To Take Your Breath Away

There are two meanings to the title of this post. One is that the scenery must have been so beautiful as to take your breath away. The second one, which is the subject of this post, is that the tunnel in the Cascade Range of Washington state was so long that the railroad had a difficult time cleaning the air after a steam locomotive traveled through it. As a result of this challenge, they electrified the line as it entered and left the Cascade Tunnel.

Given one quick look at this locomotive a person might think that it is a very strange looking steamer. Upon closer examination, however, one can see that the locomotive is electrified. There are overhead wires and one can see the pantograph that brings the electricity to the motors. As I researched this picture to see what railroad was operating it, I discovered nothing about the engine. I think that it might be made by Alco-GE. The website http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/index2.htm?GNEGNElectricRosters.htm shows us that there were four 1,000 horsepower units delivered to the Great Northern Railroad. It goes on to say, "Great Northern's electric locomotives were confined to the Cascades, purchased to relieve asphyxiation problems in the Cascade tunnel caused by exhaust of steam locomotives. The initial class of four locomotives were confined to the Old Cascade Tunnel only, while the later models were used on the entire line-segment from Wenatchee, through the New Cascade Tunnel, to Skykomish. The Great Northern Railway rostered a total of 24 electric locomotives. The first four used a 6,000 Volt three phase electric system using two overhead wires and the rail as conductors. Power was taken from the overhead wires by means of trolley poles. With the opening of the New Cascade Tunnel and the enlargement of the electrified district a switch was made to a single phase 11,000 Volt system. Power was now taken from a single overhead wire by using pantographs, making for a less troublesome layout of the catenary system. Great Northern used 2 different paint schemes for its electric locomotives. All electrics were delivered in a Pullman Green livery except for the two W-1 class locomotives which arrived new in the Empire Builder scheme of orange and green separated by imitation gold stripes. All electrics, except the original 3-phase and Z-1 classes, were eventually repainted in Empire Builder colors. Electric operations started in 1909 with the opening of the first Cascade tunnel and ended on July 31, 1956 when the decision was made to force-ventilate the Cascade tunnel and run all trains through using diesel power, instead of upgrading the entire electrical operation, which was coming due. This method of force-ventilation is still being used today by BNSF."

The caption in the upper left-hand part of the picture on the front does confirm that this train is, indeed, in the Cascade Range in Washington state. It is hard to believe that this is a real locomotive. When researching the types of engines that ran through the Cascade Tunnel, I could not find one that had a round front like this one. Knowing that some publishers did their own style of photoshopping even back in the early 1900s, I suspected that this was the case here. But, next week's post will help to redeem this publisher and clarify where this picture might have been taken.

The publisher was the E. C. Kropp Company, a publisher and printer that began producing chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that would printed under the E.C. Kropp name. They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their latter linen cards had a noticeably fine grain. Sold to L.L. Cook in 1956 and they are now part of the GAF Corp. U.S.

Goin' to Florida

The Overseas Railroad was an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway

to Key West, located 128 miles beyond the end of the Florida peninsula. Work on the line started in 1905 and was completed in 1912; the line was in daily passenger and freight service until its destruction by a hurricane in 1935. My wife and I joke a lot about cars driving down the road for kilometers with their turn signals on. We usually alert the other person by saying,"Guess he's goin' to Florida." Then the other person knows to look for a car with continuous turn signalling happening. I have to admit that she has asked me if I was going to Florida a couple of times. Today's blog post is taking us to Florida without the benefit of an ongoing turn signal. We are looking at three of my seven post cards that highlight the Florida East Railway's Long Key Viaduct. I will first tell you the story, then talk about the publisher of each post card at the end. I will simply intersperse the fronts of the post cards through the narrative as taken mostly from Wikipedia. The

