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