Slower than a Speeding Bullet

“The Newfie Bullet”, the name of the train on the front of this post card,

was only carried by this train for the last 40 years of the life of the Newfoundland Railway. The Newfoundland Railway operated for a little over a century. From 1882-97 the trains ran over the portions of the railroad as it was slowly completed. The first passenger train across the entire line ran in June of 1898, connecting St. John’s on the east coast with Port aux Basques in the west. It took 28 hours for the completion of the journey. The final main line was 548 miles long from St. John's to Port aux Basques. However, many branch lines that sprang off the main made the operating trackage in the peak years (1915-31) 906 miles. The railroad was built to a narrow (3'6") gauge for reasons of economy, although it was never really economically viable on its own. The Newfoundland railway was the longest narrow gauge line in North America, and was regarded with particular affection by railway buffs by its gently mocking nickname, "the Newfie Bullet", which dates only from World War II. Although the first construction contract was signed in 1881 and construction did begin, it was not until 1890 and the advent of contractor Robert Gillespie Reid that the line extended beyond St. John’s and the Avalon Peninsula. The Reid family ran the railway until 1923, when operations were taken over by the Newfoundland government. Canadian National Railways assumed operations in 1949 under the Terms of Union between Newfoundland and Canada. It was not financially secure during most of its life (during World War II it actually showed a profit) and so it was decided to shut down the railroad as highway services increased. Regular passenger service ceased in July 1969, and the last freight ran in June 1988. The rails of the main line were removed by November of 1990. The railway always had a place in the heart of some Newfoundlanders because it gave Newfoundland a "new" interior region and its first towns "out of sight and sound of the sea," from Whitbourne to Deer Lake. It also gave the older population centres of the east coast an expanding hinterland. Like its North American neighbours, from 1898 Newfoundland had access to the west. Completion of the railway opened the west coast to further settlement and provided a tangible link with Canada. When I worked for UNICF, here in Edmonton, one of the volunteers came from Newfoundland. Her husband used to work for the Canadian National Railway in Newfoundland and as part of his retirement gifts they gave him a very small section of rail. He had died and she no longer wanted it. It now sits proudly in the garden in the front of our home. Boosters of the railway had long pointed to the line as a necessity for Newfoundland. Its construction was proposed as "the work of a country," a line that would lessen the island's historic dependence on the fishery and create a modern economy driven by land-based resources. However, Confederation meant that the financial burden was assumed by the taxpayers of Canada and by 1988 matters had come to the point where the Government of Canada sought to shut it down.

The post card was gifted to me by a co-worker at The Salvation Army. Prior to that, the post card was distributed by the company Supershot Photography out of Corner Brook, Newfoundland. All I could find about the photographer was his Facebook page.

Speaking of F-Units

In last week's post I mentioned that the Santa Fe locomotive that was featured took the place of the aging F-Units in the Santa Fe Railroad's fleet. This week, the post card we are exploring has a picture of one of the many types of F-Units that were made.

This particilar unit is unique among F-Units, but it is still a good example of what an F-Unit would have looked like. The following information is taken from the website: https://www.american-rails.com/fl9.html The EMD FL9 was one of the more unique locomotive designs ever conceived. It was developed by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division for the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad (New Haven Railroad) which had a system comprising both electrified and non-electrified lines (and on in which relied heavily on commuters between New York and Boston for revenues). As such, the New Haven Railroad wanted a locomotive which could operate over both lines without the need to switch out power, thus saving time and making train operations more efficient. While a sound theory and a reliable locomotive, the FL9 did not prove to be an entirely successful alternative for the electrics it replaced. The EMD FL9 began production in October, 1956 and was ordered upon the request of New Haven Railroad's new head of operations at the time led by Frederic Dumaine and Patrick McGinnis. Their belief with this dual-power locomotive was to eventually eliminate all electrified operations on the railroad, which consisted of the southern half of the system between New Haven and New York City. The FL9 was based from the FP9, which itself was a variant of the F9 only intended for use in passenger service like the FP7. Longer than the F9, the FP9 was 54 feet in length to house a steam generator. However, the FL9 required a length of 59 feet for its unique rear truck and electric equipment (and not to mention also housing a steam generator); thus, its similar dimensions and designation. The FL9 would prove to be EMD's longest F unit it ever developed. You see above, on the front of today's post card, that the F-Unit featured as built for the New Haven Railroad. The following information is taken from the website: https://www.nhrhta.org/history The New Haven Railroad was formed in 1872 when the New York & New Haven and the Hartford & New Haven railroads were merged together to form the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company (The New Haven Railroad). The New Haven's early management focused on expanding the company through an aggressive policy of mergers and acquisitions. Consequently, by the turn of the century the New Haven had absorbed over 25 railroad companies, dramatically expanding from its original 450 route miles to over 2,047 miles of trackage. The New Haven Railroad operated in the states of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The New Haven Railroad was always a technologically innovative company. Early experiments in electrification were performed on several branch lines during the 1890s. These experiments resulted in the entire main line from New York City to New Haven, Connecticut being put under catenary wires by 1914. By 1910, J. P. Morgan, as president of the railroad, practiced monopoly building efforts, which were in violation of various federal and state anti-trust laws. They came under direct criminal investigation and Morgan had so over-extended the company that it came very close to financial collapse. Thankfully, during World War One, the New Haven Railroad was taken over by the federal government and operated by the United States Railroad Administration. The various war emergency protections afforded the railroad and the great influx of military related business put the New Haven back on its feet again. In 1920, the New Haven Railroad reverted back to civilian ownership. Then, the Great Depression of the 1930s brought the New Haven Railroad once again to the brink of insolvency. The Second World War introduced the New Haven Railroad to the concept of mass dieselization. The then new Alco/GE DL-109 diesel passenger locomotives, which the New Haven Railroad bought in greater numbers than any other railroad, were used in round the clock service on passenger trains during the day and used on freight trains at night. The short-lived and controversial administration of president Patrick McGinnis, which commenced during April 1954 and was over in January 1956, put the New Haven Railroad through a comprehensive corporate image design project which gave the railroad a new 'NH' logo and red, white, and black corporate color scheme. This is the scheme that you see on the engine on the front of the post card. The New Haven's president during the latter half of the 1950s, George Alpert, was an early champion of government subsidies for money-losing railroad passenger operations and purchased the unique dual-powered EMD FL-9 diesel-electric-electric locomotives. This is the type of locomotive you see on the front of the post card. Unfortunately, expensive hurricane and flood damage during 1954 and 1955, competition from government subsidized highways and airlines, high rates of taxation, enormous commuter service losses, and the migration of heavy industry from New England to the south and west caused the New Haven Railroad to go bankrupt again in 1961. After a decade of struggling along under trustees the New Haven Railroad was absorbed by the ill-fated Penn Central Transportation Company on January 1st, 1969.