construction problems were formidable; labor turnover was frequent and the cost was prohibitive. The first portion of the line, from Homestead to Key Largo, was across swamp land. Thankfully, the dredging of the drainage canals to clear the swamps provided the material to build up the roadbed. Worse than any other challenge was the weather: a hurricane in September 1906 destroyed the initial work on the Long Key Viaduct and killed more than 100 laborers. Hurricanes in 1909 and 1910 destroyed much of the completed railroad. After these hurricanes, work resumed at a faster pace — The owner of the railroad was 80 years old and wanted to ride all the way to Key West on his railroad. The completion of Seven Mile Bridge assured many that the line would soon be completed. Henry Flagler, by then blind, arrived in Key West on January 22, 1912, aboard his private rail car "Rambler", telling a welcoming crowd, “Now I can die happy. My dream is fulfilled.” Regular service on the 156-mile extension — dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World" — began the following day, with through sleepers between New York and Key West with connections at Key West for passenger steamers and car ferries bound for Havana. Flagler died less than 18 months later in May 1913.

The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane washed away approximately 40 miles of the Middle Keys section of the line. In addition, the Long Key Fishing Camp was destroyed, along with a rescue train which was — with the exception of locomotive #447 — overturned by the storm surge at Islamorada, Florida. With Flagler gone, the railroad was unwilling to repair a line that had never repaid its construction cost — an unknown figure. It was later determined that the total cost of what had been derisively nicknamed "Flagler's Folly" exceeded $50 million ($1.31 billion today), all from his personal fortune.

The top post card, above was mailed in 1914, soon after the viaduct opened. It was published by the H. S. Kress Company. A publisher and large distributor of postcards through their national chain of Five & Dime stores. They were purchased by Genesco in 1964 who slowly began shutting the business down.

The middle post card was published by the Leighton & Valentine Company

out of New York City. Hugh C. Leighton was 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.

The last of the post cards was published by the E.C. Kropp Company:

a publisher and printer that began producing chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that would printed under the E.C. Kropp name. They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their latter linen cards had a noticeably fine grain. Sold to L.L. Cook in 1956 and they are now part of the GAF Corp. U.S. This post card is an excellent example of a linen post card. The texture and weight of the card are obvious when one holds it and holds it up to the light. I hope you can see the texture in this close-up:

Development of the Linen Post Card

Continuing on the theme of Pikes Peak, I have scanned three post cards from the Linen Post Card era.

Two of these cards are from 1939 and 1941. Because the third one is postally unused, I cannot tell you the exact age of the card. Two of them are from the H.H. Tammen Company which existed from 1896 to 1953; the other is from the E. C. Kropp Company, which existed from 1907 to 1956.

I chose the top two, not because they share the same picture, but because they share the same picture on two different types of card stock.

The post card on the left is from the White Border Era (1915-1930). The card stock is smooth and shiny, although certainly not as shiny as a Chrome Post Card. The white border was developed on post cards for the printers and publishers to save money on the cost of ink. While printing on post card may not seem like a large savings, if one multiplies that amount of unprinted space by the millions of post cards printed during this era, it adds up to a huge savings.

The post card on the right looks like it is from the Linen Post Card Era (1930-1945). While saving money in the same manner as the previous era, the publishers added a quality to the post card. In a system of paper making adding rag content into the paper used for card stock, the paper took on a textured feeling. Rumor has it that Curt Otto Teich might have invented this style of card. If he didn’t invent it, he certainly perfected it!

This card is not from the Curt Teich Company. It is from the H.H. Tammen Company. I am not convinced that it is an actual Linen Post Card. As I hold it up to the light and feel the texture, I am thinking that the printer simply ran the card through a machine that texturized the card. I have tried to scan a close-up of the linen-style card so that you can see the texture difference. You can see a regular pattern of squares that have what look like indentations into the post card. These indents show best on the white border.

I think the H. H. Tammen Company either made linen cards of much lesser quality than the Curt Teich Company or did their best to imitate the look and feel of a linen card without going through the real process. So, when I hold the two H.H. Tammen cards from above next to each other, the quality difference is sort of obvious. But, when I hold this H.H. Tammen card next to a Curt Teich Linen Era Post Card the difference jumps out at me.

