A Complex Post Card

There are two parts to the front of this post card. The first part is the train in

the background. It is a Great Northern train. This is what https://www.american-rails.com/great.html has to say about the Great Northern. What became the Great Northern Railway (GN) was the work of a singe individual, James Jerome Hill. The legendary "Empire Builder" pieced together one of America's great transportation companies over the span of nearly four decades. It all began with the small St. Paul & Pacific and, by the time of his passing in 1917, the GN was a transcontinental carrier of more than 8,000 miles. Over time, the company's traffic became highly diversified; what began as an agricultural hauler transformed into a transcontinental carrier handling every type of freight imaginable. It was merged into Burlington Northern Railroad on March 2, 1970. The second part of the post card is the large sphere in the foreground. It is a monument to David Thompson erected by the Great Northern Railway. Here is some information about David Thompson as found in The Canadian Encyclopedia on line. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/david-thompson David Thompson, explorer, and cartographer was born 30 April 1770 in London, England. He died 10 February 1857 in Longueuil, Canada East (what is now Quebec). David Thomson was called “the greatest land geographer who ever lived.” He walked or paddled 80,000 km or more in his life, mapping most of western Canada, parts of the east and the northwestern United States. And like so many geniuses, his achievements were only recognized after his death. Thompson learned to speak several Indigenous languages and was an acute and sympathetic observer at a time when most Europeans still saw Indigenous people as savages. His journals (which numbered hundreds of pages) and his maps provided the most complete record of a territory that was more than 3.9 million square km and contained dozens of different First Nations bands. In all, he spent 27 years mapping the west. “The age of guessing is passed away,” he wrote. Thompson predicted the changes that would come to the west, that it would become farmland and Indigenous peoples would be pushed from their land. As the one who mapped it, he was aware that he was contributing to that future. Wikipedia also tells us about the place in which this monument to David Thompson is situated: Today, Verendrye is an unincorporated community in McHenry County, North Dakota, United States, located approximately eight miles northwest of Karlsruhe and 13 miles northeast of Velva within Falsen Township. Although classified by the USGS as a populated place, it is considered a ghost town. The community was first known as Falsen, founded in 1912 by Norwegian settlers, who named it for Norwegian statesman Christian Magnus Falsen. Falsen was also the name of the station on the Great Northern Railway. The post office was established with the name Falsen in 1913, but the name was changed in 1925 to honor Pierre de la Verendrye, an early French-Canadian explorer who was to tour the North Dakota prairies. The population of Falsen in 1920 was 75. The population of Verendrye in 1938 was 100. The post office closed in 1965, with mail being redirected to Bergen. The last original resident moved away in December 1970 and the townsite sat vacant until it was purchased in 1990 and developed by the current owners into a farmstead, leaving the remains of the school building as the last true remnant of the town. A monument to the later North West Company fur trader and explorer, David Thompson, erected by the Great Northern Railway in 1925, remains on a hilltop overlooking the former townsite.

This post card was posted on February 7, 1957. It was published by the Great Northern Railway. It was printed by The Meriden Gravure Company in Meriden, Connecticut. They were a printer of many fine art books and black & white national view-cards in a deep rich collotype. They abandoned this process in 1967 when they began using offset lithography. They also issued cards printed in a dull blue-green monotone that they called Dutone.

Still Going Strong After All These Years!

The locomotive shown on the front of this post card is a “Consolidation” 2-8-0 built by Baldwin in 1925, that once belonged to the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway. You can see that by looking at the number board

on the front of the engine. It is shown, in the picture, during its working days with the Mississippian Railroad. When this post card was published, long after this picture was taken, this locomotive was then doing tourist excursions on the Gettysburg Railroad in Pennsylvania. If the locomotive is still working at the time of this posting, it is 98 years old!!! This website gives some history of the Mississippian Railroad http://www.msrailroads.com/Mississippian.htm The Mississippian was incorporated in 1923 and built a railroad from Amory to Fulton, MS. John T Cochrane, who had just finished completing the Alabama Tennessee & Northern RR, was the major promoter and builder of the railroad. The discovery of large deposits of Bentonite clay in the 1950's bolstered the Mississippian's carloadings and ensured the survival of the railroad for many more years. It continues to operate in 2009 serving an industrial park in the south part of Fulton. Wikipedia tells us this about the Gettysburg Railroad: On March 4, 1851, Robert McCurdy, Josiah Benner, and Henry Myers secured a charter for the Gettysburg Railroad Company. The ground breaking was on February 22, 1856 and the railroad opened with the first passenger train entering Adams County on September 14, 1857. A locomotive first entered the Gettysburg borough on November 29. The line was "completed" at Gettysburg on December 1, 1858, with operations over the Gettysburg Railroad Company tracks managed from that date by the Hanover Branch RR until June 12, 1859. The last spike was driven at Gettysburg on December 16, 1858 (12:30 a.m.); and that day at Hanover, company representatives met an official "party of Baltimoreans" with the Blues Band from Calvert railway station. Civil War: On June 27 prior to the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, the line at Gettysburg was disabled when the nearby Rock Creek bridge was demolished by Confederate forces. On November 18, 1863, President Lincoln used the line to attend the consecration of the Soldiers' National Cemetery where he delivered the Gettysburg Address. Successor Lines: In December 1870, the Susquehanna, Gettysburg & Potomac Railway company purchased the Gettysburg Railway Company's trackage to Hanover Junction, 2 steam locomotives, 1 passenger car, and 2 freight cars. The railway line between Gettysburg and Hanover Junction became part of the Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad in 1874, the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway in 1886, and the Western Maryland Railway in 1917. In 1973, the Western Maryland became a part of the Chessie System, which later became CSX Transportation on November 1, 1980. Today: Pioneer Lines, operates approximately 27 miles of track from Gettysburg to Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania called THE GETTYSBURG AND NORTHERN RAILWAY (GET). It is located 200 miles East of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pioneer Lines Scenic Railway Pioneer Lines Scenic Railway operates scenic train rides through portions of the Civil War battlefield and the Pennsylvania countryside. Other excursions include the Gettysburg Ghost Train, a Murder Mystery Train, an Evening Paradise Dinner Train and a Santa Train ride.

The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs in Earlton, New York after 1963. The photo credit is given to Mac Owen. He was a prolific railroad photographer and a videographer.

