A Short-lived History Caught in a Post Card

The history below is an edited version taken from this website: http://www.pnwc-nrhs.org/hs_or_n.html The Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company A brief history by Glenn Laubaugh Although the name itself has been long gone, what was once the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company (OR&N) and later the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation company (OWR&N), the railroad to which this post card refers in the upper right-hand corner in the title, is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and has been for over a century. In 1878 and 1879, purchase negotiations were held between Captain Ainsworth, who owned the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and its related portage railroad operations, and the newly incorporated Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. By March 31, 1880, all operation was being performed under the OR&N name. In mid-1883 the line became part of a transcontinental link, when the Northern Pacific Railroad (NP) was completed between Wallula and St. Paul, Min., providing the first all-rail link with the rest of the nation's railroad system. In 1906 through 1911, the ORR&N and the Oregon Trunk completed a railroad along

the Deschutes River (the river in the picture on this post card) into central Oregon. During this period, the company came to be called the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company. The Union Pacific had adopted the policy of building new railroads by using subsidiary companies, possibly to protect the parent company from possible financial disasters. The Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company was incorporated in Oregon in late 1910. In the 1930's, minor abandonments of the company's Oregon lines occurred. This included partial abandonment of the line to Homestead, as well as joint operation with the Spokane, Portland & Seattle of the Oregon Trunk railroad line from the Columbia River south to Bend. Other abandonments during this period were concentrated in Idaho and Washington, and therefore are not recorded here. From the 1930's through the 1960's, the railroad's main line was rebuilt to accommodate the various river dam projects constructed on the Snake River and Columbia River. As time went on, the O-WR&N name slowly fell into disuse. Although in later years steam locomotives still carried that name, the tenders of the locomotives had the Union Pacific emblem on them. All diesel locomotives came lettered and painted in Union Pacific colors, and therefore the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation company name become much less visible as time went on. Although corporate existence of the O-WR&N would continue afterward, for practical purposes of this brief history, the Union Pacific will be considered to have become the successor to the O-WR&N around 1950.

The post card was published by the short-lived Portland Post Card Company. The company only existed from 1908 to 1916. While it was around it published many view-cards of scenes from the American West coast including Alaska. They were the official publisher of postcards for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909.

The code in the bottom-center of the post card leads me to believe that it was printed by Curt Otto Teich. 1908-1928 Cards numbered A or R 1 to 124180. The cards they printed for Woolworth have a W prefix. The letter N prefix was used to designate a reprinted image from this series. The number at the bottom, when interpolated into their numbering system, put the card as being printed in 1913. That is a real possibility because the railroad company used that name in that year, too.

Adding to the Intrigue of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroad

There is definitely a picture of a train on the front of this post card. However, the caption on the back does not tell us the type of locomotive it is. When one looks more closely, one can think that the reason they do not tell us what kind of locomotive it is, is because it is drawn in. They have drawn in a 4-6-4 (Hudson) engine.

The fact that the tracks are on the north shore of the Columbia River tells me that, more than likely, it is on the line owned by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Company. On March 23, 2022 I blogged about how this company came into being and how it made it into Oregon, against all odds. It is a good read; I like rooting for the underdogs. The back of the post card tells us that this picture is of the Cape Horn Palisades and the North Bank Railroad tunnel. The following information was taken from this website: http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/north_bank_road.html The Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railroad, competitors in the transcontinental business, launched the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway in 1905 and built a line along the north side of the Columbia River. This line was known as "The North Bank Road", "The North Bank Railroad", "Columbia River Scenic Route", and "The Northwest’s Own Railway". The tracks were started in October 1905 and completed in February 1908, with a celebration being held on March 11th at Sheridan Point upstream of the Fort Rains Blockhouse location. On March 19th, regular passenger service between Vancouver and Pasco was begun. The journey took eight hours.

