A Canadian in New Mexico? or Buyer Beware!

The Canadian referred to in the title of this blog post is the river. The bridge in this real photo post card was built by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad over the Canadian River near Logan, New Mexico.

Logan was "born" when the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad constructed this bridge. Eugene Logan was a well-known Texas Ranger who came to work on the bridge. Logan is located at 35°21′41″N 103°26′52″W The bridge was 145 feet above the river when this picture was taken. Today there is a dam upstream blocking the flow of the river to a gently dribble.

It is unclear why the river is called the Canadian. The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River. It is about 906 miles long. It starts in Colorado and travels through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma, where it joins the Arkansas River.

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the US states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas River Valley, where the headwaters derive from the snowpack in the Collegiate Peaks.

A famous attraction on the Arkansas River is the Royal Gorge in Colorado. I have blogged about it in the past.

The reason the second half of the title says "Buyer Beware" is shown here.

Only the front of the post card was published on the website. I didn't ask about it before I purchased it. It was cheap, but I would have preferred to have known about how it was ripped from an album into which it had been glued. Someday I will experiment with removing the glue. The card is fairly worthless as it is.

This is a Real Photo Post Card.
In 1903 Kodak introduced the No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak. The camera, designed for postcard-size film, allowed the general public to take photographs and have them printed on post card backs. They are usually the same size as standard vintage post cards. Kodak's 3A camera pioneered in its use of postcard-size film but was not the only one to make Real Photo postcards. Many other cameras were used, some of which used old-fashioned glass plates that required cropping the image to fit the postcard format.
After March 1, 1907 half of the back of a post card could be used for a message. This meant that the front of the post card could contain an image that covered the entire card. This made the Real Photo Post Card more popular.

Evidently someone thought it important to record a train traveling over the bridge at the Canadian River near Logan, New Mexico. The photographer of this post card did not use a Kodak camera. The asterisks that form the box where the stamp is to be placed tells us that it is not from a Kodak Camera. However, I cannot find what camera or process was used.

The Burlington Route Limited

This post card tells us very little about it or the train on the front.

We know by reading the caption that the train in the picture is part of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q)- also known as the Burlington Route. While they do not tell us which one it is, they do tell us that it is part of a "Limited Train".

A limited train refers to the number of stations that are visited as the train travels from the beginning to the end of its route. A limited train will have a limited number of stops on the route. The other types of trains will stop much more often to pick up passengers while others disembark.

All I could find regarding the CB&Q's limited trains is below:

Named passenger trains operated by the CB&Q included:
• Chicago Limited (Chicago to Denver) The distance it traveled was 1035 miles. I don't know the years it operated.
• Denver Limited (Denver to Chicago) It is kind of like the same train as above but going in the opposite direction. I know it was running (and, therefore, the Chicago Limited, too) in 1912. The following incident happened near Chicago, Illinois in 1912:
Chicago, July 15. - Fourteen persons met almost instant death, two died while being rushed to
hospitals and 40 others were injured when the Omaha mail train on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
railroad, going at a speed of nearly 60 miles an hour, crashed into the rear end of the Denver
limited passenger train No. 2 at Western Springs, Ill., 18 miles west of Chicago.
Two other Limited trains operated by the C,B&Q were:
• Nebraska Limited (Chicago to Lincoln) This train could go the 550 miles in 9 hours
• North Coast Limited (Chicago to Minneapolis) This one operated from April 29, 1900 to May 1, 1971. The route was 2300 miles long.

So, while I am not sure which of the Limited trains was photographed here, I believe that is was intentional that the company didn't mention any particular one so they could sell this post card on all of them.

When we turn the post card over, we see the logo of the CB&Q.

In the bottom left of the post card the words "THIS SIDE IS FOR ADDRESS ONLY" tells us that this post card was printed after 1900 and prior to March 1, 1907. There is no indication about who the printer of the card was, but when I add this to my collection, I will mark the publisher as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

California or Florida. You be the Judge.