You Need to be Big to Carry All of that Weight

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a very large, M4 class locomotive. In the Whyte Classification it is a Yellowstone Type steam locomotive design, of the 2-8-8-4 wheel arrangement and an articulated

design featured many of the peak technological advances of the motive power being developed in the late 1920s. The 2-8-8-4's late development also meant that few, in comparison to other types, were ever built. In total 72 of these massive machines were manufactured for four different railroads: the Baltimore & Ohio; Northern Pacific; Southern Pacific and the railroad featured on this post card, the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway (DM&IR). This website gives a history of how the DM&IR came to be. It is a long history that starts in the 1880s and continues to its birth in the 1930s and its disappearance in the 2000s. https://www.american-rails.com/missabe.html The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) was a Minnesota institution that played a vital role in our country's steel production. It is the result of a merger of two previously existing railroads. The two railroads remained separate corporate entities until a series of transactions in the late 1930s; first, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern (DM&N) and Spirit Lake Transfer Railway were merged on July 1, 1937 to form the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway. The Spirit Lake Transfer Railway was formed in 1907, this DM&N subsidiary eventually constructed 11 miles in the West Duluth area to serve a steel mill owned by the Minnesota Steel Company. While several Midwestern carriers moved iron ore in some capacity only the Missabe Road did so on a grand scale along a condensed network of just a few hundred miles. Its main lines fanned out northward from docks situated at Duluth and Two Harbors to serve the bountiful Mesabi and Vermilion Ranges. The discovery of this important resource predates the Civil War although contemporary mining operations did not begin until the early 1880's. In time, two railroads came to serve the region; the Duluth & Iron Range and Duluth, Missabe & Northern. After many years as separate entities the two merged in the late 1930's to form the modern Missabe Road. Over the years its system map constantly changed as it built, then removed, trackage while following the iron. As time passed the natural ore fields were exhausted which gave rise to the taconite pellet, a sort of man-made ore created from natural deposits. In May of 2004 Canadian National purchased Great Lakes Transportation, which owned the DM&IR, and within a decade its corporate identity vanished.

The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs (AVD) out of Earlton, New York. This post card is one of three hunred and thirty three in my collection that were published by AVD. The photo credit is given to Bob Lorenz. I found this article on line about a Bob Lorenz. I will not be surprised if this is the man who took the photo. This is from: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/20-artist-designer-bob-lorenz-dies-at-95/ "It’s not a brash claim to say that no railroad artist or designer has ever reached as large an audience as Robert “Bob” H. Lorenz, thanks to his memorable paint scheme for the American Freedom Train of 1975-76. Millions of people witnessed his patriotic flourish as the Freedom Train rolled through hundreds of towns and cities across the U.S. That’s quite a legacy for Lorenz, who died peacefully on Tuesday in Fremont, the place he called home since childhood. He was 95."

The "Copper Country Limited" at Rest

The photo on the front of this post card is of a painting by Russ Porter. It depicts the “Copper Country Limited” pausing at Republic, Michigan in the early 1920s. Republic is about 300 miles from Chicago, Illinois as the train travels toward Calumet, Michigan. This website provides information about the “Copper Country Limited”. https://www.american-rails.com/copper-country.html The Copper Country Limited was one of many secondary trains operating on the Milwaukee Road. It certainly carried an appropriate name with service provided from Chicago to the northern fringes of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (copper country) in conjunction with the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic (later a Soo Line subsidiary). Its first appearance was during March of 1907 listed as trains #2 (southbound) and #3 (northbound). The route it plied required a little more than 12 hours departing Chicago late in the evening, running through Green Bay, and arriving at Calumet, Michigan the following morning. Interchange with the DSS&A was carried out at Champion, Michigan, (a Milwaukee-Marquette sleeper was interchanged 10 miles south at Republic, Michigan) which operated the train to its northward destination near the shores of Lake Superior. During its early years the Copper Country provided a consist including coaches, sleepers running through between Milwaukee and Marquette (Michigan) as well as Chicago and Calumet. Considering the rurality of this part of the country it is quite amazing a railroad provided such high class services; but the Milwaukee was not alone, such trains could be found running to similar out-of-the-way areas all across the country well into the 1960's.

I could find a few articles on line that told us that his artwork was used in Trains Magazine, but I could not find any biographical information on this person. It does seem, though, that he owned his own wooden railroad car. There were some people on a chat room site asking about the car, since the artist has died.

Capturing a Real Historic Moment

The picture on the front of this post card is a capture of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States. The picture was taken at Gold Station, California, which is about 92 kilomters northeast of Sacramento, California. This picture is of a work train of the Central Pacific at Dixie Cut near Gold Run Station May 1865 at the rail head in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California when the grade was being cut above Auburn for tracks of the first transcontinental railroad. This website has been very valuable in helping me to find any information about the picture on the front of the post card. https://calisphere.org The picture was taken by Alfred A. Hart (1816 – 1908) Alfred A. Hart was born in Connecticut in 1816. In 1865 he was commissioned to photograph the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) and was promoted to the CPRR's official photographer in 1866. Hart would photograph along the CPRR line in the summers between 1865 and 1868. Hart was terminated from the CPRR in 1869. He died in 1908 in Alameda County, California. There are many stereographs of the Central Pacific Railroad taken by Alfred A. Hart depicting the construction and surrounding landscape of the Central Pacific Railroad in northern California and Nevada between 1862-1869.

This post card is part of the MASTER PHOTOGRAPHERS series that was published by the Lightfoot Collection in Huntington Station, New York. Last week's post card was number 21 in the series; this post card is number 25. You can see all of the Masters at this website: http://wallywombatscollectables.com/Master-Photographer-by-Lightfoot.php

Did Robert Louis Stephenson Ride This Train?

I have a poster on the wall downstairs. It is an advertisement by the Canadian Pacific Railway for people to ride the train west. I never did think much of it until today. The railroads, in both the United States and Canada, depended on getting people to settle in the west so that the railroads could make money by selling the settlers the land that was granted to the railroad with its charter. This website has some background about these “Emigrant Trains”, as they were known.

