Still on Mount Tamalpais

In my last blog I told you that the Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway was advertised as "the crookedest railroad in the world". Well here is some proof.

The words are not crooked because I scanned the card in a sloppy manner; it is the way the card was printed.

This post card isn't from the set of cards that I am filing away into my post card collection, which I purchased while blogging about Pikes Peak. This one comes from the collection itself. As I was filing away last week's post card, I saw this one tucked into its sleeve on page near where last week's post card now rests. I thought I should share it with you. I now have a total of twelve post cards about the Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway.

This one was published by the Pacific Novelty Company from San Francisco. This company was owned by the same Edward H Mitchell that owned the company that published last week's post card. Again from the Metropolitan Postcard Club: "This publishing company printed many postcards that were duplicates of postcards published by Edward Mitchell.

Mitchell was a partner with other photographers in this publishing company than at some point he bought the others out. A major publisher and printer of view-cards depicting California in halftone lithography. They produced cards in different styles, most of which were printed in Germany. They eventually sold off their own printing department to Herman Vogel who renamed it Quadricolor Press. Pacific Novelty went on to produce photochromes that were manufactured in the United States."

This post card was mailed on March 30, 1916 at 1 PM. It is from the Divided Back Era (1907 - 1915). The sender has written to a Miss Robison in New York to tell her that he or she is spending time at the top of the railway at the tavern. He or she also spent some time at the top of the mountain (where the sender has marked an X that you can see above under the word "near"). In two more years, this card will be 100 years old.

I would like to draw your attention to the cute train that was drawn onto the post card by the printer. It is in the lower left hand corner of the post card. It is very obvious to me as I look directly at the card that this locomotive and car were an addition. I hope you can see it, too.