The Southern Pacific's Daylight

Like all good-named trains, this one was a "Limited". The Southern Pacific

Railroad introduced the "Coast Line" between San Francisco and Los Angeles California on April 28, 1922. As illustrated by the novel, The Great Gatsby, the economy of the United States was recovering wonderfully after the ravages of "The Great War." It was time to provide a train service that connected these two cities to each other through a route that stayed as close to the Pacific Ocean as it

could. The "Daylight Limited" took only 12 hours to go from one city to the other; that is a "speedy" average of 33 miles per hour. When it began service the train only ran during the good Spring and Summer weather span and then, only once a day on Friday and Saturday. On March 21, 1937 the Railroad introduced the new

streamlined locomotives similar to those that you see in these post cards. The trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles (or vise versa) was reduced by 2 hours and 15 minutes. What was the fastest non-stop train route in the world became even faster. These new GS-2 locomotives were manufactured by Lima Locomotive Works. They were known, using the Whyte Identification system, as 4-8-4s or Northerns. I wrote about the Northerns at the end of July. These, for the Southern Pacific had 73.5 inch driver wheels and were capable of developing 4,500 horsepower at 55 miles per hour; they were also capable of a maximum speed of 90 miles per hour. These locomotives were quickly replaced by GS-3s, also from the Lima Locomotive Works. The new trains could go over 100 miles per hour. They were so popular that the Southern Pacific Railroad introduced other "Daylight Limited" trains like the Sacramento, San Juaquin and Shasta Limiteds.
As you can see by the front of the post cards, they reflect different eras of post card printing. The top one demonstrates the White Border Era, the middle post card is a classic Linen Card and the bottom one is from the
Photo-chrome era. These are the backs of the post cards:

What a Beautiful Ride this Would Be

The Southern Pacific Railroad introduced the "Coast Line" between San Francisco and Los Angeles California on April 28, 1922. As illustrated by the novel, The Great Gatsby, the economy of the United States was recovering wonderfully after the ravages of "The Great War." It was time to provide a train service that connected these two cities to each other through a route that stayed as close to the Pacific Ocean as it could. As you can see in this picture, it stayed mighty close at times. Under the picture, on the bottom, left of the post card is one of the themes adopted by the Southern Pacific Railroad: "ROAD OF A THOUSAND WONDERS." This motto is on many of my Southern Pacific Railroad post cards. Someone actually published a book with the same title. It is available through Gutenberg.org at this web address: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48407/48407-h/48407-h.htm. It is free, if you follow a few of their simple rules. I will be blogging more about this Southern Pacific scenic train route next week.

This week I would like to look at the back of the post card. I will not delve into the backs of the post cards next week.
This post card was printed some time after April 28, 1922. I know that simply because that is the first day the trains ran on this route (see above). I also know that it was printed before 1926 even though there is not a post mark on the card. The reason I know the year is because that is the year in which Van Noy - Interstate stopped operating.

This symbol at the bottom, middle of the back of the post card indicates that it was this company that published it. Van Noy Railway Hotel and News, of Kansas City, began a series of mergers and acquisitions in 1914, starting with the Brown News Company (also headquartered in Kansas City) which was acquired on October 1, 1914 being operated as Van Noy News. In 1915, the Company began consolidating operations with the New York City based Interstate News Company. The company name was changed to Van Noy-Interstate News Company in 1917, but the company headquarters remained in Kansas City under the leadership of Ira C. Van Noy. They published post cards of trains and other items. However, as a result of changes in railroad passenger train service, Van Noy Interstate began to focus more on the hotel side of their operations. In 1922, the Company acquired the Gem Fountain Company, and in 1926 the company began operating simply as the Interstate Company. If, for some strange chance, it takes more to convince you that the Van Noy - Interstate Company published this post card, this appears on the left side of the back of the post card:

Next week, I will be addressing a bit of the history of the route started by the train on the front of this post card.

