One Intrepid Photographer!

This posting isn’t so much about the train on the front of the post card, as it

is about the photographer who took the picture. The following is taken from Wikipedia: Charles Roscoe Savage (August 16, 1832 – February 4, 1909) was a British-born landscape and portrait photographer most notable for his images of the American West. Savage converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his youth while living in England. He served a mission in Switzerland and eventually moved to the United States. In America he became interested in photography and began taking portraits for hire in the East. He traveled to Salt Lake City with his family and opened up his Art Bazar where he sold many of his photographs. Savage concentrated his photographic efforts primarily on family portraits, landscapes, and documentary views. He is best known for his 1869 photographs of the linking of the First Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory, Utah. This is the picture that Charles Savage took. All American train fans are familiar with this famous shot:

The post card was published, not by Charles Savage, but by the

Frederick S. Lightfoot Collection of Huntington Station, New York. This post card is number 13 and it is part of a larger series of 50 post cards that the Lightfoot Collection published. You can see more of the collection at the website listed below here: http://www.wallywombatscollectables.com/Master-Photographer-by-Lightfoot.php The series was published prior to 1963 (the clue is that there is no zip code in the address on the back of the card). There are more than just trains in the collection.

The First Train to Have a Vacuum Cleaner

Wikipedia says: The Great Northern Railway (reporting mark GN) was an American Class I railroad. Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Great Northern's route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S. It is on this route that the picture on the front of this post card was

taken. The title says that the shot was taken near Scenic, Washington – a town about 75 miles east of Seattle. The train in the picture is the “Oriental Limited. This website: https://www.gnflyer.com/1924original.html tells us this about the Oriental Limited. The Great Northern Railway inaugurated transcontinental passenger service between Seattle and St Paul on June 18, 1893 and continued operations until April 1, 1971 when Amtrak assumed all passenger service. During the intervening 78 years, Great Northern provided first class passenger train service over its routes to the Northwest. During most of this period, there were two first class trains serving the route, although one was always regarded as the premier train. That premier train carried several different names through the years. Between 1893 and 1905 the railway's standard bearer carried the monikers of the Great Northern Flyer, the Oregonian, and the Great Northern Express. Between 1905 and 1929, the Great Northern Railway's crack transcontinental was called the Oriental Limited, named for the Asiatic commerce which had been one of J.J. Hill's motivating objectives in building the railroad itself. From 1929 until the end of passenger service operations, the premier train was known as the Empire Builder, in tribute to Mr. Hill. The new Oriental placed in service on May 23, 1909, carried an RPO/Bag, Day Coach, Tourist Sleeper, Diner, 12-1 and 16 section Standard Sleepers, and a Five Compartment Observation. 12-1 sleepers bore the names of Oriental ports such as Tokio (sic), Fujiyama, Yokohama, Manila and Foochuo. The Oriental's Observation Car had mahogany and cocoa finish like an English club and featured a large oval smoker separating the compartments from the lounge. This train was the first Oriental to be equipped with a vacuum cleaner.

The post card was published by The C.H. Shaver News Service out of Seattle, Washington. I could find no information about the company. I do know that there were many news distribution companies that ended their names with “News Service” or “News Company” who were partners with The American News Company (ANC). The ANC was the printer of this post card. They worked out of 119 Nassau Street, New York, NY between 1864 and 1969 and claimed to be the largest publisher and distributor of books, magazines, newspapers, and postcards in the United States exclusively through their national network of affiliated news agencies. Their earliest cards were printed as black and white views, followed by their lithographic Polychromes. Other series were added each being printed in a different manner. Some of these techniques have a specific letter prefix to their numbers, while others kept adding letter prefixes sequentially from A as they ran out of four or five digit numbers assigned to that card. Many cards with undivided backs were later reprinted with divided backs after 1907. Many small publishers also contracted out postcards though the American News Company. Their printers in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin, Germany produced most of their cards, but many were manufactured in France and the United States as well. They produced cards by various processes using different trade names... This post card

used the Excelsior trade name. It was a gravure card printed in Germany. It was marketed as their highest quality black & white card, and most customers chose this type over the cheaper halftone version. Almost all cards in this series are printed in black & white, but there are some examples issued in monochromes of blue and sepia as well as more rare cards that were printed in color and hand colored. Prefixes A, B, D, F (1904-1920), Prefixes AA for Blue, Sepia & Hand colored cards (1908-1925). This information about the American News Company came from the Metropolitan Post Card Club of New York. http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersa1.html

I Feel the Earth Move Under my Feet

The information in the first paragraph was taken from this website: https://yubanet.com/scitech/toppled-train-offers-insight-into-1906-san-francisco-earthquake/ The train laying on its side in the picture on this post card was near the

Point Reyes station north of San Francisco, stopped on a siding for refueling, when it took its historic tumble. An eyewitness to the event said the conductor had just climbed back into the locomotive: “when the train gave a great lurch to the east, followed by another to the west, which threw the whole train on its side. The astonished conductor dropped off as it went over, and at the sight of the falling chimneys and breaking widows of the station, he understood that it was the Temblor.” The eyewitness account of the train lurching east then west before toppling suggests that the hypocenter of the 1906 is likely to be south of Point Reyes, perhaps offshore of San Francisco and San Juan Bautista, as others have calculated.

The post card was published by The Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History, which is named after its founder, a U.C. Berkeley graduate in history who enjoyed a long career at the Oakland Tribune. In the mid-1960s, Jack Mason, along with his wife Jean, retired to his lifelong summer community of Inverness in West Marin County and began to document the history of the area, eventually writing eight books and publishing a delightful quarterly journal, Point Reyes Historian. The Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History is primarily an archive with some museum collections created to build upon local historian Jack Mason's extensive history collection. The Museum collects and preserves materials pertaining to the history of the Point Reyes Peninsula and Tomales Bay regions. Our mission is to enrich the community through exhibits, publications, outreach programs, and research opportunities. We seek to inspire public interest in West Marin history and to highlight its connection to contemporary life. This information was taken from: https://jackmasonmuseum.org/about/

The Post Card is a Impressive as the Train it Promotes

The train depicted on the front of this post card is the 20th Century Limited Express. The 20th Century Limited was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967.

