Is Seventy Years Ago Today is Still an Antique?

The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad needed its own exotic Miami-bound passenger train after rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SALRR) debuted its very successful Silver Meteor on February 2, 1939 connecting New York with Miami. To keep pace the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACLRR) inaugurated its own version in December of that same year and called the service The Champion.

In conjunction with the Florida East Coast Railway the train provided daily service between New York and Miami. The train featured a beautiful livery and because both the ACLRR and SALRR served the very trendy vacation destination of Florida, their passenger trains to the Sunshine State remained popular through the late 1960s! However, both railroads’ flagship trains served essentially the same market. So, when Amtrak took over all American intercity passenger train operations in the spring of 1971 AMTRAK elected to keep only the Silver Meteor.

This post card is certainly not as old as those that I have recently added to this blog. However, it is older than I am, so I consider it to be old. It was mailed 70 years ago today. That's an antique in my books! The author is informing a friend of the latest happenings in her life. "Dear Lottie, guess you don't know we have been in Florida a couple month. I like it here but Dick doesn't. Too damp he says. Everything green and flowers blooming. Lovely poinsettias. It is a little cook the last couple days but has been warm. I have a little cold so I stayed home from church today. There is one across the street that I go to. I hope you are as well as common. Love Lille Busch"

The post card is printed by the Curt Otto Teich corporation. This post card falls into the Linen Post Card style. The numbers in the bottom right of the front of the card indicate the year that it was printed - 1941. The number is 1B-H1056. The B tells us that it was printed in the 1940s and the 1 in front of the B specifies the first year of the 40s. The H in the number is a code for telling us that this is a Linen Post Card. This is post card design number 1056 out of 2693 designed printed in 1941.