Crossing the North Platte River in Wyoming

The train on the front of this post card belongs to the Union Pacific Railroad.

It is in Wyoming, crossing the North Platte River. The bridge was built in the 19th century as part of the transcontinental railroad. Today it is a deck plate girder bridge. It is located near Fort Steele in Carbon County in the state of Wyoming. My research found the following about Fort Steele, the namesake of the bridge. It is taken from this webiste: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/wy-fortfredsteele/ Fort Fred Steele was established on June 20, 1868, to guard the men who were building the Union Pacific Railroad across southern Wyoming against Indian attacks. Located on the west bank of the North Platte River, the site was selected by Colonel Richard Dodge, and named for Major General Frederick Steele, a Civil War hero. After the railroad was completed, the soldiers continued to protect the area, especially the vulnerable railroad bridge across the North Platte River. In 1973, the Wyoming State legislature created the Fort Fred Steel State Historic Site.

The post card was published by the Souvenir Novelty Company out of Salt Lake City, Utah. The company existed from 1910 to 1927. It was a publisher of local souvenir books and postcards in lithography. Many of their cards were printed by Curt Teich. The code at the bottom-center of the card confirms that his one was printed by Curt Teich. Edward H. Mitchell was a partner in the Company: March 4, 1914 “Mr. Edward H. Mitchell has purchased our interest in the Souvenir Publishing Company"

The First One from North Carolina

The locomotive on the front of this post card is an American Style (4 – 4 – 0) - according to the Whyte Notation of locomotives. Evidently it is “Arriving in the Land of the Sky”. “Where”, you ask, “is the Land of the Sky?” Keep reading… The following information was taken from this website: https://wncmagazine.com/feature/birth_slogan As lofty descriptors go, “Land of the Sky” seems a perfect fit for Western North Carolina, but the history of how it was coined is surprisingly little known. It wasn’t the first attempt to promote the mountain region with a turn of phrase, and some of the earliest stabs at the task didn’t stick. “The Switzerland of America” never felt quite right, and “Nature’s Trundle Bed of Recuperation for Tourist and Health Seeker” didn’t have much zing, though Asheville-based ad men floated both formulations in the late 1800s. In fact, it took a Salisbury, North Carolina-born writer to pin the Land of the Sky on Western North Carolina. Frances Fisher Tiernan (1846-1920), using the pen name Christian Reid, wrote more than 50 novels, many of which romanticized travel to points near and far. One of her most popular books was set squarely in Western North Carolina: The Land of the Sky; or, Adventures in Mountain By-Ways, was published in 1875. Within just a few years, the catchphrase became a staple in ads for mountain railway trips, hotels, and other businesses while gracing an untold number of postcards highlighting the region. In time, it was incorporated into the names of churches, dance troupes, regional government bodies, and even Asheville’s television station, WLOS. “Despite its literary shortcomings,” Starnes noted, “Tiernan’s novel developed themes and images others would use to construct a regional tourism image for Western North Carolina.” In a land where the sky commands so much attention, Tiernan gave the place a name as fitting now as it was in her time.

The post card was published by the Brown Book Company started by Edwin Brown. It was in Asheville, North Carolina. The post card was printed in Germany; so, this card was printed after 1907 (divided back era) and before World War I (1914).

A Stab in the Dark

I am sort of going out on a limb with this one. Neither on the front nor on the back is there an indication of the name of the railroad on which this locomotive is traveling. The caption on the picture does tell us that it is following the Kentucky River – in Kentucky.

I am guessing that, because this post card was mailed in 1919, this train was on the original Lexington & Ohio Railroad tracks that were, at that time, owned by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. All of this speculation comes from internet research. A bit of the information came from this website: https://www.american-rails.com Kentucky railroads date back to 1830, just three years after our nation's first common-carrier, the Baltimore & Ohio was chartered, when the Lexington & Ohio Railroad was chartered to connect Frankfort with Lexington, a distance of about 31 miles. The railroad was able to complete the line by 1834 and by 1851 had connected Louisville along the banks of the Ohio River. The company would eventually become part of the Louisville & Nashville (L&N) system and today, its original line is still operating by RJ Corman, a diversified railroad business which owns several shortlines in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other southern states. Some more information came from this website: http://www.lnrr.org/History.aspx One of the L&N's most important expansions came early in the 1900s, when the railroad pushed its tracks deep into the coal fields surrounding Hazard and Harlan in eastern Kentucky. Acquisition in 1909 of two smaller lines and construction in 1911 and 1912 of more than 150 miles of track along the Cumberland River and the North Fork of the Kentucky River gave the L&N access to the landlocked bituminous coal riches of eastern Kentucky. In the preceding decades, the L&N built additional rail lines, not only in eastern Kentucky, but in western Kentucky,Tennessee and Alabama, to help develop new coal production points. And then, back to this one: https://www.american-rails.com The Louisville and Nashville Railroad served the heart of the Southeast from New Orleans and Memphis to Atlanta and the Florida Panhandle. It also extended to St. Louis and later reached Chicago. The L&N carries precedence as one of the few to maintain its originally chartered name, operating for more than 120 years as the Louisville & Nashville.

The post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich. That is his logo in the bottom-middle of the post card. Also, the code “A-23958” fits into the codes used by the company between 1912 and 1925. The company was founded by Curt Otto Teich (1877 - 1974), who immigrated to the United States from Lobenstein, Germany in 1896. At the peak of production, the company could print several million postcards in a single day. The Curt Teich Company operated from 1898 to 1978 and saved examples of every image they produced. In 1982, the bulk of the collection—more than 350,000+ images relating to 10,000 towns and cities across the United States, Canada, and 85 other countries—was donated by the Teich family to the Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda, Illinois. The collection is available to the public. If planning to visit the museum, call ahead to make an appointment, which will provide staff assistance and access to the collection. A portion of the collection can be searched online at "Digital Past".