The post card was printed by our good friend, Curt Otto Teich. The code at the top of the card (A-55943) gives a hint that this may have been printed in 1917. The post card is from the White Border Era, so the year is a real possibility. This website: http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/post_card_history.html tells us about the publisher, Lipschuetz & Katz from Portland, Oregon. Oregon’s biggest event happened just as Post Cards began to boom in popularity. The Lewis & Clark Exposition opened in 1905 as Portland took center stage in its own World’s Fair. This event was single-handedly responsible for the production of 450 different post cards. Beautiful European-produced lithographs made up the bulk of these post cards. Also produced at the fair were leather, wood, copper and aluminum post cards. Several Portland post card publishers got their start at the Lewis & Clark Expo: B.B. Rich and D.M. Averill, as well as E.P. Charlton. Lipschuetz & Katz started publishing post cards in the years after the Expo.

Two Ten-Wheelers

Both of these locomotives are waiting for their departure times to arrive. They are at the North Freedom Depot at North Freedom, Wisconsin. Both trains will take passengers on a nine mile round-trip, through the rolling counryside of Sauk County Wisconsin. This is the first locomotive. The information about it was taken from this website: Western Coal & Coke #1 – https://www.midcontinent.org/equipment-roster/steam-locomotives/western-coal-coke-1/ WC&C #1 was built by the Montreal Locomotive Co. in Canada, in 1913, for coal hauling service at Beaver Mines, Alberta. WC&C later became Royalties Oil & Share Corp., and eventually merged with Lethbridge Collieries, Ltd., in 1935. The locomotive was last used in 1964 at Plyami, Alberta. It was purchased by a group of museum members and moved to North Freedom on two flatcars, arriving at the museum on October 30, 1965. At first glance, #1 would appear a rather simple design for a locomotive of the 1910’s. In fact, its blueprint can be traced back to a group of similar engines, albeit straight-boilered, built by the Pittsburgh Locomotive Works for various American roads as B&LE, Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, and Duluth Missabi & Northern in the late 1880’s. By the early 1900’s they became obsolete and many found their way to Canada via equipment dealers. The construction of the National Transcontinental Railway across Canada brought a need for low-speed workhorse locomotives to assist with construction. A group of about 15 engines were built by Montreal to the old Pittsburgh design. So successful they were, many copies were ordered by Canadian public and private railways, thereby saving on engineering/redesign costs. WC&C #1 is one such example. MCRM’s shop forces brought WC&C #1 back to life by 1970. She served as duty engine at the museum for many years during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1991, she received a new wooden cab. She is coal fired, weighs 55 tons in working order, and features a rare chain firedoor that challenges the scoop shovel skills of Mid-Continent firemen. WC&C #1 is presently out of service, and receiving a rebuild by the museum’s shop forces, including major repairs to the boiler shell and running gear. The information about the second locomotive was taken from this website: Warren & Ouachita Valley #1 - www.rgusrail.com The Warren & Ouachita Valley Railway Company was incorporated in 1899 and was controlled by the Arkansas Lumber Company (50%) and the Southern Lumber Company (50%). The line ran sixteen miles from a connection with the Iron Mountain in Warren to Banks, AR, where it connected with the Rock Island. It carried lumber for the parent companies from mills along the line, as well as providing passenger services. Built by Burnham, Williams & Company, an early incarnation of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA, this Ten Wheeler (4-6-0) locomotive joined the roster in 1906 and was the only steam locomotive owned by the company.

The picture was taken by Jeff B. Haertlein and the post card was published by the operator of the two locomotives, Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society, Inc. in North Freedom, Wisconsin. It seems that Jeff was born in 1951 and at the writing of this post is still living in Freedom, WI.

They Just Keep Getting Bigger!!

Last week's featured locomotive had a 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement. The Western Pacific Locomotive pictured on the front of this post card has graduated to a 2-8-8-2 wheel arrangement - also a Mallet locomotive. This one was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadephia, Pennsylvania in 1938. Just like last week, this locomotive in the picture was owned by Western Pacific Railway. The story of the railroad company is in the blog from two weeks ago so I will not repeat it here. When built, the 2-8-8-2s of the Western Pacific Railroad were among the most powerful steam locomotives in the world. They were not fast; but, they were powerful!! Just like last week, the post card was published by Bob Fremming.