heard about our around-the-clock service: “A sunset on the railroad is a pretty light show in the middle of the day.” The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs.