To Take Your Breath Away

There are two meanings to the title of this post. One is that the scenery must have been so beautiful as to take your breath away. The second one, which is the subject of this post, is that the tunnel in the Cascade Range of Washington state was so long that the railroad had a difficult time cleaning the air after a steam locomotive traveled through it. As a result of this challenge, they electrified the line as it entered and left the Cascade Tunnel.

Given one quick look at this locomotive a person might think that it is a very strange looking steamer. Upon closer examination, however, one can see that the locomotive is electrified. There are overhead wires and one can see the pantograph that brings the electricity to the motors. As I researched this picture to see what railroad was operating it, I discovered nothing about the engine. I think that it might be made by Alco-GE. The website http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/index2.htm?GNEGNElectricRosters.htm shows us that there were four 1,000 horsepower units delivered to the Great Northern Railroad. It goes on to say, "Great Northern's electric locomotives were confined to the Cascades, purchased to relieve asphyxiation problems in the Cascade tunnel caused by exhaust of steam locomotives. The initial class of four locomotives were confined to the Old Cascade Tunnel only, while the later models were used on the entire line-segment from Wenatchee, through the New Cascade Tunnel, to Skykomish. The Great Northern Railway rostered a total of 24 electric locomotives. The first four used a 6,000 Volt three phase electric system using two overhead wires and the rail as conductors. Power was taken from the overhead wires by means of trolley poles. With the opening of the New Cascade Tunnel and the enlargement of the electrified district a switch was made to a single phase 11,000 Volt system. Power was now taken from a single overhead wire by using pantographs, making for a less troublesome layout of the catenary system. Great Northern used 2 different paint schemes for its electric locomotives. All electrics were delivered in a Pullman Green livery except for the two W-1 class locomotives which arrived new in the Empire Builder scheme of orange and green separated by imitation gold stripes. All electrics, except the original 3-phase and Z-1 classes, were eventually repainted in Empire Builder colors. Electric operations started in 1909 with the opening of the first Cascade tunnel and ended on July 31, 1956 when the decision was made to force-ventilate the Cascade tunnel and run all trains through using diesel power, instead of upgrading the entire electrical operation, which was coming due. This method of force-ventilation is still being used today by BNSF."

The caption in the upper left-hand part of the picture on the front does confirm that this train is, indeed, in the Cascade Range in Washington state. It is hard to believe that this is a real locomotive. When researching the types of engines that ran through the Cascade Tunnel, I could not find one that had a round front like this one. Knowing that some publishers did their own style of photoshopping even back in the early 1900s, I suspected that this was the case here. But, next week's post will help to redeem this publisher and clarify where this picture might have been taken.

The publisher was the E. C. Kropp Company, a publisher and printer that began producing chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that would printed under the E.C. Kropp name. They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their latter linen cards had a noticeably fine grain. Sold to L.L. Cook in 1956 and they are now part of the GAF Corp. U.S.