Rome, New York - Athens, Georgia - Paris, Tennessee

While the song may cover several cities, this blog will only talk about one:

Rome New York and the train station that is there. Today, the train station on the front of this post card is serviced by Amtrak. Hoever, the station was built between 1912 and 1914 by the New York Central Railroad south of the city proper to replace the former structure downtown. Such a move was necessitated by a track realignment. The one-and-a-half-story brick building was constructed in a Neoclassical style and includes columns flanking the vestibules, decorative grillwork and large arched windows. The waiting room includes a bowed ticket window and a series of delicate triple-globed bronze chandeliers. At the rear of the waiting room are paired symmetrical staircases with ornate openwork iron railings up to the near platform. In 1988, Amtrak conveyed the station to the city of Rome. Amtrak proposed to close the station in 1996, but the city resisted and instead found federal funds to renovate the station. The $4 million reconstruction was finished in 2004. Rome, New York was founded along an ancient Native American portage path known as the Oneida Carrying Place, Deo-Wain-Sta, or The Great Carrying Place to the Six Nations (Iroquois), or the Haudenosaunee in their language. These names refer to a portage road or path between the Mohawk River to the east, which flows east to the Hudson River; and Wood Creek to the west, which flows into Lake Ontario. Rome is the second-largest city by area in New York State, and the 140th largest city in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 75.7 square miles (196 km2), of which 74.9 square miles (194 km2) is land and 0.8 square miles (2.1 km2) (0.99%) is water. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which lies in the "Leatherstocking Country" made famous by James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, set in frontier days before the American Revolutionary War.

The post card was published by WM. Jubb Co., Inc. out of Syracuse, New York. My internet search found many other cards also published by this compny, but I could find very little history. I did find out that the company was a publisher of view-cards depicting scenes from western New York State. Their white border cards manufactured in the United States were printed on a textured paper similar to that of linen cards. They were were produced in a variety of styles and techniques ranging from early black & white images to colorful linens and modern chromes. His later chromes were printed by Dexter Press. This post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich during his C.T. American Art phase.

Post Card Giveaway!!

I have 8 packages of about 45 post cards each to give away. They are duplicates of what is in my train post card collectiona and I hate to see them go to waste or be unused. If you would like to receive some post cards send me your address. Reimbursement for postage will be appreciated, but not necessary. contact me at Froggytales@hotmail.com

Going through Another Florida Orange Grove

If you have been following this blog for a several years, you have seen the picture on the front of this post card before. This is one of at least six post cards in my collection that have this picture,

or some variation of it, on the front. Four of the post cards tell us that the picture was taken in Florida; two say that it happened in California. This post card is part of the Florida camp. The way in which I chose to blog about this post card was as follows: Me – “Honey, choose a number between 1 and 10.” My wife – “Four.” Me – “Now choose a number between 1 and 345.” Her – “two hundred and twelve.” The first number was to choose the album of post cards; the second number was the post card within that album. Thus, we get this post card! The post card right below this one in the album (number 213) tells us that this picture is from near St. Petersburg, Florida. You can type “Florida” in the upper left-hand corner of the blog post and it will find all the posts that include this word in them. You can scroll down through the blog posts and see the other four post cards about which I have already written. They are from January 15, 2015 and February 2, 2018. I really know nothing about the picture on the front of this post card, except that is was very popular. The back of the post card does tell me many things.

The first thing that I see is that it was published by the H. & W.B. Drew Company out of Jacksonville, Florida. This is the only post card in my collection from this publisher. That is the symbol in the upper left-hand of the post card. It also seems to be post card number 1019, but I don’t see if it is part of a series of if this set of post cards was their 1,019th run of post cards. It could be number 1019 of their Florida Artistic Series of post cards. In the bottom left-hand of the post card there is another symbol. This is the state seal of Florida. Or at least it was when the post card was printed. The last thing that I found on the back of the post card was that it was published after 1930 by the Curt Otto Teich company. One series of their card numbers began with a number corresponding to the last digit of the year it was published in followed by a letter series denoting the decade: 1930’s A and AH prefix All cards with an H onwards designate Art Colortone. This post card is numbered A-19515; that means that it was published in the 1930s. This is sort of confirmed by the fact that between June 30, 1928 and January 1, 1952 the rate to mail a post card domestically was one cent. The last thing that I would like to point out is that the message on the back of the post card matches the picture on the front. The writer, Andy, is telling Terra that the oranges on the front look delicious.

Still Around after 188 Years (Sort of)

The picture on the front of this post card shows what Greylock Station

looked like prior to March 1, 1907. Greylock Station is located in North Adams, MA (almost as far north and west in Massachusetts as one can go) which is less than an hour east of Albany, New York. At the time of this picture the station was on the Boston & Maine Railroad line. The Boston & Maine (B&MRR) came into existence on March 15, 1833 when the Andover and Wilmington Railroad received a charter to build a railroad joining the two cities to each other. On June 27, 1835, the Boston and Maine Railroad of New Hampshire was chartered. The B&MRR no longer operates as the namesake railroad. At the time, it was the largest of New England's railroads and for over 180 years has served the territory well. During the company's height it maintained more than 2,000 miles with 25,000 employees. Its by-line was “Route of the Minute Man”. This was a reflection of the civilians who were at the ready to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War. It covered the state of Massachusetts north and west from its home base of Boston. Today's B&MRR is much different than the one of last century. What is left of its historic network is operated by Pan Am Railways, previously known as Guilford Rail System. That would make the railroad over 188 years old.

I can only assume that the post card was printed and published by the Railroad itself. Their logo appears at the bottom right-hand corner of the front of the card. This is the back of the card and it tells me that it was printed before March 1, 1907. Up until this date only the address could be written on the back of the post card. You can see that reminder in the bottom left-hand side of the card. So this post card is over 114 years old! And it is in excellent shape.

Florida East Coast Railroad continued...

The Overseas Railroad was an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway

to Key West, located 128 miles beyond the end of the Florida peninsula. Work on the line started in 1905 and was completed in 1912; the line was in daily passenger and freight service until its destruction by a hurricane in 1935. My wife and I joke a lot about cars driving down the road for kilometers with their turn signals on. We usually alert the other person by saying,"Guess he's goin' to Florida." Then the other person knows to look for a car with continuous turn signalling happening. I have to admit that she has asked me if I was going to Florida a couple of times. Today's blog post is taking us to Florida without the benefit of an ongoing turn signal. We are looking at three of my seven post cards that highlight the Florida East Railway's Long Key Viaduct. I will first tell you the story, then talk about the publisher of each post card at the end. I will simply intersperse the fronts of the post cards through the narrative as taken mostly from Wikipedia. The

construction problems were formidable; labor turnover was frequent and the cost was prohibitive. The first portion of the line, from Homestead to Key Largo, was across swamp land. Thankfully, the dredging of the drainage canals to clear the swamps provided the material to build up the roadbed. Worse than any other challenge was the weather: a hurricane in September 1906 destroyed the initial work on the Long Key Viaduct and killed more than 100 laborers. Hurricanes in 1909 and 1910 destroyed much of the completed railroad. After these hurricanes, work resumed at a faster pace — The owner of the railroad was 80 years old and wanted to ride all the way to Key West on his railroad. The completion of Seven Mile Bridge assured many that the line would soon be completed. Henry Flagler, by then blind, arrived in Key West on January 22, 1912, aboard his private rail car "Rambler", telling a welcoming crowd, “Now I can die happy. My dream is fulfilled.” Regular service on the 156-mile extension — dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World" — began the following day, with through sleepers between New York and Key West with connections at Key West for passenger steamers and car ferries bound for Havana. Flagler died less than 18 months later in May 1913.