I was just cataloguing some of the post cards that had come in while I was focused on the Pikes Peak Series of blogs last year.I had no intention of blogging about these two cards. I picked up the first one (the top picture) and saw the title: “1724 – Through California Orange Groves.” I thought of course that makes sense; I lived in Southern California for about 15 years. I turned it over to read the message and all I could make out was the greeting: “Dear Sister Mary!” The rest looked like gibberish to me. Either this very fancy handwriting is extremely difficult to read or… then, I stepped back and realized that it written in another language. I catalogued it and added it to my album. Then I picked up the next card. I read the message on the back as I glanced at the publisher. The message reads: “I never saw anything like this. Will.”

So, I turned the card over to see what Will had never seen anything like. My first thought was, “Hey, that’s the same picture!” Then I saw the title: “A January Scene - Riding Through Orange Groves in Florida.” In Florida!! It is the same picture!!!

I thought, “No wonder Will didn’t see anything like this!” THIS is in California.

It is amazing how two publishers on the opposite sides of the country could choose the same picture and print different titles. Edward H. Mitchell is the publisher of the top card. He worked out of San Francisco, California. He doesn’t tell us anything about who printed his card. The publisher of the bottom post card is M. Mark out of Jacksonville, Florida. He does tell us that his post card was printed in Germany; but, not by whom. These two publishers bought the same picture and each man claimed it for his state. It would be interesting to know exactly where the picture was taken, but alas…

I have talked much about Edward H. Mitchell in the past. Here is what I could find about M. Mark. It is taken from the website, http://aarf.com/editorial/postcardsf09.htm

Florida publishers that produced many local picture postcards were J.N. Chamberlain (Miami), Cochranes’ Book Store (Palatka), Daytona Beach News Service (Daytona Beach), H. & W.B. Drew Company (Jacksonville), Duval News Company (Jacksonville), Florida News Company (Tampa), Florida Souvenir Company (St. Augustine), W. H. Harris Company (St. Augustine), Hillsboro News Company (Tampa), M. Mark (Jacksonville), Murrell Post Card Company (Daytona Beach), Orange News Company (Orlando), Sam J. Rodes (DeLand), Southern Card & Novelty Company (Daytona Beach), St. Petersburg Post Card Association (St. Petersburg), Sun News Company (St. Petersburg), Walker News Company (Daytona Beach), and Eli Witt Company (Daytona Beach)

I know he was a publisher from Florida and wanted other to know, too. He included the state seal (or some semblance of it) on the front of the card. Maybe he know that Edward Mitchell used the same image and he wanted to add some authenticity to his picture.

I could find evidence that he was publishing post cards from between 1908 to 1919. I didn’t see anything beyond that. One site did tell us that he published in both the Divided back and White border eras. I also believe that the evidence shows that the rounded phrase over the postmark, “FLORIDA ARTISTIC SERIES” belonged to his work.

Quite the Pedigree

The engine in this picture is a 2-8-8-2 Mallet Compound Engine. It is pictured here in La Grande, Oregon. The first compound-compression locomotive with an articulated pair of drive wheel assemblies was designed by Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet (pronounced SORT OF LIKE: "Malley") in France. The front driver assembly included two low-pressure cylinders. The rear driver assembly included two high-pressure cylinders. The single boiler was rigidly attached to the rear driver assembly.

Mallet locomotives in the USA followed the design created by Anatole Mallet and were called Mallet locomotives as a result. Like Anatole's original design, these locomotives used compound expansion where steam was first used the two high-pressures cylinders and then exhausted to be used a second time in the two larger low-pressure cylinders in the front of the locomotive.

The USA later experimented with the same basic design but with four high-pressure cylinders. These were still articulated locomotives but were no longer true "Mallets" because they used simple expansion instead of compound expansion. Unfortunately, no good name for this design ever emerged, and they tended to be loosely called 'Mallets' as well.

This locomotive was built in 1909. Technically, it is classified as an MC-1 locomotive. The diameter of the driving wheels is a mere 57 inches with a tractive effort of 94,880 pounds. This is produced by cylinders that are 26 inches in diameter with a 40 inch stroke. It burned oil as the fuel of choice.

