Different Publishers or Copycat?

These two post cards are pictures of the Twentieth Centry Limited leaving Chicago, Illinois. If these two post cards are not one a copy of the other, you can sell me a bridge in Brooklyn.

This post card was published by The Acmegraph Campany. It was mailed on August 24, 1914. They were a post card publishing company in Chicago from 1908 to 1918. They published other printed materials, too, but I am interested in their post cards. This website has a listing of many of their post cards that were recording the history of Chicago: http://chicagopostcardmuseum.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-will-chicago-postcard-information.html

This post card tells us nothing about the printer or the publisher. It tries to distract us from this fact by printing information about the train pictured on the front of the post card. It says, "51. THE TWENTIETH CENTRUY LIMITED - The Twentieth Century Limited on the Lake Shore & New York Central lines is the fastest long distance train in the world. Put into service June 14th, 1902, on the 20-hour schedule, and in 1904 put on the 18-hour schedule, which is the schedule of the train at the present time. All conveniences found in modern hotels is to be had on the train, including porters, maid and tailor who will press clothes on request. You can also secure a shave and bath on the train, including sea salt. The train is electric lighted throughout and is provided with every luxury for modern travel." I got distracted when reading the description. It is funny that there is a tailor who will press clothes on request. I don't know why they had to stress the "on request". I had a vision of a tailor wandering through the train making people take off their clothing so he could press them. Maybe.................... Here is what the backs look like: TOP ONE

BOTTOM ONE

Talk about Convenience!

You have to visit this website: http://www.architecture.org/learn/resources/buildings-of-chicago/building/the-chicago-l/ They tell you about the history of Chicago's elevated railway system. The following was taken from that website:

Today, Chicago is the only city in the U.S. that still has elevated trains in its downtown area.

Beginning in the 1870s, as Chicago grew at an incredibly rapid pace, private companies laid rail tracks downtown and began introducing streetcars pulled by horses. In the 1880s, these horse-drawn trolleys were replaced by cable car services. But this form of transportation couldn’t handle a high volume of passengers and it added to street congestion. On June 6, 1892,

the first elevated—or “L”—train ran from 39th (now Pershing Road) and State streets to Congress Parkway and Wabash Avenue. By 1893, the Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad extended this line to Jackson Park, the site of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Today, this section of track is still part of the Green Line. Multiple privately-operated train lines transported Chicagoans in the 1890s. However, these trains deposited people just outside the central business district—an area referred to as “the Loop” due to the cable cars that once created a loop around several blocks. A wealthy and controversial financier named Charles Tyson Yerkes soon changed all of this. Despite his sometimes illegal business practices, he had a lasting impact on Chicago by building elevated tracks above downtown streets to connect train lines together. Yerkes essentially created the Loop L we know today. The first full circuit of the Loop was completed in 1897. Its steel structure was designed by bridge designer John Alexander Low Waddell. The iconic riveted steel-plate form resembles that of the Eiffel Tower (1889) and the original Ferris Wheel (1893).

All of Chicago’s trains were either elevated or at street grade until the 1940s.

This post card was published by the V. O. Hammon Company of Chicago,

Illinois. Their headquarters were on Wabash Avenue - as in the picture's description. They were a major publisher of halftone lithographic view-cards of the Great Lakes region. They also published novelty cards. Most of their cards tend to have a distinct look as they were printed in crisp RGB colors with small red block lettering (like on the front of this post card). The V.O. Hammon Publishing Company, publisher of pictorial postcards, is listed in the Minneapolis, Minnesota city directory from 1904 until 1923. www.digitalpast.org/.../results.php?...hammon+publishing They began in 1900 and finished business just 5 years after this post card was mailed on February 17, 1918.

Now Where are We?

