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.