The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane washed away approximately 40 miles of the Middle Keys section of the line. In addition, the Long Key Fishing Camp was destroyed, along with a rescue train which was — with the exception of locomotive #447 — overturned by the storm surge at Islamorada, Florida. With Flagler gone, the railroad was unwilling to repair a line that had never repaid its construction cost — an unknown figure. It was later determined that the total cost of what had been derisively nicknamed "Flagler's Folly" exceeded $50 million ($1.31 billion today), all from his personal fortune.

The top post card, above was mailed in 1914, soon after the viaduct opened. It was published by the H. S. Kress Company. A publisher and large distributor of postcards through their national chain of Five & Dime stores. They were purchased by Genesco in 1964 who slowly began shutting the business down.

The middle post card was published by the Leighton & Valentine Company

out of New York City. Hugh C. Leighton was a printer and major publisher of national view-cards, especially scenes of New England. They printed most of their cards in four distinct styles employing halftone lithography. Most used a simple soft yet highly recognizable RGB pallet. While some cards were printed at their plant in the U.S. most were manufactured in Frankfort, Germany. Almost all their cards were numbered. They merged with Valentine & Sons in 1909.

The last of the post cards was published by 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. This post card is an excellent example of a linen post card. The texture and weight of the card are obvious when one holds it and holds it up to the light. I hope you can see the texture in this close-up:

The Passenger Service is Gone, but the Railroad Still Exists

The two trains pictured on the front of this post card are the passenger

service ancestors of a railroad that still exists today. The Florida East Coast Railroad does not carry passengers any more. The following information is taken directly from their website: https://fecrwy.com/ The Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) is a Class II regional railroad that owns all of the 351-mile mainline track from Jacksonville, FL, down to Miami. It is the exclusive rail provider for PortMiami, Port Everglades and Port of Palm Beach. FEC Railway connects to the national railway system in Jacksonville, allowing it to provide rail service in and out of Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina, into and out of Florida’s east coast. Based in Jacksonville, FEC provides end-to-end intermodal and carload solutions to customers who demand cost-effective and premium quality transportation solutions. This is the history of the railroad that I found in Wikipedia: When Flagler returned to Florida, in 1885 he began building a grand St. Augustine hotel, the Ponce de Leon Hotel. Flagler realized that the key to developing Florida was a solid transportation system, and consequently purchased the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway (JStA&HR) on December 31, 1885. He also discovered that a major problem facing the existing Florida railway systems was that each operated on different gauge systems, making interconnection impossible. He converted the line to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge in 1890 and the small operation was incorporated in 1892. Flagler next purchased three additional existing railroads: the St. John's Railway, the St. Augustine and Palatka Railway, and the St. Johns and Halifax River Railway so that he could provide extended rail service on standard gauge tracks. By 1894, Flagler's railroad system reached what is today known as West Palm Beach. On September 7, 1895, the name of Flagler's system was changed from the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway Company to the Florida East Coast Railway Company and incorporated. On April 15, 1896, track reached Biscayne Bay, the site of present-day downtown Miami. At the time, it was a small settlement of less than 50 inhabitants. When the town incorporated, on July 28, 1896, its citizens wanted to honor the man responsible for the city's development by naming it Flagler. He declined the honor, persuading them to retain its old Indian name, Miami. I have posted about the Florida East Coast Railroad in the past. But, that was back in 2015. Next week I will re-post that episode of this blog's history.

The post card was printed by the Colorpicture Company based in Boston, Mass. It was a major publisher and printer of linen view-cards of the United States based in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts between 1938 and 1969. They later went on to publish photochromes and small spiral bound picture booklets under the name trade name Plastichrome in the 1950's.

Bridge, What Bridge?

The information about the bridge on the front of this post card was taken from this website: https://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/507 The river that lent its name to Spokane has also been a barrier to the development of the city. No sooner was Spokane established than city fathers looked for places to bridge the raging currents. Today’s Monroe Street Bridge, a Spokane landmark, is the third bridge on this site.

The first Monroe Street Bridge was constructed of wood and built with horses and wagons in mind. The city, the Cable Railway Company, and property owners along Monroe Street split the cost of $42,500.00 to build the bridge. A new Monroe Street Bridge constructed of steel was completed in 1890. The steel bridge represented a step towards modernity, and was completed just in time to accommodate an unprecedented time of expansion for the city. The bridge boasted updates such as overhead lighting and the ability to accommodate doubled-tracked streetcars. But the new bridge soon became a source of controversy. It was immediately apparent that the bridge vibrated heavily, perhaps dangerously, with any sort of traffic. In 1905 the bridge was deemed unsafe by National Good Roads Association, and the next year a bridge expert labeled the bridge an accident waiting to happen: “Should a street car run off the track, or a bunch of steers be driven over it, the whole thing might collapse.” In 1907 the elephants of the Ringling Brother’s Circus refused to walk across the shaky span. Three years later the south side of the bridge collapsed after a mudslide. Spokane had plenty of trouble with its bridges in those days. In 1915, the Division Street Bridge collapsed, dropping a street car into the river resulting in 5 deaths and twelve injuries. These tragedies fueled an intense demand for safer concrete-arch bridges. A grand new Monroe Street Bridge was designed by Spokane City Engineer John Chester Ralston, and Spokane’s most celebrated architects: Kirtland K. Cutter and Karl G. Malmgren. Construction over the 140-feet deep and 1,500 feet wide gorge was challenged by severe windstorms, high water levels, and swift-moving currents. Two laborers died and over fifty were injured. Ralston was removed from the project after he was accused of stealing the design from Rocky River Bridge in Cleveland, and replaced by his assistant. Today’s Monroe Street Bridge opened November 23, 1911 with over 3,000 Spokane citizens on hand to celebrate. It was the world’s largest concrete arch-bridge. In 1914, just a few years after completion of this visual landmark, the city fathers permitted a railroad bridge to be built right over the top of it, marring the beauty of the structure. The Great Northern Railroad bridge remained in place for over half a century, until it was removed as part of the preparations for Expo 74. Today the Monroe Street Bridge today looks very much as it did in 1911, thanks to the removal of the railroad bridge and a 2003-2005 reconstruction project. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, all but the central span of the bridge was demolished and completely reconstructed starting in 2003. Reconstruction was necessary because by the 1990s the bridge had begun to drop large chucks of concrete into the river below. The rebuilding preserved the structural features from the original 1911 design, including Cutter and Malmgren’s life-size buffalo skulls, wagon wheels, wagon pavilions, and chain handrails that embody the pioneer spirit of Spokane’s earliest settlers. The bridge reopened in September 2005.