The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along the railroad's "Water Level Route". NYC inaugurated the 20th Century Limited as competition to the Pennsylvania Railroad, aimed at upper-class and business travellers. It made few station stops along the way and used track pans to take water at speed. In 1938, streamlined train sets designed by Henry Dreyfuss were added to the route. The 20th Century Limited was the flagship train of the New York Central and was advertised as "The Most Famous Train in the World". It was described in The New York Times as having been "[...] known to railroad buffs for 65 years as the world's greatest train", and its style was described as "spectacularly understated". The phrase "red-carpet treatment" is derived from passengers' walking to the train on a specially designed crimson carpet. The amazing part of this post card is that it is as fancy as the train that it is showing off! First, the picture of the train itself is embossed on the card. When I run my fingers over the card I can feel the 3-D effect of the embossing. The dark spots (on the front tracks, on the front and sides of the train, and in the smoke) are actually little pieces of glitter that has been glued onto the card. The title of the card and publisher are also embossed into the card. This card is over 107 years old and the glitter is still there as strongly pronounced as ever!!

I do not usually publish a very large picture of the back of the post card, but I am making an exception this time. Look at the picture of the train; that is the result of the embossing process. This post card is from the pre-March 1, 1907 era. One is only allowed to write the address on the back of the post card. The information about the publisher of this post card comes from: Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersi.html This major publisher produced a wide variety of color halftone lithographic cards in series that were printed by Emil Pinkau in Leipzig, Saxony. Each city or location of their color card sets were assigned the same number prefix. They also published an unnumbered series of chromolithographic fine art cards that were printed in Dresden. Many of their early cards do not have their name on them, only their distinct eagle logo. Their best known cards are from a very large set that captured scenes throughout the City of New York. These cards tended to use brighter than average colors and were titled in a very distinct font. Similar cards, but with more subdued writing, appeared afterwards depicting scenes from the surrounding regions such as Long Island. Illustrated Post Card Company of 118 Chambers Street in New York was printing millions of cards at a time when picture postcards were at the peak of their popularity. Another address given for them is 520 West 84th Street, New York and they operated from 1905 to 1914. They published a wide variety of color halftone lithographic cards in series that were printed by Emil Pinkau in Leipzig, Saxony. Each city or location of their color card sets were assigned the same number prefix.Their best known cards are from a very large set that captured scenes throughout the City of New York. These cards tended to use brighter than average colors and were titled in a very distinct font. Similar cards, but with more subdued writing, appeared afterwards depicting scenes from the surrounding regions such as Long Island. In 1909 they stopped importing cards from Germany and began printing their own. A large number of black & white cards were produced in a more open halftone with some being poorly hand colored. These black & white cards were numbered consecutively.

History Passed on from One Person to the Next

The train in the picture on the front of this post card belongs to the Western

Pacific Railroad. The picture was taken in the Feather River Canyon in northern California. Wikipedia provides us the following information: The Feather River Route is a rail line that was built and operated by the Western Pacific Railroad. It was constructed between 1906 and 1909, and connects the cities of Oakland, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The line was built to compete with the Central Pacific Railroad (and later Southern Pacific Railroad), which at the time held a nearly complete monopoly on Northern California rail service. The route derives its name from its crossing of the Sierra Nevada, where it follows both the North and Middle Forks of the Feather River. The route is famous for its impressive engineering qualities and its considerable scenic value. All of the route is now owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad. The post card is from the J. H. Eastman collection. This website provides pertinent information about the photographer and publisher: https://www.library.ucdavis.edu/archives-and-special-collections/manuscript/eastmans-originals-collection/ Jervie Henry Eastman was born, July 20, 1880, in White Cloud, Michigan.

His family moved to northern California in 1886. In 1898, Eastman launched his photographic career in Sisson, California (later named Mount Shasta), as a view photographer. He became a partner in the Shasta View Company in 1907. Eastman lost his entire stock of plates and cards in a fire in 1912. In 1921, Eastman moved to Susanville and established Eastman & Company as a commercial photography and post card studio. In 1936 he hired Mirl Simmons, a young photographer from Hillsborough, West Virginia, to help with the postcard photography. In 1947, Eastman and Simmons became partners. The business had expanded to provide photographic supplies to southeastern Oregon and studios in Westwood, Weed, and Susanville. Eastman retired from photography in 1959 and sold his share of the business to Simmons. He died in Susanville on February 11, 1969. Simmons ran the Eastman Studios until 1980, when he retired and sold the business to John and Shirley Castle. Mirl Simmons died on April 27, 1987, in Jamestown, California. The Eastman's Originals Collection (the historical postcards and negatives) was sold to Anne Fisher in 1982. She managed the collection until her retirement in 1994. She donated the collection to the University of California, Davis, in 1994.

Oh, to be able to "fly" again!!

The locomotive on the front of this post card is the Denver and Rio Grande

Western No. 169. The information about it here is taken from our good friends at Wikipedia. No. 169 is a 4-6-0 "Ten Wheeler" type narrow gauge steam railway locomotive and one of twelve similar locomotives built for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1883. It was built as a passenger locomotive, with 46 in (1,200 mm) drivers, the second largest drivers used on any three foot gauge D&RGW locomotive. (The K-37s which were originally standard gauge have 44 in (1,100 mm) drivers.) During its operational life it was used on all of the major D&RGW narrow gauge lines. It appears in two Otto Perry photographs on the branch to Santa Fe, New Mexico in April 1933. It was taken out of service in 1938 and then refurbished in 1939 to appear at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1941, the railroad donated it to the City of Alamosa and it has been in Cole Park there since. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Locomotive No.169 in 2001.

Judging by the back of the post card, the city of Alamosa is trying to raise enough money to get No. 169 ready to “fly” again. There is no printer or publisher listed on the back of the post card, so I think that the city itself has taken on the responsibility to print this card and sell it to help raise the funds necessary. I wish them the best of luck!!

