It Must Have Been Exciting While It Lasted!

While the operation pictured on the front of this post card is technically not a train, it does employ what looks like train tracks. Therefore, I have included it in my collection. The operation using the train tracks is a funicular that takes one up to the top of a canyon which is the home of Seven Falls. This is in South Cheyenne Canyon, Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is just a few miles north of Vail, Colorado; or at least it was. The following description was taken from these two websites: https://springsmag.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-visit-to-seven-falls/ and

https://thelocaltourist.com/hiking-the-broadmoor-seven-falls/ Both the north and south sides of Cheyenne Cañon are deeply entwined in Colorado Springs history. Seven Falls first private owner was Nathaniel Colby who received the homestead patent in 1872. Neighboring homesteader James Hull bought the parcel in 1882, reportedly to protect the area from logging. Hull began building a road to Seven Falls in 1883. He also put up a gate and began charging admission: 10 cents. Hull’s sons built stairs alongside the waterfalls, first made of wood, then iron. Seven Falls changed ownership through the years but always operated as a tourist destination. A burro brigade used to carry visitors up the road to the observation point. A taxidermy reindeer was a popular photo prop for years. Al Hill bought Seven Falls in 1946 and quickly added lights for night viewing. Through the decades, he added the Eagle’s Nest observation area and its elevator tunneled into the canyon rock. It had its own set of stairs, but by 1949, a funicular provided easier access than the 185 steps. The incline cable car operated until 1985. Through the mid-century, visitors loved feeding the local chipmunks and watching Native American dancers perform. In 2013, devastating floods scoured the canyon, destroying the visitor center and road to the falls. The Hill family closed Seven Falls, then sold it to the Broadmoor in 2014. The site was reimagined, renovated and reopened in 2015 with the addition of Restaurant 1858.

The post card was published by Sanborn Souvenir Company out of Denver Colorado. They were a publisher of books and postcards of the American West, but mostly of Colorado and Wyoming. They first produced real photo postcards carrying the Sanborn name. They latter went on to produce halftone lithographic postcards and eventually photochromes. They existed from 1920 to 1976. It was printed by Dexter Press. Thomas A. Dexter began Dexter Press, a one-man shop in Pearl River, New York, in 1920. With the production of the very first natural color post card in 1932, Tom Dexter established a tradition of innovation and craftsmanship that would be associated with the Dexter name for years to come. While all the photochromes printed by Dexter bore the words Genuine Natural Color they went through a variety of phases. Their early photochromes went under the name Dextone and tended to be flat and somewhat dull in appearance. As years went by their optical blending techniques improved producing richer and more varied colors.

This is a National Historic Landmark!

The curve shown on the front of this post card is "world famous". There are three train tracks on this curve on Norfolk Southern Railway's Pittsburgh Line 5 miles west of Altoona, Pennsylvania. The curve has a diameter of about 1,300 feet and is about a half-mile long. In the early 1850s, the massive front of the Allegheny Mountains, standing 2,161 feet above sea level, blocked westward advance. This obstacle culminated in the creation of the Gallitzin Tunnels and the Horseshoe Curve, both of which were dug out of near-impenetrable geographic formations. Using switchbacks, excavations, and pure innovation, engineers reduced grades and effectively conquered the mountains. To conduct these laborious endeavors, the Pennsylvania Railroad hired job-hungry Irish immigrants. The hazardous work lasted three grueling years. The end result was nothing less than monumental. The Curve became known as one of the eight engineering marvels of the world. The completion of the Curve was widely celebrated and heralded throughout the state as a grand opportunity. The now-iconic railroad link opened for business on February 15, 1854. Over the next century-and-a-half, the landmark also became a tourism destination, a target of Nazi spies, and one of the primary east-west arteries of railroad travel in the nation. This website is the official website for the National Historic Landmark: https://www.railroadcity.org/horseshoecurve The post card was published by Beauty Views J.P. Walmer Box 224, Harrisburg, PA. I know nothing about this publisher.

Where did it go?

This is a real photo post card of something that no longer exists.

