On the Turntable, Ready to Go

The train tracks that this locomotive used to run on are still in place. However, they are no longer owned by the Chicago & North Western Railroad. This article, found on the website of the current owner is worth a read: https://metrarail.com/about-metra/our-history/chicago-north-western-history What is now the Union Pacific (UP) West line started as the Galena & Chicago Union in 1848, the first railroad in Chicago. The two other UP lines had different origins in the 1850s. Chicago & North Western (C&NW) owned all three for most of their existence. These lines passed to UP ownership when the C&NW merged with UP in 1995. UP West timetables are “Kate Shelley Rose,” named for a girl from Iowa who saved a train from disaster in 1881. The three Chicago area commuter lines that are now owned by Union Pacific spent much of their existence as part of the Chicago & North Western. Each began independently before becoming part of the C&NW: • The Northwest Line, which started as the Illinois & Wisconsin in 1854, became part of the C&NW when that system was formed in 1859. • The West Line, which began as the Galena & Chicago Union in 1848, became part of the C&NW system in 1864. • The North Line, which started as the Chicago & Milwaukee in 1854, was leased by the C&NW starting in 1866 and was bought by the C&NW in 1883. Commuter service on all three lines developed gradually, particularly in the years following the Civil War and the Chicago fire of 1871. The fire especially made living in the suburbs, away from the congestion and noise of the city, more appealing, and the railroad promoted and benefitted from the trend. By the end of the century, the railroad’s passenger terminal at Kinzie and Wells had become too small for the number of commuters and intercity passengers using it. The railroad spared no expense on a new $23 million facility, which opened on June 4, 1911, on a site bounded by Madison, Lake, Clinton and Canal. It featured a three-story, 202-by-117-foot main waiting room, a dining room, women’s rooms with writing desks and hairdressing services, smoking rooms for men, a barber shop, hospital rooms and a variety of other features. In the 1920s, the railroad improved several suburban depots and introduced some new aluminum-alloy commuter cars. It also leased a private car, the Deerpath, to wealthy businessmen on its North line in 1929. But during that same decade, the company was noticing a severe drop in local train passengers due to the growing popularity of the automobile. Like the rest of the country, the railroad was battered by the Depression in the 1930s, leading to a nine-year bankruptcy starting in 1935. The C&NW’s introduction of its famed “400” intercity trains that decade was one of the few bright spots. In the 1940s and 1950s, passenger trains continued to lose riders to the automobile and airplane. Commuter trains fared better than intercity trains but still were generally losing money. The C&NW sought to reverse that trend under new leader Ben Heineman, who came aboard in 1956. The Heineman era included catching up on deferred maintenance, modernizing ticketing and collection methods, revising schedules and adjusting fares. The railroad also replaced the commuter fleet with new bi-level coaches and shuttered about 20 close-in stations so it could concentrate on suburban service. And it rehabbed several locomotives and instituted a push-pull operation into and out of Chicago. Like other railroads in the 1960s and 1970s, the C&NW sought to deal with losses by diversifying, and by 1970 the railroad was a money-losing component of a much larger corporation. In 1972, Heineman sold the C&NW to an employee-led investment group. Two years later, the RTA was formed and it began to subsidize the region’s commuter trains. The C&NW entered a purchase-of-service agreement with the RTA, an arrangement that continues for the three lines, although the agreement is now between Metra, which started in 1984, and UP, which bought the C&NW in 1995. The post card was published by the Audio Visual Designs Company. They included the logo of the railroad in the bottom-left corner of this post card.

You can see that it matches the logo on the tender of the locomotive in the picture above. That is it below here and to the right.

A Long Way from Japan.

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card represents one of the most popular