The picture on the front of this post card is of an “Emigrant Train”. The picture was taken by Thomas C. Roche (a Civil War photographer) during his tour of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads in 1870. https://legacysunfoldingjourney.blogspot.com/2011/07/take-ride-on-immigrant-train-advance.html In order to sell as much of this land as possible, the railroads had to compete for immigrants. So, they covered Europe with advertising promoting the American Dream of religious freedom, upward mobility, and cheap fertile land. So why did so many immigrants choose the U.S. and not countries closer to their homes? Well, there was genuine opportunity and freedom, too. But mostly it was good advertising. The Burlington Northern Railroad alone had over 850 agents roaming Europe selling the virtues of life in the United States. “A Congressional report in the early 1870’s estimated that every foreign laborer landing on our shores was economically valued at $1,500. The report stated that in less than ten years, these people would add $4.8 billion to the wealth of the nation” (“Across America on an Emigrant Train”). http://eyewitnesstohistory.com/emigranttrain.htm It was 1879 and twenty-eight-year-old Robert Louis Stevenson - future author of the novels Kidnapped and Treasure Island - was in love. Her name was Fanny Osborne. She was an American, ten years his senior and married to another man. The two had met in France three years earlier and Stevenson had fallen hopelessly in love. She returned to California and her husband, but in 1879, Stevenson received a cable from her that immediately set him off on a voyage to be by her side. Stevenson's parents were not happy with his plans and refused to fund his journey - so the young author decided to travel to America as an emigrant. This allowed him to take advantage of the low one-way fares to America offered by the American railroads. Special "Emigrant Boats" sailed to America's eastern ports and were met by "Emigrant Trains" that carried the foreign passengers to their final destinations. Stevenson kept a journal of his experience and soon turned this into a book. The picture on this post card was taken by T.C. Roche. This website gives us some of his history: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/t-c-roche-civil-war-photographer.71797/ T.C. Roche (1826–1895) was a photographer who worked with Alexander Gardner and Matthew Brady. Not much is know about him. In 1858, Roche became interested in photography and was listed as an agent at 83 South St. in Brooklyn, New York. In 1862 he went to work for E. & H. T. Anthony & Company. Over the years, Roche was Anthony's principal photographer and senior advisor and one of their most valuable assets, developing many patents for the company's products and processes. Roche is probably best known for, and counts among his many accomplishments, the roughly 50 stereoviews taken on April 3, 1865 following the fall of Petersburg, Virginia. These include the "death studies", at least 20 stereoviews of the dead, allegedly taken inside Fort Mahone. After the war, Roche returned to work for the Anthonys, with whom he published a book on photography.Thomas C. Roche was quite an inventor, and has a number of patents that you can find on Google Patents - most of them have to do with photography.

This post card is one of 50 that were sold by the Lightfoot Collection in Huntington Station, New York. This is the website where you can see the other 49 post cards. They are not all about trains. I have numbers 13, 21 and 25 from this collection. http://wallywombatscollectables.com/Master-Photographer-by-Lightfoot.php

The Picture is OLD, but not the Post Card!

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43519828 provides us with this information about the locomotive on the front of this post card, called the “Catawissa”.

It belonged to the Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company (LSRR). It was ordered from Edward Bury of Liverpool, England for delivery in 1833. It was of the 0-4-0 type of wheel arrangement and weighed a little over eight tons. The purchase prose was $5,000 ($150,000 today with inflation factored in). The Catawissa was first used on February 27, 1833 for the trial trip. March 9th was the date for the second trial. The locomotive ran off a turnout and destroyed the 13 cars it was pulling. However, it did have a long career with the railroad. When this railroad was leased by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (see below) in April of 1863 the Catawissa went as part of the deal. It was not used after 1865. The Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company (LSRR) was a railway company in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The main line ran from Port Clinton to Tamaqua, for a total of 28 miles. The railroad received a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on February 28, 1826. Construction began in 1830. The tracks were constructed with strap iron on wood rails. Beginning with horse-drawn cars in 1831, the LSRR operated between Tamaqua, located at the end of the coal-rich Panther Creek Valley and the Port Clinton terminus of the Schuylkill Canal. It later made a rail junction with the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company. In 1833, the railroad acquired two steam locomotives, built in Liverpool, but the wooden tracks did not support the engines, requiring a resumption of animal-powered operations. This over-extended investment nearly bankrupted the young company. Only in 1845 did iron "T" rails replace the wooden rails, allowing the costly English locomotives to return to regular service. In 1854, the LSRR completed a junction with the Catawissa Railroad at Tamanend (also called Little Schuylkill Junction). In 1857, it built a roundhouse in Tamaqua, housing 21 locomotives and a turntable. In 1863, the company was leased by the Reading Railroad for 93 years. It formally merged with the Reading in 1952.

The post card was published by the Tamaqua Historical Society in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania after 1963. There is a zip code in the address on the back and zip codes were introduced in 1963. However, there is a better indicator of the age of the post card. The caption on the back refers to the 160th Anniversary of founding of this railroad: from 1831 to 1991. That makes the post card 32 years old and they are celebrating the 192nd Anniversary this year. Here is a link to the historical society’s web page: https://www.tamaquahistoricalsociety.org/ Each year, the historical society sponsors and conducts train rides departing from the Tamaqua Station during the Summerfest and at Christmas time. The train rides are presented in cooperation with the Reading and Northern Railroad.

Cincinnati Southern Railway - Yes, There is Such a Thing!

The train crossing the bridge on the front of this post card belongs to the Cincinnati Southern Railway. It is crossing the highest bridge in Kentucky. The Cincinnati Southern is a very unique railroad in as much as it is owned by a city. This website gives a concise history of the Railway: http://cincinnatisouthernrailway.org/ The City of Cincinnati is the only municipality in the country to own an interstate railroad. An Ohio law enabling the creation of the Cincinnati Southern Railway was enacted on May 4, 1869. Cincinnati voters adopted a resolution designating Chattanooga as the southern terminus one month later. Workmen spiked the last rail in place on December 10, 1879. The first freight train completed the route from Cincinnati to Chattanooga on February 21, 1880. The first passenger train followed on March 8. Thus began an innovative, visionary and complex commercial enterprise intended, from its first considerations in 1835, to expand the economy of Cincinnati. The enterprise continues today, under a long-term lease with Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP), generating revenue annually for capital infrastructure improvements and repair throughout the City of Cincinnati. The bridge over which the train is crossing is described well in this website: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/kentucky/high-bridge-ky/ High Bridge opened as a part of the Cincinnati Southern Railway in 1877 and soared at a height of 275 feet and 1,125 feet long. It is the first cantilever bridge constructed in the United States. High Bridge was officially dedicated in 1879. Many people gathered for the dedication in hopes of seeing then President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was in attendance. Notably, also in attendance was General William Tecumseh Sherman. Over a century later and the bridge continues to stand as one of the tallest and most impressive in Kentucky. At the time it was built, High Bridge was the tallest bridge above a navigable waterway in North America and the tallest railroad bridge in the world until the early 1900s. In 1911, a new bridge was built around the existing one and then in 1929 an additional set of tracks was built to accommodate increased railroad traffic and the original limestone towers were removed.