Watch Out for Tornados

The picture is of a steam engine operated by the Knox & Kane Railroad

crossing the Kinzua Bridge near Mt. Jewell Pennsylvania. The bridge spans the Kinzua Creek Valley, thus its name. The Kinzua Viaduct, when first constructed in May 1882, was the highest and longest viaduct in the world, measuring 301 feet high and 2,053 feet long. The need to transport coal, oil and lumber across the Kinzua Gorge inspired General Thomas Kane, president of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Coal Company and Octave Chanute, Chief Engineer for the Erie Railroad to design a colossal viaduct. It was built by the Elmira Bridge Co. of Elmira, New York. The longest span is only 60 feet, but the entire bridge is 2,053 feet long In 1900, the viaduct was rebuilt of steel to accommodate larger loads and the weight of "modern" train traffic. The style of bridge is a Deck Plate Girder Bridge, which passes the train over Kinzua Creek [today on the former Erie Railway at Kinzua Bridge State Park] in McKean County, Pennsylvania. You can driver there today and walk on the partially re-constructed bridge that was mostly destroyed by a tornado on July 21, 2003. The spans that were left were rehabilitated and reopened in 2011 as the "Kinzua Sky Walk. If you choose to drive there these GPS coordinates can help you to arrive: Approximate latitude, longitude +41.76345, -78.58928 (decimal degrees) 41°45'48" N, 78°35'21" W (degrees)

The post card was printed before the tornado took down the bridge. This is a modern era post card printed by the Modern-Ad Company. It contains a bar-code and a space below for the U. S. Postal Service to print their mark on the bottom. The photo on the front of the post card was taken by Bron Miller.

Quite the Engineering Feat

The Huey P. Long Bridge is a favorite railfan location. It is owned by the

New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, which is owned by the City of New Orleans and managed by the Public Belt Railroad Commission. The information below was taken from the website of the American Society of Civil Engineers: https://www.asce.org/project/huey-p--long-bridge/ "It remains today one of the great bridge engineering accomplishments for railway and highway bridges built in the country." - Historic American Engineering Record, Southeast Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2005 By the late 1880s, New Orleans was being served individually by multiple railroad trunk lines. A committee of citizens decided that this wasn't the most efficient and economical way to provide rail service to the port area along the river. They decided that a belt railroad was needed to provide switching among the different trunks. Prior to the construction of the Huey P. Long Bridge, railcars and trucks had to be ferried across the river. With the construction of this bridge, the Port of New Orleans became better connected to the rail infrastructure on both banks. Many conditions, such as the "gumbo soil" in and around the river, low land approaches, strong river currents, and the need for high navigation clearances required for ocean-going vessels, made the design and construction of this bridge difficult. Dr. Karl Terzaghi, who had developed a science of soil mechanics based on investigations of the permeability and compressibility of soil samples, concluded that the caissons of the four main piers should be sealed in a sand layer at a depth of approximately 170 feet and that the fatigue loading should not be more than 5.5 tons per square foot. Prior to Dr. Terzaghi's involvement, it had been recommended that the main piers should be founded from 225 feet to 250 feet below Gulf level. Even when the widening of the bridge was started in 2006, it was determined that no changes to the caisson foundations were needed. Designed by the firm of Modjeski, Masters and Chase, the Huey P Long Bridge was the first bridge to cross the Mississippi River at New Orleans. Its dual-track railroad portion was the longest, highest railroad bridge in the world at the time with a total length of 22,995 feet. The highway portion, 8,076 feet long, consisted originally of two lanes cantilevered off each side. This bridge opened up the southern portion of the country to improved transportation of commerce and people.

The post card was published by Tichnor Brothers Inc. I have 10 post cards from them. It was a long lived company and a major publisher and printer of a wide variety of postcards types from 1912 to 1987 and based at 160 North Washington Street, Boston and Cambridge, MA. Their view-cards were produced on a national level. Their view-cards were produced on a national level. They also produced a black white open halftone series on the hurricane of 1938. Their photochomes went under the trade name Lusterchrome. They also produced an early Tichnor Gloss series that was so heavily retouched they floated somewhere between being artist drawn and being a photograph. The company was sold in 1987 to Paper Majic.

Precourser to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad

The locomotive on the front of this post card is pulling freight near Minneapolis, Minnesota on the Great Northern Railway. The Great Northern Railway was built from several other railroads and has morphed

over the years by being combined with several other railroads. That is why the title of this post says what it says. The information about the Great Northern Railway is taken from this website: https://www.gnrhs.org/gn_history.php The Great Northern Railway was created in September 1889 from several predecessor railroads in Minnesota and eventually stretched from Lake Superior at Duluth and Minneapolis/St. Paul west through North Dakota, Montana and Northern Idaho to Washington State at Everett and Seattle. Headquarters for the line were located in St. Paul, Minnesota. The line was the culmination of one man's dream, James Jerome Hill, the "Empire Builder" so-called because of his ability to create prosperous business where none previously existed. On March 23rd of this year, I wrote about Mr. Hill’s corporate battle with E. H. Harriman and his control over the Oregon territory through the Union and Southern Pacific Railroads. In 1951 the railway’s system was 8,316 miles in length, its trains carry freight, passengers, mail and express in the area between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean. The railway operates in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Iowa, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California, and in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia. The following four railroads merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad on March 2, 1970: • Great Northern Railway • Northern Pacific Railway • Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad • Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway In 1996 the Burlington Northern Railroad merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.

The picture of the train was taken by Bob Fremming out of Dallas, Wisconsin. In the blog post of August 20, 2020 I mention another Fremming that also likes post cards and trains. And, before that, in the November 16, 2011 post I gave reasons why I think these two people are related. This the back of the post card. Bob Fremming's name and location are what form the line between the address and the correspondence. There is a "5-56" At the top-center of the post card's back. I wonder if that means that this was published in May of 1956???

Need a Refill...

The locomotive in this picture on the front of this post card is sitting at a coal dock in Broadview, Saskatchewan. Broadview is about 150 kilometers east of Regina, Saskatchewan,

