Locomotive Power of the CPR

This post card is printed in a sepia tone, but it is not old. However, the picture of the engine is almost 70 years old. This is Canadian Pacific engine number 463. It was a D-4-g class 4-6-0 (also known as a ten-wheeler). It was one of about 40 engines built at the Angus Locomotive Shops in the year 1913. Number 441 was built in January of 1913 and Number 482 was built in December of 1913. Using interpolation, I have concluded that 53% of the way (463 is 53% of the way from 441 to 482) through the year will put us in June or July. The CPR Angus Shops in Montreal were a railcar manufacturing, repairing and selling facility of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The most of its production consisted of passenger cars, freight cars and locomotives. Built in 1904, it was named after its founder, Richard Bladworth Angus. He was born in 1831 in Bathgate, Scotland - about 20 miles west of Edinburgh. He came to Canada at age 26 with his wife and began work as a bookkeeper and clerk with the Bank of Montreal. After a time working for the Bank of Montreal he became general manager at the headquarters of the bank at age 38 in 1869 - two years after Canadian Confederation. In 1879 he became part owner of a railway and quickly joined the Canadian Pacific Railway; he was their General Manager until 1882, and he sat on their board for 40 years. He died in 1922. There are details about him and great photos and information about the shops themselves here:http://members.kos.net/sdgagnon/ang.html This post card shows the engine at Duncan, British Columbia on Vancouver Island. It was actually in the service of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway by the time this picture was taken in about 1944. It had been transferred to the island in 1930 with its sibling engine 462.

As I wrote above, this is not an old card. It was published by Head-end Rail Prints. They are from White Rock, British Columbia – on the mainland not too far from Vancouver or the American-Canadian border.

The Beginning…

… or the End? If you lived in British Columbia (BC), in the late 1880s, you could get on a train here in Port Moody and travel to the other side of the country.

This was because the Canadian Pacific Railway chose your home town as the western point of the transcontinental railroad. While it is still 25 miles from Vancouver it is a port on the Burrard Inlet that will connect ships to and from the Pacific Ocean. The first train (probably the one carrying all the dignitaries) reached Port Moody the day after the last spike was driven (see the previous blog post) in 1885. According to the official Canadian Pacific history on their website, “within three years the first transcontinental train leaving Montreal and Toronto for Port Moody” was on June 28, 1886. The steam engine pictured was built by Angus in May 1910 and originally numbered #1240, Class G2d. It was renumbered 1190 in December 1910 and as number 2590 September 1912. It was rebuilt in November 1928 as Class G2s. It was retired in April of 1957 and scrapped. Source of this information: http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net

This post card is one of several that I have in my collection published by Pioneer Postcards in Kelowna, British Columbia. It was printed for them by Wayside Press, Ltd. in Vernon and Kelowna, BC. It is obviously a reprint of an old photograph printed and sold in the last few decades. As you can see, they have developed a logo; see the upper right hand corner of the card where the stamp goes.

Bienvenue a Canada – Welcome to Canada

We are beginning our train post card journey through Canada with a very important event in Canadian history. Canada officially became a country on July 1, 1867. Only 4 provinces were signatories on the original charter: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The people who promoted confederation of the country were fully aware of the physical size of the land on which they lived. They also knew that it would take some convincing of the existing citizens (British Columbia, for example), and the placing of new settlers in the unsettled lands between Ontario and British Columbia to unite the entire landmass under one flag. Today, ten provinces and 3 territories make up the country of Canada.

This post card records the fulfilment of a promise that convinced British Columbia to join the newly formed Canada rather than the United States (much more convenient trade partners). They joined the confederation on July 20, 1871 partly because they were promised a railway line that would connect them to the rest of the country. This is a picture of Donald A. Smith driving the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CPR) transcontinental line linking Ontario to British Columbia. In the picture with Mr. Smith are barely visible Major A. Rogers (after whom Rogers Pass was named), William Cornelius Van Horne, the American railroad genius - the man over Smiths right shoulder; Sandford Fleming - the man with the big white beard and top hat; the kid to Smiths left peeking around his top hat is Edward Mallandaine.

This picture was taken on November 7, 1885. It just so happens (because of the mountainous topography of British Columbia) that the rails coming from the east met the rails coming from the west in British Columbia itself. In reflection of the Scottish nature of the people involved in the forming of the CPR the location is named Craigellachie (pronounced craig-alley). There is a tourist stop there to help people to understand the importance of this event. This post card is a commemoration of this great event. On the front is a 34 cent commemorative stamp of a 2-8-2 steam engine also known as a Mikado. The cancellation stamp informs us that this is, indeed, from Canada Post and it was cancelled on November 7, 1985, exactly 100 years aft the event depicted in the photograph.

