Still Going Strong after all these Years (the railroad, not the locomotive)

The locomotive on the front of this post card is working for the Burlington Route, as you can see on the tender. It is number 3003.

The complete name of the Burlington Route is the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The following information comes from Wikipedia: The earliest predecessor of this railroad, the Aurora Branch Railroad, was chartered by act of the Illinois General Assembly on October 2, 1848. The Illinois General Assembly chartered the Aurora Branch Railroad on February 12, 1849, to build a branch of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to Aurora,[1] which it opened on September 2, 1850. Another amendment, passed February 28, 1854, authorized the company to build east from Aurora to Chicago via Naperville, and changed its name to Chicago and Southwestern Railroad. The latter provision was never acted upon,[5] and was repealed by an act of February 14, 1855, which instead changed the name to Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q).[6] The Aurora-Chicago line was opened on May 20, 1864, by which time the CB&Q had, through acquisitions, acquired a main line from Chicago to Galesburg, where it split into branches for Burlington and Quincy. This website provides some interesting colour commentary on the Burlington Route. https://www.american-rails.com/cbq.html Some railroads were seemingly destined to become strong, profitable operations. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy was one such example. Its history traces back to the pre-Civil War period when trains near or west of the Mississippi River remained a relative novelty. During the mid-19th century the "Q's" earliest predecessor had established through service to Chicago and then spent the next several decades rapidly expanding. Its slogan, "Everywhere West," was quite befitting for this classic Midwestern granger. While the CB&Q did operate many secondary, agricultural branches it also boasted important through corridors to the Twin Cities, Denver, Kansas City, Omaha, southern Montana, and even reached the Gulf Coast! The Burlington was also quite close with the communities it served and highly visible in the public eye. It maintained an impressive fleet of high-class trains in addition to hosting its allying roads' transcontinental services. The long sought merger with the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle, finally became a reality in early 1970 forming the gigantic Burlington Northern system. Today, all of the Burlington's principal lines remain in operation under successor BNSF Railway.

CB&Q No. 3003 is a Class S-4 (4-6-4) "Hudson" type steam locomotive built in 1930 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. If you would like to see the locomotive today, it is preserved on a plinth at a park in Burlington, Iowa. The post card was published by the Audio Visual Designs company in Earlton, New York after 1963 – there is a zip code in their address.

Freddy has his own Bridge

Freddy is Frederick, Maryland - and the bridge crosses over the Monocacy River. The information here comes from Wikipedia: The Monocacy River Railroad Bridge and Viaduct is a 326-foot (99 m) open deck steel girder bridge with two main spans crossing the river and two viaduct sections crossing the floodplain, south of Walkersville, Maryland. Originally constructed by the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad Company (F&PL). Construction began in late 1871, and continued until July 1872 when the railroad opened that year. It was rebuilt by the Pennsylvania Railroad first in 1900-1905 as an open deck riveted iron plate under girder bridge.

This is the bridge seen in the picture on the front of this post card. In 1915, the bridge was surveyed as part of the Interstate Commerce Commission's ("ICC") effort to establish freight rates for the parent railroad. In 1927, the Pennsylvania Railroad rebuilt the bridge again using deeper and thicker steel girders, but leaving the masonry piers intact. In 1972, the two 85 foot river spans were washed out by Hurricane Agnes. In 1982, the State of Maryland purchased the bridge as part of the railroad line. In 1995, the State rebuilt the river spans and Pier 3 which is located in the middle of the river crossing was completely reconstructed using concrete to replace the original masonry foundations. In 2015, the State performed minor maintenance on the structure and painted some spans. As of 2016, the bridge is in active rail service, operated by the Walkersville Southern RR.

The post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich in about 1913. I pick that up from the code at the middle, bottom of the back of the card. Between 1908 and 1928 the company printed cards with the code A- something. There were 124,180 cards printed using this numbering system. When I interpolate A-35803 between A-1 and A-124180: A-1 is in 1908 and A-124180 is in 1928. That puts A-35806 in the year 1913.

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No Longer in Service

The train on the front of this post card is Boston & Maine Railroad’s locomotive Number 1402. It was a class B-1 5b Mogul Type of locomotive