the capital of the province. Their official website says this, “Broadview is an inexpensive and safe place to raise a family, retire, or start a new business venture. The Town's infrastructure can easily handle significant population growth. We are protected by a 13 member R.C.M.P. Detachment, and have a very well-run volunteer Fire Department. We also boast some of the best Health Care Services you'll find anywhere in rural Saskatchewan. There are many recreational facilities and activities to choose from for your enjoyment. We are a progressive community with a great history and lots of potential for the future. So, please browse through our website and visit our town to decide if this is the place for you. We think it is.” I can tell that the locomotive is just sitting at the dock because there is no one in the cab of the locomotive. Its road number is 389. The engine is a 4-6-0 type of locomotive commonly called (according to the Whyte Classification) a ten-wheeler. Here is some information about 4-6-0 locomotives from this website: https://www.american-rails.com/wheeler.html The 4-6-0 was developed as early as the late 1840s first appearing on the Philadelphia & Reading. Their creation came about because of a need to increase adhesion, which allowed a single locomotive to haul heavier loads. Essentially, it is an American design, and the Ten-wheeler’s extra axle allowed for this increase in tractive effort. For the first time in the railroad industry’s short history it now had a specialized locomotive that could be used for specific purposes, in this case hauling freight and passengers over steep grades. Today, you can find dozens and dozens of 4-6-0s preserved including several that are still operational. Before the 2-8-0 gained widespread use as a heavy-haul locomotive, many railroads turned to the 4-6-0 for that task; the first, true specialized model for freight service (the earlier 4-4-0 was really an all-around design used to pull both freight and passenger trains). As trains became heavier, the 4-6-0 ran into the same problem of all models which lacked a trailing axle or truck; without the added support for a larger firebox and a small frame of just three driving axles limiting boiler size the locomotive, eventually, could simply not keep up with the times. The 4-6-0 was well liked by short lines, logging railroads, and various privately-owned industrial operations due to its weight and nimble ability to operate on light trackage. By the time production of the 4-6-0 had ended an incredible 16,000+ had been built. With so many built the locomotive remained in service many decades after production had ended. Today, several 4-6-0s are preserved around the country, including several of which that are still in operation. Some of the more well-known operable ten-wheelers include: New Hope & Ivyland #1533, (originally built for the Canadian Northern, later Canadian National, in 1911); Sierra Railroad #3 in California; Alaska Railroad narrow-gauge #152 (now #2) at the Huckleberrry Railroad in Michigan; Tweestie narrow-gauge #12 in North Carolina; Virginia & Truckee #25 in Nevada; Nevada Northern #40 at East Ely; Southern Pacific #2248 in Texas; Texas & Pacific #316 (now #201) also in Texas.

The picture was taken by someone with the last name of Robinson. It is a Real Photo post card on Solio brand post card stock. Solio was one of many Real Photo post card papers that were sold by Kodak. The square where the stamp is to be placed tells us that,

not only is this on Solio paper, but, the picture was taken between 1908 and the 1920s. The diamonds in the corners provide that information. The post card was given to me by a very dear friend whose father grew up in Saskatchewan.

Is that a Train Downtown?

The train on the front of this post card is traveling through a main street of

Syracuse, New York. The men and crates in the bottom left of the picture even make it look as if the train is about to stop to pick up passengers and freight. Below is information about both the city of Syracuse and publisher of the post card. The following information about Syracuse’s relationship with trains was taken from this website: https://kids.kiddle.co/Railroads_in_Syracuse,_New_York Railroads in Syracuse, New York, were first mentioned in October 1831, when a convention held in the city marked one of the earliest moves to stimulate the era of railroad building which ultimately brought steam railroad service to New York State. At the time of the convention, the oldest railroad in Onondaga County had been in operation for two years. Out of the convention came the impetus which gave birth to the roads which consolidated in 1853 to form the New York Central Railroad which was a conglomeration of several lines and by the late 1860s, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, another important railroad conglomerate, was also making inroads in Central New York. Railroads were big business in Syracuse and life in many ways revolved around them with the continuing ease of transportation and proliferation of jobs they brought to the local economy. The first street railway was built in Salina Street in 1859 and Syracuse was soon known "far and wide" as the city where the trains passed through the middle of downtown.

The post card was published by the Rotograph Company. It is from before March 1, 1907 because only the address is allowed to be written on the back of the card. The information about Rotograph Company was taken from this website: http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersr2.html The Rotograph Company existed from 1904 to 1911 at 684 Broadway in New York City, New York. They were a major printer and publisher of postcards. The company was founded by the Germans Ludwig Knackstedt of Knackstedt & Nather in partnership with Arthur Schwarz of Neue Photographische Gesellschaft (a major bromide photo paper manufacturer). They also took over the National Art Views Co.

in 1904 (notice how they incorporate the “Art Views” into their logo to gain quick access to American views, and republished many of these images under the Rotograph name. A wide variety of card types were also issued in 19 letter series

(this particular post card falls under the “G Series) plus many other miscellaneous cards and printed items, but they are best known for their view-cards in color rotogravure. Many postcards were printed in the Rotograph style without their logo on them. These early cards may have been private contracts made with the Rotograph Company or from orders placed directly with their printers in Germany. Rotograph produced about 60,000 postcards that were printed in Hamburg, Germany, by Stengel of Dresden, by Knackstedt & Nather of Nancy, France, and possibly by Reinike & Rubin of Magdeburg. While Rotograph produced large amounts cards in clearly defined lettered designated sets, they also produced unique small card sets.

How Convenient!

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card had quite the active history before it was put on static display. A much better alternative than hitting the scrap pile!! The information below about this locomotive is taken from this website: https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/ATSF_No._3759

The Santa Fe (ATSF) No. 3759 is a type of 4-8-4 'Northern', steam locomotive which was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1928 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. This engine hauled passenger trains on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. It was retired in the late 50’s when diesels replace steam. In February 1955, 3759 was brought out of retirement at the request of the Railway Club of Southern California for a special excursion run, dubbed "Farewell to Steam." This special ran on February 6, a round trip between Los Angeles Union Station and Barstow, California with stops in Pasadena and San Bernardino and was the last Santa Fe revenue steam train to leave Los Angeles and to traverse Cajon Pass. After this trip, 3759 went back into storage, until Santa Fe donated the locomotive to the city of Kingman in 1957. In January 1991, Grand Canyon Railway owner Max Biegert sent a letter to Kingman city officials of his proposal to lease AT&SF 3759 to operation and donate his engine No. 19 to the city. 3759 would have run in the Grand Canyon Railway and an "Orient Express"-styled train between Los Angeles and Williams, Arizona. But the city refused, and so it remains in its plinth rather than being given a second chance. Today it's on display at Locomotive Park, located between Andy Devine Avenue and Beale Street in Kingman, Arizona.

The post card was published by Petley Studios out of Phoenix, Arizona. It is rather convenient that the locomotive is on static display in Kingman, Arizona (just about 3 hours away from Phonenix). It is also convenient that the photograph of the locomotive was taken by Bob Petley. It is not so convenient that the post card was probably printed in Chicago, Illinois.