This website provides the most information I have found about what is on this post card: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=70443 The marker says, "Erected in honor of Sir James Hector K. C. M. C. Geologist and explorer to the Palliser Expedition of 1857 - 1860 by his friends in Canada, the United States & England. One of the earliest scientists to explore the Canadian Rocky Mountains. He discovered the Kicking Horse Pass through which the Canadian Pacific Railway now runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean." The marker is no longer there, but it was located near 51° 25.441′ N, 116° 10.748′ W. The Canadian Pacific Railway’s completion in 1885, along with the creation and promotion of Canada’s first national park, brought thousands of visitors to the Rockies and made it possible for mountaineers and explorers to venture out into the Great Divide area. Tales of their adventures spread far and wide, attracting attention to the area. By the end of the 19th century, the Canadian Pacific Railway responded to the growing interest in mountaineering in the Rockies by giving seasonal contracts to Swiss guides. They led mountaineers and tourists in explorations of the area. Meanwhile, to the north, tourism in the region was also gathering momentum with the establishment of Jasper National Park in 1907 and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway reaching Jasper in 1911. The post card was published by Gowan Sutton, Ltd in Vancouver, BC Canada. They were publisher of real photo and printed postcards of the Canadian West. Not only did they produce cards depicting large cities, they captured many hard to reach views within the Canadian Territories. Many of their cards were hand tinted in a simple manner striving for style rather than realism, which created cards in vastly differing quality. While the real photo cards were made in Canada their printed cards were made in England. They existed from 1921 to 1960. The marker was erected in 1926, so this makes sense to me.

The Story of "The General"

The name of the locomotive on the front of this post card is "The General". It was made famous by the 1926 Buster Keaton film, The General. In early

spring 1862 Northern forces advanced on Huntsville, Alabama, heading for Chattanooga, Tennessee. Union general Ormsby Mitchel accepted the offer of a civilian spy, James J. Andrews, a contraband merchant and trader between the lines, to lead a raiding party behind Confederate lines to Atlanta, steal a locomotive, and race northward, destroying track, telegraph lines, and maybe bridges toward Chattanooga. The raid thus aimed to knock out the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which supplied Confederate forces at Chattanooga, just as Mitchel’s army advanced. On April 7 Andrews chose twenty-two volunteers from three Ohio infantry regiments, plus one civilian. In plain clothes they slipped through the lines to Chattanooga and entrained to Marietta; two men were caught on the way. Two more overslept on the morning of April 12, when Andrews’s party boarded the northbound train. They traveled eight miles to Big Shanty (present-day Kennesaw), chosen for the train jacking because it had no telegraph. While crew and passengers ate breakfast, the raiders uncoupled most of the cars. At about 6 a.m. they steamed out of Big Shanty aboard the locomotive General, a tender, and three empty boxcars. Though it created a sensation at the time, the Andrews Raid had no military effect. General Mitchel’s forces captured Huntsville on April 11 but did not move on to Chattanooga. The cut telegraph lines and pried rails were quickly repaired. Nevertheless, the train thieves were hailed in the North as heroes. This information was taken from this website: Davis, Stephen. "Andrews Raid." New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Oct 5, 2018. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/andrews-raid/ The post card was published by W. M. Kline Company out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, a publisher of Southern view-cards as Linens and Photochomes. Most cards depicted scenes of Tennessee and North Carolina with quite a few on Cherokee Indians. They also issued a large series of real photo postcards with white borders. They existed from 1942 to 1960.

More from the Schuylkill River Area

The Little Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad (LSSR) began its existence as a potential canal. In 1822 a prominent resident of village of Catawissa, Pennsylvania, Christian Brobst, proposed a canal be constructed up Catawissa Creek to its headwaters. The steam locomotive on the front

of this post card was named after this town. The plan was to meet the headwaters of the Little Schuylkill River, about 3 plus miles away. Another canal would be constructed in the Little Schuylkill River to Port Clinton, where it would join with the Schuylkill Canal and Navigation to Philadelphia. Brobst, although not an engineer, proceeded to himself conduct a survey in 1825 of the proposed Catawissa Canal with home-made instruments. The plan went "nowhere". The difficulty of digging a three-mile canal (to connect the two rivers) through mountainous terrain was one example of the difficulties. However, Brobst used his Catawissa Canal project to get elected to the Pennsylvania State Legislature in 1827. In the period between 1827 and 1829, in the first and second coalfields, the preferred mode of transportation was shifting from canals to railroads. Brobst now advocated a railroad through the Catawissa Valley. Brobst persuaded Stephen Girard, Philadelphia banker and capitalist, and Moncure Robinson, engineer for the Pennsylvania Canal Commission and an accomplished railroad engineer, to tour the route where they were favorably impressed. The Legislature authorized a professional survey for this railroad. 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. You can visit their website here: https://www.tamaquahistoricalsociety.org/