The End of the Line

These next few post cards aren't really train post cards. However, they are all related to the last many blogs that I have posted in the last couple of months. They are the reasons that many of the tourists went up Echo Mountain. I am sure that some of them just stayed at the Echo Mountain House and looked around while others went on to the Alpine Tavern. If any of them were like me, they simply went up the mountain because it was another train ride that they had not taken and just had to do so.

This is a picture of the power station that produced all the electricity needed for the complex set of tracks and buildings along the Mt. Lowe Railway. It sat on top of Echo Mountain. In this picture you can clearly see that there is a searchlight on top of the building. It was a very powerful searchlight. It could be seen for up to 100 miles. In order to achieve this the light source was rated at 3 MILLION CANDLEPOWER!! The lens was five feet in diameter and the curve of the lens was such that it was three and a quarter inches thick at the edges and only a sixteenth of an inch in the center. It weighed 1,600 pounds. This picture has a man standing next to it on the roof of the building. People in the valley used to complain to the Mt. Lowe Railway about the power of the light in their houses while they were trying to sleep.

To the left of the searchlight and way in the background you can see the observatory that was built on the top of an adjoining hill. Lewis Swift was the first curator of the observatory. This is the same Lewis Swift that discovered the Swift-Tuttle Comet. He stayed there until he retired. Eventually, the observatory was destroyed in a major, major storm. Swift' successor barely escaped with his life. Not only was there a powerhouse and an observatory, there was a zoo at Echo Mountain. But as one went farther up the mountains to the Alpine Tavern, one could meet Romeo. This post card shows us who Romeo was: a black bear. Hmmmm... I wonder if this is how the Mt. Lowe logo on the backs of many of the post cards in my collection was designed.

This post card shows what the tourist first saw as he or she approached the Alpine Tavern on the trolley. This post card is from Feb 4, 1904. It is one of the oldest cards in my collection. You can see that the Tavern was set in a very beautiful, treed area with plenty of shade for the summer and a stack of firewood for the winter. The post cards below show the exterior of the Alpine Tavern and "The Great Fireplace" where the firewood was well used.

These two post cards are also very good examples of why people went to the Alpine Tavern. The message on the back of the top card reads like this: "Well, at last, after 25 years I have at last seen snow and thrown snowballs. Some class! --- Mena" It is dated February 22, 1915. She must have take the George Washington Birthday Holiday and gone to the top!! The bottom picture is from a post card of the White Border Era, but the caption tells us that the picture itself is copyrighted by the Detroit Photographic Company from 1904. This last picture is what the residents in the San Gabriel Valley saw as they looked up toward the mountains that surround the Los Angeles basin. This is a picture on the post card from September 13, 1917. This particular shot is from Pasadena, California. I was in Los Angeles last year for my sister's graduation from college and as I drove across the freeway at the base of these mountains, I think that I saw what is left of the scar on the side of the mountain that was made by the Mt. Lowe Railway.

With this picture I will move on from California and Mt. Lowe for now. I have 82 post cards around the theme of Mt. Lowe. You don't need to see all of them, I am sure. I think I will go to Canada for my next set of post card blogs. See you there!!

Final Views of the Circular Bridge

These two post cards are two different views of the same bridge. It is the Circular Bridge that was built to take tourists from Echo Mountain House at the top of the Incline to the Alpine Tavern. The journey was three and half miles long. As is illustrated by the Circular Bridge, the longest straight part of the railway was only 225 feet long; there were 127 curves in the line. That means that approximately every 145 feet there was another curve to negotiate. Construction on the Alpine Section (as it was known) of the railway began in 1894. The tavern at the end of the line opened the next year. See: http://www.mountlowe.org/mount-lowe-virtual-tours/alpine-division/

This picture, above, is looking down toward the Circular Bridge as the trolley car meanders its way up the hill toward the Alpine Tavern. We can see by the form of this trolley car that this picture was taken prior to 1902. That is the year that the Pacific Electric Railway took control of the Mt. Lowe railway. It is very much an open air car with people facing sideways. It is not as primitive as the type of trolley car that preceded this one. Some of my previous blog posts talk about the various types of trolley cars. The title on the card says, “Car on Circular Bridge, Mt. Lowe, Cal.”