Built for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company as Number 451 in 1909, it was renumbered to the Oregon Washington Railroad & Navigation Company’s 701 in 1911. From this we can surmise that while the post card is from the divided back era and could be from between 1907 to 1915, the picture (valid from 1909 to 1911) tells us that the post card is from somewhere between 1909 and 1915.


The title of this blog is "Quite the Pedigree". That is referring to the line-up of Companies involved in the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. When I go to Wikipedia to look up the history of the O.W.R. & N. I find this at the beginning: “The Oregon–Washington was incorporated November 23, 1910, in Oregon for the principal purpose of purchasing and consolidating the properties of certain corporations which were then controlled through stock ownership by the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company.

Accordingly, on December 23, 1910, it acquired by purchase all of the properties of 12 corporations, except their corporate franchises and certain of their assets, and, on the same date, purchased a part of the properties of 3 other corporations. It subsequently acquired the property of 2 other corporations.”

Then a list follows… there are 34 transactions listed. They vary from “sold to”, to “conveyed to”, to “named changed to”. The list ends in the year 1916; but, it all starts with the incorporation of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company by a special act of the Washington Territory on December 16, 1860.

The post card is from the Divided Back Era (1907 - 1915) and it was published by the Pacific Novelty Company. The following is from the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York: 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.

Best Friend of Charleston

As mentioned last week, here is a post card with the “Best Friend of Charleston” on the front. The following is from Wikipedia:

The locomotive was built for the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company by the West Point Foundry of New York in 1830. Disassembled for shipment by boat to Charleston, SC, it arrived in October of that year and was unofficially named the Best Friend of Charleston. After its inaugural run on Christmas Day, the Best Friend was used in regular passenger service along a six mile demonstration route in Charleston. For the time, this locomotive was considered one of the fastest modes of transport available, taking its passengers "on the wings of wind at the speed of fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour. The only mode of travel that was any faster was by an experienced horse and rider.

On June 17, 1831, the Best Friend earned a rather grisly first — it became the first locomotive in the US to suffer a boiler explosion, seriously injuring the engine's crew. The explosion is said to have been caused by the fireman tying down the steam pressure release valve; he had tired of listening to it whistle, so to stop the noise he closed the valve permanently (another account has the fireman placing a stout piece of lumber on the safety valve and sitting on it). The blocked valve caused the pressure within the boiler to exceed its capacity, and it exploded. The resulting blast was said to have hurled metal fragments over a wide area and killed the fireman.

This post card was published by the Audio Visual Designs. The indication of this is the strip that separates the address side from the message side of the post card. Their name and address forms that line. The company still exists today. The following is an excerpt from their website at http://www.audiovisualdesigns.com/about.asp

Founded in 1964 by the late Carl H. Sturner, Audio-Visual Designs has been a leader in providing high quality railroad images products for over 4 decades. The business was originally located in Earlton, NY. The name was derived by the products sold at the time – audio soundtracks of trains well as visual items (post cards, books, & calendars). The first All Pennsy Calendar was published in 1966 and for many years used exclusively the photos of Don Wood, a long time friend of Carl's. In the late 80's, Carl started showcasing other photographer's work as well. Railroad Christmas cards were added to the line of products early on and with a few exceptions have featured real photos of trains in action. Three railroad books have been published by Audio-Visual Designs: I Remember Pennsy, Locomotives in My Life, and The Unique New York and Long Branch: all of which were projects worked on by Carl and Mr. Wood. Audio-Visual Designs has also published books for other non-railroad related organizations.

By the time of his untimely passing in 1995, Carl had grown Audio-Visual Designs into an established icon in the railfan community - providing an enjoyable aspect of both the railfanning and model railroading hobbies. We serve many excursion railroads, museums, and hobby shops with stock post card images, greeting cards, custom products and the All Pennsy Calendar.
In 1997, the business was purchased by us (Joe & Colleen Suo) and moved to the present Herkimer, NY location.
This post card belongs to the modern era of Poly-Chrome post cards.