No Genetically Modified Wheat here!

This has to be a picture from Alberta - even though it doesn't say so anywhere on the post card. I have been to Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia along both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railroads. None of these provinces have a scene of a wheat field near the mountains that look similar to this. Having said that, I can't pinpoint where the picture would have been taken, except somewhere between Canmore and Calgary, Alberta. The tracks of the CPR do get close enough to both mountains and flat land that this might be from there. Notice how calm the four horses are as they pull the reaping machine while the steam engine zips past them. This post card was published in the Divide Back Era (1907 - 1915) so the wheat being cut down here is definitely NOT Genetically Modified!!

Of course, it may be an artist's rendition of "all the good things" one can find in Alberta. There is a signature under the back left of the machine. I think it says, "O. Rosenvinge." I believe that the artist is Odin Rosenvinge who was certainly around the early part of the 20th Century. He lived from 1880 to 1957. You can see some samples of his work at http://www.invaluable.com/artist/rosenvinge-odin-zd6hzct1vb . You will have to cut and paste or write down the address as the linking on this site does not work very well.

Odin Rosenvinge was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1880 of Danish descent. After leaving school, he joined a Leeds commercial art and printing firm where he started to paint marine subjects. When he was thirty-two, he moved to Liverpool and joined the firm of Turner and Dunett who had all the major shipping companies as clients. He served in the Middle East during World War I. In the 1930's, his employers went into liquidation and he went freelance, becoming one of the most celebrated poster and postcard artists.



The post card publisher Valentine & Sons was able to get a copy of one of Odin's pieces of art and reprinted it as this post card. Valentine & Sons was from Great Britain, as was Odin.



Valentine & Sons operated in Canada from 1907 to 1923 in both Montreal and Toronto. They were the Canadian office for Valentine’s of Dundee, Scotland. They published souvenir books, greeting cards and view-cards of Canadian scenery in sets numbered with a three digit prefix and a three digit suffix. These tinted halftone and collotype cards were printed in Great Britain. Valentine sold their Canadian branch in 1923.

Welcome to Alberta!

You can still ride a train behind a live steam engine in Alberta. These two post cards are from a city named Stettler in Alberta.



Alberta Prairie Steam Tours Ltd. operating as Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions started in 1990 when they purchased all the steam and passenger equipment from Central Western Railway Corporation and began operating over lines owned by that company. Today Alberta Prairie either owns or leases all of the rail assets at Stettler.

I have had the great joy of riding on the train at least three times. On each journey, not far from Big Valley, Alberta (the terminus) we were stopped by "train robbers" on horseback, who walked through the train taking money from the passengers. Fortunately, another groups on horseback came to our rescue. But, because they didn't know who the money came from, they decided to donate the money to charities that focus on children in either Edmonton or Calgary.

When the train arrives at Big Valley there are several options for activities.

Some of the activities are included in your train ticket. One year we had a huge steak and lobster barbecue under a tent. Another year, it was a play a the local community centre; the actors accompanied us on the train (in character) to Big Valley. Here are a few activities that they have planned this year:
1) Travel back in time and see small town Alberta as it once was. A visit to roundhouse interpretive centre and fully restored railway station a must see during stop at Big Valley. Includes on board entertainment and an Alberta roast beef buffet at Big Valley.

2)You will feel the heat and smell the coal burning as model steam engine enthusiasts come together to display their fascinating creations. Working early gasoline pump engines, antique machinery and vehicles, and one of a kind creations also featured. Includes an Alberta roast beef buffet and all the other extras offered on most Country Dinner excursions and more.

3)Enjoy a little bit of "The Rock" (Newfoundland' nick name) right here in Alberta and feast on steak and lobster. Included are guaranteed train robbery, on board entertainment and Down-East entertainment at supper. And what would a Newfoundlander Special be without complementary "East Coast" beer and blue berry wine with the meal. And as an added bonus, Ever wonder who these people are who call themselves Métis? This is your chance to visit a hivernant, meet the people of the plains in their colourful sashes and Hudson's Bay coats, and see their handicrafts.

Some of the activities are not included in the price of your train ticket. You can visit the Creationist Museum, where they have displays to explain why the world is younger than 7,000 years. You can visit the town itself.

Check out all of the activities and the dates of the Steam Excursions at their website: http://www.absteamtrain.com/ or, if this works, click here:


These are the backs of the cards.




The top card of the depicting a train robbery was printed by The Stettler Independent and the bottom card was supplied by Arlin Photography.

Upper Spiral Tunnel

This is a view of the Upper Spiral Tunnel.

I know that it is the upper tunnel because of the portal and track coming out of the bottom entrance. In the previous blog posts of the Lower Spiral Tunnels, one can notice that it is a rather long, straight track that leads into the lower entrance. In this view, one can see that as soon as the train exits the lower portal it makes an immediate right hand turn. The fact that Mt. Stephen is in the background helps us to orient ourselves, too.

The caption says that we are looking at the "EAST PORTAL SPIRAL TUNNEL AND MOUNT STEPHEN NEAR FIELD B.C."

The train in the picture has come from Field, B.C. and it headed toward the continental divide then Lake Louise, Banff, Canmore, Cochrane, and on to Calgary and point East!

I do not know who took the picture or who published it.
It is a picture of a picture.
I can see a light border around the original picture.
It also has a serrated edge on the top of the card.
It looks like this was one of several pictures in a post card book.