Extending some 130 miles in a generally southeasterly direction from its source at Tuscarora Springs in the anthracite coal region of Schuylkill County to its point of confluence with the Delaware River in Philadelphia, the Schuylkill River has played a central role in shaping the character and aspirations of Philadelphia and the regional hinterland through which it

flows. The train on the front of this post card is crossing the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, just before the river joins the Delware River. The river’s watershed of about two thousand square miles lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. Native inhabitants had been camping and fishing on the banks of the Schuylkill for as much as fourteen thousand years before the first Europeans arrived. The area was first settled by the Unalachtigo who settled in bands along the rivers and creeks of southeastern Pennsylvania. They referred to the river as Ganshowahanna, meaning “Falling Water” or Manayunk, which meant “where we drink.” A navigator, Arendt Corrsen of the Dutch West India Company, gave the river its modern name in 1628, when he became the first European to navigate it. Many streams flowed into the Schuylkill, including the Wissahickon, Plymouth, Sandy Run, Skippack, Pennypack, and Perkiomen Creeks, prompting the construction of dams and mills to produce grain, lumber, oil, paper, and powder and enhance trade. The presence of natural rapids, however, presented obstacles to boats. After several failed attempts in the 1780s and 1790s to fund improvements that would make the rapid-filled Schuylkill navigable, Philadelphia businessmen finally convinced the Pennsylvania legislature in 1815 to approve the charter of the Schuylkill Navigation Company to construct a slack water navigation system of canals, dams, and pools between Philadelphia and Pottsville to the northwest in Schuylkill County. The system opened to navigation in 1824, and with an extension to Port Carbon four years later it generated the shipment of newly discovered riches of anthracite coal. Although supporters of the new system envisioned it primarily as a means of securing the flow of natural products to Philadelphia, especially grain (which local businessmen feared might otherwise be sent to Baltimore by way of the Susquehanna River), coal quickly dominated the business. The information present above was taken from this website: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/schuylkill-river/ I also published a post card regarding the Schuylkill River on February 16, 2022 then on November 15, 2023 and again on September 23, 2014.

The post card was published by the Post Card Distributing Company out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was only in existence from 1911 to 1919. Their logo was a backside view of the statue of William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia.

Waiting Patiently

The Pennsylvania Railroad ran both electric and steam locomotives on their

lines. The locomotive on the front of this post card is waiting for a power swap that occurred at South Amboy station. The electric locomotives would bring the train this far, then hand over the consist to the steam locomotives for the rest of the trip. This happened from 1938, when the Pennsylvania Railroad extended electrification from its New York-Washington D.C. The trade off was made between GGI electrics and steam locomotives until 1957, when the Pennsylvania Railroad switched the final steam locomotive for diesels. Penn Central, and its successor railroads continued the switching of power until 1988. This is when the rest of the line was electrified and the switching was no longer required. The article on this website has a great story of a gentleman who was able to participate in a historic recreation of the power switch: https://www.railwayage.com/news/njt-40th-anniversary-express-south-amboy-power-swap-redux/

The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs out of Earlton, New York. It has a 5-digit zip code, so we know that it was published after 1963. The picture was taken in 1954 by Richard R. Wallin.

Still around and still going strong; the Railroad, not the locomotive, that is.

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a 2-8-4 Berkshire that has

stopped to take on water in Dillonvale, Ohio on June 16, 1955, on the Nickel Plate Railroad. However, the locomotive was originally purchased by the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway. That company has gone through quite a few changes, but it still exists today. Here is a history of the railway as taken from their website: https://www.wlerwy.com/ The Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Company is the largest Ohio-based railroad and among the largest regional railroads in the country. Our service area includes 840 miles of track operating in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. 1871 Began in order to fulfill the need for a railroad connection between the Wheeling, West Virginia coal fields and Lake Erie port cities and facilities. Initial enthusiasm was offset by capital constraints. 1877 Interest intensifies in transporting Ohio coal to Lake Erie and iron ore from the Lake to steel plants in southeast Ohio. 1913 Main offices were moved to Brewster, Ohio, where they remain today. 1945 W&LE changes hands several times after World War II, leased by Nickel Plate, then controlled by Norfolk & Western, which later merged to become Norfolk Southern. 1990 Norfolk Southern sold W&LE to a group of investors, who renewed the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway corporate name. The new rail system was now made up of a combination of the former W&LE, the Pittsburgh & West Virginia (PWV) and the Akron, Canton & Youngstown (ACY) lines. The 576 miles of track, combined with trackage rights encompassed 840 miles. 1994 W&LE acquired the former Akron and Barberton Belt Railroad and part of the local Conrail “Cluster” railroad in the greater Akron, Ohio area. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Wheeling Corporation, the Akron Barberton Cluster Railway handles in excess of 10,000 carloads per year for our 25 customers, primarily consisting of traffic in aggregates, chemicals, grain, plastic products, and scrap iron. Today W&LE now handles over 140,000 carloads per year and operates in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. The company is private, 100% internally owned, and currently has approximately 425 employees. The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs out of Earlton, New York. AVD was started in 1964 by Carl Sturner for the sole purpose of providing railfans with sound recordings of locos and trains as well as with photochrome postcards of trackside photos. These stunning color images were taken all over the country by some well-known photographers such as David Sweetland. This photo on today’s post card was taken by Bob Collins. The history and product line of AVD can be found on the company's website at www.audiovisualdesigns.com

More about the Publisher than the Train...