classes of steam locomotives ever built. It is a "Mikado". This webiste is very good at giving a history of the engine and its popularity. This is only an excerpt; I recommend that you link to the original ariticle. https://www.american-rails.com/mikado.html The Mikado type was the workhorse steam locomotive for the railroad industry during the 20th century and prior to the switch to diesel-electric technology. The design is often regarded as the classic American steam locomotive for this very reason. The 2-8-2 design (a blend of the 2-8-0 and 2-6-2 wheel arrangements) offered just the right amount of power, pull, and speed to be used for about any type of service, from passenger trains to freights moving over stiff grades. Baldwin Locomotive Works built a fleet of narrow-gauge (three-foot, six-inch) 2-8-2s for the Japan Railways in 1893. It is here where the term Mikado, which refers to a Japanese emperor, is said to have been applied to the 2-8-2 design. he first 2-8-2s employed in standard road service that featured the larger fireboxes and boilers (for increased steam pressure, and thus, more power) is often credited to the Virginian Railway; in 1909 the coal-hauler acquired a fleet of 42 units from Baldwin (#420-461) listed as Class MB. Other railroads to use early examples of the 2-8-2 include the Bismark, Washburn & Great Falls Railway which used a few beginning in 1903 and the Northern Pacific's initial batch of 1905. Other railroads that would own several hundred examples of Mikado types include the Baltimore & Ohio, Santa Fe, Chesapeake & Ohio, Burlington, Milwaukee Road, Illinois Central, Louisville & Nashville, Missouri Pacific, Pennsylvania, Southern, and Union Pacific. The locomotive pictured is shown on the Kentucky & Tennesee Railroad (K&T). While no trains run under that name any more, there are trains that travel on the tracks once owned by the K&T. This website gives an excellent history of the line: https://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/railroads/historic-appalachian-railroads/kt/ The Kentucky & Tennessee Railroad was formed in 1902 to serve the timber and coal reserves of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company. The original line was a short spur off the Cincinatti, New Orleans and Texas Pacific mainline run by the Southern Railway. After a reorganization into the Kentucky & Tennessee Railway in 1904, the line was extended along the South Fork of the Cumberland River to access the rich coal and timber resources owned by the parent company and included the classic concrete arch bridge at Yamacraw. Although there were aspirations to extend the line south into Knoxville, Tennessee, the K&T’s mainline progressed as far as Bell Farm, KY, in 1923. At Bell Farm the road met with the 25-mile long logging railroad also owned by Stearns Coal and Lumber , and timber was hauled the 21 miles to the railroad’s origin and sawmill at Stearns, KY. The last addition to the railroad was the mile-long spur from Comargo to the “modern” coal operation at Devils Jump (Blue Heron) in 1938. Traffic consisted of timber to the sawmill and coal from numerous mines hauled back to Stearns to be interchanged with the Southern. The K&T also ran a modest Passenger service between Bell Farm and Stearns. At its high tide, the K&T hauled about 1,000 passengers and 3,500 tons of coal daily. Coal operations on the western end of the road at Exodus and Fidelity played out in the 1930s leaving only the timber connection at Bell Farm to keep the line open, but the lumber railroad was shut down in 1948 and the line between White Oak Junction and Bell Farm abandoned in 1949. The large mine at Cooperative was closed in 1950, and the line was cut back to Oz in 1953. Passenger service was systematically cut back following the closure of the mines until the last segment between Stearns and Worley ran its last in 1952. In 1953, the tipples at Yamacraw and Worley were closed leaving only the mine at Blue Heron and Mine 16 at Oz. K&T operations remained similar for the next decade, and every year brought more visitors to see the eclectic steam locomotive fleet operated by the railroad. The K&T also operated a pair of fan trips for the NHRS along its “route of the painted rocks” using one of its now-rare steamers. The K&T finally dieselized in 1963 when it bought a trio of used Alco S2s from the Denver & Rio Grande Western followed by a pair of S2s bought for spare parts from other roads, one of which was returned to service as K&T 104. The last steamers, K&T #10 and #12, departed in February 1964. Blue Heron closed in the early ’60s followed by Mine 16 at Oz in 1966 leaving only a couple of truck-dump operations loading on the line. In 1967, a brand new operation at Barthell named “Justus Mine” was opened and flood loaded about 30 Southern “Big Red” 100T hoppers per day. Trains typically consisted of three S2s and about 15 cars, but each S2 was only rated for 3 100T hoppers on the 3.5% grade up to Stearns from Barthell making for a typical loaded train of 3 diesels and 9 hoppers (the K&T never used cabooses). Justus Mine was closed in 1987, but the K&T’s legacy lives on. The Big South Fork Scenic Railway continues to operate tourist trains between Stearns and Blue Heron and perform switching at Stearns. The BSFSR uses S2s, including one of the original K&T units, to haul passengers along the banks of the Cumberland River to the restored tipple and mining museum at Blue Heron. The K&T’s motive power consisted of used Alco S2s which it had overhauled and outfitted for multiple-unit operations on their way to the K&T in 1963. The diesels originally wore D&RGW black and gold, but later switched to the white and burgundy scheme now worn by the BSFSR. A three-locomotive set was standard on the K&T which allowed a good rotation through the maintenance shop. Interestingly, the K&T learned about driving and maintaining Alcos from its neighbor, the Tennessee Railroad, who’s diesel fleet consisted entirely of similar Alco RS1s.

