A Maine Line and a Main Producer

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco S2 Switcher.

Like its S1 sister, the Alco S2 was first produced in 1940 featuring an end-cab design using McIntosh & Seymore's 539 diesel engine. The S2 was powerful and came equipped with a 1,000 horsepower rating which was very suitable for a wide range of duties from yard and switching services to freight operations. The adept little switcher was a favorite among industries because it could lug around heavy cuts of cars while also being able to negotiate the sharp curves and tight clearances found in these settings. Easily the most popular design of the S series the S2 sold more than 1,500 units to various Class Is, short lines, and industries by the time production had ended in June 1950. The information above was taken from this website. I strongly recommend that you visit it when you want to know anything train related: https://www.american-rails.com/mec.html This locomotive is shown working on the Maine Central Railroad. The Maine Central was created in 1862 through the merger of the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad and the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad, resulting in a line from Danville to Bangor. The line connected with the Grand Trunk Railway on its Portland-Chicago mainline at Danville and with the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad in Bangor. As a result of its connection with the Grand Trunk, the Maine Central initially operated on a track gauge of 5 ft 6 in known as "Canadian" or "Portland gauge". Maine Central purchased the Portland and Kennebec Railroad, which was built to standard track gauge, since it connected with the Boston and Maine Railroad at Portland. By 1871, the Maine Central completed its conversion to standard gauge to facilitate interchange of cars. In 1882, Maine Central leased the European and North American Railway (E&NA). In 1889, the Canadian Pacific Railway purchased trackage rights from the Maine Central. This Maine Central trackage formed part of the CPR's Montreal-Saint John mainline. This line was an important rail route for Canadian war material heading to the port of Saint John for shipment overseas to Europe. In 1888, the Maine Central leased the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad, which ran from Portland, through the White Mountains of New Hampshire via Crawford Notch, and into St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where it connected with the Southeastern Railway. Maine Central also operated a line southeast from Bangor along the coast through Machias to Calais, with branches to Bucksport, Bar Harbor and Eastport. Maine Central gained stock control of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad in 1911 and the Bridgton and Saco River Railroad in 1912 and operated both as narrow gauge branch lines. The Maine Central was at its height by 1917 when it became nationalized during World War I under the United States Railroad Administration, having trackage which extended over 1,358 miles. It ran from Vanceboro, Calais and Eastport in the east, to Portland in the south, St. Johnsbury, Vermont in the west, and to Lime Ridge, Quebec in the north. Following World War I, Maine Central began retracting. It sold or abandoned lines such as the narrow gauge and logging branches, as well as its hotels, ferries and steamships. Beginning in 1933, Maine Central entered into a "joint management" agreement with the Boston and Maine Railroad, with which it shared the Portland Terminal Company. Faced with increased competition from cars, trucks and buses, Maine Central operated its last passenger train on September 5, 1960, and continued to reduce its freight business to reflect changing traffic. In 1980, the railroad was purchased by U.S. Filter Corporation and was then sold in 1981 to Guilford Transportation Industries, which later purchased the Boston and Maine Railroad (and thereby the Portland Terminal) in 1983 and the Delaware and Hudson Railway in 1984. The information about the Maine Central was taken from this website: https://www.trains-and-railroads.com/maine-central-railroad Here is the back of the post card:

Still Going Strong After All These Years

I used the same title last week as I am using this week. These two post cards of locomotives that belong to small but long-lasting railroads. They both deserve the title.

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco RSD4. The ALCO RSD-4 was a 1,600 horsepower six axle diesel-electric locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company between 1951 and 1952. It was a derivative of the four-axle ALCO RS-3, with two additional powered axles which allowed better tractive effort at lower speeds. It was the first “C-C” locomotive, meaning that all 6 of the axels were powered. Due to the inadequate capacity in the hood for the main generator, it was not very popular; only 36 locomotives were manufactured. Because of this the RSD4 was superseded in production by the ALCO RSD-5. The Utah Railway owned 7 of the RSD4 locomotives. https://www.american-rails.com/utah.html The Utah Railway has its beginnings dating back to January 24, 1912, when it was incorporated by the State of Utah, originally as the Utah Coal Railway Company but later shortened to just the Utah Railway in May of that year. Today the Utah Railway hauls more than 90,000 annual carloads and operates over 400 miles of track although only 45 of those are actually owned (the rest are leased from the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. The information above was taken from these two websites and Wikipedia: https://www.american-rails.com/utah.html Here is the website of the company today. https://www.gwrr.com/utah/

I am adding the back of the post card here so that you can read what the anonymous author wrote about the front of the card.