This is post card number 163 in Album Number Four of my train post card collection. I had skipped over it in the past thinking that it would be impossible to find any relevant details about either the front or the back. This morning, I discovered that I was wrong on both accounts. The

locomotive on the front of this post card is a 4-6-2 Pacific type of locomotive. Adam Burns of Amercian Rails https://www.american-rails.com/4-6-2.html tells us that "the Pacific Type became one of the most prolific and common steam locomotive designs during the first two decades of the 20th century and was by far the most widely used for passenger service. The 4-6-2's large drivers and high tractive efforts of the time made them ideal for such operations where they could regularly cruise at speeds over 70 mph." The purpose of this post card is to inform your loved ones that you have arrived at your destination "safe and sound". To do this, you simply fill in the hands on the clock with your arrival time; then, write the name of the city at which you have arrived on the line at the bottom and send it off to your family. In this case, it looks like someone arrived at Burlington, Iowa at 11:00 (can't really tell if it is morning or night) and sent the post card to Edith to let her know they are safe.

I cannot say if this train is actually at the Burlington, Iowa train station, but looking at images on line of the old station, I would say "not". Plus, this post card was published in New York City, so I doubt if Sanford Morris Salke, the person who owns the copyright, travelled to Burlington just to take this picture. I found this information about the publisher on line at https://www.laurelcottagegenealogy.com/?p=7904 Someone was doing a geneology search and provided the results at this location. The

double A in the bottom left-hand corner stands for the American Art Production Company. (I have post cards also from the American Art Post Card Company.) But, because the person was dong geneology research on Sanford Salke, we can know that this card was published by the former. The connection to Sanford was made by looking at the graphics around the word "Post Card" at the top of the card.

The design was likely fashioned around “S” for Salke:  You can see how the line continues into an S shape if you follow it under the “For Address Only” printing.

Still Here After All These Years (at least part of it is)...

The Colorado and Southern Railway is one of the West's most fabled lines

even though it spent much of its existence as a subsidiary of the much larger Chicago, Burlington & Quincy system. The C&S was officially incorporated on December 19, 1898 as a means to bring stability to several bankrupt railroads which radiated west, north, and south of Denver. All of this information is taken from the excellent website: https://www.american-rails.com/colorado.html The C&S's earliest predecessor was the Colorado & Clear Creek Railroad, which was chartered on February 9, 1865 as a narrow-gauge mining railroad. The railroad reached its final length in 1884 when it chartered the Georgetown, Breckenridge & Leadville Railway to stretch west of Georgetown and the small mining town of Graymont. The Colorado and Southern Railway (C&S) came about because of the bankruptcy of the Union Pacific on October 13, 1893. Officially, the C&S was born on December 19, 1898 to take over not only the Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf Railway but also the narrow-gauge operations it held. The C&S itself operated for only ten years as a independent company before being purchased by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) in 1908. For the Colorado & Southern's part it remained a separate entity from the CB&Q and operated independently, partly due to the fact that Texas law required such and that all railroads operating within its borders be headquartered within the state. Due to the narrow-gauge operations becoming less and less profitable the railroad slowly sold off or abandoned the network piecemeal until the final leg, still in operation to Golden, Colorado, was converted to standard gauge in 1943. In 1980 the line reverted solely to the Burlington Northern ownership. Today this section is still operated to serve the Coors Brewery located there although virtually all the rest of the C&S's once vast narrow-gauge operations are but a memory. The lone exception is a small, 4.5-mile section of the line around Georgetown which today operates as the Georgetown Loop Railroad during the summer months of the year.

This post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs out of Rearlton, New York. It is one of 333 post cards that I have from this publisher. AVD was started in 1964 by Carl Sturner for the sole purpose of providing railfans with sound recordings of locos and trains as well as with photochrome postcards of trackside photos. These stunning color images were taken all over the country by some well-known photographers such as David Sweetland. The history and product line of AVD can be found on the company's website at www.audiovisualdesigns.com