106 Year Old Post Card from the City in Which I Live.

This post card was given to me just this past week by a friend who respects history and its preservation. This post card was sent from one of his ancestoral relatives to another relative back in 1915. I want to respect that history and so I am entering it into my blog this week. There are several more to follow.

This post card shows a Canadian Pacific train crossing the newly constructed High Level Bridge in Edmonton, the capital city of the province of Alberta in Canada. The post card was sent on June 4, 1915, almost two years to the day since the bridge saw its first passenger train. Below is the story of the High Level Bridge. The High Level Bridge was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). It purchased an already existing railroad (the Calgary and Edmonton Railroad) which had begun the surveying for the bridge. The Calgary and Edmonton Railroad wanted to build a bridge over the North Saskatchewan River to join the cities of Strathcona and Edmonton together. Then the CPR negotiated rights of way, design and content of the bridge - among many other things. Finally, construction of the bridge began on August 14, 1910. There are 62 land piers and four river piers holding up the bridge. Construction of the piers was completed in 1911. The addition of the steel girders began on the south side of the river and slowly - and safely - the crew made its way to the north side, and in early 1913 the bridge made it to the side of the river where the Legislative Building is The bridge was to carry a train in the middle of the top of the bridge and street car lines on the outside of the top of the bridge. The bottom deck was built to carry automobiles The bridge is 755 meters long or 2,478 feet and 13 meters wide or 43 feet. It originally carried street cars, steam engines and cars. It rises 64 meters or 210 feet above the North Saskatchewan River. On June 2, 1913 the first CPR passenger train steamed into Edmonton over the newly completed structure. The first streetcar crossed the bridge on August 11, 1913. By that time, the cities of Strathcona and Edmonton became one city: Edmonton. Today, I drive a street car over the tracks that the train in this post card is traveling. It is part of my volunteer duties as a member of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society.

This is the back of the post card. There is a nice, chatty, newsy letter. It was sent from Ponoka, Alberta, but there is no sign of a stamp having been used. The left side of the post card tells us that the post card was published by Frasch Fotos of Edmonton. My searches on the internet do confirm that such a business did exist and there are other post cards to prove it. However, there is nothing about the history of the company, that I could find.

A Shay Logging Locomotive (5 of 5)

The locomotive featured on the front of this post card is the last of the three types of common

steam engines used in the logging industry that I will discuss. It is a Shay Locomotive that was used by the Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company. The information below was gleaned from this article: https://www.american-rails.com/shay.html The Shay steam locomotive was the most well-known and widely used of the geared designs to operate in the United States (the others being the Climax and Heisler, which followed in the footsteps of the Shay but were not quite as successful). Nearly 3,000 Shay locomotives were constructed from 1880 through nearly the mid-20 century. Designed by Ephraim Shay (an inventor, among his many, many job titles he held over the years) the geared locomotive proved to be an invaluable tool in the logging industry through the first half of the 20th century as it could operate on almost any type of track. Part of the design's successful was due to Shay's partnership with the Lima Locomotive Works. At first the builder had no interest in the design but eventually was persuaded to build a prototype, which was sold in 1880 to the lumber firm of J. Alley Company in Michigan. With the success of this prototype Shay applied for and received a patent on his design in 1881. As other logging companies saw the advantages the locomotive provided sales were off. Over the years both Shay and Lima improved upon the initial design making the locomotive heavier and more powerful with better tractive effort and adhesion. For instance in 1884 the first three-cylinder Shay was built and a year later Lima introduced the first three-truck locomotive. Then, in 1901 Shay received a patent for an improved geared truck. More than any other geared design the Shay steam locomotive proved to be most successful with main line railroads as several found use for it along steep and circuitous branch lines such as the Western Maryland, Northern Pacific, and New York Central. By the time production had ended on the Shay some 2,671 examples had been built by Lima spanning a period from 1880 to 1945. Its success launched Lima as a major builder of steam locomotives How geared steam locomotives work, according to William E. Warden in his book West Virginia Logging Railroads, is that these cylinders drive a flexible line shaft with universal couplings and slip joints through bevel gears. Essentially what this means is that the vertical cylinders drive a horizontal crank shaft attached to drive shafts extending to each truck axle. These axles have gearboxes attached to them which propel the engine forward. And, because geared steam locomotives have all of their trucks powered, they provided excellent adhesion enabling them to climb grades well over 5% (something all but unthinkable on main line railroads), although this high adhesion factor limited its speed to under 20 mph. Because the cylinders were designed to be situated directly ahead of the cab it forced the boiler to be offset to the left. However, as it turns out this worked out well since it provided for a counterbalancing of the locomotive. Additionally, the flexibility of the design allowed each truck to negotiate the track independently of the other, thus keeping the locomotive on the rails and allowing it to operate over almost any type of track (which was usually nothing more than rails laid directly onto a hillside for most logging operations).

This post also continues the displaying of some of the post cards in my collection from the Kinsey's Locomotives collection. The picture was taken by Darius Kinsey in 1927 near Camp Talbot, Quilcene, Washington. I have learned a lot about logging and the steam locomotives used in the industry during these five blog posts. I hope that you have enjoyed learning as much as I have.

A Climax Logging Steam Locomotive (4 of 5)

The locomotive featured on the front of this post card is a Climax locomotive. This engine was built by The Climax Manufacturing Company and was used by the Webb Logging & Timber Company in Washington State. The Climax locomotive is one of the three most popular designs of steam locomotives used in the logging industry. This post is continuing the theme of the various designs, so a quick glance back into the previous posts will catch you up, information-wise.