The post card was printed by Metropolitan MetroCraft (1939 – 1984) a major printer of linen and photochrome postcards displaying a variety of subjects. They also printed postcards for many other publishers. A good number of Metrocraft’s early photochrome postcards retained the use of retouchers that had worked on their linens. These cards have a very distinct look before they went over to a completely uniform photographic means of natural color reproduction. The information about the publisher of this post card was taken from this website: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/aug/08/then-and-now-john-w-graham-and-co/ John W. Graham, born 1860 in Rockport, Indiana, knew how to sell. He delivered newspapers, sold apples on the street with his brother James and helped his dad trade farm animals up and down the Ohio River. At the age of 10, he set up a little table in a general store where he sold tablets, ink and writing paper. While working in a Minneapolis stationery store in 1887, he read about a promising Western boomtown in the Washington territory. He stepped off the train in Spokane in 1888. The rustic town didn’t appeal to him, so he decided to hop back on the evening train and go to Seattle. But he had dropped two shirts at a Chinese laundry and he had to stay until the next day to get them back. The delay changed his mind and he took a job in the stationery shop of Sylvester Heath. Within a year, Heath’s shop was burned to the ground in Spokane’s great fire in August of 1889. Heath decided not to rebuild, so Graham set up a tent on the ashes of Heath’s store and went into business. For the next 80 years, John W. Graham and Co. was Spokane’s place to buy books, magazines, stationery, art and office supplies, cameras and film, paint, wallpaper, furniture and gifts. Graham’s slogan was “If it’s made of paper, we have it.” Graham’s store was first located in the Great Eastern Building until it was destroyed by fire in 1898. The next location, on the 700 block of West Sprague Avenue, extending to First Avenue on the building’s upper floors, was the store’s most enduring location. Historian Carolyn Hage Nunemaker, in her book of Spokane photographs from the 1930s and 1940s, said Graham’s was five stories of open showrooms and interesting nooks and crannies. “A stranger wandering in might have gotten lost in the peculiar arrangement, but those of us who knew its secrets felt comfortably familiar there,” she wrote. For many years, Graham’s even had the largest toy department in Spokane. John Graham died of a heart attack in June 1941 at the age of 81. A group of his employees bought the business from his estate in 1951. The business stayed in the old building until 1973, when the structure was torn down to make way for the Washington Trust Bank building. The store moved to a smaller location at Riverside Avenue and Stevens Street for a few years, and was bought out by Portland-based bookseller J.K. Gill Co. around 1980.

Another Alco at Work

In 1975, the Boston & Maine Railroad Corporation filed to abandon the operation of the Concord to Lincoln 117 kilometer (73 miles) rail line, known as the “White Mountain Branch”. Recognizing the need of the on-line customers and the potential of the line for a sewer right-of-way, the State of New Hampshire purchased the branch and sought a shortline railroad to carry out operations. The first to assume this responsibility was the Wolfeboro Railroad, which operated the line as their "Central Division" in 1976, but soon thereafter ended operations. In early 1977, the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (PUC) entered into an agreement with the Goodwin Railroad to take over the operation. Under the terms of the operating agreement, Goodwin Railroad agreed to provide rail freight services, and the PUC agreed to subsidize the operation. Goodwin Railroad was to be subsidized based on the "differences between revenue earnings of the line . . . and the necessary costs of providing services," plus an annual management fee.

The engine shown on the front of this post card was owned by the Goodwin Railroad. It is the railroad's Number 1 engine, an ex-MEC (number 557) and ex-Wolfeboro (number 101). This picture was taken on February 10, 1978. The photo is courtesy of Ronald N. Johnson. The Goodwin Railroad, an extension of Weaver Bros. Construction, was created in 1977 to operate the trackage, and did so until it too ended operations in 1980. Following the demise of the Goodwin, the North Stratford Railroad stepped in as an interim operator until the state could find a dependable and permanent operator. Peter Dearness approached the State of New Hampshire with a bid to operate the trackage with his newly formed New England Southern Railroad. Dearness' railroad won the bid, and in 1982 the operating contract was awarded to the New England Southern, which began freight operations on September 3, 1982, using State of New Hampshire-owned ALCO S1 1008. The railroad also leased a GE 44-ton switcher, #2, also state-owned. The first freight run consisted of a tanker for Home Gas in Northfield, a boxcar for Blue Seal Feeds (H.K. Webster) in Lakeport, and another boxcar of casting sand for Arwood Manufacturing in Tilton. On May 10, 2020, it was reported that the Vermont Rail System was to acquire New England Southern Railroad. In June of 2020, the sale was finalized and VRS became the immediate owner of NEGS. Its sole engine (2555) was patched with GMTX logos and renumbered to 1505. Currently, the New England Southern operates under Vermont Rail Systems and regularly only on the state-owned White Mountain Branch in central New Hampshire. The railroad's sole interchange point is with Pan Am Railways at Concord, from which loaded cars come inbound and empties depart.

The post card was published by Mary Jayne's Railroad Specialties (I have 243 post cards in my collection from her) with a little help from Alleghany Publishers. What is of note is that the post card was sent to the receiver by a person named Ron. I am wondering if the same Ron was the person who took the picture. The post card was sent without a stamp, as if it was part of a larger communication package. It would be very convenient to have a handful of these post cards on hand to use as personal notes!