The post card is an excellent example of a linen post card. In my opinion the Metrocraft Company is second only to Curt Otto Teich in the technique of making linen post cards. They existed in Everett, Massachusetts from 1939 to 1984. The company was a major printer of linen and photochrome postcards displaying a variety of subjects. They also printed postcards for many other publishers. A good number of Metrocraft’s early photochrome postcards retained the use of retouchers that had worked on their linens. These cards have a very distinct look before they went over to a completely uniform photographic means of natural color reproduction. I am very sad about what someone did to the back of the post card in order to put it into an album. Someday I will try to remove the black album paper from the post card!!

Two Great Northern Railway Locomotives

This first locomotive is "No. 1"; its name is "The William Crooks". In 1862 it powered the first train operated in Minnesota and a considerable area adjacent to that state. "The William Crooks" was the fist locomotive of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. This railroad was the predecessor of, and would become a part of, the Great Northern Railway. This website gives some history behind the name of this locomotive: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/07/19/william-crooks-first-steam-locomotive-run-state-minnesota/ William Crooks, named after the Colonel of the Minnesota Volunteers’ Sixth Regiment during the American Civil War (and later Chief Mechanical Engineer for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad), is a 4-4-0 steam locomotive that was the first locomotive to operate in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The locomotive was constructed in 1861 by Smith and Jackson of the New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Company of Paterson, NJ. On September 9, 1861, the William Crooks arrived in St. Paul by steamboat and on June 28, 1862, the locomotive hauled the historic first trainload of passengers in Minnesota a distance of 10 miles between St. Paul and St. Anthony (now Minneapolis). Regular service between St. Paul and St. Anthony began on July 2, 1862. The locomotive was originally a wood-burner with a tender that held just two cords of wood. Often, the tender’s wood was used before the train could reach a wood pile, forcing the crew to make use of the wooden right-of-way fences to keep the train moving. Later the locomotive was converted into a coal-burner. As built, the engine had a straight boiler, the balloon stack typical of wood burning engines, and three domes, the center of which was for sanding the rails to improve traction when needed. It weighs 28 tons (51 tons with tender) and is 50 feet, 8 ¼ inches in length. As the engine aged and parts replaced, its appearance changed. The engine received a diamond stack for burning coal, its boiler replaced with a tapered design and was reduced to a two dome configuration. The old locomotive had served almost 50 years and had eventually been assigned to runs in Montana and Washington. The William Crooks was in passenger service until September 30, 1897, after which it was retired and by the turn of the century, was sitting decommissioned in a corner of the Great Northern yard in St. Paul. It was placed on display at the Saint Paul Union Depot in June 1954. Today, the locomotive is owned by the Minnesota Historical Society and on display at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota.

The second locomotive is Number 3048. It is a 2-8-2 locomotive built by Baldwin between 191 and 1919. It was one of 145 2-8-2s built for the Great Northern Railway. They were all retired or sold between 1948 and 1958. One, Number 3059 is preserved; the rest were sold for scrap. On August 2, 1958, Number 3059 was donated for display near the Williston Depot in Williston, North Dakota and currently resides there. Both of these post cards were published by Bob Fremming.

Slowly Being Retired and Replaced

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is one of 40 that were

built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Great Northern Railway. They were built between 1918 and 1919 and all retired from service between 1956 and 1958. The photo of this locomotive was taken on April 21, 1956 while it sat in storage. These locomotives were being replaced by GP-7 diesel locomotives made by Electro-Motive (a division of General Motors) on the railroad. Just as the steam locomotive was used for switching service, their replacements were, too. This website gives a nice, short history of the Great Northern Railway and James J. Hill's involvement in its making. https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/great-northern-railway The Great Northern Railway was a transcontinental railroad system that extended from St. Paul to Seattle. Among the transcontinental railroads, it was the only one that used no public funding and only a few land grants. As the northernmost of these lines, the railroad spurred immigration and the development of lands along the route, especially in Minnesota. On September 18, 1889, Minnesota entrepreneur James J. Hill created the Great Northern Railway from the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific and the Minneapolis and St. Cloud. On February 1, 1890, the Great Northern assumed control of his other railroad companies, among them the Montana Central Railway and the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba. From these beginnings the Great Northern Railway became a transcontinental railroad across the northern part of the United States. I have written about the Great Northern in past blogs, so I won’t take up your time here. Next week, I will share two post cards of locomotives that worked for the Great Northern Railway.

The photo was taken by Robert Anderson of Ironwood, Michigan and the post card was published by Bob Fremming in August of 1957.

Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad

The passenger train rounding the bend on Little Traverse Bay, as shown on the front of this post card, belonged to the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad.

Wikipedia does provide a longer and more detailed history of the railroad; I have condensed this history here. Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad according to Wikipedia: The company was formed on January 18, 1854. The company opened service between Bridge Street in Grand Rapids to Cedar Springs, Michigan, on December 25, 1867, a distance of about 20 miles (32 km). Six months later, in July of 1868 it had 2 engines in service: the Pioneer and the Muskegon. At that time the company also utilized a single passenger coach and single baggage car, six box cars, 24 flat cars and five hand cars. On June 21, 1869, the last rail connecting Cedar Springs to Morley, Michigan was laid. The track from the south into Grand Rapids was completed September 13, 1870. The line extended north to Big Rapids, Michigan, by October 1, 1870, and a train first traveled between Fort Wayne and Big Rapids on that date. In June 1871, the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad Company took control of the road and property of the Cincinnati, Richmond and Fort Wayne Railroad Company, extending the line south to Cincinnati. The line between Paris and Petoskey, Michigan, was completed November 25, 1873. The railroad was opened to Mackinaw City, Michigan, and the Straits of Mackinac on July 3, 1882. The total length of the line at this time was 529 miles (851 km). As of July 1888, the railroad had expanded its fleet to 66 locomotives and 3,100 cars. Its gross earnings were close to $2.3 million in 1887. In 1891 the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad featured the longest North-South line in the country. The railroad served to accelerate the settlement of Northern Michigan, which was largely a wilderness in the mid-19th century. On July 2, 1896, the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad reorganized as the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway. That is the railway that owned the train on the front of this post card. By 1907 four passenger trains were running north to and from Mackinaw City daily. Passenger train fares were not enough to support the railroad and ridership declined. In 1909 the railroad reported a profit of 24.4 cents for every passenger for each mile carried; by 1921 the railroad was losing 19.5 cents per passenger mile. The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad was bought by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1918.