(2-6-0) dashing south on the Morning of January 8, 1956 out of Peterborough, New Hampshire with a local freight. I wrote about the Boston & Main Railroad, in general, a few months ago. I have cut and pasted that information here: The Boston & Maine (B&MRR) came into existence on March 15, 1833 when the Andover and Wilmington Railroad received a charter to build a railroad joining the two cities to each other. On June 27, 1835, the Boston and Maine Railroad of New Hampshire was chartered. The B&MRR no longer operates as the namesake railroad. At the time, it was the largest of New England's railroads and for over 180 years has served the territory well. During the company's height it maintained more than 2,000 miles with 25,000 employees. Its by-line was “Route of the Minute Man”. This was a reflection of the civilians who were at the ready to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War. It covered the state of Massachusetts north and west from its home base of Boston. Today's B&MRR is much different than the one of last century. What is left of its historic network is operated by Pan Am Railways, previously known as Guilford Rail System. That would make the railroad over 188 years old. I was able to get more specific information about the Boston & Maine in Peterborough, New Hampshire from this part of Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monadnock_Railroad The Monadnock Railroad was one of many extension line railroads built to help expand the Fitchburg Railroad/Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad into New Hampshire. This line was to serve the New Hampshire towns on the eastern side of Mount Monadnock, mainly Jaffrey and Peterborough. The Monadnock opened from Winchendon to Jaffrey, New Hampshire in December 1870 and then to Peterborough by late spring 1871, from which the Peterborough and Hillsborough Railroad could take traffic further north to Concord. The Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad, running south from Winchendon, leased the Monadnock in 1874 in order to have a line to Concord. In 1880, the BB&GRR fell on hard times and transferred the lease to the Cheshire. The Monadnock became part of the Fitchburg, along with the entire Cheshire, in 1890 and then to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900. As a line of the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M), the Monadnock served as part of a long through route between Worcester, Massachusetts and Concord under the name of the Worcester and Hillsboro (sometimes Worcester and Contoocook) branch. In the 1940s, the line was one of the most scenic, rural Yankee branch lines. Through service ended on the line after the floods caused by the 1938 Hurricane, but local passenger trains continued to run until 1953. The line survived intact until 1972 when the B&M abandoned the line between Jaffrey and Peterborough. The remainder of the line continued until 1984 when Guilford abandoned it. This website has a timeline related to the history of the Boston & Maine Railroad. I provide the first four entries below. There is a total of 159 dates and events listed at this website: http://www.nashuacitystation.org/history/boston-and-maine-corporation/ Here are the first 4 entries in the Corporate Timeline: June 5, 1830 Boston and Lowell Rail Road Corporation incorporates by special act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. March 15, 1833 Andover and Wilmington Rail Road Corporation incorporates in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. June 23, 1835 Nashua and Lowell Railroad Corporation [New Hampshire] incorporates by special act of the State of New Hampshire. June 27, 1835 Boston and Maine Railroad [1835] incorporates by special act in the State of New Hampshire.

The post card was published by Mary Jaynes’ Railroad Specialties, Inc. I have 243 of her post cards in my collection. This post card was published after 1979, which was the 25th anniversary of something. Here is a close up of the logo at the bottom of the post card. Maybe you can figure it out!!

Salt Lake City to Oakland on the Western Pacific Railroad

The train on the front of this post card is on its way from Salt Lake City

to Oakland. It is traveling on the Western Pacific Railroad line constructed along the Feather River in California. That little building you see toward the bottom is Belden Station. The information about Belden Station and the Feather River Route was taken from these two websites: From www.fs.usda.gov/internet/stelprdb5397333 and from www.YankeeHillHistory.com In Mrch of 1903, the Denver Rio Grande Railroad financed the creation of the Western Pacific Railway in California. The march was on to create a passage to Oakland and San Francisco for the Denver Rio Grande Railroad. A survey party was dispatched along the North Fork of the Feather River to finalize that portion of the route. The Utah Construction Co. began work on the railroad here in 1905 for Western Pacific Railroad. The whole route was completed in 1909 and covered 927 miles from Salt Lake City to Oakland. The Feather River route was chosen as a low-elevation passage through the Sierra Nevada, following the erosional cut of the Feather River through the crest. From Oroville to Beckwourth Pass, the line was constructed to allow for only a maximum 1% grade for the entire climb, as well as for the entire 927 miles of rail between San Francisco & Salt Lake City. Improved access helped to begin an era of recreation in the Feather River Canyon. As early as 1911, Western Pacific publicized the Feather River route as the scenic route. The trains would stop at the resorts popping up along the route. You and the family could take a train in the morning, fish all day and return that evening to Oroville. If you wanted to spend the weekend or even longer, these stops provided lodging. In 1912 a round trip from Oroville to Beldon was $1.10 Folks would catch the Western Pacific’s “Fisherman’s Special” up to Belden for a weekend of prized Rainbow Trout at the Riverside Resort. Settlers and miners living at Humbug Valley brought wagons down the Longville Road, south to the rail station at Belden Town. The original wooden bridge was replaced with a steel bridge in 1912. From 1909 to 1937 the railroad was king of the canyon.

The post card was published by Souvenir Novelty Company. I have 21 post cards that they published in my collection. The company existed in Salt Lake City, Utah from 1910 to 1927. It was a publisher of local souvenir books and postcards in lithography. Many of their cards were printed by Curt Teich. The dividing line between correspondence and the address sections tells us that this post card, indeed, was printed by Curt Teich. Edward H. Mitchell was a partner in the Souvenir Novelty Company: March 4, 1914 “Mr. Edward H. Mitchell has purchased our interest in the Souvenir Publishing Company".