It has been moved!!!

The locomotive on the front of this post card, at the time of this picture, is sitting in quiet retirement in the State Fair Grounds of Douglas, Wyoming. The overall length of the locomotive is 106 feet; it is 12 feet wide and 17 feet tall. The engine and tender combined weigh 317 tons.

This website tells us that it was moved since this picture was taken and is now in the Railroad Interpretative Centre in Douglas. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=92162 It used to pull for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Built in the CB&Q shops at West Burlington, IA in September 1940 as one of the last class of steam locomotives on the Burlington. Part of an order for twenty-eight 317 ton units that were identical when built and were assigned Class 0-5A. They were designed for fast freight and heavy passenger service. Baldwin Locomotive works supplied the boiler and General Steel Casting of Chicago supplied the one piece engine beds (frames). Locomotive has roller bearings and Baker Valve Gear. Locomotive saw service system wide on the CB&Q but evidence indicates that #5633 was not operated on the Colorado & Southern through Douglas. Locomotive was in service until 1956, then stored at Lincoln, NE. State Senator Charles G. Irwin and William Lindmier, Jr. were keys to getting locomotive donated to State. This website tells us about the railroad for which this locomotive worked. https://www.american-rails.com/cbq.html Some railroads were seemingly destined to become strong, profitable operations. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy was one such example. Its history traces back to the pre-Civil War period when trains near or west of the Mississippi River remained a relative novelty. The city of Aurora, Illinois secured chartering rights through the Illinois state legislature for the Aurora Branch Railroad (ABRR) on February 12, 1849. On February 22nd the company was formally organized. This little system was the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's genesis. It was intended to run north out of Aurora, along the Fox River, reach Batavia and then turn slightly northeastward to Turner Junction (now West Chicago) where an interchange would be established with the G&CU for direct service into Chicago. During the mid-19th century the "Q's" earliest predecessor had established through service to Chicago and then spent the next several decades rapidly expanding. Its slogan, "Everywhere West," was quite befitting for this classic Midwestern granger. The 1850's were a whirlwind decade that witnessed a great deal of expansion and the official creation of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The Galena & Chicago Union Railroad was renamed to the Chicago & Aurora Railroad on June 22, 1852. On February 14, 1855 the state legislature authorized the C&A to adopt this new name and what followed included the merger of many railroads.

The post card was published by Noble Post Cards out of Colorado Springs, Colorado. There is nothing on the internet that tells me the history of the company.

You've Come a Long Way!

The Aurora Branch Railway was begun on October 2, 1848. Its purpose was to ensure train service to communities west of Chicago, Illinois that may be missed by other railroads. The well managed company began to expand early and in 1856 it changed its name to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) to reflect its aspirations. The distance from Chicago to Burlington, Iowa is only 390 kilometers (243 miles), but it was a large expanse back then. Although Burlington is in southeast Iowa, the Mississippi River is its eastern border. To connect Chicago to Burlington a bridge would have to be built over the river; which happened in 1868. The good management of the railroad was so impressive that the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway purchased the stock of the CB&Q by the year 1900. Each railroad still maintained its own operations and independence. The CB&Q became commonly known as the Burlington and the company advertised a lot using only that moniker.

The post card to the left shows an A-B set of FT locomotives with the "Burlington" name on their sides. The CB&Q was one of the first, if not the first, railroads to use diesel power to replace the steam engines. The first diesel to lead a consist on the CB&Q happened in 1934. This picture was taken in April of 1962, two and a half years after the CB&Q stopped using steam locomotives for their passenger service. 1962 was also the last year that they used steam on their railroad at all. Eight years after this picture was taken, on March 2, 1970, the CB&Q, Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroads merged into one company: the Burlington Northern.
The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs

out of Earlton, New York. It was printed after October of 1983 because the address on the card shows a 5-digit postal code with 4 added digits. According to their website: Audio-Visual Designs was founded in 1964 by the late Carl H. Sturner, Audio-Visual Designs has been a leader in providing high quality railroad images products for over 4 decades. The business was originally located in Earlton, NY. The name was derived by the products sold at the time – audio soundtracks of trains well as visual items (post cards, books, & calendars). The first All Pennsy Calendar was published in 1966 and for many years used exclusively the photos of Don Wood, a long time friend of Carl's. In the late 80's, Carl started showcasing other photographer's work as well. Railroad Christmas cards were added to the line of products early on and with a few exceptions have featured real photos of trains in action. Three railroad books have been published by Audio-Visual Designs: I Remember Pennsy, Locomotives in My Life, and The Unique New York and Long Branch: all of which were projects worked on by Carl and Mr. Wood. Audio-Visual Designs has also published books for other non-railroad related organizations.

The One that Started It All

Although I did not know it at the time, this post card was to become the first card in my Train Post Card collection. I was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on June 5, 1982.

One of the guys in the class one year before me knew my passion for trains. He gave this to me as an "ordination card" on that occasion. It measures five and half inches tall and eight and three quarters inches wide. I kept the post card because a) I do love trains, and b) Patrick and I were good friends. I did not know at the time, that it would be the first card in my train post card collection - which today numbers 3,014 cards from around the world. I seriously committed to collecting post cards the year that England was the feature country at Klondike Days here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was in the 1990s. I wanted to collect something related to trains that would not take up much room. They had a huge selection of train post cards at their exhibit for sale. I committed and bought one of each!!

This post card features a partial history of the development of what is know today as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Company. [Of course, at this time (1982) the Santa Fe part was still its own railroad company.] the train on the far left was built in 1892; the next one is from 1923; that is followed by a 1934 model of the "Zephyr". The second from the right is a 1955 diesel engine (an E-9 unit) as is the one on the far right, which is a GP-30 from 1962.
They all got together to celebrate "A Century of Locomotives".

The picture was taken by the Burlington Northern Railroad, as the company was known back in the 1970s. The post card itself was published by Lyman E. Cox from Sacramento, California - the home of the California State Railroad Museum.