The back of the post card has been ruined by some dark stain. The good news is that, whatever it is, it did not leak through to the front of the card. The post card was published by Alton G. Cook (1862 – 1923) from Petoskey, Michigan. Here is a quote from an article I found about Mr. Cook’s business. “His latest booklet is entitled Summer Resorts on Little Traverse Bay and is one of the handsomest souvenirs ever published of Petoskey and Northern Michigan. In addition to all of these, Mr. Cook finds time to take pictures for the G R & I Railroad company for the quantities of advertising matter they send out every year. The making of post cards, which he began about five years ago has proved one of the most successful lines he has yet undertaken and, as he is continually working to improve and enlarge it, it is hard to predict what he will accomplish in the future. He runs an exclusive Post Card Store at 208 Midway which is said to carry the most complete line of cards of any in this region.”

The Firefly by Frisco

This locomotive on the front of the post card was one of only three 4-6-2's

built by the Frisco machine shops in 1939. Our friends at Wikipedia tell us this about the engine, its two sisters and the passenger train they pulled, “The Firefly”. The Firefly was a streamlined passenger train operated by the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway (the "Frisco"). At various times, it served St Louis, Missouri, Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Kansas City, Missouri, and Fort Scott, Kansas. It made its maiden run on March 29, 1940, and ended May 22, 1960. It was Frisco’s first streamliner, and the first streamliner to be built in the southwest. The Frisco decided to fit its steam locomotives with a cowling, described as a torpedo-type jacket giving it the appearance of a bullet-like projectile traveling down the track. The engines were converted by Frisco itself in Springfield, with the first one, No. 1026, being completed in May of 1938. The engine was not new; it had originally been built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1910 as an ordinary 4-6-2 “Pacific”. Two other engines, Nos. 1018 and 1031, both also Baldwin 4-6-2’s from 1910, were later converted for the Firefly service as well. This website tells us some of the history of the Railroad to which the locomotive on the front of this post card belonged: http://frisco.org/mainline/about-the-frisco-railroad/ The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (affectionately known as the “Frisco”) was a St. Louis-based railroad that operated in nine Midwest and southern states from 1876 to 1980. The railroad stretched from Kansas City to Pensacola and St. Louis to Oklahoma City and Dallas, having some of the most iconic motive power, logos and slogans in the history of railroading. The Frisco was also renowned for excellent passenger service led by some of the best-looking steam locomotives ever built, and celebrated for fast freight hauling behind steam locomotives of its own design as well as diesels in the later era. Born as a branch of the great Pacific Railroad project of the mid-19th Century, the Frisco became a separate entity that helped to feed the population of a growing nation, helped build its factories and ship those factories’ products, helped win two World Wars, and helped to carry Americans East and West, North and South in style and comfort. In the 104 years of its separate existence, it became a major corporation that provided the best service possible to its customers while treating its employees like a big family, never losing the homey touch. The Frisco merged with, and was assimilated into, the Burlington Northern on November 21, 1980, but most of its lines are still in service today with the BNSF or various short lines.

This is a Real Photo Post Card. It was taken by A. D. Wellborn. I could find nothing about the photographer on the internet.

To Russia with Love, NOT!

The picture on the front of this post card was taken on August 25, 1956. They are locomotives working for Eagle Picher. In 1927, the Eagle-Picher Lead Company was one of the largest white lead and zinc companies in the United States. Its assets exceeded $45,000,000, with ore refineries in Kansas and Oklahoma as well as Missouri. However, the locomotives in the picture are much older than the 1956 picture. These are ex-Frisco

locomotives and were some of the last true Russian Decapods in existence at that time. Here is the history on each of the locomotives as taken from this website: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4762780 This website (in orange, below) has a book about the Russian Decapods. I have taken some information from the first page. If you are interested, I am sure it will make for some fascinating reading. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43518384 In the early 1900s Russia ordered a huge fleet of 2-10-0 type locomotives known as Decapods. A. I. Lipetz, the chief of the locomotive division of the Russian Mission on Ways of Communication, managed the design and construction in the US. They were originally built for the 5-foot gauge Russian State Railways to haul 1300 metric tons at a speed of 8 to 10 miles per hour over grades of .8%. The Bolshevik revolution forced cancellation of undelivered locomotives, so the builders sold them to American railroad companies. Eventually, the locomotives served on at least 42 different railroads, mostly in the east and south. These locomotives were considered by some to be the ugliest locomotives ever built. They had low drivers, very high boilers and enormous steam domes. Some American railroads made cosmetic adjustments to change the appearance of their Decapods.

The post card was published by Bob Fremming of Dallas, Wisconsin. The picture was taken by Richard Wallin of Kirkwood Missouri. I searched the internet over and over and found no information about either of these people.

Focus on the Train, Not the Battle!

The picture on this post card is of a Baltimore & Ohio train crossing over

Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware. I bought the post card because of the train on the front. Evidently, the publishers of the post card were more interested in the history related to the site. The description on the back of the post card focuses on a battle that was fought there in the Revolutionary War on September 11, 1777 which led to the occupation of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the British Army. I went on line and looked up the bridge. This website gives an excellent description of the history of the bridge and the railroads that are related to it. https://historicbridges.org/delaware/brandywineviaduct/inventory.pdf Delaware’s most visually impressive stone arch bridge is the 1909-1910 Brandywine Viaduct built by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad over Brandywine Creek in Wilmington. The seven-span bridge is slightly less than 1,000’ long and rises over 110’ above the creek. The bridge was built as the railroad’s replacement of an 1888 iron deck truss bridge, which had proven inadequate to heavier locomotives. Although the B&O could have chosen to build another steel truss bridge, or a reinforced concrete bridge, there were few bridge types that spoke to permanency and stability as well as a stone arch, even if stone construction was very costly. The iron truss bridge in the background of this picture on the post card was abandoned by the railroad in 1910. It was then transferred to the City of Wilmington, which converted the bridge for use by pedestrians and motorized vehicles. Today, the railroad bridge is owned by CSX.

The post card was published by a company from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This may account for the interest in the historical aspect rather than the railroad aspect of the scene. The company, the Post Card Distributing Company, existed from 1911 to 1919. They have a great logo – see the picture of the statue of William Penn on top of City Hall in the top middle of the post card back. The post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich. His numbering system (to the right of the statue, above the word POST) suggests that this card was printed in 1917; probably early 1917, since the post rate went from one cent to two cents on November 2, 1917 and the rate for this card is one cent.

Plummer Junction, You Say??