We are in Burlington, Iowa at the edge of the Mississippi River looking over toward Henderson County, Illinois. This Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad train is about to cross a bridge built in 1868 by George S. Morison of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

He was born December 19, 1842. At age 14, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated by age 16. He went on to Harvard College where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1863 at the age of 20. After a brief break he attended Harvard Law School where he would receive a Bachelor of Laws degree by 1866 and was admitted to the New York Bar. In 1867, with only general mathematics training but an aptitude for mechanics, he abandoned the practice of law and pursued a career as a civil engineer and builder of bridges. He would apprentice under the supervision of engineer Octave Chanute during the construction of the first bridge to cross the Missouri River, the swing-span Kansas City Bridge.

He is known for many steel truss bridges he designed, including several crossing the Missouri River, Ohio River and the Mississippi River. The Memphis Bridge, built in 1891, is considered to be his crowning achievement, as it was the largest bridge he would design and the first bridge to span the difficult Lower Mississippi River.

This particular bridge is known as a through truss bridge. It was built in 1868 and the superstructure was replaced and rebuilt in 1893. It did last a long time but was finally replaced by a new bridge in 2012.

The original design is a one pin-connected swing span and six pin-connected Whipple through truss spans. Swing span being replaced by through-truss lift span of 307.5 feet. In addition to the lift span, one fixed span on the east side was replaced with three smaller, temporary spans until completion of the lift span.

This is what it looked like before it was replaced:

You can drive to see the replacement bridge at the following coordinates:

+40.79854, -91.09205 (decimal degrees)
40°47'55" N, 91°05'31" W (degrees°minutes'seconds")

The post card was published by the Woolworth Company, owned by Frank Woolworth. That is what the little W in the diamond at the bottom left corner is telling us. The post card was printed by the Curt Teich Company using the patented "C. T. Photochrome" process. This means that the post card may look like a divide back era card, but it was actually printed in the 1950s.

Let's Go Back to 1933

The Chicago World's Fair of 1933 - 34 featured a Travel & Transport Building. Outside the building they placed a 600-foot length of railroad track. On this track they placed three trains. You can see them in the picture on the front of the post card. The middle one, the feature of this post card published by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, was Number 3000. It was advertised at the time as the most powerful 4-6-4 wheeled locomotive in the world. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad purchased twelve Hudsons from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1930. These 4-6-4's were designated Class S-4 and assigned road numbers 3000 through 3011. The engines weighed 391,880 pounds; the engine and tender weighed 717,930 pounds. It held 15,000 gallons of water and 24 tons of fuel (either coal or oil). The drivers were 78 inches tall and the cylinders were 25 inches in diameter with a stroke of 28 inches.

To the fireman's side of the modern locomotive stood a little old "tea kettle" engine with elongated cow catcher and diamond smokestack--No. 35, the Pride of the Prairies in the early 1880's. It is a 4-4-0 Class A-2 engine. This locomotive was built by Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's Aurora Shops in 1892 as Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad 66, later renumbered for the same company as 666. It was again renumbered in 1904 as it entered service for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy system as Number 359. It was rebuilt in Denver in June 1932 for exhibition at the Century Of Progress (held in Chicago, Illinois during 1933-34) as Burlington & Missouri River Railroad 35. This is what this post card is commemorating.

The locomotive to the far left in the post card is from England. The original 6100 was the first of its class, built in 1927 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow. It was named Royal Scot after the Royal Scots. In 1933, 6152 The King's Dragoon Guardsman and 6100 swapped identities permanently. 6152 had been built at Derby Works in 1930. The new Royal Scot was sent to the Century of Progress Exposition of 1933 and toured Canada and the United States with a train of typical LMS carriages.

It was given special commemorative plates that sit below its nameplates which read:

This locomotive with the Royal Scot train was exhibited at the Century of Progress
Exposition Chicago 1933, and made a tour of the Dominion of Canada and the United
States of America. The engine and train covered 11,194 miles over the railroads
of the North American continent and was inspected by 3,021,601 people.
W. Gilbertson - Driver T. Blackett - Fireman
J. Jackson - Fireman W.C. Woods - Fitter

The post card was published by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, commonly known as the Burlington Route.