Love Those Alcos

Thanks to the foresight of Homer McGee, the president of the railway, the Green Bay Route loaded up on Alco-built locomotives and entered into the world of railroad competition with the "big boys". The front of this post card shows one of those Alcos at work leaving Green Bay, Wisconsin. The following information was gleaned from the website: http://www.greenbayroute.com/

The Green Bay and Western Railroad was a paper carrying line and bridge route operating between the Mississippi River at Winona, Minnesota and Lake Michigan at Kewaunee, Wisconsin, via Green Bay. It was chartered in 1866 as the Green Bay and Lake Pepin to provide an outlet for the region's timber and agriculture. In 1853 a charter was granted to the Green Bay & Minnesota Railroad sufficient capital was never raised, however, and the railroad never was built. On April 12, 1866 a charter was granted to the Green Bay & Lake Pepin Railway (GB&LP) and construction of a route actually began in 1869. By January of 1872 regular service began between Green Bay and New London, a total route of forty miles. The railway finally reached the banks of the Mississippi River in East Winona, Wisconsin in December 1873. The GB&LP changed its name to the Green Bay & Minnesota Railroad (GB&M) in 1873 and fell under the control of Eastern railroad interests. The GB&M fell into receivership and was sold in foreclosure in 1881 to the Green Bay, Winona, & Saint Paul Railroad, which was created for the sole purpose of taking over the old company. Financial problems continued to plague the railroad and the line went into bankruptcy, emerging as the newly formed Green Bay & Western (GB&W) in May 1896. The Green Bay Route operated as sleepy backwoods railroad until the arrival of Homer McGee as President in 1934. His twenty-eight year tenure saw a massive program to improve the line, such as replacing all untreated softwood ties with treated hardwood, smoothing out grades to speed operations, and replacing old lightweight rail with ninety pound sections to enable the railroad to operate at speeds in excess of sixty-five miles per hour. Marginal branch lines were abandoned, the one was sold to outside interests, and another was fully merged into the GB&W. Under McGee's guidance the GB&W transformed itself into a high-speed bridge route powered by a modern fleet of Alco diesel locomotives, linking the upper Midwest with the East Coast via the Lake Michigan car ferries. By the 1960's over forty percent of all traffic on the Green Bay Route was overhead traffic, originating and terminating off line. The main commodity was forest and agricultural products shipped east and automobiles and auto parts shipped west. Increasing competition from highways and large-scale railroad mergers began to cut into the Green Bay Route's traffic and the writing was on the wall. The success of the railroad was dependent on the Kewaunee ferry which ceased operation in 1990. On August 27, 1993 the assets of the GB&W and the FRVR were merged into the Fox Valley & Western Railroad which was a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation. Much of the rolling stock had their reporting marks painted over with WC subsidiary Sault Sainte Marie Bridge Company (SSAM). The remaining assets of the FV&W were merged into the Canadian National Railway along with parent WC on October 9, 2001. The actual Green Bay and Western Railroad Company still survives, though only as a shell.

The post card was published by RAILCARDS.COM out of Alameda, California. The webite does not exist any more, so I presume that the company went out of business. This is one of two hundred and four post cards that I have from this publisher. It is the third largest group of post cards in my collection.

Useful Then, and Useful Now

The railroad station pictured on the front of this post card is in Cortland, New York. Cortland is only about 55 kilometers (35 miles) from Syracuse, New York and 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Binghamton – almost due north and south between the two cities.

So, it makes sense that the first railroad to reach Cortland was the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad, a forerunner of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which opened a line between Syracuse, New York, and Binghamton, New York, on October 18, 1854. It was joined in 1872 by the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad, which extended west from its existing line at Norwich, New York, to Freeville, New York. This line was later leased by the Elmira, Cortland and Northern Railroad, which in turn became part of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1896. The present building was constructed in 1910–1911, with a formal opening on April 4, 1911. The brick building measured 155 by 50 feet and stood two stories tall. The space was sufficient to contain a waiting room, baggage room, a "women's retiring room", a smoking room, and a ticket office. The second floor was given over to company offices. It replaced the original station, which had served both freight and passengers. A new freight house was also built. Traffic declined on the Elmira and Cortland Branch after World War I, and the Lehigh Valley gradually reduced service throughout the 1930s and 1940s. The last scheduled passenger service, between Cortland and DeRuyter, New York, ended on April 25, 1948. Limited service remained in the form of mixed trains. Even these ended south of Cortland on April 30, 1950, leaving a roundtrip between Cortland and Canastota, New York. This was effectively withdrawn after 1954. Lackawanna passenger service ended in 1958. The Lehigh Valley abandoned the branch north of Cortland in 1967. Most of the branch south of Cortland was out of service by the mid-1970s. Conrail, successor to the Lehigh Valley, abandoned all but 3 miles (4.8 km) within the vicinity of Cortland. This line is owned by the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway. The station is still standing today. As I searched the internet for information, I came to the conclusion that the old station is the heart of the Cortland Community Centre. This is their website: http://cortlandcommunitycenter.org/ It looks like they are just starting to develop this website.

The post card was published by the William Jubb Company. The business started in 1908 and continued until the Great Depression era in the 1930s. The company published view-cards depicting scenes from western New York State. Their white-border cards manufactured in the United States were printed on a textured paper similar to that of linen cards. This is one of two post cards I have from this company.

Something is Fishy Here

The picture on the front of this post card was taken along the Green River

just a few miles northwest of the city of Green River in Wyoming. The Union Pacific Railroad tracks follow the river for a very short distance (maybe 4 or 5 kilometers), but just enough to get this gorgeous view of the river valley. This particular stretch of the tracks is called “Fish Cut”. This website gives some information about how to get there: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1595361,nodelay=1 Looks like the climb west of Green River to Peru. West of Green River on old Hwy 30 about 3 miles. This road parallels the tracks and is apparently a public road, Ive never been approached by UP police while on it. On the same road is access to the famous bridge over the Green where one can have a train and Castle Rock in the background in the frame. Cross the Green River and look up to your left to the tracks. Turn left on any dirt road that looks like it goes to the base of the hill below the tracks. Hike up to the tracks. Be aware that the cut has been changed from your postcard. The low side of the cut has been completely removed. These are the coordinates to Fish Cut: Latitude: 41.5477 Longitude: -109.5068 This web site gives you the story of why the length of track is called “Fish Cut”: www.jstor.org "Fish Cut" is called that because of the fossil fish from the Eocene (about 48 million years old) Green River Formation. When they made the cut, they discovered some of the best preserved and most abundant fossil fish. If you've seen the fossil of a fish that died eating another fish, it came from that formation (which covers most of Southwest Wyoming and parts of Utah)... along with the millions of fossil fish often seen at museum gift shops for surprisingly low prices. Interestingly, Como Bluff to the east has a similar story involving UP railroad workers discovering abundant fossils, but there it was dinosaurs. Como Bluff is the dig that kicked off the western states dinosaur hunts, started the "war" between Cope and Marsh, and provided a huge percentage of dinosaur fossils in museums around the world. It's now the haunt of one of the most well-known living paleontologists, Bob Bakker (the one on Discovery Channel with the beat up hat and scraggly beard). The post card was published by the Barkalow Brothers. You may notice that there are some darker lines on this side of the card. That is because the post card is embossed and those are signs of wear. It was posted in July of 1908. Here is the story of the Barkalow Brothers as taken from the website https://www.metropostcard.com