The picture here is a Real Photo Post Card. It was made by Charles A. Lane care of Los Angeles Railway at 7th and Central Avenue in Los Angeles, California. The pencil writing on the back tells us that this passenger train is on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad (CM&SP). It is climbing a steep grade from Ste. Marie to Plummer Junction in Idaho in April of 1922. I have blogged in the past about the CM&SP so I went on line to see what I could learn about Plummer Junction. This website gives a great, photograph-filled tour of Plummer Junction and the surrounding railroad related area. The photographs are from the 70s. I highly recommend that you visit the site. https://www.milwelectric.org/palouse-to-cascades-trail-virtual-tour-plummer/ Plummer Junction was a relay office as well as a train order office. In addition to delivering orders to trains, the office also bridged telegraph circuits to pass along messages.

Allen Miller drew this map of Plummer Junction that shows the configuration of the wye, location of water tank, depot and the old U.P. line that went under the legs of the wye. The Plummer Junction depot was located inside the wye off the main line between Malden (west) and St. Maries (east). Trains from Spokane would come in from the east (right) and have the option of going either direction on the main line. The Union Pacific line from Tekoa to Wallace also came through Plummer. Today the St. Maries River Railroad comes in from the east on the Milwaukee Road main line and interchanges with the Union Pacific at Plummer. The Union Pacific comes in from Spokane on the former Milwaukee Road line to interchange with the St. Maries River Railroad and to service the Plummer mill.

I know nothing about the photographer who would also be the publisher. But I am reproducing the back of the post card here for your viewing pleasure.

A Mighty Midget

The information about the locomotive on the front of this post card was taken from this website: http://hawkinsrails.net/industrials/lclc/lclc.htm About 1920, a small 2-6-0 was sold to the Williams Lumber Co. at Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and sold again in May 1921 to the Joseph Rathborne Lumber Co. Rathbone closed in 1929 and was sold to the Joyce interests of Chicago. The Joyce family also operated rail lines at Rainey River, Minnesota and Manistique, Michigan. The Ponchatoula mill was reopened on July 15, 1936 as the Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co.

The little 2-6-0 was renumbered to #2 and served as backup to the company's road locomotive #1, a 2-6-2 built by Porter in 1921. For about a year before the mill closed in January 1956, Cypress imported mahogany logs from Honduras to cut up at the Ponchatoula mill. The logs were shipped to New Orleans by steamship and then transported to Ponchatoula in Illinois Central gondolas. #2 was used in regular service as the switcher at the mill to switch the gondolas while #1 was out on the road. This map shows where in Louisiana the locomotive did its work.

Remembered with Love

The Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad (BC&G) was an 18.6 mile long coal-hauling short-line that operated in central West Virginia in its original form from 1904 through 1965.

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a 2-8-0, “Consolidation”. Number 13 was owned by the BC&G. The photo was taken in April of 1963. BC&G Consolidation #13 was built by the Alco's Brooks works in 1920 as c/n 61579. She was acquired by the BC&G in 1950 from the Kelly's Creek and Northwestern. BC&G Consolidation drew the assignment to be on the point of the final scheduled train from Widen before the Rich Run Mine closed. The date was December 30, 1963. Engine #13 had a life after the BC&G. She was sold in 1964 to the South Penn Museum, then went to the Lakeshore Central System before going to the Logansport & Eel River. She is currently owned by the Ohio Central Railroad. She served there in tourist service for a number of years. The engine is now at the AGE OF STEAM museum in Ohio, but is currently not in service. The history of the Buffalo Creek & Gauley can be broken into four fairly distinct periods. The first runs from the formation of the Elk River Coal and Lumber Co. and the chartering of the BC&G in 1904 until the final closing of the BC&G in 1965. The BC&G bought only one engine new, Baldwin Consolidation #4, in 1926, but it continued to acquire steam engines long after other railroads had dieselized. Consolidations #13 and #14 were purchased from the Kelly's Creek and Northwestern in 1950. The logging line had three Climax acquired new over the years, and acquired their last steam engine, Shay #19, from the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company as late as 1957. This engine, and other geared engines, traveled into the woods along the Lilly Fork. The Lilly Fork varied in length over the years but reached about 9 miles into the woods. The second period is the 1970's and early 1980's when the Majestic Mining Company reopened the line for a while. The third period was in the early 1990's when The Elk River Railroad, Inc. used a portion of the former BC&G track. The final period is, fortunately, the present. This includes the work being done by the BC&G Co-Operative to establish a tourist line on the former BC&G track. The above information was gleaned from this website. The website reflects some people's love and concern for keeping the memory of the Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad alive. Take a look at what they have to say. www.buffalocreekandgauley.com

The post card was published by Railcards.com. I know nothing about the publisher even though I have 204 of their post cards in my collection.

What Kind of Driving Gear is That?

If you look carefully, you will notice that the driving mechanism on this

locomotive does not look like the usual drive bar pushing the wheels around, like the standard steam locomotive that we are used to seeing. This Shay Locomotive has a gear-driven drive system that is extremely useful for going up very steep grades like those found in the mountains of eastern Tennesee. For a detailed explanation of how the Shay locomotive works, I recommend this website: https://www.shaylocomotives.com/trucks/trucks.htm The next website has provided the history of the locomotive on the front of this post card. I summarize the content below. http://hawkinsrails.net/shortlines/brim/brimstone.htm The locomotive on the front of this post card was built by Lima Locomotive & Machine Company (one of 1,557 built by this company) in August of 1910. It was commissioned as Lima #2366. The wheel arrangement is that of a Class C Shay 3 truck locomotive. It was energized by coal that heated water into steam that powered the drive train. It was originally sold to Raleigh & Southwestern RR as #35; then it went to Smokey Mountain RR in 1921; in 1938 the W.M. Ritter Lumber Company took possession; they sold it to Brimstone in 1942. After Brimstone, the locomotive went to the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum then to the Yolo Short Line and finally to the Silver Bend Tree Farm in 1995. And this website gives the history of the Brimstone Railroad, the railroad on which this locomotive is pictured. Again, I have summarized the content below. https://abandonedonline.net/location/brimstone-new-river-railroad/ The Brimstone Railroad was chartered in May of 1942 in eastern Tennesee, by the W.M. Ritter Lumber company of Virginia, and followed Brimstone Creek in northern Tennessee. As typical for a logging route, each hollow featured a railroad branch;switchbacks were used to ascend steep grades via three shay locomotives. The Brimstone Railroad primarily hauled timber and coal, with two underground coal mines located at Hughett and Lone Mountain. Timber was taken to the W.M. Ritter Mill at New River and later to a mill in Verdun. The railroad reorganized as the Brimstone & New River Railroad in 1965, and as the New River Railway in 1966 after the W.M. Ritter Company was acquired by Georgia Pacific Corporation. The line was purchased by the CNO&TP in 1970. Traffic along the New River Railway became increasingly scarce because the high-sulfur coal found in the region had become less desirable and the last active coal mine along the route closed in 1980.

