Beast of Burden

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is a Baldwin DT-6-6-2000. I will be giving more details in two weeks when I post about its sister locomotive, Number 23. This post is about the railroad for which these two locomotives operated. This website provides information about the railway for which this locomotive worked: https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/thing/minneapolis-northfield-and-southern-railway The Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway (MN&S) was a Minnesota short-line railroad that operated between the cities of Crystal and Northfield from 1918 until 1982. It was a profitable bridge line, routing traffic past the crowded freight yards of the Twin Cities onto connecting railroads at Northfield, connecting with the Rock Island, the Chicago Great Western, and the Milwaukee Road. The financially unsuccessful predecessor of the MN&S was the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and Dubuque Electric Traction Company. The road was to be electrified and use a system of overhead catenary wires to provide power to locomotives. Freight traffic generally utilized steam locomotives instead. Passenger service was offered using “doodlebugs,” unique gas-electric hybrid locomotives that were ideal for providing limited passenger and even mixed-freight service over smaller railroads. In 1916, and the short line entered receivership. The MN&S grew out of this defunct line under Henry E. Pence in 1918. The new railroad used trackage rights over the Chicago Great Western to extend service to Randolph and Mankato. Rights also extended to the Luce Line railroad, an agricultural sister line that extended to the rich croplands of western Minnesota. The MN&S also built an extension from its junction with the Luce Line west of Minneapolis northward to the rails of the Soo Line in Crystal. The MN&S was thus able to access Shoreham Yard, the Soo Line’s major local terminal in north Minneapolis. This also allowed the line an interchange with the nearby terminal of the Northern Pacific, the Northtown yard. The new line became a well-positioned road with access to the major carriers of the Twin Cities. The MN&S had a competitive advantage as a bridge line and offered many connections to virtually all larger freight carriers in the Twin Cities. The railroad built a servicing facility for motive power to the west of Glenwood Park in Golden Valley, connecting it to the main line by a small spur. The line used 2-10-0 Decapod-type locomotives, having purchased seven in the 1930s and several more in the following decade. The doodlebugs maintained a limited passenger service over the route, and they came from several manufacturers, such as General Electric and the Wason Company. The MN&S eventually abandoned passenger service as less than profitable. The last run—a trip to Northfield—took place on April 30, 1942. The late 1940s saw the end of the steam era on the MN&S and the switch to diesel. The line received its first center-cab road switching locomotive from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1948. The railroad took subsequent delivery of the unique diesel units in 1949 and 1953, as well as other units from Baldwin and the Fairbanks-Morse Company. The company also acquired motive power from the Electromotive division of General Motors. In June 1982, the Soo Line purchased the MN&S, and the line ran its last freight train. Most of the system continued to exist, operated in sections by several other railroads. Here is the back of the post card:

This is not a Joke; See Below for Details...

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is a Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (see below for details) Baldwin Lima Hamilton AS416 (see below for details) that was eventually repowered by EMD (see below for details). The result is the humpback hybrid seen here at Kansas City in 1972. All the information below was taken from our good friends at Wikipedia. The BLH AS-416 was a diesel-electric locomotive of the road switcher type rated at 1,625 hp that rode on three-axle trucks, having an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement. Used in much the same manner as its four-axle counterpart, the AS-16, though the wheel arrangement spread out the axle load for operation on light rail such as are found on branch lines. It was introduced in 1950 as a replacement of the DRS-6-4-1500 and remained in Baldwin Lima Hamilton's catalog until their cessation of locomotive manufacture in 1956. Only 25 units were sold to four railroads — all of whom had bought the earlier model. The vast majority (17 of the 25 units) were purchased by the original Norfolk Southern Railway (1942–82), becoming a signature locomotive for the company. Most of us think of Baldwin Locomotive Works as only “Baldwin”. The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American manufacturer of railway locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it moved to nearby Eddystone in the early 20th century. The company was for decades the world's largest producer of steam locomotives but struggled to compete when demand switched to diesel locomotives. Baldwin produced the last of its 70,000-plus locomotives in 1951, before merging with the Lima-Hamilton Corporation on September 11, 1951, to form the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation. EMD has an interesting history, too. Electro-Motive Diesel (abbreviated EMD) is a brand of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. Formerly a division of General Motors, EMD has been owned by Progress Rail since 2010. The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (reporting mark MKT) (1870–1988) was a Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Its predecessor was established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railroad (UP), Southern Branch, and came to serve an extensive rail network in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. In 1988, it merged with the Missouri Pacific Railroad and together they were part of the UP.

Here is the back of the post card. It was published by the mysterious railcards.com out of Alameda, California.

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: