Would You Like Fries with That?

The locomotive on the front of this post card is sitting in the yard at Palmer, Massachusetts. The city was a crossroads of three railroads; this train is on the Boston & Albany Railroad tracks. The information below about the railroad is taken from this website: https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/capobject/?gusn=171267 The Boston & Albany Railroad Company was formed in 1868 by the consolidation of the Western Rail-Road Corporation and the Boston and Worcester Railroad Corporation. In 1883, the Boston & Albany acquired track then owned by the New York and New England Railroad as far as Newton Highlands, and in 1884, began the construction of a line northwest to its mainline creating a commuter loop. "The Circuit," as this route was called, officially opened in May 1886 providing double-track operation from downtown Boston through Brookline to Newton Highlands, then north into Riverside and four tracks on the mainline from Riverside back to downtown so that commuter and mainline operations did not conflict. By 1889 as many as 35 trains traveled the Circuit daily, providing superior commuter service. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad leased the Boston & Albany for 99 years from July 1, 1900. This lease passed to the New York Central Railroad in 1914. Throughout this era, the Boston & Albany kept its own branding in the public eye. Local service was operated until April 24, 1960, after which only Palmer, Springfield, Pittsfield, and Albany remained stops west of Worcester. The New York Central merged into the Pennsylvania Central on February 1, 1968. A single round trip continued to serve Palmer under the NYC and Penn Central until April 30, 1971; Amtrak declined to continue the route when it took over operations the next day.[6] Amtrak's Bay State, Montrealer, Vermonter, and Lake Shore Limited service that have passed the station since then but have not stopped in Palmer. However, the train station in Palmer is still operating. This website gives us some insight into what it is like today. https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-to-do-in-palmer-ma/ If there’s one thing that brings people to Palmer from across the region, it’s this family restaurant housed in the beautiful Palmer Railroad Station (Union Station). At a major junction, this iconic building was designed by H. H. Richardson in his signature Romanesque Revival style, consolidating two stations. The station opened in 1884 and was originally set in grounds that were laid out by Richardson’s great collaborator, Frederick Law Olmsted, famous for New York’s Central Park. Everything about Steaming Tender is steeped in railroad heritage, from the trains clattering past along the active lines, to the rolling stock on display at the restaurant’s outdoor museum, and an interior harking back to the golden days of rail travel. The menu here is hearty New England fare, like a braised pot roast, Maine lobster roll, fried haddock, lobster mac & cheese, jumbo scallops, New York sirloin strip, and a comforting half-pound cheeseburger.

The post card seems to have been part of someone's collection of train post cards. I have several in my collection, now, that used to be part of this collection. The picture is copyrighted and published by Railway Photograph out of Liverpool, England.

From Over the Blue Ridge Mountain to Under the Berkshires

Last week we took a trip up and over the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. This week we are heading north. The name of "Berkshire" was chosen for the 2-8-4 type based on the Lima Locomotive Works testing on the Berkshire Hills of the Boston & Albany Railroad. After the Class A-1 successfully outperformed a Class H-10 Mikado, the Boston & Albany Railroad became the first to order the new Berkshires.

The train emerging from the tunnel on the front of this post card belonged to the Boston & Albany Railroad. The Boston and Albany Railroad (B&A) was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York. The connection from Boston to Albany formed the longest and most expensive point-to-point railroad yet constructed in the United States. Two mergers, on September 4, 1867 and December 28, 1870 brought the three companies, along with the Hudson and Boston Railroad, together into one company, known as the Boston and Albany Railroad. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad leased the B&A for 99 years from July 1, 1900. In its early years, the railroad pulled both passenger and freight trains through this tunnel. Later in its history it become part of the New York Central Railroad system, then part of Conrail, and today its rails are owned and operated by CSX for freight. This website provided the most information about the tunnel that I could find: https://bridgehunter.com/ny/columbia/state-line-tunnel/ The tunnel in the picture was bored from under the Taconic Range and Tunnel Hill Rd on today’s CSX Berkshire Subdivision. It is a Rock Tunnel that is 580 feet in length. It is commonly called the “State Line Tunnel”, just at the title on the front of the post card calls it. However, contrary to popular belief, the tunnel does not cross the state line nor is it located at a railroad high-point. It is located several miles west of the political boundary and there is a steady eastbound grade up to Richmond Summit in MA. The north bore dates to about 1840 and was once double track. The south bore was added during the line-wide 1912 upgrades for a third track. The north bore was subsequently single-tracked and eventually vacated when Conrail single-tracked much of the Boston & Albany in the late 80s.

The post card was published by The Union News Company. That is their logo in the bottom left-hand corner. The company was based in New York between 1908 and 1969 this was a wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Company [I have several post cards published by them, too] they became major distributors of postcards and other printed items through their newsstands at hotels, rail and subway stations. Their cards were published by a variety of different companies including American News, Curt Teich, Robbins Brothers, and Valentine & Sons. Sometimes only their logo appears on a card, but it is often hand stamped on cards not originally published for them. It was printed by the Hugh C. Leighton Company. 1906 – 1909 Portland, Maine. A printer and major publisher of national view-cards, especially scenes of New England. They printed most of their cards in four distinct styles employing halftone lithography. Most used a simple soft yet highly recognizable RGB pallet. While some cards were printed at their plant in the U.S. most were manufactured in Frankfort, Germany. Almost all their cards were numbered. They merged with Valentine & Sons in 1909. Another set of cards in halftone lithography were printed in a wider range of colors using a very bright pallet. Their titles appear in bright red. A very distinct card set was printed in a limited but brightly colored continuous tone lithography with a dominating orange and matte finish. The intensity of coloring on these cards can vary widely, which renders some very beautiful while other copies of the same image can be extremely garish. This technique only seems to have been used on view-cards of southern Maine. Other techniques were employed as well including collotypes and some hand colored cards but these can only be found in small numbers

More Boston & Albany Railroad

Today, I am carrying on the connection, through these post cards, to the Boston & Albany Railroad – begun last week.

The locomotive (Number 400) on the front of this post card belongs to the Boston & Albany Railroad. It is a 2-6-6T tank locomotive that was built to carry up to twenty suburban coaches. You can see that it is only carrying three, so it must be able to zoom down the straightaways. The picture was taken in June of 1948. http://www.lionel.com/products/boston-albany-legacy-4-6-6t-400-2031010/provides the following information: In need of specialized locomotives for its Boston commuter service, the Boston & Albany purchased five 4-6-6T locomotives from Alco in 1928. The locomotives were designed for rapid acceleration, adequate power for heavy trains of up to 20 cars and perhaps most uniquely – to be operated equally well in either forward or reverse. Not having to turn the locomotives at the end of the line saved space and cost and also a lot of time. The locomotives bore a strong resemblance to the New York Central's Hudson in the front, with a small attached "tender" behind the cab riding on a shared 6-wheel trailing truck. Coal and water capacity was adequate for the commuter runs. The D1-A class served the railroad and Boston's workers well for two decades before being replaced by diesels. This part, below, was taken from Wikipedia: The Highland branch, also known as the Newton Highlands branch, was a suburban railway line in Boston, Massachusetts. It was opened by the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1886 to serve the growing community of Newton, Massachusetts. The line was closed in 1958 and sold to the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which reopened it in 1959 as a light rail line, now known as the D branch of the Green Line. What became the Highland branch was built in stages. The initial segment was the Boston and Worcester Railroad's Brookline branch, which opened on April 10, 1848. This line stretched 1.55 miles (2.49 km) from a junction with the Boston and Worcester main line south of Governor Square southwest to the current location of the Brookline Village station in Brookline, with an intermediate station at Longwood Avenue. Construction costs were roughly $42,000. Brookline had previously only been reachable by road (horsecar service on what is now Huntington Avenue did not begin until 1859), and the branch was quickly a success. Based on this success, the Charles River Branch Railroad was founded in 1849 to extend service west from Brookline. Beginning in 1851, the railroad built 6.1 miles (9.8 km) from Brookline to Newton Upper Falls. This extension opened in November 1852, at a cost not exceeding $253,000. The line was further extended to Great Plains (later part of Needham) the next year, and to Woonsocket, Rhode Island in 1863. The Charles River Branch Railroad also constructed its own track parallel to the Brookline branch. From 1858, freight trains carrying gravel from Needham quarries to fill the Back Bay for development made up most of the traffic on the line. By the early 1870s the Boston and Worcester had become the Boston and Albany Railroad, itself destined to become part of the New York Central Railroad system.

The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs some time after 1963; there is a zip code in the address on the back of the card. This is taken from their website: Established in 1964, A-VD originally focused on providing quality printed material for railroads, railfans and related custom publishing services. Since then, we have expanded our reach to include custom postcards, holiday and birthday greeting cards and color or B&W calendars for many businesses in a variety of industries.

From New England to Liverpool to Edmonton

The train on the front of this post card is making a freight run in Chester, Massachusetts.

May 24, 1841 saw the opening of the railroad through the town. The locomotive is a "Santa Fe"-type of engine because the Santa Fe railroad was the first one to use this wheel arrangement. The Whyte wheel classification makes it a 2-10-0. It is running on the tracks of the Boston & Albany Railroad (B&ARR) The information below about the railroad is taken from this website: https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/capobject/?gusn=171267 The Boston & Albany Railroad Company was formed in 1868 by the consolidation of the Western Rail-Road Corporation and the Boston and Worcester Railroad Corporation. In 1883, the Boston & Albany acquired track then owned by the New York and New England Railroad as far as Newton Highlands, and in 1884, began the construction of a line northwest to its mainline creating a commuter loop. "The Circuit," as this route was called, officially opened in May 1886 providing double-track operation from downtown Boston through Brookline to Newton Highlands, then north into Riverside and four tracks on the mainline from Riverside back to downtown so that commuter and mainline operations did not conflict. By 1889 as many as 35 trains traveled the Circuit daily, providing superior commuter service. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad leased the Boston & Albany for 99 years from July 1, 1900. This lease passed to the New York Central Railroad in 1914. Throughout this era, the Boston & Albany kept its own branding in the public eye. The New York Central merged into the Pennsylvania Central on February 1, 1968.

The post card seems to have been part of someone's collection of train post cards. I have several in my collection, now, that used to be part of this collection. The picture is copyrighted and published by Railway Photograph out of Liverpool, England. They must have been in a hurry when they printed this one. On the back, the words POST CARD are cut off at the top and you can see the missing parts of the letters down at the bottom.