Yessie simply tore out the card and wrote the message on the back.
She didn't put a stamp on the back and send it like a normal post card.
She must have put it into an envelope and mailed it.

Well, we have been in the Rockies for way too long. I think I will now start jumping around Canada and be surprised where we land with each blog post that follows. I have a lot of Canadian post cards that are not all about the Spiral Tunnels.

NOT a Harmon.

As soon as I pick up these two post cards, I can tell that they were not published by Byron Harmon. The paper is thinner and the finish is glossy.

They are actually published by the Gowan Sutton Company out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Gowan and Sutton were both English by birth but came to Vancouver from two different ways. Gowan came through Manitoba (in 1913) and Sutton came via Ontario (in 1918); they were both photographers.

They formed the F. Gowan Co. on March 17, 1919 (Gowan had 4,000 shares to Sutton's 2,000 shares) and on March 17, 1920 they formed a partnership called the Gowan Sutton Co. Ltd. Frank Gowan sold his shares in the company in 1929 after his wife died. I cannot find if Sutton changed the name of the company after that. Frank Gowan developed a series of post cards for both the Canadian National and the Canadian Pacific Railways.

These two post cards are part of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The first one tells us that it is on the Canadian Pacific Railway, in fact, it says that this is the "CPR TransCanada Limited near Field, BC." My research tells me that this one of Frank Gowan's photographs. The script is the same as the script on so many other of his photographs. The post card itself is a silver gelatin print.

The second post card is also a silver gelatin print, but this one has been colorized. A bit of green has been added to the picture to let us know that we are in a forest; and a bit of red has been added to the passenger cars, while some green found its way onto the observation car. The title has been put to the bottom of the post card and it is now in block letters. I wonder if this is the result of Mr. Sutton's work after he took full ownership of the company...

They both have a very similar rubber stamp on the back - like Byron Harmon's. It tells us the name of the publisher, that the address goes on the right and the correspondence goes on the left.

What Goes Up, Must Come Down!

Finally!! A train that is not going up the Kicking Horse Canyon, but down! This is a Byron Harmon post card - the words at the bottom blend into the white foreground very well. But, I can read that he has written, "966. Lower Spiral Tunnel" onto the picture.

The engine that we are looking at is carrying a train about 3,000 feet long. The Lower Spiral Tunnel is just short of 1,000 yards long and this train is sticking out on both ends of the tunnel.(P.S. Notice that observation car at the back of train, again.) This is one strong steam engine. It is a Selkirk. It was built to do exactly what it is pictured here doing. They ran trains from Taft, British Columbia to Calgary, Alberta. I picked up the following information from the Wikipedia website.

The Selkirk locomotives were 36 steam locomotives of the 2-10-4 wheel arrangement built for Canadian Pacific Railway by Montreal Locomotive Works, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They were named after the Selkirk range of mountains that they crossed.

The first of these was built in July 1929. Altogether, twenty were constructed before the end of this year bearing numbers 5900 to 5919. All of the Selkirk locomotives (5900 through 5935) were initially assigned to handle both freight as well as passenger trains between the major division points of Calgary and Revelstoke a distance of 262 miles. They were also used for 23 miles in pusher service from Revelstoke west (uphill) to the wye at Taft, assisting the road engines of both freight as well as passenger trains up the steep grade to this location. The Laggan Subdivision covered the Eastern portion of their assigned territory 137 miles and included the Field Hill and the famous Spiral Tunnels while the Western portion of their territory consisted of the Mountain Subdivision which covered the remaining 126 miles and included the famous Rogers Pass, the Connaught Tunnel and Stoney Creek Bridge. The grades encountered had a maximum of 2.2 per cent with curves of 12 degrees or 480 feet (150 m) radius. Rated at 78,000 pounds-force tractive effort, on the lesser grades they could haul 1,050 short tons unassisted and without the booster cut-in. The booster engine added an additional 12,000 pounds of tractive effort up to a maximum speed of 20 miles per hour. Due to their extreme weight, they could not proceed west of Taft to Vancouver.

The Canadian Pacific Railway's classification was T1a. Montreal Locomotive Works built another ten of these successful mountain locomotives during November and December 1938. The Canadian Pacific Railway assigned them T1b class. They were numbered from 5920 to 5929. Modifications led the T1b to be ten tons lighter while increasing steam pressure from 275 to 285 pounds per square inch. A further six Selkirks, classed T1c, were built by the Montreal Locomotive Works shop in 1949. They were the last standard gauge steam locomotives built in Canada for a Canadian railroad.

OOPS!

That isn't Mount Ogden!! That is Mount Stephen!

But, don't worry. This mistake was not made by my hero, Byron Harmon. This is a post card that is two and a half inches wide and four inches long. I can tell by the printing at the bottom of the post card that this is NOT Byron's handiwork. The script is way too fancy.

But, let us look at the post card, anyway. This is a beautiful shot of Mt. Stephen. It was named after George Stephen, the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Through my 15 power magnifying glass, I can see that there are two engines pulling the passenger train up the canyon and about to enter Mt. Ogden. It is in Mt. Ogden that the Lower Spiral Tunnel is located. As you look a the front of the train, you can see that it is about to pass a white sign, the sign says, "YOHO". That is the name of the station at which the Lower Spiral Tunnel is located. Yoho is the name of the National Park in which all of this is situated, but it is also a Cree word that means wonderful or awesome. A great description for this area of the world.