This post card above shows the circular bridge from below. The person taking this picture is on the side of the tracks that come from Echo Mountain House on the way to the Alpine Tavern. The top of Echo Mountain is 3,200 feet above sea level. The Alpine Tavern was at an elevation of 4,420 feet. In three and half mines the trolley took the tourist 1,220 feet higher into the mountains. This means that the average grade of the trip to the Alpine Tavern was 6.6%. Overall this is not the best grade for a railroad (today they prefer nothing more than 3%) and as you can see from this post card, some of the railway was much steeper than other parts. The Circular Bridge itself was easy because it only had a grade of 4.5%. As you can see by the form of the trolley car, this picture was taken after the Pacific Electric Railway purchased the railway. The title on the post card reads, “Circular Bridge, Mt. Lowe Cal. Elev., 4200 Feet”. This post card is the younger of the two. The only thing that I can figure out about the publisher or publishing date is that it comes from the Divided Back Era; so, it is from between approximately 1907 and 1915. This is what its back looks like (as you can see, the logo has been developed for Mt. Lowe):

This post card back, below, belongs to the first picture, above. It is from the Divided Back era, too. I can tell you a bit about the publishing company thanks to the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City. They have a great website: http://www.metropostcard.com/

This post card is published by the Paul C. Koeber Co. of New York City and Kirchheim, Germany. This means that the publisher was from the United States but the card was printed in Germany. The Germans were very good at printing post cards because they had developed some great technology. The Paul C. Koeber Company lasted from 1900 to 1923. The top middle of the post card back is a picture of a peacock in full tail array with “THE PCK” right in the middle of the feathers and the word “SERIES” is printed below the peacock’s feet.

What a Difference Four Years Can Make!

I hope that you have all had a hangover-less beginning to the NEW YEAR!! These two post cards are pictures of the trolleys that traversed the Circular Bridge.

The title at the top of this post card says, “119 – Circular Bridge, Mt. Lowe Railway, California”. It is a picture of Trolley Number 9. If you look at the blog from December 28th, you will see that this was an improvement over the rather primitive trolleys that were first used on the Mt. Lowe. This trolley has an enclosed front on it and a slight bit of a roof, too. Comparing the backgrounds of the two cards leads to some interesting findings. The scar on the hillside is still there – this is the railway line that the trolley is following. However, the Echo Mountain House and all the other buildings have disappeared! The valley, too, has changed. It is all very neatly and symmetrically arranged into little rectangles of what looks like groves of trees. Also, a new hill has developed behind the hill where the Incline used to end at the top of Echo Mountain. Now let’s bring the bottom card into the picture. It is a photo of Trolley Number 121. You can see the major differences among the three types of trolleys. This one has fully enclosed sides with a full roof including fringes and a bell! You can see that the Mt. Lowe Railway is fully owned by the Pacific Electric Railway now. The buildings on the top of Echo Mountain have reappeared and the valley below is more settled with houses than with orchards. That new hill from the post card on tope has gone back to where it came from. The title at the top of this post card also says, “119 – Circular Bridge, Mt. Lowe Railway, California”. Can you imagine using the same title on two post cards as different as these two? Let us look at the backs and see if we can find out something about who might have a hand in this. The postmark on the top card is from September 2, 1909. The postmark on the bottom card is from April 7, 1913. They were posted three years and seven months from each other. Both of them, though, were published by the same company. Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco had a hand in bringing both of these cards to market. It looks like he kept the same number and titles and just updated the pictures. The Pacific Electric Railway took control of the Mt. Lowe Railway (from the Los Angeles Railway Company) in 1902. It, in turn, was sold to the Southern Pacific Railway in 1911. These are very old pictures. But, the backs hold more interesting information.

The first post card has a message to Laura Beaton of Columbus, Ohio. It is correcting some information sent in a letter by the same writer the day before. In the first letter the writer (it is signed “with love from the Moneys) must have told Laura that Mr. Stewart had lived in Columbus for 20 years when, in reality, he had only visited there three years prior and had dinner with Miss Pelin. Then the writer adds that they Money family is thinking of going up Mt. Lowe in the very near future, after they visit Long Beach, California the next day. The message on the bottom post card is a friend writing to George Cramer asking how the farming is coming along and inquiring about his new bay colt. George is from Mapleton, Minnesota, just southwest of Minneapolis - St. Paul. The postmark on the bottom post card is beginning to advertise the fact that San Francisco is going to host the World’s Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915. If you have been to San Francisco, you can still see buildings that were used during the Exposition.