That is where the Curt Teich Company is located. The code (3DK-1903) in the stamp box tells me that this post card was printed by them in the 1960s. This date can be validated also by the fact that the lomotive was put on diplay after 1957, which would give Bob Petley time to get up there to take the picture and have it sent to Chicago - in the 1960s.

Is that Henry Ford or Thomas Edison getting on the Train?

The first thing I notice when I look at the picture of the locomotive on this post card, is how large, and how unusually shaped the smoke stack is. The train locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is what they call

an “American” type of locomotive in the Whyte Classification nomenclature. This one is a wood-buring locomotive. I know this is true because of 1) the load of wood behind the locomotive in the tender and, 2) the shape of the smoke stack. I think this locomotive is one of the types of locomotives that many people think of when they hear “steam locomotive”. The website: https://steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=4-4-0 tells us that “the locomotive was widely used in North America during the 1800's. This wheel arrangement was well suited to the grades and curvature of the railroad of that time. Around 25,000 4-4-0 locomotives were built by companies including Rogers, Baldwin, Cooke and Mason.” The website also includes a listing of a) all the railroad companies that used 4-4-0 locomotives and b) where all the surviving locomotives can be found – whether on display or being used. This particular 4-4-0 is sitting at the Smith Creek Station in Greenfield Village, near Dearborn, Michigan. Today, Dearborn is home to the Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford actually has a connection to this station! The following information (the picture is from the second website) was taken from these two websites: https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/49722#slide=gs-218677 http://www.michiganrailroads.com The Smiths Creek Depot stood on the Grand Trunk Western Railway, about ten miles southwest of Port Huron, Michigan. The railroad station was the center of 19th century small-town life. More than a place to catch a train, the depot was where customers sent and received packages and telegrams, caught up on the latest news, and shared gossip. The station was built in 1858 by the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada. Smith's Creek was settled about 1861 and was the county seat of St. Clair county from 1869 to 1871.

Smith's Creek was a station stop on the Grand Trunk Western (GTW) line from Port Huron to West Detroit. As a boy, Thomas Edison operated a concession on GTW trains from here including a printed newspaper. Later, Henry Ford moved the Smith's Creek depot to historic Greenfield Village in Edison's honor. The railroad built a new depot in 1929 to replace it. Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum is a historical village created by Henry Ford in the 1920's and opened in 1933 in west Dearborn. The Village has a connection on the Michigan Central main line (Detroit to Chicago) about 1 mile west of the Southfield expressway. The Village has a standard-gauge railroad loop which is about 1.5 miles long which pulls tourists around the facility from Smith's Creek Station. The line also has period semaphore signaling installed, as well as a working roundhouse and water tower.

This post card is what is called a "Real Photo Post Card". It is a picture that taken from a camera and transferred (printed) directly to the post card. It was published by Artcraft Photo Company of East Rutherford, New Jersey. In my mind, I have made a connection between East Rutherford and Thomas Edison. Menlo Park, NJ is only 30 miles from East Rutherford. It would certainly be interesting to know if there is a connection among Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and the owner of Artcraft Photo Company.....

North Shore Limited

The train pictured on the front of this post card is the “North Shore Limited”,

operated by the New York Central Railroad. It began operations on May 30, 1897 to compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Pennsylvania Limited”, which started its runs ten years earlier. It ran from New York City to Chicago in 24 hours. It was the New York Central’s first luxury passenger train. The “20th Century Limited” sprang up because of the success of the “North Shore Limited”. The train stopped operating in 1956 as the automobile took over the preferred method of transportation by the population of the United States. Amtrak now uses the name “North Shore Limited” for one of its trains that makes the same connections as its namesake used to make. There have been two derailment crashes of trains at or near the location seen on this post card. Both were due to excessive speed. In 1903, a westbound newspaper train derailed on a sharp curve, probably the one in the picture on this post card, killing the engine crew. In 1940, a much more serious crash at the same location of a fifteen car passenger train killed 31. This part is from Wikipedia: Little Falls was first settled by Europeans around 1723, when German Palatines were granted land under the Burnetsfield Patent. It was then the westernmost European settlement in the colony of New York. The need to portage around the falls promoted a trading location on the site of the future city. It was the first settlement in the town.[4] The settlers were attacked during the French and Indian War, but rebuilt their farms. The small settlement here was destroyed by Iroquois Indians, mostly Mohawk, and Tories in June 1782. The village was not resettled until 1790, and it was known at times as "Rockton" and "Rock City." Little Falls was incorporated as a village in 1811, and reincorporated in 1827. The City of Little Falls was chartered in 1895. The old New York Central Railroad Depot, which stood east of Second Sheet and north of the tracks, was built around 1833 and was torn down in 1899 after the present passenger station was placed in operation.

The post card was published in Mechanicville, New York by Charles W. Hughes, a publisher of lithographic view-cards depicting scenes of upstate New York, Vermont, and western Massachusetts. In 1923 they purchased the negatives of J.S. Wooley and began producing printed postcards from them. Hughes' postcards were printed by C.T. American Art, Chicago. It is from the White Border Era of post cards, so it was published between 1915 and 1930.

The Bridge is Still There, But not the Tracks

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (after many years of building, buying, merging and leasing railroads) had a direct link to the Great Lakes. The city of Elmira, New York must have been included in this expansion to Lake Erie. That is where the picture on the front of this post card was taken.

Sadly, that bridge is no longer used by any railroad. If you go to this website you will see that it is part of a hiking trail today. There is one picture in the file that looks like it was taken from the same spot as the picture on the front of this post card. https://bridgehunter.com/category/city/elmira-new-york/ For the story about the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad go to this website: https://www.american-rails.com/dlw.html That is where I picked up this story, below. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western was another of the Northeast's many anthracite carriers with a history tracing back to the early 19th century. During the company's height it never reached 1,000 miles in size but was nevertheless a well-managed company throughout its corporate history. As a result, it avoided bankruptcy from the time of its formation (early 1850s) until its merger with the Erie more than a century later. The "Road Of Anthracite's" entire network only stretched roughly 950 miles but the Lackawanna was a finely tuned operation with a diverse traffic base and highly skilled railroaders, from top to bottom, that kept it humming along. It weathered the financial panics of 1873 and 1893 and even the Great Depression of 1929. However, its closest brush with bankruptcy did occur during the 1930s, under the leadership of John Davis. It seems that most of the classic railroads of New England and the Northeast can trace their heritage back to an entity predating the industry. Such was the case for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western whose earliest predecessor was the Hoboken Ferry Company. The Lackawanna's two earliest railroad predecessors were the Liggetts Gap Railroad, incorporated on April 7, 1832 and the Delaware & Cobbs Gap Railroad, chartered on December 4, 1850. On April 14, 1851, the company changed its name as the Lackawanna & Western Railroad and later that year, on October 20, 1851, service was opened between both towns. The Lackawanna gained its official name on March 11, 1853 when the L&W merged with the Delaware & Cobbs Gap forming the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The DL&W at this time ran diagonally across Pennsylvania and enjoyed lucrative sources of freight from iron ore deposits and anthracite coal located within the Lackawanna Valley. With the DL&W's eastern network largely complete it now looked to the west and an extension to Buffalo; reaching this port town along the eastern tip of Lake Erie would mean the railroad no longer needed to rely on its rival, the Erie Railroad, to ferry its freight westward.