The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs in Earlton, New York after October of 1983. The address on the back of the post card includes the 5 digit zip code plus the 4 more digits that were added after October of 1983.

Still Around. You Just Won't Recognize It.

On the front of this post card a 2-6-0 Mogul, one of the main stays of the Boston & Maine Railroad, pulling a passenger train on the Central Massachusetts Division between Boston and Clinton.

Here it is just about to cross the Fitchburg Division main line in Weston, Massachusetts in February of 1955. This is about one year before it was replaced by a diesel locomotive. The Boston & Maine Railroad still exists on paper. This website will provide a concise history of the railroad. https://www.bmrrhs.org/history-of-the-b-and-m-railroad/ I have taken excerpts from it below. The article was written by Rick Nowell, Archives Chairman Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society August 12, 2016 The Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) was the successor to the Andover and Wilmington Railroad which opened in 1836. Over the next 65 years the B&M gained control (through lease, purchase, or stock ownership) of the Eastern, Boston and Lowell, Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers, Concord & Montreal, Connecticut River, Fitchburg, Portland and Rochester, and Worcester and Nashua railroads, most of which themselves were agglomerations of shorter, earlier roads. All had their main lines and branches that wove a tight web of steel through northern Massachusetts, southern Maine, the state of New Hampshire, and eastern New York and Vermont. At its peak B&M maintained over 2,300 route miles of track, 1,200 steam locomotives, and a force of 28,000 employees. The road’s principal shops were located at North Billerica, Mass. and Concord, N.H. Major freight yards were built at Boston, East Deerfield, Rigby, and Mechanicville. In 1955 financial operator Patrick B. McGinnis gained control of the Boston and Maine. His principal contribution to B&M history was to oversee the completion of dieselization, the discontinuance of many passenger routes and runs, and the closure and sale of railroad stations and equipment. Ultimately he was convicted of and imprisoned for taking kickbacks on equipment sales. In the late 1950s and 1960s profitability was elusive; Government insisted that the B&M should keep commuter and long-distance passenger trains running in the face of mounting deficits and decreasing patronage and made it impossible for the B&M to break even. Bankruptcy came in 1970, but ironically it seems to have been the catalyst that the B&M needed to reinvent itself. Alan Dustin (president 1974-84) reduced operating expenses and plowed the savings back into track improvements. The sale of rights of way in the commuter zone to the MBTA (1976) provided cash to satisfy creditors and in 1980 the B&M had its first profitable year, on an ordinary income basis, since 1957. An improving outlook led to the purchase of the B&M by Timothy Mellon’s Guilford Transportation Industries in 1983 and its emergence from bankruptcy. In 1999, in cooperation with Norfolk Southern, Pan Am began running a dedicated intermodal train between Ayer and Mechanicville. This evolved into an agreement with Norfolk Southern in 2008 to own, as a joint venture named Pan Am Southern, former B&M track between those two points, and elsewhere, using NS money to upgrade the track and to finance improved distribution facilities. The Boston and Maine Corporation still exists. Although its name is no longer used the rail system the B&M began 180 years ago lives on in a form suited to the needs of our time.

This post card is part of my 333 post card collection of Audio-Visual Designs post cards. The photograph was taken by "Skipper" Clark.

Small and Mighty

That is a very interesting looking locomotive on the front of this post card. It

is classified as an 0-6-0. Its class of engines was used for switching. That is exactly what the railroad company that owned it used it for. The BEDT stand for Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal. They basically shuttled train cars along the shores of Brooklyn, New York. This website gives very detailed information about the BEDT. Take the time to read through the materials. http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/BEDT.html#Flow%20Chart Philip M. Goldstein put a lot of time and effort in researching what is on this website. The name Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal as we know it, had its true beginnings in 1906 as a Navigation Company, and in the very beginning was incorporated as such under the Transportations Corporations Law of the State of New York on June 20, 1906. It was not until the November 5, 1915, after all the franchises and certificates of conveniences were finally approved; that all the properties, railroad, marine equipment and other assets were formally consolidated and incorporated under the name by which we know it and as a Freight Terminal operation; with a railroad, tugboats and carfloats. "The Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal" was probably the first private terminal for public use in the Port of New York. According to well authenticated report, this terminal had it's beginning in 1876. This organization has three terminals. The main terminal is located on the East River in Brooklyn and includes frontage between North Third and North Tenth Streets. Of the branch terminals one is on the Tidewater Basin in Jersey City and the other known as the Queensboro Terminal, on the East River, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets in Long Island City. The success of the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal could be measured by many factors, not the least of which being haulage, gross revenue, expansion and appearance. For example, in 1912, according to the "Report of the Committee on Terminals and Transportation of the New York State Food Investigating Commission" published 1913, the track capacity of the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal increased from 357 cars to 426 cars. In 1914: it hauled over 150,990 tons of freight, for 1,200 shippers and 1,400 consigners and operated over 10.33 miles of track in New York & New Jersey. It operated 10 locomotives, 4 tugboats, 19 carfloats and employed 458 employees. In 1920. These reports tell us that the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal handled 59,022 cars, over 9.24 miles of a track (a decrease of .63 miles form the previous year) with a gross income of $853,507.01. There were 115 employee injuries and 1 employee fatality listed for the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal for that year. For the next 60 years the BEDT had its ups and downs, but survived. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal filed the required ICC "Notice of Intent to Abandon Service" on April 8, 1983; and on August 12, 1983, operations at Kent Avenue Yard ceased altogether with the switching of a few covered hoppers at the Bulk Flour Terminal. The operations of New York Dock at Bush Terminal would not fare any better during this same time frame, and after several previous attempts at downsizing; it ceased operations on August 17, 1983.

This is what we call a Real Photo Post Card. It is an actual photograph that is printed right onto a Post Card backed paper. You can see in the stamp box area that this process was used by Kodak. I am guessing that the post card, at one time, belonged to Robert Morris of Brooklyn. The handwriting, in pencil, tells us that it is the BEDT #12, in Brooklyn, NY, on April 10, 1955. There are two items that I cannot decipher but the bottom tells us that the locomotive was built in 1919.

Not "Old Maude", but a Relative!

The locomotive on the front of this post card is one of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s mighty class EM-1 articulated steam locomotives.

