There it is, No it isn't, Yes it is, Oops, Gone Again

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is a 50-ton Atlas Locomotive built in 1940.

It is viewed, here, at the Junction of the Penn Central and Warwick Railway in Cranston, Rhode Island. Atlas Engine Works was around for a very, very long time. Wikipedia provides for us the following information about the company’s history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peckett_and_Sons The company began trading in 1864 as the Atlas Engine Works, in St. George, Bristol, as Fox, Walker and Company, building four and six-coupled saddle tank engines for industrial use. They also built stationary engines and pioneered steam tramcars, the first being tested in Bristol in 1877. Much of their output was exported, mostly 0-6-0, with some 0-4-0, 2-4-0 and 0-4-2. In 1878 they produced six 18 inch gauge 2-4-2 trench engines for the Royal Engineers at Chatham using Henry Handyside's steep gradient apparatus. Here is a link to some information about the apparatus: https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/53/Handyside.htm They also produced nine 0-6-0STs for the Somerset and Dorset Railway. They were taken over by Thomas Peckett in 1880, becoming Peckett and Sons, Atlas Engine Works, Bristol. The company acquired limited liability some years later. By 1900 the two companies had built over 400 locomotives. The company continued producing a variety of small industrial and shunting engines at their factory located between Fishponds and Kingswood in Bristol. They became specialists in the field, with very precise specifications and standardisation of parts. The largest engine was an 0-8-0 built in 1931 for the Christmas Island Phosphate Company. The works were served by a branch line starting just southwest of Kingswood junction on the Midland line and ran for about 1 mile in a generally eastward direction. It also served some collieries in the Speedwell area. During the two World Wars, the works were especially busy, but by 1950 trade had largely dried up. Although in 1956 an attempt had been made to enter the diesel-mechanical market, the last steam engine was produced in 1958 and the company was taken over by Reed Crane & Hoist Co Ltd on 23, October 1961, which itself later went into liquidation. The information below is a compilation of American Rails and Wikipedia The Wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwick_Railway is this one; and the Amercian Rails by Adam Burns link https://www.american-rails.com/lhr.html is this one. The Lehigh & Hudson River's earliest heritage began with the tiny Warwick Valley Railroad organized on March 8, 1860, to build a line between Greycourt and Warwick, New York, a distance of about 10 miles. It opened for service on April 1, 1862. The Warwick Railway (reporting mark WRWK) was a railroad in Rhode Island. It was originally chartered in 1873 under the name Warwick Railroad, with a route connecting Cranston to Oakland Beach, eight miles away. Opened in 1875, the company survived until 1879 when it declared bankruptcy and shut down; it was resurrected in 1880 as the Rhode Island Central Railroad under New York, Providence and Boston Railroad (NYP&B) ownership and extended by two miles. In 1949, the NYP&B line was purchased by a newly formed Warwick Railway, which ended electrified service in favor of diesel locomotives in 1952, and abandoned another mile of track in 1954. The Warwick Railway provided freight service until 1979, when the Providence and Worcester Railroad (P&W) began service following the Warwick Railway becoming insolvent.

This post card is another of Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties post cards in my collection. The photo was taken In April of 1975 by Ronald N. Johnson.

Bigger than Ever!!

The locomotives pictured on the front of this post card are the products of Alco, the American Locomotive Company.

The back of the post card reads: “Three of Genesee & Wyoming Railroad’s Alco 1,000 h.p. locomotives, Numbers 35, 1776, and 42 are shown entering Genesee & Wyoming’s Retsof Freight Yard in Retsof, N.Y. These Units are normally NU’s in order to provide the necessary power to transport salt trains from Retsof to the Caledonia, N.Y. interchange location.” My favourite website about the history of railroads, https://www.american-rails.com/gw.html tells us this: The history of G&W;'s current operations began humbly as a small, short-line by the same name, the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad. This little system was based in Western New York, south of Rochester and began as the Genesee & Wyoming Valley Railway. The G&WV; was incorporated in 1891 and eventually opened from Retsof (where the picture on the front of this post card was taken) to a location known as P&L; Junction near Caledonia in 1894, a distance of about 14 miles. With freight traffic never materializing as hoped the G&WV fell into bankruptcy in November of 1898 and was reorganized as the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad (reporting mark GNWR), incorporated on March 24, 1899. The new G&W was owned by Edward Laton Fuller and began serving a massive salt mine near Retsof, owned by the International Salt Corporation. The mine was, for many years, the largest producer of rock salt in the world and the G&W's largest customer. As it turns out salt remained the railroad's primary source of traffic throughout the 1970s and even today it continues to handle large quantities of the mineral. The modern history of the G&W is continued on the American Rails website. I recommend that you go there to read about it. It leads to the information contained on the current website of the G&W. You can read that and more here: https://www.gwrr.com/about-us/ Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) owns or leases more than 100 freight railroads throughout North America with 4,000 employees serving 2,000 customers over more than 13,000 track miles. G&W subsidiaries and joint ventures also provide rail service at more than 30 major ports, rail-ferry service between the U.S. Southeast and Mexico, transload services, and railcar switching and repair.