The Barkalow Brothers, Sidney D. Barkalow and Derrick V. Barkalow, arrived in Omaha from Ohio in 1856. BARKALOW BROS., news agents U. P. R. R., firm composed of D. V. and S. D. Barkalow, commenced business in 1865. D. V. B. of above firm was born in Warren County, Ohio, February, 1843. In 1856 he removed with his parents to Omaha, Neb. Learned printing and telegraphy, and about 1862 was engaged as operator on the overland telegraph line. He married in Cheyenne, W. T., May 24, 1876, to Miss Kate Whitehead. They have two children, Weltha M. and Robert V. Mr. B. is a member of the Pleasant Hours Club. S. D. Barkalow of above firm was born in Warren County, Ohio, in 1844; removed to Omaha Neb., with his parents in 1856. At the age of fifteen years he commenced clerking, and at seventeen started in business for himself in book and stationery firm of Barkalow Bros. They became the exclusive distributors of printed materials, including postcards, for the Union Pacific Railroad. They won won their contract with the U.P. in 1865 and became the exclusive news agents on the trains and in the stations along the line. The Barkalow Brothers also published non railroad oriented view-cards that were often printed by Tom Jones. They have been known to cooperate with Williamson-Haffner Company in their publishing efforts. They eventually became suppliers of hotel gift shops and moved their business to Fort Myers, Florida. However, I have seen that on June 9, 1972, the Barkalow Brothers were suing a janitorial company for damages caused by a fire that the Barkalow Brothers say was the janitorial company. This office was in Omaha, Nebraska.

From This to a Parking Lot

The Grand Trunk station was a historic railroad station in Hamilton, Ontario, which was located on Stuart Street, at the beginning of Caroline Street North. In 1885, an effort was made to beautify the area to the east of the station itself with ornamental gardens.

You can see the results of that effort in the picture on the front of the post card. The embankment along Stuart Street provided an opportunity to let passengers passing by to know exactly what city they were in, with the word "Hamilton" written with white stones. If you would like to see what it looks like today (see title of this post,)the GPS coordinates of where the station was located are: 43°16′05″N 79°52′20″W Michael Willson Browne, one of the pioneers of the shipping industry in Hamilton, moved to Hamilton in 1836, and entered into a partnership with Daniel Charles Gunn, who retired in 1847. Mr. Browne became manager of the Grand Trunk Railway's office in Hamilton in 1864. The company was incorporated on November 10, 1852, as the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada to build a railway line between Montreal and Toronto. The charter was soon extended east to Portland, Maine and west to Sarnia, Canada West. In 1853 the GTR purchased the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway from Montreal to the Canada East – Vermont border, and the parent company Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad through to the harbour facilities at Portland. A line was also built to Lévis, via Richmond from Montreal in 1855, part of the much-talked about "Maritime connection" in British North America. In the same year it purchased the Toronto and Guelph Railroad, whose railway was already under construction. But the Grand Trunk Railway Company changed the original route of the T&G and extended the line to Sarnia, a hub for Chicago-bound traffic. By July, 1856, the section from Sarnia to Toronto opened, and the section from Montreal to Toronto opened in October of that year. By 1859 a ferry service was established across the St. Clair River to Fort Gratiot (now Port Huron, Michigan). GTR underwent serious financial difficulties as a result of the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and its shareholders, primarily in the United Kingdom, were determined to prevent the company from being nationalized as well. Eventually on July 12, 1920, GTR was placed under control of another federal government Board of Management while legal battles continued for several more years. Finally, on January 20, 1923, GTR was fully absorbed into the CNR on a date when all constituent companies were merged into the Crown Corporation. At the time that the GTR was fully merged into CNR, approximately 125 smaller railway companies comprised the Grand Trunk system, totalling 12,800 kilometres (8,000 mi) in Canada and 1,873 kilometres (1,164 mi) in the United States. I googled the location of this train station to see what it looks like today - IT IS NOW A PARKING LOT!! The back of this post card tells me that Canadians have been polite for a very long time. I have three post cards with this picture on the front.

The back of one of them tells me that it was mailed on December 8th of 1906. That is 114 years ago.

If you look in the upper right hand corner of another one of the post cards, where the postage stamp is to be placed, you will see the traditional rectangle to visually show you where the stamp goes. The words in the rectangle say, "Postage stamp should be affixed here." How polite is that?!!! .....on the other hand, if you look at the rectangle on a post card from the United States that is contemporary to our Hamilton Station (both approximately 1908) you will see that the message is much more directive, "Place Stamp Here".

I love being Canadian!

Not Prince Albert in a Can...

Albert Canyon is a railway point at Mile 105.8, Mountain Subdivision of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Adjacent to the west is Lauretta (Mile 109.5), and east is Downie (Mile 101.6). A hot box detector operates at Mile 105.0. Albert Canyon, one of the original CPR stations opened in 1886, was the Rogers Pass, then Connaught Tunnel, western slope base for pusher locomotives, which predominantly assisted eastbound freight trains up the steep 2.5% grade. The station name derives from the gorge, where the track crosses the south wall of the short box canyon on a narrow ledge. All passenger trains from the late 1880s until at least 1910 made a five-minute stop for passengers to alight and view the Illecillewaet River rushing through the 6-metre (20 ft.) wide gorge 91 metres (300 ft.) below. A stone parapet later replaced the wooden lookout - as seen on the front of this post card

