Still "Chugging" Along after All These Years

The train featured on the front of this post card is called “Ocean Limited”.

At the time of this photograph it was being operated by the Canadian National Railway (CNR). The route followed by the “Ocean Limited” was pioneered by the Intercolonial Railway Company. I wrote about this railway back in February of 2021. This route was created by the railway to add another train to the already popular “Maritime Express”. It started on July 3, 1904 as a summer run only service with a limited number of stops between Halifax and Montreal. However, the Grand Trunk Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway were sponsoring and bringing over immigrants to settle the western parts of Canada. As immigration to Canada increased (Halifax being a major port for receiving immigrants) the passenger service of the “Ocean Limited” also increased. During the two World Wars, this route was used to support troops and supplies as they were transported to Halifax for movement to Europe. By 1966, the “Ocean Limited” had been renamed to “The Ocean”, while maintaining the same schedule and train numbers. Today, this train is no longer operated by the CNR but by VIA Rail. It is the oldest continuously operating, named passenger train in North America. The route is 1,346 kilometers (800 miles) long and it takes one day and one night to complete. This is the description that VIA Rail printed in its brochure to market “The Ocean”: Imagine departing Montréal just as dusk is falling, shrouding the city skyline as you pull through the Montérégie Hills, distant lights marking the small towns you pass by on your journey east. As dawn breaks, the train descends the coast of Baie-des-Chaleurs, and soon you’ll be in Moncton and then Halifax, where your Maritime adventure continues. It adds, in the brochure, that during the Summer they have programming included in the trip like “Fascinating presentations on local history, culture and much more enliven and enrich your Maritime experience.” You can also “Stay connected [with their] Free Wi-Fi, power outlets and cell phone use at any time.” “The Ocean” also makes “Convenient connections …Take advantage of convenient ferry and bus connections to Saint John’s and Prince Edward Island.”

The post card was published by Mary Jayne's Railroad Specialties, Inc. Mary Jayne is a wonderful person. I wrote to her and told her about my post card collection; I asked if it was possible to get a printed copy of the index to all of her post cards. I truly expected to have to pay something for the effort of her having to print and mail the list to me. I received a very kind letter in the mail with the list. She said that since I was asking (and not demanding like so many others did) she was sending it to me for free. I still have that list and refer to it whenever I get a new Mary Jaynes' Railroad Specialties, Inc. post card.

That list tells me that this post card was published on December 14, 1985. It is the number in the box that indicates where to add the postage stamp that leads me to the publishing details on her post cards. Thank you Mary Jayne, and God bless you.

Geesh!! I am Confused. So Many Questions…

The picture on the front of this post card shows a Mountain type steam locomotive at North

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The back of the post card says that it is resting after “making its first revenue run from Chicago on the new Wisconsin Central Railroad.” I can see that it is connected to a tank car, so I am concluding that it hauled a line of tank cars to this sight. That would be a revenue run. Here is a list of what confuses me: 1) What is the Frisco locomotive doing on a Wisconsin Central Line? 2) How is it that a steam locomotive is making revenue run in 1988? 3) After reading the story below about locomotive number 1522’s life after retirement from the Frisco Line, what is it doing pulling tank cars, not passengers? Below, there are a few stories related to the front of this post card. The first one is brought to us via this website: https://www.american-rails.com/wisconsin.html The events which led to the creation of the "new" Wisconsin Central Railway began in the 1980s. With deregulation afoot after 1980 and railroads merging, the Soo realized in 1984 that to stay competitive it needed to expand as well. In February, 1985 it bid out the Grand Trunk Western and Chicago & North Western to buy the greatly slimmed down Milwaukee Road, by then a Midwestern Class I. The Milwaukee acquisition gave the Soo new markets in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. However, it also gained a heavy debt load and the expected income never materialized as planned from the takeover. To streamline operations the Soo Line formed the Lake States Transportation Division (LSTD) that would cover some 2,300 miles of track, mostly in Wisconsin but also reaching into northern Illinois and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Sault Ste. Marie. It was this network that formed the new Wisconsin Central. After a year of mediocre results with LSTD, Soo announced that it was selling the entire network to help pay off its debt from the takeover. After finding a group of buyers, the old name was brought back, including its famed shield logo; Wisconsin Central Ltd (WC). The new WC and its parent Wisconsin Corporation were both formed in April, 1987. The WC thrived, although the first few years proved very rocky as the new, upstart Class II regional found its footing. When the WC began, its 2,068-mile system was so large that it dwarfed all other Class IIs of its day. As of 1990, it was also larger than some Class Is at the time. Major connections for the railroad included Chicago, Duluth, the Twin Cities, Green Bay, and Milwaukee. During its early years it was paper that allowed the WC to prosper during the 1990s as it served 25 of Wisconsin's 52 such plants and the traffic always derived a significant amount of its earnings. However, it was also diversified in other freight such as food products, sand/aggregates, coal, chemicals, electric transformers, and other general merchandise. As profits soared the WC expanded; in 1993 it picked up the historic Green Bay & Western from the Itel Corporation. Wikipedia adds this tidbit to the history of the Wisconsin Central: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Central_Ltd. In 2001, the Wisconsin Central was purchased by Canadian National. Along with the former Illinois Central Railroad, the former Wisconsin Central became part of Canadian National's United States holdings and its property integrated into the CN system. At the time of its sale to Canadian National, Wisconsin Central operated over 2,850 miles (4,590 km) of track in the Great Lakes region. The railroad extended from Chicago into and through Wisconsin to Minneapolis-Saint Paul and Duluth, Minnesota, to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and north (through the Algoma Central Railway) to Hearst, Ontario. About the locomotive pictured on the post card, we find a website that has much to offer. All of the following information is from this website: http://www.stlouisnrhs.org/Frisco-1522/Frisco-1522_index.htm Frisco 1522 is a 4-8-2 'Mountain Type' Steam Locomotive built in 1926 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia for service on the St. Louis - San Francisco (FRISCO) Railway. Retired by the Frisco in the early 1950s, she was donated to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis for display. In 1988, the all-volunteer St. Louis Steam Train Association completed a 3 year restoration of the 1522, beginning her second career as an excursion engine throughout the Midwest and South. Rising insurance costs and limited access to the mainline, coinciding with an expensive, required boiler inspection forced the 1522 out of excursion service and back into retirement as of the end of 2002. The St. Louis Steam Train Association was also dissolved at the end of 2002. A small group of former crewmen did attempt to put together a plan in the mid 2000's to get the 1522 back under steam but was unable to make much progress. With the locomotive owned by St. Louis County, the crew cars transferred to the Transportation Museum Association and our former tools and supplies locked up at the Museum, getting all the pieces back into place proved too much. Another big factor is the age of the crew - we had all aged 20 years since the original restoration was started and many of the original crew were retirees at the beginning. As expected, after leaving a 10 year waiting period for anyone to restart operations, the Transportation Museum Association sold off the Firefly, Black Gold, Bluebonnet and the 1522-A water car - a move effectively ending any chance of running 1522 again. At least we former crew have the satisfaction of knowing our hard work on those cars is now benefiting the Milwaukee Road 261 operation and the Ohio Central. The St. Louis Chapter of the NRHS has been kind enough to host a republication of the former Frisco 1522 website. As former SLSTA webmaster, I am honored to be called back to maintain it. Since there is no real news to report, this website will be more of an historical look back at the SLSTA and the operations of the 1522 and her support train. It will be a work in progress with lots of photographs, a listing of 1522's travels in her second life, and some recollections from the webmaster and hopefully other members of the crew.