This post card is another of Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties post cards in my collection. The photo was taken by Thomas Cottone.

The Bluebird of Happiness - for a Train Fan!!

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco S4 Switcher.

This one is just minutes out of Grand Rapids on the bridge that spans the Maumee River and the Miami-Erie Canal. The train ride on the Bluebird Passenger Train passes the historic Ludwig Mill and is great family fun, entertainment and an exciting educational experience, according to the back of the post card. This website: https://tlew.org/ provides the information regarding the Bluebird Passenger Train. This museum runs the train. Today the Toledo, Lake Erie & Western Railway and Museum (TLE&W) hosts the Bluebird Passenger Train. The museum is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization dedicated to preserving Northwest Ohio’s railroad heritage. Established in 1965 and incorporated in 1969, it operates on a 10-mile stretch of historic track between Waterville and Grand Rapids, Ohio, originally part of the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad (aka Clover Leaf, later Nickel Plate Road and Norfolk & Western). The museum showcases vintage locomotives, railcars, and equipment, offering visitors a glimpse into the region’s rail history. Its signature Bluebird Passenger Train, though currently not running due to track restoration, is a focal point of ongoing volunteer efforts. The TLE&W also features a scenic 901-foot bridge over the Maumee River, the largest owned by a tourist railroad east of the Mississippi. In 2014, the museum expanded by acquiring the Waterfront Electric Railway Museum in Grand Rapids, enhancing its historical displays and community engagement.

This post card is another of the 243 post cards in my collection from Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties. This one was published in March of 1999. The photo was taken by Joe Minnich.

117 Years Ago, Today!!

The locomotive you see on the front of this post card was manufactured by General Electric. It is one of their 70-Tonner models.

This locomotive was previously owned by the South Carolina line, the Lancaster & Chester Railroad, and operated for them as #62 before it became #104 for the Laurinburg and Southern Railroad (reporting mark LRS). This favourite website of mine tells us some of the history of the LRS: https://www.american-rails.com/laurinburg.html This railroad is a venerable short line established on March 4, 1909, to serve the southeastern region of North Carolina, particularly Laurinburg and the surrounding areas. Construction on the system commenced quickly and was in service from Johns to East Laurinburg by July 2nd that year. Within a year, the line extended to Wagram, marking a period of rapid growth. The expansion continued with the strategic acquisition of a section from Wagram to Raeford from the Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad on November 12, 1921. Beyond its primary 28-mile stretch from Laurinburg to Raeford, LRS broadened its operations by acquiring several other shortline railroads across North Carolina and even extending into Virginia. In 1994 the L&S had streamlined its portfolio, retaining only its namesake line and two others: the Nash County Railroad and the Yadkin Valley Railroad. That is the year in which the Gulf & Ohio Railways acquired the Laurinburg & Southern holding company. This website is the website of the current owners of the LRS: https://gulfandohio.com/laurinburg-and-southern Here is what they have to say about themselves: Today, the Laurinburg and Southern Railroad (LRS) operates on 27 track miles in Scotland County, North Carolina. It is served by CSX, located along I-74, and just 100 miles to the Port of Wilmington. There are 40 miles to I-95. The railroad has Industrial and Transload Sites Available as well as Railcar Storage and Repair Available. The Track Capacity is 286K. And in 2022 and 2023 the railroad was the ASLRRA Jake Award Winner. The Laurinburg & Southern Railroad hauls approximately 2,500 carloads annually including soda ash, glass, fertilizer, and feed ingredients. Commodities frequently handled are raw materials for glass production, finished glass products, plastics, agricultural products and petroleum products.

While the publisher of this post card is ubiquitous in my collection (204 of them), I can find nothing about them in the outside world.

A Maine Line and a Main Producer

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco S2 Switcher.