The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs. The following is taken from their website: https://www.audiovisualdesigns.com/ 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. By the time of his untimely passing in 1995, Carl had grown Audio-Visual Designs into an established icon in the railfan community - providing an enjoyable aspect of both the railfanning and model railroading hobbies. We serve many excursion railroads, museums, and hobby shops with stock post card images, greeting cards, custom products and the All Pennsy Calendar. In 1997, the business was purchased by us (Joe & Colleen Suo) and moved to the present Herkimer, NY location. Due to the timing of the current owners’ purchase of the business and the initial raising of funds, there was a 2 year gap in the All Pennsy Calendar production. For the years 1997 & 1998 there were no Pennsy calendars. However, they have maintained and expanded the level of quality in their products and services established by the founder.

Gone. But, Not Forgotten.

The photo on the front of this post card is a picture of one of the diesel locomotives that Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) ordered

from General Electric's locomotive division. It is a U-28 CG model of locomotive; one of many U-series locomotives known as U-boats by train enthusiasts. Santa Fe was the only railroad company to order any of these - and they only ordered ten of them. They were numbered 350 through 359 when they were delivered for passenger service. The CG in the model nomenclature indicates that there was a steam generator on board the locomotive so that it could heat up the interiors of the passenger cars that it pulled. It was located between the cab and the engine compartment. The tanks under the locomotive were divided into two compartments with two different refilling openings so they could each hold both fuel and water. The ten locomotives were delivered in August and September of 1966 and put immediately to use to replace the aging F-units that Santa was using. You can see that the company painted these engines with the famous "Warbonnet" paint scheme. These locomotives stayed in passenger service until a serious accident on February 9, 1969 involving another engine from the U-series. Santa Fe re-geared these locomotives from 77:26 (for speedy passenger service) to 77:18 (for powerful freight service). When they were switched to freight service they were also renumbered into 7900 through 7909. These ten engines stayed in service until September of 1980, when the last one was scrapped.

These locomotives now only survive in pictures. The post card was published by Vanishing Vistas. It is a company that is still around today. It is owned by Richard Cox who started it in 1967 with the specific intention of helping locomotives survive, if only in pictures. The company is headquartered in Rocklin, California, a city very close to Sacramento. You may also notice that the picture was taken by Lyman E. Cox. I do not know, but I would be willing to guess that the two are related. The post card came from my "Large Cards" collection; it is approximately 14 by 22 centimeters (5 1/2 by 8 3/4 inches). It takes up one whole page of the album.

England after 1920

The picture on the front of this post card was taken after 1920. This is the first of my blogs after 2020. To this end I wish each you reading this a Happy and HEALTHY New Year. The locomotive on the front of this post card is from England. It is an Atlantic-type (4-4-2) steam locomotive that belonged to the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Although the first Atlantic-type locomotive

first appeared in England in 1880, the picture on this post card has to be from after 1921. That is at least 40 years in which the Atlantic-type locomotives provide service to the English railways. There were two versions of the Atlantic-type: on was called the tank locomotive and the other the tender locomotive. The tank locomotive carries the water (and perhaps some oil) on board while the tender locomotive is pulling a car built specially for this function (it has at times been called a coal car). In Canada, starting on September 6, 1918, the Canadian National Railway was formed out of many railway companies that were floundering. The London and North Eastern Railway (L.N.E.R.)was formed in a similar manner in England through the Railways Act of 1921. The act brought together the Great Eastern Railway, the Great Central Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Great North of Scotland Railway, the Hull and Barnsley Railway, the North British Railway and the North Eastern Railway. Their combined mileage came to 10,600 kilometers and covered most of England and Scotland. The LNER became part of the British Railways when it was all nationalized in 1948. The back of the post card reminds me that this is part of a collection that I

purchased. Each card has the same handwriting in the same black ink with details about the picture on the front. It also clues me in that this is a real photo post card. It was published by Railway Photographs. When I looked at their address: 23 Hanover Street in Liverpool, England, I did not see an operating business at this location. They were, however, very close to the shore of the River Mersey and the Royal Albert Dock.