on a rock outcrop. The final train to stop was in 1939. A dispatcher staffed the station telegraph office. A wye and water tank existed. To satisfy the anticipated mining boom, CPR added a long siding westward in 1898, and lengthened the wye southward. In 1910, a spark from a locomotive ignited leaves and timber near the tunnel 2 kilometres (1.25 mi.) west. The fire was initially controlled, but it later spread, almost reaching the section house. A 1916 CPR building program included a rooming and boarding house, cottages, and a five-stall engine house that replaced an earlier building. CPR erected a 91,000-litre; (24,000-US-gallon) oil fuelling tank in 1917, for oil-fired locomotives, and a mechanical coaling plant in 1921, for coal-fired locomotives. The engine house closed in 1940 when the pusher fleet relocated to Revelstoke. Prior to double tracking, a siding existed, which measured 73 cars long west and 77 east in the late 1890s, and 97 cars long in 1935. Still operational in 1948, it is unclear when the telegraph office closed. The final year passenger trains used the station was likely 1967. The section crew probably relocated about this time. In 1984, CPR constructed a 280-metre (930 ft.) test section of PaCT track (a reinforced, cast-in-place concrete foundation 23 cm thick with special clips, instead of spikes, holding the rails in place) at Albert Canyon to determine its suitability for laying in the Mount Macdonald Tunnel. The post card is the product of Byron Harmon's hard efforts.

Looks Like Disneyland but It's Not

At first glance, the locomotive pictured on the front of this post card looks like it is pulling into Main Street at Disneyland.

But, when I turn the post card over to read the description, I see that it is actually based closer to my home than I thought. It operates at the Silverwood Theme Park just north of Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. My research turned up a quaint bit of information: this theme park outbid Disneyland to purchase this particular steam locomotive. Unfortunately, the post card's description of the locomotive is that is it a "steam-chugging train" - period.

I had to go on line to see when it was built and by whom. Here is what I found:
The locomotive #7 is a 3-foot, narrow gauge built in 1915 by H. K Porter & Company. Henry Kirke Porter, along with this first partner, released the first steam locomotive on March 4, 1867. Their shop was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and they only concentrated on building narrow gauge locomotives. Eventually, the company built almost 8,000 of them by the time the last one rolled off the line in 1950. Mr. Porter went through two partnerships until in 1878 he started H. K. Porter & Company. He was very successful because he used interchangeable parts to build his locomotives. A customer just had to come in and pick out the various sizes and shapes, etc., then wait while the company assembled the custom order. Mr. Porter died on April 10, 1921 while he was the 81 year old president of the company.

The post card was published by Quicksilver Photography. They are still in business in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

It Took a While, but We Got There!

The company that owned the locomotives pictured on the front of this post card was chartered as a private company in 1912. It was known as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE); it was acquired by the provincial government of British Columbia in 1918. The Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) was incorporated on February 27, 1912, to build a line from Vancouver north to a connection with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) at Prince George. Although independent from the GTP, the PGE had agreed that the GTP, whose western terminus was at the remote northern port of Prince Rupert, could use their line to gain access to Vancouver. Upon incorporation, the PGE took over the Howe Sound and Northern Railway, which at that point had built 14 kilometers of track north of Squamish.

By 1915, the line was opened from Squamish 283 km north to Chasm. The railway was starting to run out of money, however. In 1915 it failed to make an interest payment on its bonds, obliging the provincial government to make good on its bond guarantee. In the 1916 provincial election campaign, the Liberal Party alleged that some of the money advanced to the railway for bond guarantee payments had instead gone into Conservative Party campaign funds. In the election, the Conservatives, who had won every seat in the legislature in 1912 election, lost to the Liberals. The Liberals then took the railway to court to recover $5 million of allegedly unaccounted funds. In early 1918, the railway's backers agreed to pay the government $1.1 million and turn the railway over to the government. When the government took over the railway, two separate sections of trackage had been completed: A small 32 kilometer section between North Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, and one between Squamish and Clinton. By 1921, the provincial government had extended the railway to a point 130 km south of a connection to Prince George, but it was not extended further. Construction of the line between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish was given a low priority; however, the railway had an agreement with the municipality of West Vancouver to provide passenger service. In 1928 they paid the city $140,000 in support of its road-building programme and the last trains on the line ran on November 29, 1928. The line fell into disuse, but was never formally abandoned. For the next 20 years the railway would run from "nowhere to nowhere". It did not connect with any other railway, and there were no large urban centres on its route. It existed mainly to connect logging and mining operations in the British Columbia Interior with the coastal town of Squamish, where resources could then be transported by sea. The government still intended for the railway to reach Prince George, but the resources to do so were not available, especially during the Great Depression and World War II. The unfortunate state of the railway caused it to be given nicknames such as "Province's Great Expense", "Prince George Eventually", "Past God's Endurance", "Please Go Easy", and "Puff, Grunt and Expire". Starting in 1949, the Pacific Great Eastern began to expand. Track was laid north of Quesnel to a junction with the Canadian National Railways at Prince George. That line opened on November 1, 1952. Between 1953 and 1956 the PGE constructed a line between Squamish and North Vancouver. The PGE used their former right-of-way between North Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay. This was to the dismay of some residents of West Vancouver who, mistakenly believing the line was abandoned, had encroached on it. This part of the line opened on August 27, 1956. By 1958 the PGE had reached north from Prince George to Fort St. John and to Dawson Creek where it met the Northern Alberta Railways. And this is the event that is being commemorated on the front of the post card. The post card was printed by Smith Lithograph Company out of Vancouver, British Columbia. I found this in my search on the internet: Companies that provide flyer printing services in Vancouver may want to keep the memory of one of their own alive. A longtime member of Vancouver’s printing industry, Dell Fraser recently passed away at the age of 82.

Fraser began his long career in Vancouver’s printing industry back when he started working for Hazeldine Press; subsequently, he then began working for a company by the name of Smith Lithograph. Smith Lithograph eventually changed its name to Smith Grant Mann, which is today located in the nearby city of Richmond.

The Rockies by Daylight

I was combing through my oversized post card album today and was inspired to post these cards into my blog; along with some

information:
Visiting the Canadian Rockies by train has been popular almost since the Canadian Transcontinental Road was completed. Sir William Van Horne, the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) said,"If we can't bring the mountains to the tourists, we will bring the tourists to the mountains". The tourists traveled by train from across Canada and the United States to see the beauty of the Canadian Rockies.