The picture on the post card was taken by Thomas A. Wilson and is part of the John Bartley Collection. They gave Audio Visual Designs the rights to publish the picture on this post card. I have over 300 post cards from Audio Visual Designs in my train post card collection. I hope you enjoy this one. That is the logo of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (reporting mark SLSF), also known as the "Frisco".

Gone, but Not Forgotten (It is in my "backyard")

The picture on the front of this post card shows what the diesel engine number 9000 looks like with a similarly painted B unit as it hauls freight out of Oshawa, Ontario on April 3, 1953. The locomotive

has had a bit of an identity crisis over its years. It was built in May of 1948 as an F3A class, V-1-a by EMD. It was later reclassified as a V-1-A-a in January of 1950 and once again reclassified in September of 1954 as a GFA-15a. After seeing 33 years of service on the Canadian National Railway (CNR) mainlines, it was retired on October 8, 1971. The locomotive travelled over 4.1 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) during its time in service. The CNR had used diesels for about 20 years before they ordered this one; but, these other diesels were always used in yards for shunting around cars. This locomotive was intended to be used for regular road freight service. Number 9000 is worthy of preservation because it was the first production road freight locomotive built for a Canadian railway. It was donated by CNR to the Alberta Pioneer Railway Association in November of 1971. It is currently being kept and used at the Alberta Pioneer Railway Museum in the northeast of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. The association of volunteers restores train-related memorabilia (including Number 9000). It was ready for service, after being painted in the CNR freight colours, in 1996, just in time to "star" in the move "In Cold Blood".

The photo on the front is credited to J. Wm. Hood. It was published by JBC Visuals out of Toronto, Ontario. I can find nothing about the history of the JBC Visuals Company.

Last of this Series

This is the last of the post cards about which I will blog, from the collection of cards that my friend gave to me from his family's history. This post card shows the train depot at Clatskanie, Oregon. It is a station on the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway. I will be blogging about this Railway and the devious manner in which it came into existence to compete with the Union Pacific Railroad. I could find very little about Clatskanie on the internet. It was close to an ammunition depot used by the military. So it is probably where the families and members of the military got off the train to go to the base. I looked at a map of the town today. There is a set of tracks that go through the town, still, and there is a Depot Street near the tracks. But, AMTRAK does not stop there. If you want to take AMTRAK, they do provide a bus to pick you up to take you to the nearest actual AMTRAK station.

The post card was published by the Patton Post Card Company out of Salem, Oregon. Oregon State University has three collections of works by this company. Edwin Cooke Patton was born August 12, 1868 in Salem. In 1908, he operated a Post Card Studio and the largest post card store in the Northwest in conjunction with Patton Brothers Bookstore in Salem. Patton’s studio was responsible for many early real photo views of Northwestern Oregon and the Coast. Patton was a magician in his spare time. He died December 24, 1929 in Woodburn, Oregon.