The H.H. Tammen Company was based in Denver, Colorado. It was founded by Harry Heye Tammen, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1881 he and his business partner started H.H. Tammen and Company. That name changed in 1896 when they added two more partners: Carl Litzenberger and Joseph Cox. The new company was called the H.H. Tammen Curio Company.

The bottom post card is included in this set simply because it, too, shows the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway in the Spring with snow on either side of the tracks. It seems to have been taken from very close to where the other picture was taken. This post card was printed by the E. C. Kropp Company. The company was founded in 1907 and based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin until they were sold to L.L. Cook in 1956. E.C. Kropp began publishing and printing in 1898 but, became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907. I understand that they produced some high quality linen cards, but I don’t have any in my train post card collection.

This post card was printed for the publisher “Garden of the Gods”, which is a tourist destination down the hill from Pikes Peak in Colorado. The story of the “Famous Balanced Rock” is interesting but not related to my train post cards other than the passing reference on this post card. You can read its story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_the_Gods. These are the backs of the three cards.
There are only two pictures because the H.H. Tammen Company didn't change the back from one style of post card to the other. So, I chose this one because there is an official stamp at the top telling us that someone was up on the top of Pikes Peak on August 17, 1941. The other H.H. Tammen post card is postmarked from July 19, 1939 - just a few short months before World War II began with the invasion of Poland.

The Early Bird Gets the Snow

This picture shows the first train of the year to go to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado.

To quote the back of the post card, “Each spring, in order to open the road, it is necessary to cut through the huge snow banks as shown in the picture. The snow is taken out in large blocks, loaded onto cars and dumped down the mountain side at some convenient place. While these huge snow banks disappear with the summer sun, there is perpetual snow near the summit.”

This post card was published by a tourist attraction (the Balanced Rock)

just up the road from Pikes Peak in the Garden of the Gods. It is a public park located in Colorado Springs. From Wikipedia: In August of 1859, two surveyors who helped to set up Colorado City explored the site. One of the surveyors, M. S. Beach, suggested that it would be a "capital place for a beer garden." His companion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, "Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods."

In 1879, Charles Elliott Perkins, a friend of William Jackson Palmer, purchased 480 acres of land that included a portion of the present Garden of the Gods. Upon Perkin’s death, his family gave the land to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909, with the provision that it would be a free public park. Palmer had owned the Rock Ledge Ranch and upon his death it was donated to the city. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971

The post card is from the White Border Era (1915 – 1930). The white border helped the printing companies to save money on ink by not having to print right to the edge of the post cards. This one was printed by the E. C. Kropp Company, a publisher and printer that began producing chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that would be printed under the E.C. Kropp name. They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their latter linen cards had a noticeably fine grain. The company was sold to L.L. Cook in 1956 and they are now part of the GAF Corp. U.S.

More Views of the Granite Gate

These are three more views of the Granite Gate. The top two post cards are the exact same picture. All three views give us an idea of just how narrow the gate was.

A person on each side of the trolley car can reach out and touch the sides of the mountain pass. In fact, when one looks very carefully at the third post card, one can conclude that it is actually a corruption of the first two. The trees in the picture have not changed. The trolley is at the exact same location, stopped for the camera. The two people touching the sides of the mountain are in the exact same pose. The only real difference is that the trolley now has some printing across the front of it, the fringed top is now solid wood and one person on the left side of the trolley is missing. All of these could easily have been done to the picture at the time of the printing of the third card. The words on the first post card are: “Granite Gate, Mt. Lowe, California Elevation 4200 Feet”. We can see that it is printed across the sky in red ink. There must have been a very severe earthquake in the years between the printing of this card and the second post card. The Granite Gate has gained 600 feet of elevation! The words on the first post card are: “Granite Gate, Mt. Lowe, California Elevation 4800 Feet”. The third post card avoids trying to correct the error. It simply says: “GRANITE GATE, MT. LOWE, CALIFORNIA”. The first two post cards are from the “divided back” era. While it is obvious on the front that they are both using the same picture, it is not obvious on the back that they are from the same publisher.

