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.