From Over the Blue Ridge Mountain to Under the Berkshires

Last week we took a trip up and over the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. This week we are heading north. The name of "Berkshire" was chosen for the 2-8-4 type based on the Lima Locomotive Works testing on the Berkshire Hills of the Boston & Albany Railroad. After the Class A-1 successfully outperformed a Class H-10 Mikado, the Boston & Albany Railroad became the first to order the new Berkshires.

The train emerging from the tunnel on the front of this post card belonged to the Boston & Albany Railroad. The Boston and Albany Railroad (B&A) was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York. The connection from Boston to Albany formed the longest and most expensive point-to-point railroad yet constructed in the United States. Two mergers, on September 4, 1867 and December 28, 1870 brought the three companies, along with the Hudson and Boston Railroad, together into one company, known as the Boston and Albany Railroad. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad leased the B&A for 99 years from July 1, 1900. In its early years, the railroad pulled both passenger and freight trains through this tunnel. Later in its history it become part of the New York Central Railroad system, then part of Conrail, and today its rails are owned and operated by CSX for freight. This website provided the most information about the tunnel that I could find: https://bridgehunter.com/ny/columbia/state-line-tunnel/ The tunnel in the picture was bored from under the Taconic Range and Tunnel Hill Rd on today’s CSX Berkshire Subdivision. It is a Rock Tunnel that is 580 feet in length. It is commonly called the “State Line Tunnel”, just at the title on the front of the post card calls it. However, contrary to popular belief, the tunnel does not cross the state line nor is it located at a railroad high-point. It is located several miles west of the political boundary and there is a steady eastbound grade up to Richmond Summit in MA. The north bore dates to about 1840 and was once double track. The south bore was added during the line-wide 1912 upgrades for a third track. The north bore was subsequently single-tracked and eventually vacated when Conrail single-tracked much of the Boston & Albany in the late 80s.

The post card was published by The Union News Company. That is their logo in the bottom left-hand corner. The company was based in New York between 1908 and 1969 this was a wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Company [I have several post cards published by them, too] they became major distributors of postcards and other printed items through their newsstands at hotels, rail and subway stations. Their cards were published by a variety of different companies including American News, Curt Teich, Robbins Brothers, and Valentine & Sons. Sometimes only their logo appears on a card, but it is often hand stamped on cards not originally published for them. It was printed by the Hugh C. Leighton Company. 1906 – 1909 Portland, Maine. A printer and major publisher of national view-cards, especially scenes of New England. They printed most of their cards in four distinct styles employing halftone lithography. Most used a simple soft yet highly recognizable RGB pallet. While some cards were printed at their plant in the U.S. most were manufactured in Frankfort, Germany. Almost all their cards were numbered. They merged with Valentine & Sons in 1909. Another set of cards in halftone lithography were printed in a wider range of colors using a very bright pallet. Their titles appear in bright red. A very distinct card set was printed in a limited but brightly colored continuous tone lithography with a dominating orange and matte finish. The intensity of coloring on these cards can vary widely, which renders some very beautiful while other copies of the same image can be extremely garish. This technique only seems to have been used on view-cards of southern Maine. Other techniques were employed as well including collotypes and some hand colored cards but these can only be found in small numbers