Still Going Strong After All These Years

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco RSD12.

In this picture from 1982 it is at rest after being employed to lug heavy ore trains for the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad (LSI). It is one of twelve Alco RSD12 units owned by the LSI. This one, and three others, are ex-Chesapeake & Ohio locomotives. In 1893 the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railway was established for the purpose of hauling iron ore. Shortly thereafter the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company took over the project after a rate dispute. With strong financial support the railroad began construction in December of 1895. After less than a year a 21-mile route was completed from mines located near West Ishpeming to Marquette. It hauled over one million tonnes of ore in its first year. The Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad never grew much larger than 200 miles of trackage. It has shrunk down to running only two lines, one from Eagle Mills Yard in Negaunee to the Empire and Tilden mines in Palmer. The other line goes from Eagle Mills Yard to the dock in Marquette. LSI has trackage rights on the CN from Negaunee to the Republic area via Ishpeming. The ALCO RSD-12 was a C-C diesel-electric locomotive rated at 1,800 horsepower. 171 locomotives were produced. Eight different railroads purchased these locomotives. Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México purchased 73 of them. They were used in much the same manner as its four-axle counterpart, the ALCO RS11, although the six-motor design allowed for better tractive effort at lower speeds. These websites are the source of the mishmash of information above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_RSD-12 https://michiganrailroads.com/lake-superior-ishpeming-railroad https://www.american-rails.com/lsi.html

Here is the back of the post card. I know nothing about the publisher.

This Railroad Sounds Dangerous!!!

The Batten Kill Railroad (reporting mark BKRR) is a class III railroad operating in New York. That is the name of the railroad on which the locomotive and passenger cars on the front of this post card are operating. The BKRR was formed in 1982 beginning operations on October 22 on a pair of abandoned Delaware and Hudson Railway branch lines, totaling about 30 miles of track. The information in this blog is taken from our friends at Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batten_Kill_Railroad The Greenwich and Johnsonville Railway (G&J) was incorporated in the late part of the 19th century, and built a rail line between Greenwich and Johnsonville, New York. Around 1900, G&J became a subsidiary of the Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H). By 1907, the G&J (with support from parent D&H) had built a branch from Greenwich to Greenwich Junction (just south of Salem) where it connected to the D&H's Washington Branch that was built circa 1856. The old G&J route to Johnsonville was abandoned in July 1932 and all traffic henceforth went via "The Junction" in Salem. Most of the abandoned section to Johnsonville eventually became County Route 74. Following the 1980 closure of the Georgia Pacific pulp & paper mill in Thomson, New York, the D&H planned to abandon the G&J along with the adjoining Washington Branch, which ran from Eagle Bridge, New York to Castleton, Vermont. In 1982, Mohawk-Hudson Transportation, owned by Ron Crowd, purchased the railroad from the D&H, forming the Batten Kill Railroad. Crowd had the distinction of being the first African-American to own and operate a railroad in the United States. While initially financially successful, a series of national railroad strikes in the mid-1980s left the railroad in a less profitable state. In 1994, the railroad was turned over to NE New York Rail, a non-profit, and the BKRR remained the operator. Passenger excursions were started, but were terminated by late 2003 due to declining ridership. In November 2008, William Taber purchased the Batten Kill from Mohawk Transportation and the estate of the late Ron Crowd. Taber is the current President and CEO of the railroad. There is an informative article about the Batten Kell Railroad on line at Railfan.com Here is a link to connect you to more information about it. https://railfan.com/batten-kill-railroad-at-40/ Here is a teaser taken from the article to get you to go read the rest of the article: "Bucolic Washington County, a place that once inspired Shaughnessy and renowned painter Grandma Moses, is the setting for one of railroading’s most improbable short line survivors. Forty years after these lines were given up for dead, Batten Kill is surviving — if not thriving — in the modern age. And it’s doing so with a fleet of historic Alco locomotives built just a few valleys over in downtown Schenectady."

The picture on the front of this post card was taken by James Conroy. I could not find anything definitive on the internet about him, so I simply honour his name here. The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs in Herkimer, New York. This post card is one of 333 from this company. They are the biggest supplier of the post cards in my collection.