My Favourite Type of Locomotive

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card

is one of my favourites. It is what is known as a “Mountain” locomotive. There is one on display in Jasper, Alberta (6015) and a sister of it (6060) waiting to be restored back to running condition by the Rocky Mountain Rail Society. They were both built by the Canadian Locomotive Company of Kingston, Ontario. The locomotive on the front of this post card, however, was built by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York. This website https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=4-8-2 tells us about the history of the American “Mountain” locomotives. On the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, as the number of cars grew on its passenger trains, it became necessary to doublehead "Pacifics" to get these longer trains over the Allegheny Mountains. In 1910, the C&O turned to the American Locomotive Company for a more powerful locomotive. The engineers at ALCO made a study of the road conditions and other requirements. From this study they recommended a locomotive with eight drivers, like the "Mikado", for traction to which they would add a four-wheel lead truck, like the "Pacific", for speed and riding stability. The result was a new wheel arrangement, the 4-8-2. The C&O agreed and in 1911, became the first North American railroad to take delivery of a locomotive with the 4-8-2 wheel arrangement. This locomotive was numbered 316 but was later renumbered 540. The C&O named this new type of locomotive "Mountain" because it was developed to haul passenger trains over the Allegheny Mountains. The "Mountain" 4-8-2 was a fast dual-service locomotive that was bought by many railroads in need of more motive power for the ever increasing weight of passenger trains and to compete for fast freight. In North America 41 railroads bought or built 2,204 "Mountain" Locomotives. The locomotive on the post card belonged to the Western Pacific Railway. This website https://www.american-rails.com/western.html gives a great history of this railway company. When completed in the early 20th century, the Western Pacific marked one of the last major projects of its kind ever undertaken. It could be strongly argued the Western Pacific should have never been built. The WP was the longtime dream of Arthur Keddie who wanted to break the Southern Pacific's (SP) monopoly between San Francisco/Oakland and Salt Lake City. Such a project had been tried many times but noted tycoon Collis P. Huntington, who controlled the SP, used his influence to stop each attempt. Keddie finally outmaneuvered his nemesis by partnering with another mogul, George Gould. Together, they opened a competing line through the beautiful Feather River Canyon. For nearly 80 years Western Pacific moved freight along its well-engineered corridor that, in total, spanned slightly over 1,000 miles. Despite a route difficult to maintain it was operationally superior to the SP's former Central Pacific corridor over Donner Pass (part of the original Transcontinental Railroad). As a result, WP's 924-mile line remains in service today under successor Union Pacific. Although relatively small, the Western Pacific is remembered for many things; operating one of the most successful streamliners of all time, constructing the famous Keddie Wye, and maintaining the important "Inside Gateway."

The post card was published by Bob Fremming. If you have been following this blog over the years, you know that I know extremely little about this person. My guess in that this post card was published in September of 1956. But it is purely a guess, based on the numbers next to the description on the back of the card: “9-56”.