This is taken directly from a Wikipedia article: A Climax locomotive is a type of geared steam locomotive in which the two steam cylinders are attached to a transmission located under the center of the boiler. This transmits power to driveshafts running to the front and rear trucks. The invention of the Climax locomotive is attributed to Charles D. Scott, who ran a forest railway near Spartansburg, Pennsylvania between 1875 and 1878. A lumberjack of considerable mechanical ingenuity, Scott sought to bring an improved logging locomotive of his own design to market and brought the drawings to the nearby Climax Manufacturing Company in Corry, Pennsylvania. The first four Climax locomotives were built and delivered in 1888. The design patent was filed in February in the same year and granted in December. The invention was not patented in the name of Scott, as he had only a limited education, so he left the drawings to his brother-in-law George D. Gilbert, who was a civil engineer by profession and worked for Climax. Gilbert had the invention patented in his name without mentioning Scott. Many loggers considered the Climax superior to the Shay in hauling capability and stability, particularly in a smaller locomotive. This was due to its fully sprung truck arrangement; the Shay locomotive had no springs on the bogie on the drivetrain side and was therefore not fully able to compensate for twists in the track. The ride on the large class C Climax was characteristically rough for the crew, since the imbalance of the large drivetrain could only be compensated at one speed. Two Climax locomotives are preserved in Canada, both at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan, British Columbia. Shawnigan Lake Lumber Co. No. 2 is a 25-ton Class B locomotive, and was built in 1910 as shop number 1057. Hillcrest Lumber Co. No. 9 was built to a larger, 50-ton Class B design in 1915, and is Climax shop number 1359.

This post also continues the displaying of some of the post cards in my collection from the Kinsey's Locomotives collection. The picture was taken by Darius Kinsey in 1920.

Logging Locomotive - Another Type (3 of 5)

As we have seen in the past few posts, getting through the steep grades of logging mountain sides was accomplished through many designs of steam locomotives. This engine is called a "Mallet" (pronounced mal-ay);

it was invented by a Swiss (think lots of mountains) engineer Anatole Mallet who lived from 1837 to 1919. A Mallet engine has one boiler that is connected to two sets of driving cylinders; this is also called an articulated engine. What makes this a Mallet engine is that the steam goes through one set of cylinders (rear) at high pressure, the exhaust from those cylinders is at a lower pressure, but strong enough to still be used in the second set of cylinders (front set) before it is sent out the exhaust. The picture on the front of this post card is of a Mallet 2-6-6-2 built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It is being used at the Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mills in Sekiu, near Clallam Bay on the westen side of the Olympic Peninsula.

The photo was taken around 1930. The post card continues to show you some of the post cards in my collectioin that are from the Kinsey's Locomotive series. I will continue next week with another, different, design of steam locomotive also used in the logging industry.

Logging Train - NOT a Common Sight (2 of 5)

Last week I posted about a logging train, a common sight in many forests in North America. The logging train was the common sight; the type of locomotive being used on the train was not common. Last week I featured a "Tank Engine". This week I am featuring a gear-driven type of locomotive. The steam locomotive that is most familiar to people has a steam-driven piston on either side of the front of the locomotive. These pistons push a rod that is connected to cranks (bars) that are attached to the driving wheels of the locomotive. Each push and retraction of the piston equals one rotation of the driving wheel. The larger the driving wheel, the faster the locomotive can travel; the smaller the driving wheel, the more powerful is the locomotive. But, there is a limit as to how small the driving wheels can be without having a piston stroke that is just not practical. Logging in mountainous territory requires power to get up the steep hillsides. Moving up the mountain side requires power that would make the piston stroke unreasonable. The solution is to change how the steam’s power is transferred to the driving wheels from cranks to gears. There are three typical designs of geared locomotives: the not-so-common Climax, and the Shay were well known and used.

The Heisler locomotive, as shown on the front of this post card was the third. The following information was taken from the website: https://www.american-rails.com/heisler.html The Heisler steam locomotive was the other popular and well-known geared design built in the late 19th century. However, likely due to the fact that it did not hit the market until the early 1890s, a few years after the Climax and Shay had already begun production (the Shay was first built in 1880), it was not as successful. Despite this the Heisler did sell several hundred units and interestingly, remained in production until nearly the start of World War II (by comparison the Climax ended production in 1928). Additionally, just like its competitors the Heisler was offered in two and three-truck designs, although manufacturers also built them to nearly a dozen different specifications. Today, according to the book, West Virginia Logging Railroads, by William Warden at least eight Heislers are still in operation and more than thirty others are preserved around the world. A few places you can see them running include the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Railroad in Felton, California which has 2-truck #2, built for West Side Lumber; Roots of Motive Power in Willits which maintains Blake Brothers 2-truck #6; and Meadow River Lumber Company 3-truck #6 at the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad in rural Durbin, West Virginia. End of information from the website!

The post card is, again, part of my collection that includes the photographs of Darius Kinsey from Washington State. This picture was taken in 1922. Kinsey, born in Maryville, Missouri, moved to Snoqualmie, Washington, where he took up photography in 1890. He worked as an itinerant photographer for several years, until meeting Tabitha May Pritts at Nooksack, Washington. The couple married in 1896. The following year, they set up a photo studio in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. In 1906, the couple moved to Seattle. Darius gave up studio work and focused instead on the lumber industry and scenic photography. Tabitha developed the negatives and made the prints, which were sent back to the logging camps and sold to the loggers. Darius used an 11" X 14" Empire State view camera with a custom made tripod that could extend twelve feet high. He used glass plates until 1914, when he switched to film. The major collection of his work is held by the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. The University of Washington Libraries also has a collection of his work.