The One that Started It All

Although I did not know it at the time, this post card was to become the first card in my Train Post Card collection. I was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on June 5, 1982.

One of the guys in the class one year before me knew my passion for trains. He gave this to me as an "ordination card" on that occasion. It measures five and half inches tall and eight and three quarters inches wide. I kept the post card because a) I do love trains, and b) Patrick and I were good friends. I did not know at the time, that it would be the first card in my train post card collection - which today numbers 3,014 cards from around the world. I seriously committed to collecting post cards the year that England was the feature country at Klondike Days here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was in the 1990s. I wanted to collect something related to trains that would not take up much room. They had a huge selection of train post cards at their exhibit for sale. I committed and bought one of each!!

This post card features a partial history of the development of what is know today as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Company. [Of course, at this time (1982) the Santa Fe part was still its own railroad company.] the train on the far left was built in 1892; the next one is from 1923; that is followed by a 1934 model of the "Zephyr". The second from the right is a 1955 diesel engine (an E-9 unit) as is the one on the far right, which is a GP-30 from 1962.
They all got together to celebrate "A Century of Locomotives".

The picture was taken by the Burlington Northern Railroad, as the company was known back in the 1970s. The post card itself was published by Lyman E. Cox from Sacramento, California - the home of the California State Railroad Museum.