It heads up a string of hopper cars as it roars through Corriganville, Maryland on April 29, 1955. It was built by Baldwin in 1944 as one of thirty for service on the Cumberland Division. It was mentioned that this locomotive is an articulated steam locomotive. This website gives some good information about what being articulated means: https://www.american-rails.com/articulated.html An articulated steam locomotive is defined as any design which has at least two sets of drivers, with the lead set having the ability to swivel independently from the rigid frame to more easily negotiate curves. This technological development allowed steam locomotives to grow in size prodigiously. With builders and railroads no longer limited to the size of a locomotive's wheel base, arrangements became longer, larger, heavier, and more powerful. The first use of the articulated steam locomotive in the United States was, as mentioned above, on the B&O in 1904 which collaborated with the American Locomotive Company to create an 0-6-6-0 design listed as Class DD-1 #2400 and given the name "Old Maude." The steamer was manufactured as a true compound, Mallet and for the most part the railroad was pleased with the experimental locomotive. The Mallet design was first introduced by Anatole Mallet (pronounced "Mal-lay") of Switzerland when he constructed an articulated locomotive in France during the 1870s that featured an independent, swiveling front driver that was not mounted rigidly to the rest of the frame.

The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs in Earlton, New York after 1963. There is a zip code included in their address and zip codes were introduced in 1961.

A Camel Pulling a Train?

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a “Ten-Wheeler”.

However, it is unlike any “Ten Wheeler” that I have ever seen – in person or in my post card collection. This one was built in 1873 at the Mt. Care shops of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. This is a “Davis Ten-Wheeler” and a later edition of the famous Winans “Camelback” design. This locomotive was retired in 1900 and now is part of the collection at Perdue University in Indiana. This website will give you some background on the “Camel” locomotives: https://borail.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/9B6B74B9-B2EF-4872-B677-952454751722 The "Camel" locomotives, which were named for their unique shape and cab location, became a trademark of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) during the mid-19th century. The "Camel" became one of the first coal-burning locomotives produced in large quantities. Eccentric builder, Ross Winans, created the original design of the locomotive in 1848. Challenged to design a locomotive that would burn coal more efficiently, Winans' solution was to construct a large firebox behind the locomotive's mainframe, forcing the engineer's cab to be positioned above the boiler. The "Camel" was designed for productivity rather than for crew comfort. The engineer was often too hot as he sat above the boiler, and faced slim survival chances during a derailment. The fireman was also uncomfortable, as there was little shelter to protect him from the weather. A more critical problem the crew faced was a lack of communication resulting from their separated positions. During the 1850s, Master of Machinery, Samuel Hayes, adapted features of the 0-8-0 "Camel" design for a fleet of "Ten Wheelers." His locomotives needed to move passenger trains over the mountains of western Virginia. Successor Master of Machinery, J.C. Davis, also combined the 4-6-0 wheel arrangement with the "Camel" design. Over a ten-year period, Davis turned out over 100 heavier versions of the "Camel."

The post card was published by CharmCraft out of St. Louis, Missouri. It was incorporated on February 6, 1948 and was dissolved on January 14, 1974. It did have a previous name of the “St. Louis Greeting Card Company”. It is a “Plastichrome” post card printed in Boston, Mass. By Colourpicture Publishers, Inc. They existed from 1938 to 1969. They were a major publisher and printer of linen view-cards of the United States based in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts between 1938 and 1969. They later went on to publish photochromes and small spiral bound picture booklets under the name trade name Plastichrome in the 1950's.

The Underdog Wins this One!!

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a Mikado. The Whyte notation of steam locomotives would make it a 2-8-2. That means two wheels out front to help it get around corners, eight driving wheels and two wheels in the back to support the cab and firebox. This website gives us a short history of the Mikado Locomotive: https://railwaywondersoftheworld.com/mikado-locomotive.html "JAPAN was responsible for fostering the creation of one distinctive member of the family of locomotives. Increasing goods traffic in the island kingdom called for more power, and the “Consolidation”, despite its perfection, could not satisfactorily meet the situation. The fuel forthcoming was a most inferior quality of coal, with the result that the effective combustion necessitated a large grate area combined with a fire-box of pronounced depth and volume. The construction of the new series of locomotives was entrusted to the Baldwin Locomotive Works, whose technicians, in the resolve to satisfy the Japanese requirements, took the established “Consolidation” and gave it a wide, deep fire-box set behind the driving wheels. To provide the necessary support for the fire-box a trailing truck was introduced, giving the wheel arrangement 2-8-2. For purposes of distinction the new type was standardized as the “Mikado”, out of compliment to the Japanese Imperial Railways upon which it made its debut." The locomotive on the front belonged to the Grand Trunk Western Railway. Its story is told below as found at this website: https://www.american-rails.com/gtw.html Grand Trunk Western's immediate heritage begins when the Chicago, Detroit & Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railroad was formed on March 16, 1858 to connect Detroit with Port Huron, a distance of 60 miles. It opened a little over a year later, on November 21, 1859. It was soon leased by Grand Trunk Railway of Canada for the purpose of forming a Detroit-Chicago corridor. Grand Trunk Railway interests quickly realized that reaching Chicago would require a monumental battle with the Vanderbilts who sought to restrict competition across Michigan. The Vanderbilts were ruthless in their aim to spread New York Central's influence throughout the Northeast and Midwest. In a surprising turn of events the Vanderbilt of the day was ultimately outfoxed in attempting to block its entry. To do this he acquired the small Chicago & North Eastern (C&NE), believing this road of just 49 miles (opened in 1877) connecting Flint and Lansing was a key asset. His intuition proved correct but the Canadians countered by slyly picking up a series of disconnected railroads surrounding the C&NE. These included the Port Huron & Lake Michigan in 1879 (running between Port Huron with Flint it first opened in 1871 and totaled 66 miles); Peninsular Railroad of Michigan (opened between 1869 and 1872, at 115 miles in length it connected Lansing with South Bend, Indiana); and the Peninsular Railroad Company of Indiana (extending west from South Bend it opened 45 miles to Valparaiso by 1873). Cut off from friendly connections and with nowhere else to turn Vanderbilt capitulated and sold out to the Canadians. Service opened to Chicago via the Chicago & State Line Extension's completion on February 8th running 47 miles from Valparaiso to Chicago. At its zenith the Grand Trunk Railway was an impressive operation, maintaining its own 800-mile corridor from Portland, Maine to Sarnia while also linking Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto. In addition, it controlled the Central Vermont Railway.

The post card was published by www.railcards.com at PO Box 3081 in Alameda, California. Unfortunately, those addresses not longer valid. I looked on line for the website and found nothing. The sad part is that I have 204 post cards from this publisher and I know nothing about them.