You've Come a Long Way!

The Aurora Branch Railway was begun on October 2, 1848. Its purpose was to ensure train service to communities west of Chicago, Illinois that may be missed by other railroads. The well managed company began to expand early and in 1856 it changed its name to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) to reflect its aspirations. The distance from Chicago to Burlington, Iowa is only 390 kilometers (243 miles), but it was a large expanse back then. Although Burlington is in southeast Iowa, the Mississippi River is its eastern border. To connect Chicago to Burlington a bridge would have to be built over the river; which happened in 1868. The good management of the railroad was so impressive that the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway purchased the stock of the CB&Q by the year 1900. Each railroad still maintained its own operations and independence. The CB&Q became commonly known as the Burlington and the company advertised a lot using only that moniker.

The post card to the left shows an A-B set of FT locomotives with the "Burlington" name on their sides. The CB&Q was one of the first, if not the first, railroads to use diesel power to replace the steam engines. The first diesel to lead a consist on the CB&Q happened in 1934. This picture was taken in April of 1962, two and a half years after the CB&Q stopped using steam locomotives for their passenger service. 1962 was also the last year that they used steam on their railroad at all. Eight years after this picture was taken, on March 2, 1970, the CB&Q, Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroads merged into one company: the Burlington Northern.
The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs

out of Earlton, New York. It was printed after October of 1983 because the address on the card shows a 5-digit postal code with 4 added digits. According to their website: Audio-Visual Designs was 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.