Bigger than Ever!!

The locomotives pictured on the front of this post card are the products of Alco, the American Locomotive Company.

The back of the post card reads: “Three of Genesee & Wyoming Railroad’s Alco 1,000 h.p. locomotives, Numbers 35, 1776, and 42 are shown entering Genesee & Wyoming’s Retsof Freight Yard in Retsof, N.Y. These Units are normally NU’s in order to provide the necessary power to transport salt trains from Retsof to the Caledonia, N.Y. interchange location.” My favourite website about the history of railroads, https://www.american-rails.com/gw.html tells us this: The history of G&W;'s current operations began humbly as a small, short-line by the same name, the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad. This little system was based in Western New York, south of Rochester and began as the Genesee & Wyoming Valley Railway. The G&WV; was incorporated in 1891 and eventually opened from Retsof (where the picture on the front of this post card was taken) to a location known as P&L; Junction near Caledonia in 1894, a distance of about 14 miles. With freight traffic never materializing as hoped the G&WV fell into bankruptcy in November of 1898 and was reorganized as the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad (reporting mark GNWR), incorporated on March 24, 1899. The new G&W was owned by Edward Laton Fuller and began serving a massive salt mine near Retsof, owned by the International Salt Corporation. The mine was, for many years, the largest producer of rock salt in the world and the G&W's largest customer. As it turns out salt remained the railroad's primary source of traffic throughout the 1970s and even today it continues to handle large quantities of the mineral. The modern history of the G&W is continued on the American Rails website. I recommend that you go there to read about it. It leads to the information contained on the current website of the G&W. You can read that and more here: https://www.gwrr.com/about-us/ Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) owns or leases more than 100 freight railroads throughout North America with 4,000 employees serving 2,000 customers over more than 13,000 track miles. G&W subsidiaries and joint ventures also provide rail service at more than 30 major ports, rail-ferry service between the U.S. Southeast and Mexico, transload services, and railcar switching and repair.

This post card is another of Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties post cards in my collection. The photo was taken by Thomas Cottone.

The Bluebird of Happiness - for a Train Fan!!

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco S4 Switcher.

This one is just minutes out of Grand Rapids on the bridge that spans the Maumee River and the Miami-Erie Canal. The train ride on the Bluebird Passenger Train passes the historic Ludwig Mill and is great family fun, entertainment and an exciting educational experience, according to the back of the post card. This website: https://tlew.org/ provides the information regarding the Bluebird Passenger Train. This museum runs the train. Today the Toledo, Lake Erie & Western Railway and Museum (TLE&W) hosts the Bluebird Passenger Train. The museum is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization dedicated to preserving Northwest Ohio’s railroad heritage. Established in 1965 and incorporated in 1969, it operates on a 10-mile stretch of historic track between Waterville and Grand Rapids, Ohio, originally part of the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad (aka Clover Leaf, later Nickel Plate Road and Norfolk & Western). The museum showcases vintage locomotives, railcars, and equipment, offering visitors a glimpse into the region’s rail history. Its signature Bluebird Passenger Train, though currently not running due to track restoration, is a focal point of ongoing volunteer efforts. The TLE&W also features a scenic 901-foot bridge over the Maumee River, the largest owned by a tourist railroad east of the Mississippi. In 2014, the museum expanded by acquiring the Waterfront Electric Railway Museum in Grand Rapids, enhancing its historical displays and community engagement.

This post card is another of the 243 post cards in my collection from Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties. This one was published in March of 1999. The photo was taken by Joe Minnich.

117 Years Ago, Today!!

The locomotive you see on the front of this post card was manufactured by General Electric. It is one of their 70-Tonner models.

This locomotive was previously owned by the South Carolina line, the Lancaster & Chester Railroad, and operated for them as #62 before it became #104 for the Laurinburg and Southern Railroad (reporting mark LRS). This favourite website of mine tells us some of the history of the LRS: https://www.american-rails.com/laurinburg.html This railroad is a venerable short line established on March 4, 1909, to serve the southeastern region of North Carolina, particularly Laurinburg and the surrounding areas. Construction on the system commenced quickly and was in service from Johns to East Laurinburg by July 2nd that year. Within a year, the line extended to Wagram, marking a period of rapid growth. The expansion continued with the strategic acquisition of a section from Wagram to Raeford from the Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad on November 12, 1921. Beyond its primary 28-mile stretch from Laurinburg to Raeford, LRS broadened its operations by acquiring several other shortline railroads across North Carolina and even extending into Virginia. In 1994 the L&S had streamlined its portfolio, retaining only its namesake line and two others: the Nash County Railroad and the Yadkin Valley Railroad. That is the year in which the Gulf & Ohio Railways acquired the Laurinburg & Southern holding company. This website is the website of the current owners of the LRS: https://gulfandohio.com/laurinburg-and-southern Here is what they have to say about themselves: Today, the Laurinburg and Southern Railroad (LRS) operates on 27 track miles in Scotland County, North Carolina. It is served by CSX, located along I-74, and just 100 miles to the Port of Wilmington. There are 40 miles to I-95. The railroad has Industrial and Transload Sites Available as well as Railcar Storage and Repair Available. The Track Capacity is 286K. And in 2022 and 2023 the railroad was the ASLRRA Jake Award Winner. The Laurinburg & Southern Railroad hauls approximately 2,500 carloads annually including soda ash, glass, fertilizer, and feed ingredients. Commodities frequently handled are raw materials for glass production, finished glass products, plastics, agricultural products and petroleum products.

While the publisher of this post card is ubiquitous in my collection (204 of them), I can find nothing about them in the outside world.