The first post card was printed by the Van Ornum Colorprint Company. They were in Los Angeles, California from 1908 to 1921. They printed post cards mostly of the Southern California scenery. So, we can determine that this post card is, at the youngest, 91 years old if it had been the last card printed by them. The oldest that is can be is 104 years old, if it had been the first card printed by them. It was published by the M. Kashower Company. This company existed in Los Angeles from 1914 to 1934. They published mostly comic cards, holiday greetings, and view-cards of southern California. With this in mind, the oldest the card can now be is 98 years old. At the bottom of the card is the number 570. I would imagine that this is the number of the print job. Unfortunately, we don’t know how many print jobs per year were run so it doesn’t help us to age the card. The second post card tells us absolutely nothing about the printer or the publisher. It does show that the Mt. Lowe promoters had settled on their logo: a bear (also found on the California state flag) overlooking the San Gabriel Valley. WE do know that it is from some time between 1907 and about 1915, which is the approximate date range of the “divided back” era. The third post card is from the “white border” era. This era lasted from about 1915 to 1930. As you can see, it, too, has the Mt. Lowe logo on it. On the left side of the card is the name of the publishing company: E. C. Kropp. We have seen this company involved in publishing Mt. Lowe post cards in the past blog postings. What I would like to point out here, which I have not done in the past few postings, is for you to look at the rectangle where the postage stamp is to be placed. In the top, left corner is the letter E; in the top, right the letter C; in the bottom, left is the letter K; and, in the bottom right are the letters Co. This post card is print job number 28645 as indicated by the numbers in the top center of the post card.

Scouting Around

Here are two more post cards from between Echo Mountain and the Alpine Tavern.

The post card at the top has red ink printed across the top of its face. It says, “1500- SCENE ALONG PACIFIC ELECTRIC RAILWAY, MT. LOWE, CALIFORNIA IN WINTER”. It is beautiful proof that Southern California can get snow – at least, up in the mountains surrounding the basin. It is the older of the two cards. As you can see, it is from the divided back era. The picture goes right to the edge of the post card. The bottom card is from the “white border” era. Across the bottom white border one can read the caption: “CLIMBING TO CLOUDLAND, MT. LOWE, CALIFORNIA”. It looks to be springtime on the mountain. The red flowers are in full bloom along the tracks. The top card is the product of Edward H. Mitchell. Mitchell was born in 1867 in San Francisco, California. This is the city in which he based his printing/publishing company. In fact, he was printing cards in a building that was destroyed by the great earthquake. He was a very prolific producer. He travelled all over the United States gathering subject matter for his post cards. Mitchell also owned or was a partner in the Pacific Novelty Co. and the Souvenir Publishing Co. I have some great cards he printed of produce being shipped to market on flat cars and in gondolas. I will save them for a future series of postings. There is no date on the card but we know that it was printed between about 1907 and 1915.

The bottom card is another E.C. Kropp Company product. We can date this card a bit easier, because there is a postmark on the back. It was mailed from:” Mount Lowe California Aug 23 P.M. 1930” The Mt. Lowe trademark that we saw in the last posting is also on this post card. The message is from Janet to Florence. Janet says, “Like all the high toned people, I’m spending my time here. One more day of this and then I’m winding my way to the office.” Florence lives in Los Angeles and works at the Hall of Records. I think Janet probably worked there, too. I wonder which got back to the office first, the post card or Janet.