The post card was published by a company that was based in Elmira, New York. It was published by the Rubin Brothers. Harry Rubin, and his brother Ike, formerly printers at the Elmira Star Gazette, the first Gannett newspaper, open Rubin’s Newsstand. A wholesale distribution operation, known as Rubin Brothers News, begins in the basement on East Water St. in Elmira, New York. Most wholesale business is newspapers. Few magazines published for distribution at this time. New York Times and other newspapers arrive on trains.

Up and At 'Em!!

It looks like this locomotive is being prepared for the day’s work by three men. There are two in the front and one on the top.

It looks like the one on the top may be adding the chemicals to stabilize the water that will preserve the integrity of the tank. When I looked up this locomotive on the internet I found that it was a uniquely built engine. Here is what I found at this website: https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=2-6-6-2&railroad=cwpc In the Whyte Classification system it is known as a 2-6-6-2T (that makes it a tank engine, that is, it carried its own water supply instead of a tender carrying it). The number of locomotives in this class: 1. This is the only locomotive of its kind! It was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1929. It weighed 222,000 pounds with a water capacity of 2,500 gallons and the boiler pressure was rated for 200 psi. It used 1,200 gallons of oil as the fuel. The driving wheels were 44 inches in diameter. It is a Mallet engine (you can see both cylinders); the high pressure cylinder was 16” in diameter with a 24 inch stroke; the low pressure cylinder was 26” in diameter with a 24 inch stroke. The tractive effort was 34,436 pounds. The post card has a reminder written on the front that it is part of the collection of G. Anderson. When I look up G. Anderson, all I find is a photographer that specialized in things of the Mormon Church. There is nothing that says he spent time in Oregon photographing trains. The locomotive belonged to Crown-Williamette (sic.). This is what I found about the Crown-Willamette Paper Company: https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=2-6-6-2&railroad=cwpc The Crown-Willamette Paper Company was formed in 1914 when the Crown Columbia Paper Company merged with the Willamette Pulp and Paper Company. (By the way, it is pronounced to rhyme with "damn it"; my wife and I have visited there and that is how they taught us how to pronounce Willamette) The Crown Columbia Paper Company was itself the result of a merger in 1905 between the Crown Paper Company of Oregon City and the Columbia River Paper Company of Camas, established by Henry Pittock in 1883 to supply newsprint for his newspaper, the Oregonian. The Crown-Willamette Paper Company had headquarters in San Francisco and Portland and paper plants in a number of cities and towns across Washington, Oregon, and California. These towns included Astoria, Lebanon, West Linn, Oregon City and Seaside in Oregon, Cathlamet and Camas in Washington, and Floristan and Truckee in California. In 1928, the Zellerbach Corporation of San Francisco merged with the Crown-Willamette Paper Company to form the Crown Zellerbach Corporation, which by the 1930s, became the largest paper company on the West Coast and the second largest in the United States. The mill at Camas, Washington was one of Crown Zellerbach's leading producers and became the largest speciality paper mill in the world.

This post card is a "Real Photo" post card. You can see that by looking at the back of the card. It was printed on Kodak Paper and the words "Photo Post Card" are at the top. I figure that this post card had to be made after 1950. The little square where the stamp is to placed gives that away.

Going Home after Coming Home

The locomotive shown here is a 4-8-4 Northern class engine, the “Pride of Pine Bluff”. In fact, it is in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on November 4, 1988 in this picture, prior to a three day round trip to Tyler Texas. This locomotive #819 was built in the shops here in Pine Bluff. It is coming home, so to speak, as it gets ready to go to the home of the Cotton Belt, Tyler, Texas.

Our good friends at Wikipedia tell us this: The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company (reporting mark SSW), known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", is a former US Class I railroad which operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980.