This post card continues the series of cards published by Railcards.com.

Anybody got a compass?

The picture on the front of this post card was taken after 1952, when the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad

purchased this locomotive from the Southern Railroad. The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad has a lovely history. This version of the history was taken from this website: https://www.american-rails.com/etwnc.html The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina is a legendary small railroad located in its namesake states that dated to the late 19th century. The road's nickname as the Tweetsie inspired today's Tweetsie Railroad, a tourist line that hosts excursions near the original property. To railfans the attraction of the ET&WNC was due to its narrow-gauge operations, which remained in use until late 1950. However, to locals the Tweetsie was beloved for its willingness to go out of its way to help local communities from offering free rides to even doing errands for folks! What ultimately spurred the development of this classic line was the need to move raw materials, such as timber and iron, out of the mountains and to market. Interestingly, despite its remote nature the ET&WNC had multiple connections to larger, Class I systems. Today, the remaining section of the Tweetsie remains in use by shortline East Tennessee Railway. The ET&WNC's history begins in 1866 when it was originally chartered that year by the Tennessee General Assembly to connect Johnson City, Tennessee with Cranberry, North Carolina (a distance of around 32 miles) deep within the isolated Blue Ridge Mountains to serve the Tarheel State's western timber industry and iron mines. Unfortunately, a lack of any serious type of financial backing precluded any construction attempts and resulted in the charter being left undisturbed for nearly 20 years. Then in 1873 the railroad was acquired by financier Ario Pardee through his Cranberry Iron & Coal Company. Under Pardee's guidance the route was opened between Johnson City and Hampton, Tennessee on on August 22, 1881. This 14.1-mile section was extended to Cranberry by July 3, 1882 giving the railroad a total system of 34 miles; soon it was doing quite well moving primarily iron and timber from North Carolina with interchanges at Johnson City available via the Southern Railway and Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway. The route was built to three-foot, narrow-gauge standards to reduce construction costs and more easily navigate the rugged Blue Ridge. While the ET&WNC did have grades as high as 3% and 4%, overall it was a masterfully engineered line designed by Thomas Matson. Early on the railroad became well-known by locals for its kind-heartedness (giving it another name as the Railway with a Heart, it even used heart-shaped punches for its tickets), which carried on throughout the years. For instance, during lean times such as the Great Depression the railroad helped out by offering folks free trips to wherever they were going. Through World War I little changed for the ET&WNC until it opened a 32-mile extension to the northeast at Boone, North Carolina known as the Linville River Railroad in 1919. Overall, the Tweetsie) was a 66-mile railroad during peak operations with two very short branches in the Tarheel State that connected Minneapolis and Pineola. At this time freight traffic consisted of not only iron and timber but also furniture, other wood products, tanneries, brick, and agriculture. There were also two rayon plants that sprang up around Elizabethton, which offered the railroad additional traffic. While the ET&WNC did offer passenger services the railroad was unique in that in never operated scheduled passenger trains year-round, only during the summer months. Despite this setup, due to the breathtaking beauty of the mountains and scenery along the tracks thousands of tourists were drawn to the property annually to ride the trains. For power, the company used primarily, narrow-gauge 4-6-0 ten-wheelers although it also operated small 0-8-0 switchers as well. The decline of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad began in 1940 when historic flooding along the Linville River Railroad east of Cranberry forced the entire section to be abandoned due to little online traffic (aside from curious tourists) and the cost of repairs. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the decision on March 22 of that year and the Tweetsie again became just a 34-mile system. While World War II offered the ET&WNC strong traffic this rapidly declined following the conflict as the local remaining iron and timber industry disappeared. With no reason to continue operating its route between Elizabethton and Cranberry, the section was abandoned with the final train operating the line on a warm but somber October 16, 1950. What remained was about a 10-mile section between Johnson City and Elizabethton that primarily served the rayon plants and had already been operating as a dual-gauge line for several years. Through the 1960s the railroad continued to use steam power (#207-208), two former Southern 2-8-0 Consolidations it acquired in 1952. One of those – #207 – is pictured on the front of this post card. The company finally decided to switch to diesel locomotives when it swapped its 2-8-0s with the Southern for a pair of Alco RS3s, #209-210. The railroad would also pick up two former Southern Pacific RS32s, #211-212. During the diesel era the company's livery was nothing fancy, consisting of a simplified version of the former Southern freight scheme; black with an orange lower stripe and gold numbering/lettering. In 1983 the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad name disappeared forever when the property was purchased by the Green Bay Packaging Company and renamed it as the East Tennessee Railway. Today, the line is still known by the same except it now a part of the Genesee & Wyoming family of shortlines with connections to both Class Is CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern. Interestingly, one of the ET&WNC's steamers was saved following the closure of the narrow-gauge lines in 1950 and today operates on the Tweetsie Railroad, 4-6-0 #12.