Back at the Beginning

Sometimes I can be a little slow. I do have my post cards arranged in albums by certain themes. And, within each album, there is a sub-theme. For example, the Mt. Lowe cards are in Album Number Two. It has the themes of California, Utah and New Hampshire. Within California I have sub-themes like Mt. Tamalpais, Knott’s Berry Farm, Angels Flight and California in general. But, within each sub-theme, like Mt. Lowe, they are only organized by similar looking cards. There is no real order to the cards. Today, we get to experience the result of this lack of order. I started the Mt. Lowe exhibition by being at the bottom of the incline that took people to the top of Echo Mountain. On those cards, one can see that there is a trolley at the bottom left. People had to take that trolley up the hill in order to get to the bottom of the incline. These two cards today are pictures of those trolleys. I should have started this exhibit with these two cards. Oh, well. At least you get to see them.

They are both from the “white border” era, which is approximately from 1915 to 1930. The card on the right seems to be the older of the two, in my estimation. The picture is an actual photograph. It was then printed and colorized. The card on the left is a “reproduction” of the original. It looks like they projected the photograph onto a plate and drew the key features onto it. It is like they changed just enough detail so as not to infringe on the copyright of the first. They are published by two different companies.

The one on the bottom, the photograph on the right (above), is by the C. T. American Art company. The C.T. stands for Curt Teich. Curt immigrated to the United States from Lobenstein, Germany, in 1896 at the ripe old age of 19. He started his printing company two years later and it operated until 1978. He was on the leading edge of printing techniques several times. There is a number at the top of the card: R-53765. When one compares this to the “Guide to Dating Curt Teich Postcards” one can conclude that it was printed around 1914. This also makes sense because this card is from the white border era which began around 1915. The top card was printed by the E. C. Kropp Company out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This company published and printed chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that were printed under the E.C. Kropp name. They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their post cards from the “Linen Era” had a noticeably fine grain. IN 1956, the company was sold to the L.L. Cook Company the last I heard they are now part of the GAF Corp.

Ten Years of Going UP HILL!

We are going to pick up where we left off – Echo Mountain, California. In the last postings you were seeing the incline up Echo Mountain from the bottom. You have seen the cars at the bottom of the incline with the people smiling for the photographer. Now we have climbed up the incline a bit to take of picture of the people in the car as they head up to half way up Mt. Lowe where the Alpine Tavern awaits them. Here are four post card views of the cars on the way up with their excited and happy passengers.

This card first was mailed on October 1, 1909. It shows a bright red car. This matches the color of most of the cars in the post cards taken at the base of the incline. The post card was published by the Newman Post Card Company which existed from 1907 to the 1960s. So this card was published in the first two years of the company’s existence. It began in Los Angeles, CA as a publisher and printer of lithographic postcards, mostly views of southern California, with some cards of Hawaii and Nevada and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. In the 1960s they didn’t just disappear, they were purchased by H.S. Crocker.

The top post card is the oldest of these three. It is from the “divided back era”; this is from approximately 1907 to 1915. This card falls right on the edge of the era. Part of the message on the back reads, “…It is sure a great trip and very warm…” It was mailed on July 26, 1915. The middle card is really a reproduction of the first card. But, now we are in the “white border era” – from 1915 to 1930, more or less. It saved the printer a bit of ink by putting a white border around the picture. It was mailed on June 3, 1920. The bottom post card is also from the “white border era”. But, as we look at the picture, we can see how the brush on the side of the mountain has grown. It also seems that the safety committee has visited and suggested that the sides of the car be enclosed!! It was published by the E. C. Kropp Company. In 1898 the E. C. Kropp Company started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by publishing high quality cards. It became the E. C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced cards from scenes right across the United States. They did some pioneer and experimental techniques. In 1956 the company was sold to the GAF Corporation. In order to make his dream come true, Mr. Lowe had to invent the equipment to take people up this hill – 3000 feet long journey. It was a set of tracks with two cars on them. The cars met at exactly the middle point and followed the tracks as they bent out enough for the cars to pass without bumping each other. The safety equipment, especially the braking, was unusual for the time. But, he had no accidents that I am aware of.