Like its S1 sister, the Alco S2 was first produced in 1940 featuring an end-cab design using McIntosh & Seymore's 539 diesel engine. The S2 was powerful and came equipped with a 1,000 horsepower rating which was very suitable for a wide range of duties from yard and switching services to freight operations. The adept little switcher was a favorite among industries because it could lug around heavy cuts of cars while also being able to negotiate the sharp curves and tight clearances found in these settings. Easily the most popular design of the S series the S2 sold more than 1,500 units to various Class Is, short lines, and industries by the time production had ended in June 1950. The information above was taken from this website. I strongly recommend that you visit it when you want to know anything train related: https://www.american-rails.com/mec.html This locomotive is shown working on the Maine Central Railroad. The Maine Central was created in 1862 through the merger of the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad and the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad, resulting in a line from Danville to Bangor. The line connected with the Grand Trunk Railway on its Portland-Chicago mainline at Danville and with the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad in Bangor. As a result of its connection with the Grand Trunk, the Maine Central initially operated on a track gauge of 5 ft 6 in known as "Canadian" or "Portland gauge". Maine Central purchased the Portland and Kennebec Railroad, which was built to standard track gauge, since it connected with the Boston and Maine Railroad at Portland. By 1871, the Maine Central completed its conversion to standard gauge to facilitate interchange of cars. In 1882, Maine Central leased the European and North American Railway (E&NA). In 1889, the Canadian Pacific Railway purchased trackage rights from the Maine Central. This Maine Central trackage formed part of the CPR's Montreal-Saint John mainline. This line was an important rail route for Canadian war material heading to the port of Saint John for shipment overseas to Europe. In 1888, the Maine Central leased the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad, which ran from Portland, through the White Mountains of New Hampshire via Crawford Notch, and into St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where it connected with the Southeastern Railway. Maine Central also operated a line southeast from Bangor along the coast through Machias to Calais, with branches to Bucksport, Bar Harbor and Eastport. Maine Central gained stock control of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad in 1911 and the Bridgton and Saco River Railroad in 1912 and operated both as narrow gauge branch lines. The Maine Central was at its height by 1917 when it became nationalized during World War I under the United States Railroad Administration, having trackage which extended over 1,358 miles. It ran from Vanceboro, Calais and Eastport in the east, to Portland in the south, St. Johnsbury, Vermont in the west, and to Lime Ridge, Quebec in the north. Following World War I, Maine Central began retracting. It sold or abandoned lines such as the narrow gauge and logging branches, as well as its hotels, ferries and steamships. Beginning in 1933, Maine Central entered into a "joint management" agreement with the Boston and Maine Railroad, with which it shared the Portland Terminal Company. Faced with increased competition from cars, trucks and buses, Maine Central operated its last passenger train on September 5, 1960, and continued to reduce its freight business to reflect changing traffic. In 1980, the railroad was purchased by U.S. Filter Corporation and was then sold in 1981 to Guilford Transportation Industries, which later purchased the Boston and Maine Railroad (and thereby the Portland Terminal) in 1983 and the Delaware and Hudson Railway in 1984. The information about the Maine Central was taken from this website: https://www.trains-and-railroads.com/maine-central-railroad Here is the back of the post card:

Still Going Strong After All These Years

I used the same title last week as I am using this week. These two post cards of locomotives that belong to small but long-lasting railroads. They both deserve the title.

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco RSD4. The ALCO RSD-4 was a 1,600 horsepower six axle diesel-electric locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company between 1951 and 1952. It was a derivative of the four-axle ALCO RS-3, with two additional powered axles which allowed better tractive effort at lower speeds. It was the first “C-C” locomotive, meaning that all 6 of the axels were powered. Due to the inadequate capacity in the hood for the main generator, it was not very popular; only 36 locomotives were manufactured. Because of this the RSD4 was superseded in production by the ALCO RSD-5. The Utah Railway owned 7 of the RSD4 locomotives. https://www.american-rails.com/utah.html The Utah Railway has its beginnings dating back to January 24, 1912, when it was incorporated by the State of Utah, originally as the Utah Coal Railway Company but later shortened to just the Utah Railway in May of that year. Today the Utah Railway hauls more than 90,000 annual carloads and operates over 400 miles of track although only 45 of those are actually owned (the rest are leased from the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. The information above was taken from these two websites and Wikipedia: https://www.american-rails.com/utah.html Here is the website of the company today. https://www.gwrr.com/utah/

I am adding the back of the post card here so that you can read what the anonymous author wrote about the front of the card.

Still Going Strong After All These Years

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco RSD12.

In this picture from 1982 it is at rest after being employed to lug heavy ore trains for the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad (LSI). It is one of twelve Alco RSD12 units owned by the LSI. This one, and three others, are ex-Chesapeake & Ohio locomotives. In 1893 the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railway was established for the purpose of hauling iron ore. Shortly thereafter the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company took over the project after a rate dispute. With strong financial support the railroad began construction in December of 1895. After less than a year a 21-mile route was completed from mines located near West Ishpeming to Marquette. It hauled over one million tonnes of ore in its first year. The Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad never grew much larger than 200 miles of trackage. It has shrunk down to running only two lines, one from Eagle Mills Yard in Negaunee to the Empire and Tilden mines in Palmer. The other line goes from Eagle Mills Yard to the dock in Marquette. LSI has trackage rights on the CN from Negaunee to the Republic area via Ishpeming. The ALCO RSD-12 was a C-C diesel-electric locomotive rated at 1,800 horsepower. 171 locomotives were produced. Eight different railroads purchased these locomotives. Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México purchased 73 of them. They were used in much the same manner as its four-axle counterpart, the ALCO RS11, although the six-motor design allowed for better tractive effort at lower speeds. These websites are the source of the mishmash of information above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_RSD-12 https://michiganrailroads.com/lake-superior-ishpeming-railroad https://www.american-rails.com/lsi.html

Here is the back of the post card. I know nothing about the publisher.