The post card was published by Railcards.com. They are the ones who came up with the title of this blog by writing it on the back of this post card.

A Very Short, Short Line

The locomotives on the front of this post card belong to the

Dardanelle & Russellville Railroad. Here they are shown working for the McAlester Fuel Company. Both engines were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in the early 1900s. This website has a very good, concise history of the railroad: http://aslrr.net/dardanelle-russellville-railroad/ The Dardanelle and Russellville Railroad (D&R) operates on 4.8 miles of rail in Russellville, AR. It began operation on August 15, 1883 when it mainly hauled cotton and other agriculture products until 1900 when it shifted to mostly coal. The railroad carried coal until the 1950s when the last underground mines of McAlester Fuel Company were closed. That is the same year in which regular passenger service came to an end. Arkansas Shortline Railroad worked with the city leaders and bought the D&R in 1988 when the railroad was in severe financial difficulties. Within the first year, carloads increased by 282% and over 600 jobs directly connected to the railroad were saved from relocation. Currently the D&R offers full service transload in the yard for the companies Potlach-Deltic, AnPro (Division of the Mars Company), Denali, PolyQuest, and Gator Joist. They also place cars for the companies Stella Jones, West Fraser, Cunningham Metals, and Pet Solutions. The D&R also provides rail scales for their customers and interchange with the Union Pacific. The DR was chartered in 1883 and opened on August 15 of that year. The company was reorganized under its present name on January 13, 1900. Regular passenger service ended in 1950.

This is another post card from my collection by the publisher Railcards.com. The publisher no longer operates.

Switcheroo

The 0-8-0 wheel arrangement appeared early in locomotive development in the United States, during the mid-1840s. The configuration became popular and was more commonly constructed as a tender locomotive. It saw extensive use as a heavy switcher and freight engine.

The locomotive on the front of this post card is an 0-8-0 type of locomotive working for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Beginning in 1844, Ross Winans developed a series of 0-8-0 types for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, starting with a vertical-boiler design where the crankshaft was directly above and geared to the rear driving wheel. With a horizontal boiler, this became the Mud Digger class of engines on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, of which twelve were built. In late 1847, the B&O moved to abandon geared drives and, in 1848, Baldwin delivered the first of a series of 0-8-0 freight engines. The USRA 0-8-0, designed by the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was a standard class during the First World War. This was the standard heavy switcher of the USRA types, of which 175 examples were built by ALCO, Baldwin and Lima for many different railroads in the United States. After the dissolution of the USRA in 1920, an additional 1,200 examples of the USRA 0-8-0 were built. In the 1920s the Pennsylvania Railroad wanted the best motive power possible to handle the switching chores at their yards and interchanges. Built in their own Juniata Shops, the PRR C1 class, at 278,000 lb, was the heaviest two-cylinder 0-8-0 switcher ever produced. The calculated tractive effort was 76,154 lb. The last steam locomotive to be built in the USA for a Class I railroad was 0-8-0 no. 244, a Class S1 switch engine erected by the Norfolk and Western Roanoke shop in December 1953.

The post card was published by RAILCARDS.COM out of Alameda, California. The webite does not exist any more, so I presume that the company went out of business. This is one of two hundred and four post cards that I have from this publisher. It is the third largest group of post cards in my collection.