Retired to New Mexico

I thought that I had marked in the binders all of the post cards about which I have blogged in the past. I found this one that did not have a "posted" sign on it. So I did a bit of research to see what I could find about the engine of the front. It turns out that this is a "Northern" type of locomotive in the 4-8-4 Whyte Locomotive Classification chart. I delved into its history: It was built for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company in the mid 1940s. It is almost 37 meters (over 120 feet) long. It was built so big so that it could have a larger firebox to build up more power to get it through the mountains. It is called a "Northern" type of locomotive because it was first ordered by the Northern Pacific Railway (from 1864 to 1970, when it and others became the Burlington Northern Railway). This particular locomotive saw its last days of service out of its home base of Belen, New Mexico. It helped scheduled trains to get through the mountain passes, particularly Abo Pass. Albo Pass is 1,759 meters (5,770 feet) above sea level in the Manzano Mountains. This locomotive was reassigned, with a few of its "sisters", to Belen. It was retired from service on July 4, 1957, the first of the group to be retired.

This is the back of the post card. It almost looks amateurish. The stamp that says, "PHOTO POST CARD" is crooked; the printing of the publisher's name is too small and too close to the line and that line is also at an angle; the "ADDRESS" stamp is not very dark. I did look into the publisher. L. Fremming and his brother, Bob, are from Wisconsin. There is history of them working together in Chetek. I found a post card on line published by the Fremming Brothers. I even have almost 20 post cards published only by Bob Fremming. I only have two from L. Fremming. I must admit that in my research I found out that I had posted about L. Fremming's post cards before. On November 16, 2011 I had asked if two post cards were relatives. It turns out that they were. This is the other post card:

It is a Southern Pacific locomotive. It seems that L. Fremming must have left Wisconsin to move to Washington state and try his hand at what he knew best: publishing post cards. I think he succeeded. I wish I had more of his.
If you would like to see a Northern type of locomotive up close, there is one on static display in Coronado Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Two Crozier Canyon in Arizona Post Cards

This is a picture of a Santa Fe Railroad train as it passes through Crozier Canyon in northwest Arizona (about 55 kilometers [35 miles] northeast of Kingman, Arizona). This post card was printed by the Detroit Publishing Company. More about this below.... However, about the picture: In 1857, President James Buchanan authorized Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (soon to be the president of the Confederate States), to find a road that would connect Fort Defiance in today's New Mexico with Fort Mohave in the extreme west of what is today Arizona. Davis delegated this task to Lieutenant Edward Beale. This expedition was to have a second purpose, to see if camels - natural desert animals in other parts of the world - would be useful for the US military applications. Davis authorized the purchase of about 30 camels at $1,000 per head. The entire party surveyed northern Arizona along the 37th parallel. Today, Interstate 40 and old Route 66 follow part of what became known as "Beale's Wagon Road". The camels proved their worth, but the military developed other priorities and sold off the camels. The legend of "Hi Jolly" is worth pursuing if you are interested in "American Camels".

As you can clearly see, this post card comes to us from the White Border Era of post card printing. Prior to this era the printed pictures went right to the outside borders of the post card. When one prints hundreds of thousands of post cards, cutting the picture off with an eight of an inch border of white can save over 10 percent of the ink. That means that one can get one extra post card per print run for every nine that one prints. That kind of savings adds up!!

This post card below is a duplicate of the one above. The difference is that this one comes to us from the Linen Card Era. This post card was printed by one of the pioneers who developed the textured card, Curt Otto Teich. He made the card for the Fred Harvey Company. Fred Harvey was the originator of the "Harvey House" chain of restaurants and hotels that he built along the railroads in the western United States. He started the company in the late 1800s and he died in 1901. So, this post card was published by the company that he left behind.

In 1897 Harvey took over the news stands for the A.T.&S.F. Railroad and began distributing postcards. Between 1901 and 1932 the Company contracted all their cards with the Detroit Publishing Company (thus, the first post card that we see above). These cards have an H prefix before their identification number, but in addition Detroit published many of Harvey’s images on their own. After Detroit closed, many of Harvey’s cards were contracted out to Curt Teich (thus, the second post card that we see here) among others.

These are the backs of the post cards. The first one is from the White Border Era, printed by the Detroit Publishing Company. You can see in the upper left-hand corner the word "PHOSTINT"; this is the trademark that they used for their own, unique printing process. The same area also shows us that Fred Harvey's company was involved in the publishing of this post card. The description is much longer on this post card than the one below.

The bottom one is the one that was printed by the Curt Otto Teich company. At the very bottom of the middle of this side of the card is the code: 7A-H2919 This tells me that the post card was printed by the Curt Otto Teich company in 1937 - indicated by the "7A" - for Fred Harvey's company. Notice that both companies indicate with an "H" that this job is for Fred Harvey - they just have different numbers for the post card lots.