However, with the price of air flight becoming less expensive, many chose to fly to Canada and take the scenic part of the train route to and from Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. This caused the CPR "Canadian" and the Canadian National Railway's "Super Continental" to sell out west of Calgary and Edmonton in the summer months. Travel agencies and tour operators started to book

blocks of sleeping car accommodation a year in advance. Even so, much potential business was turned away due to sold out long distance trains. Via Rail - the new Canadian passenger service was receiving complaints both from its regular customers who couldn't get on the trains in the summer months due to tourist travel, and from the tour operators who couldn't get space

for their organized tours. Another complaint about the long distance trains was that on either the CPR or CNR route, much spectacular scenery went by during the night. For the railways, this was a dilemma because in order to serve the prairie cities and the end points in eastern Canada during daylight hours, trains had

to cross British Columbia and Alberta in the evening. In 1988, Via decided to experiment with a seasonal daylight train from Vancouver to Calgary and from Vancouver to Jasper. This train was marketed through the travel industry, who also arranged overnight accommodations in Kamloops. Cars from the former "Blue Fleet" of ex-CNR coaches and "day-niter" coaches were used, with galleys to serve chilled breakfasts and lunches airline style.

For four summers in a row I attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana from my home in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In 1988 and 1989 I flew from Chicago to Vancouver instead of to Edmonton. In 1988 I caught a train from Vancouver to Calgary and in '89 from Vancouver to Jasper, Alberta. Each train was part of a tourist train called "The Rockies by Daylight". I was under the impression that the trains were operated by VIA Rail Canada. My post cards are telling me that they were actually operated by a private company.

The Via train 101/102 Vancouver/Banff/Calgary and 103/104 Vancouver/Jasper were a success in the 1988 season, and the operation was extended into the 1989 season with more cars available and with a new name "Rocky Mountaineer". In the summer of 1989, the Canadian Government announced massive cuts to the Via Rail passenger train network. The "Rocky Mountaineer" was one of the services slated for discontinuance. Peter Armstrong, a travel agent and tour operator offered to operate the "Rocky Mountaineer" as a private enterprise and was granted the opportunity to do so. He set up a private corporation to operate the "Rocky Mountaineer" and persuaded several friends to invest their life savings. They very nearly lost everything, as the train did not turn a profit for three years. Then this happened:

The following is taken from their official website: https://www.rockymountaineer.com/about-us/history
Since its inception in 1990, Rocky Mountaineer, the British Columbia based, family owned business, has grown to become the largest privately owned luxury tourist train company in the world and has welcomed nearly 2 million guests onboard. While Armstrong Group, owners and operators of the award-winning Rocky Mountaineer, has a rich history rooted in success, the goal from day one remains the same: provide the most spectacular and unforgettable travel experiences in the world.

1990 All aboooard! The Rocky Mountaineer departs on the inaugural trip.
1991 Named one of the “World’s 20 Best Rail Experiences” by The International Railway Traveler magazine (same honour in 1998).
1995 Rocky Mountaineer GoldLeaf Service is launched.
1996 Sets the record for longest passenger train in Canadian history (37 cars).
1999 Sets new record for longest passenger train in Canadian history (41 cars).
2002 Welcomes our 500,000th guest and is recognized again by The International Railway Traveler magazine’s “10 Best Rail Experiences in the World”.
2003 Featured on BBC Television, “50 Things To Do Before You Die”.
2005 Wins the prestigious “World’s Leading Travel Experience by Train” at 2005 World Travel Awards (earns the same honour in 2006 and 2007).
Named as “One of the Great Train Rides in the World”, by Outside magazine.
Named one of “The World’s Top 25 Trains” by The Society of International Railway Traveler (earns the same honour in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009).
2006 Launches two new routes: Whistler Sea to Sky Climb (Vancouver to Whistler) and Rainforest to Gold Rush (Whistler to Jasper).
2007 Wins Tourism British Columbia’s “Foresight Sustainability Award” for leadership and advocacy of sustainable tourism.
Named one of the “World’s Greatest Trips” by National Geographic.
2008 Welcomes aboard our one millionth guest!
2009 ABC’s hit reality TV series, The Bachelorette, showcased the Rocky Mountaineer on a four-day journey.
Voted #1 on the Society of American Travel Writers Top Ten List of the most scenic and exciting train experiences in the world.
Rocky Mountaineer has been honoured with a World Travel Award in the category of “World’s Leading Travel Experience by Train” for the fourth year.
2010 Launches its iconic brand with a completely new look. From the logo, website and route names to a sleek new paint job for the rail cars, this fresh new look continues across the entire company.
Proudly accepts the World Travel Award’s “World’s Leading Travel Experience by Train” for the fifth time ,and new honour, “World’s Leading Luxury Travel Product of the Year.”
Receives two prestigious marketing awards: Marketer of the Year Award from the BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association and British Columbia’s Tourism Award for Best Tourism Marketing Campaign.
Ranks #5 on Reader’s Digest’s list of “World’s 10 Best Train Journeys.”
Listed as one of the “Top 10 North American Train Trips” by National Geographic.
2011 Rocky Mountaineer proudly accepts its sixth World Travel Award as "World's Leading Travel Experience by Train" and is listed as one of the "Top 5 trains in the world," by Conde Nast Traveler and by Travel + Leisure magazine Western Living as one of the "Best Life-Changing Trips" and among the "Top 5 Trains in the World."
Recieves Travel Weekly Readers' Choice Awards for "Best Rail Vacation" and UK Travel Agents Choice Awards for "Long-haul Rail Operator of the Year."
2012 Launches its newest and third level of service, SilverLeaf Service on the First Passage to the West route. Also begins running its bi-level dome cars on the Whistler Sea to Sky Climb for a limited time in the 2012 season.
2013 Launches its new Coastal Passage route, connecting Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, BC to the Canadian Rockies. After successfully launching SilverLeaf Service on the First Passage to the West route in 2012, Rocky Mountaineer adds this new level of service to its Journey through the Clouds route.
New destination, Lake Louise, AB is offered on Rocky Mountaineer's First Passage to the West route.
New annual corporate giving program, Life-Changing Train for Heroes is launched. The program celebrates wounded soldiers/veterans.
2014 Coastal Passage, Rocky Mountaineer's newest route offer 24 departures.
SilverLeaf Service is offerd on three routes, First Passage to the West, Journey through the Clouds and Coastal Passage.
2015 Rocky Mountaineer celebrates its 25th Anniversary. The company has grown to be the largest privately owned luxury tourism train company in the world.
2016 The Rainforest to Gold Rush route becomes a three day journey, with overnight stops in Whistler, Quesnel and Jasper.