In 1980 the Cotton Belt began operating the Rock Island's Golden State Route which added the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico to the operation. It operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until the operation of the Cotton Belt was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1992. What follows here is the history of the beginning and the end of the Cotton Belt Route with a list of all the railroads that have somehow been involved in the building of the railroad in between the beginning and the end. This history is taken from this website: https://arkansasrailroadmuseum.org/about/cotton-belt-route.html#ewpopup/7/ Tyler Tap Railroad This was the first link in the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad (STLSW) Railroad in 1877 near Tyler Texas. The people of Tyler had hopes of being located on the main line of the International & Great Northern Railroad, but as it was surveyed to Longview by the way of Troup, the citizens decided to promote and construct a railroad to tap either the Texas & Pacific or the International. In charge of this scheme was a young army officer, Major James Postell Douglas. Upon returning home to East Texas after the War Between the States, Major Douglas became interested in the fruit industry. Needing a means of rapidly shipping this commodity outside the production area, he petitioned the Twelfth Legislature of Texas in 1870 to pass a special act of incorporation granting to him and others the right to locate, construct, own, operate, and maintain a railroad. It would own a single or double track for a distance not exceeding 40 miles from Tyler to connect with some other railroad, to be selected by the directors. His request was granted on December 1, 1871. This was a narrow-gauge line of 3 feet and operated with one small locomotive. These railroads became part of the Cotton Belt over time: Texas & St. Louis Railway; St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railway; Little Rock and Shreveport Branches Short Line Railroads Absorbed by Cotton Belt. Little River Valley & Arkansas Railroad (Purchased 1881); Kansas & Gulf Short Line/Tyler; outheastern Railroads (Purchased 1899); Stuttgart & Arkansas River Railroad (Purchased 1901); Texas & Louisiana Railroad (Purchased 1903); Eastern Texas Railroad (Purchased 1906); Central Arkansas & Eastern Railroad (Leased 1910); Stephenville North & South Texas Railroad (Leased 1910); Paragould Southeastern Railroad (Purchased 1914); Pine Bluff Arkansas River Railroad (Leased 1918); The St. Francis Basin Project (1929-1930); Gideon & North Island Railroad; Deering Southwestern Railroad; Blytheville, Leachville & Arkansas Southern Railroad; Manila & Southwestern Railroad; Cairo, Truman & Southern Railroad; Arkansas Short Line Railroad; St. Louis Southwestern Railway Southern Pacific Takes Control Since 1919 the Cotton Belt had been a very important connection of the Southern Pacific system on traffic between points in the East and the Pacific Coast and points in Texas. The consolidation and strengthening of other systems in the Southwest during the decade, 1920-1930, brought the Southern Pacific to a realization that self preservation required a route to this competitive territory. In July, 1930, the Southern Pacific filed an application with the Interstate Commerce Commission seeking authority to acquire control of the Cotton Belt. The final order of the ICC approved the plan upon conditions which the Southern Pacific accepted in February, 1932. On April 14, 1932, the Southern Pacific Company purchased the stocks which had been in escrow, and on April 19, the same year, it issued sufficient amounts of its own stock to exchange for deposited St. Louis Southwestern stocks in order to complete its control of the Cotton Belt. By May, 1933, the Southern Pacific had 193,134 shares of St. Louis Southwestern preferred and 130,834 shares of St. Louis Southwestern common or 87.37 per cent of the total outstanding shares of Cotton Belt stock.

This is another of my Audio Visual Designs post cards. That is the Cotton Belt logo in the bottom left-hand corner of the post card.

Alphabet Soup in History Form

The 0-6-0 Switcher locomotive on the front of this post card is the

No. 2 of the Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley Railroad. It is leaving Cooperstown Junction and headed for Cooperstown. It is carrying the Saturday mixed train on the former Delaware & Hudson Railroad's branch line. When this picture was taken on May 15, 1971 the line was one of the newest shortlines in the United States. This website gives a complex history of the history and owners of this line. Thus, the title "Alphabet Soup in History Form" https://www.lrhs.com/history-of-the-cooperstown-and-charlotte-valley/ In 1865 the Articles of Association for the Cooperstown and Susquehanna Valley R.R. Company (C&SVRR) were filed. The stated purpose was to construct a railroad “from a point at or near the Village of Cooperstown to a point at or near Colliersville forming a junction with the Albany and Susquehanna Rail Road”. In February 1868 work was started on the line. However, the first train was not run until July 14, 1869. The road was broad gauge (6 feet) to be compatible with the Albany & Susquehanna. On May 28, 1876, in exactly one day, the entire 16 miles was “narrowed up” “the work being completed by 4 p.m.” Two extensions of the C&SVRR were authorized by the State. The first was in 1869 from Cooperstown to Richfield Springs. The second was in 1885 for an extension from its “southern terminus … to or near the ‘Hemlocks’ on the Charlotte creek in the town of Davenport”. In 1888 Articles of Association were filed for the Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley R.R. Co. (C&CVRR) The C&CVRR was likewise authorized to build from the “Hemlocks”, but only as far as the lands of Matthew Ward in the town of Davenport. In February 1891 the West Davenport R. R. was chartered. It was authorized to build from the West Davenport depot of the C&CVRR to the lands of “the McLaury sisters a short distance east of the Kort Right Brook”. On April 13, 1891, the C&CVRR and the West Davenport R.R. were consolidated. Two days later the C&CVRR leased the C&SVRR. Work on this railroad started after the blizzard of 1888. By 1889, “the track of the new Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley Railroad (C&CV) progressed eastward for only 6 miles to West Davenport, though graders built culverts, fills and rock cuttings up the valley of Charlotte Creek beyond Davenport, well into Harpersfield Township, before the winter of 1889-90 set in.” “Early in February 1890, the C&CV tracklayers reached Davenport Center, while the graders resuIn 1934, the New York State Public Service Commission permitted the discontinuance of passenger service on the C&CV. The last scheduled passenger train left Cooperstown on June 24.med work east of Harpersfield.” The C&CV was merged into the D&H effective March 1, 1957. The remaining segment of the C&CV line from Cooperstown Junction to Cooperstown was sold by the D&H in 1970 to Delaware Otsego Corporation The sale took place after Delaware Otsego was forced to sell an ex-New York Central Railroad line, following the construction of Interstate 88 between Binghampton and Albany. Delaware Otsego resurrected the C&CV name which was last used in 1930 when the company was merged into the Delaware & Hudson Railroad (D&H). Freight traffic on the CACV declined by the early 1980s to several cars per week, typically loads of lumber in Portlandville, animal feed at Agway in Milford, and several customers in Cooperstown. The CACV was used during the 1980s to store large numbers of idle St. Lawrence Railroad boxcars. The last CACV freight train operated in December 1987, followed by infrequent equipment moves until being purchased by the Leatherstocking Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1996. The Leatherstocking Railway Historical Society (Leatherstocking Chapter NRHS) purchased the line from Delaware Otsego Corporation in 1996. Volunteers performed vegetation removal and trackbed rehabilitation before the line was reopened for seasonal passenger excursion trains between Cooperstown and Milford in 1999, retaining the CACV name. The southern half of the line provides a connection to the Canadian Pacific Railway the current owner of the D&H.

The post card is one of 333 I have that were published by Audio Visual Designs.

Inside the Cab of a Narrow Gauge

The picture on the front of this post card is showing the engineer

and fireman attending to their duties on the narrow gauge railroad (Pine Creek Railroad) located inside the Allaire State Parkin in New Jersey. The following information was gleaned from this website: http://www.thortrains.net/JerseyRR/pinerr1.html The Pine Creek Railroad is part of the New Jersey Museum of Transportation, located at Allaire State Park. Pine Creek has the distinction of being one of the few real railroads whose trackage is an oval, like the common toy train set. It is a "narrow gauge" railway, meaning that the distance between the rails is narrower than the standard gauge of US railroads. Narrow gauge trackage is used for industrial, mining, logging, and operations in difficult terrain. It all began in a sand pit. Around 1950, under pressure to convert to diesel power, the Raritan River Sand Company in Nixon, New Jersey, contemplated scrapping their steamers. Meanwhile, railroad enthusiasts James Wright (who worked for his family's sand company) and Jay L. Wulfson (manager of the Mayfair Dress Company in South River, New Jersey) formed Wright & Wulfson, Inc., and bought a Baldwin 0-4-0T to become Pine Creek No. 1. Together with Pierre "Pete" Rasmussen (an agent for the Central Railroad of New Jersey), Wright & Wulfson founded the Pine Creek Railroad Museum in 1952. They purchased a 2.5-acre plot of commercial real estate in New Jersey and set about building a little narrow-gauge railroad using rail rescued from abandoned sand pits. They began attracting other railroad enthusiasts willing to volunteer their time, and eventually they cobbled together a passenger coach and ran the railroad as an amusement attraction. In 1956 they purchased another locomotive from Raritan River Sand—this time a Porter 0-4-0T saddle tanker. Then, Pine Creek leased Ely-Thomas Shay No. 6 from owner Edgar Mead. The volunteers had also formed the New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc., a new not-for-profit organization. Pine Creek No. 1 was sold to Disneyland in California, whereas Copper Creek No. 3 and the two homemade coaches became the property of the Busch Woodlands Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Wulfson and Rasmussen then donated all of the remaining rolling stock and other assets to the New Jersey Museum of Transportation. The museum had already been contemplating relocating to another location so as to expand their operations, but in 1962 moving became critical when, owing to a land reassessment, they were hit with a 300% property tax hike; Allaire State Park in Wall Township, Monmouth County became their new home. A charter was drawn up in December 1962 that formalized the creation of the not-for-profit Pine Creek Railroad Division of the New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Work on the new roadbed began in 1963, making use of rail provided by Trooper Alden T. Cottrell, Chief of the Bureau of Forests and Parks, who obtained it from an unused siding that ran to the county jail. While a search was reportedly undertaken to find an existing trestle that could be moved, no further mention of the bridge can be found, and when the golden spike was driven on 20 June 1964 (with New Jersey Governor Richard Hughes performing the honors), the loop of track had shrunk to just a little over half a mile.   By 1967 the Pine Creek Railroad had come a long way: the station was refurbished, a new enginehouse was built, a Raritan River caboose was converted into living quarters for the resident machinist, the Railroadiana shop opened, a small diesel was acquired, and the Ely-Thomas Shay was running the loop, as reported by the NJMT Newsletter editor at the time, Theodore F. Gleichmann. Thanks to the efforts of many volunteers, the railroad has been in continuous operation ever since, and the Museum has featured an ever-changing roster of unique and historically significant railroad artifacts.

This information was taken from the Audio-Visual Designs' website: The post card was one of the first post cards published by the publisher, Audio-Visual Designs out of Earlton, New York. 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. In 1997, the business was purchased by us (Joe & Colleen Suo) and moved to the present Herkimer, NY location. We have maintained and expanded the level of quality in our products and services established by the founder.

Close to My Home

The train pictured on the front of this post card no longer exists. It is a MACK Type AS Railbus that was built in 1928. This 1990 photo was one of the last ones taken of the train because it was wrecked in a grade crossing accident in 1991.

It belonged to The Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway. The railway was built to transport men and supplies for the construction of an aqueduct from Shoal Lake on the Manitoba-Ontario border to Winnipeg. Shoal Lake is the source of drinking water for the City of Winnipeg. Work began on the railway in 1914 with the railway advancing along the right of way of the proposed aqueduct, building up the grade from bed material, with gravel for ballast and lumber for ties. The line was completed in 1915, and serviced the construction of the aqueduct, which began the same year. The entire project was finished by 1919, when the first water was supplied from Shoal Lake to Winnipeg. In the beginning, three trains a week carried men and materials to the working sites along the way. They also carried early settlers and their goods to and from St. Boniface. Passengers travelled to and from their homes and cottages in southeastern Manitoba. The Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) attempted to reduce overall costs by working for other customers and bringing in revenue. Freight included: Firewood, pulpwood, poles, railway ties, ice, mail, milk, gravel and sand. The forest along the line was a valuable source of lumber, providing ties for the railway. In the early years, trains brought firewood for resale to Winnipeg residents. In 1935, more than 35,000 cords of wood were stacked in the St. Boniface Station yards. As this market declined, lumber was shipped to pulp and paper mills in the US. By the 1950s, the forest close to the railway had all been cleared. Gravel was another source of revenue. The GWWD dug pits to supply aggregate for the construction of the aqueduct, and trains continued to haul gravel for use on municipal roads. Eventually, more carefully graded material was needed for use in concrete. At the peak of this service, up to six trains a day were hauling gravel for use as aggregate by Supercrete Ltd. The last gravel train ran in 1993. Until the 1950s, trains were hauled by steam locomotives. The first diesel locomotive arrived in 1946, and others soon replaced the steam engines. By 1969 four diesels were in service, and three are operating today. Today, the train is used only for City of Winnipeg water supply needs. It is used to haul workers and supplies to maintain the aqueduct and railway. It also hauls supplies to the water intake facility at Shoal Lake, and returns with waste materials that might otherwise contaminate the site. The train is also used to provide security and surveillance along the aqueduct. In order to protect the water supply, the railway is still the only means of reaching the intake.

Some interesting facts about the railway: - The railway is standard gauge and 167 kilometers long. - The GWWD is Canada's longest industrial railway line. - The railway station at St. Boniface was built in 1935 and was made from granite quarried along the line. - The GWWD station at 598 Plinguet Street, St. Boniface, was designed by Winnipeg architect William Fingland. - During the construction of the aqueduct, more than 1,000,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel and 600,000 barrels of cement were moved. - The last steam locomotive was ready for emergency service during the 1950 flood, but was not needed. The Greater Winnipeg Water District no longer exists. The railway and the aqueduct belong to the City of Winnipeg, and are maintained and operated by the Water and Waste Department. As a result, the railway has been assigned the task of maintaining and providing security for the aqueduct. It also takes workers and supplies needed for the aqueduct and hauls supplies to the water intake facility at Shoal Lake, returning with contaminated materials.

Both post cards were based on photographs by Margan B. Turney and were published by "Railfan Canada". They were printed by North Kildonan Publications out of Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada.