Trapped... and Rescued!!

The train on the front of this post card is a relief train headed to another train trapped in the Columbia River Gorge. The story follows below as supplied by this website: https://www.ohs.org/blog/trapped-in-the-columbia-gorge.cfm On Wednesday, December 17, 1884, Colonel L.S. Howlett left the warmth of the dining room at the Umatilla House in The Dalles, Oregon, to join a weary group of 148 passengers and crew as they bundled against the bracing cold of a heavy winter storm to board a Portland-bound Pacific Express passenger train. Led by a snowplow and three locomotives, the train began its slow 85-mile journey through the Columbia River Gorge. They would not arrive at their destination for another 21 days. Wind and heavy snow brought avalanches down on the tracks, trapping the train and its passengers with little food or fuel onboard. As the weeks wore on and the winter storm maintained its icy grip on the Gorge, four snowplows and over 1,000 people worked to clear the tracks and deliver food to the trapped train. Trains leaving from Portland and The Dalles brought workers to shovel snow and restore damaged tracks from both directions. They made little progress, and many of the relief trains also became trapped due to the intensity of the storm. Photographer Carleton Watkins, his own travels delayed by the storm, was on one of the relief trains from Portland. He brought his camera along and documented both the relief efforts and the Gorge encased in ice. On January 6, 1885, the workers cleared the final section of the tracks and the beleaguered passengers of the Pacific Express at last made their way into Portland. During his time trapped on the train, Colonel Howlett maintained a daily journal of events, which he published in the Oregonian and other regional newspapers following his ordeal. It was his hope that by sharing his experience he could: teach others how much can be endured when a cracker is a blessing and a potato a luxury; when the snow in the Cascade mountains is forty-five feet deep; when there is nothing warm among a hundred passengers excepting human sympathy, and nothing light but hope and a tallow candle (Oregon Sentinel, January 17, 1885). Miraculously, despite facing starvation, frigid temperatures, illness, avalanches, and navigating steep, icy terrain to replenish supplies, all of the passengers on the train survived. The creek near where the train was trapped became known as Starveout Creek and is, today, Starvation Creek State Park.

The post card was published by "The Way It Was" of 1699 Fifth Avenue West, Eugene, Oregon 97402. That, and it was published after January of 1963 (it has a zip code), is everything that I know. But I learned the address from this great graphic of the eagle on the back of the post card:

A Short-lived History Caught in a Post Card

The history below is an edited version taken from this website: http://www.pnwc-nrhs.org/hs_or_n.html The Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company A brief history by Glenn Laubaugh Although the name itself has been long gone, what was once the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company (OR&N) and later the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation company (OWR&N), the railroad to which this post card refers in the upper right-hand corner in the title, is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and has been for over a century. In 1878 and 1879, purchase negotiations were held between Captain Ainsworth, who owned the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and its related portage railroad operations, and the newly incorporated Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. By March 31, 1880, all operation was being performed under the OR&N name. In mid-1883 the line became part of a transcontinental link, when the Northern Pacific Railroad (NP) was completed between Wallula and St. Paul, Min., providing the first all-rail link with the rest of the nation's railroad system. In 1906 through 1911, the ORR&N and the Oregon Trunk completed a railroad along

the Deschutes River (the river in the picture on this post card) into central Oregon. During this period, the company came to be called the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company. The Union Pacific had adopted the policy of building new railroads by using subsidiary companies, possibly to protect the parent company from possible financial disasters. The Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company was incorporated in Oregon in late 1910. In the 1930's, minor abandonments of the company's Oregon lines occurred. This included partial abandonment of the line to Homestead, as well as joint operation with the Spokane, Portland & Seattle of the Oregon Trunk railroad line from the Columbia River south to Bend. Other abandonments during this period were concentrated in Idaho and Washington, and therefore are not recorded here. From the 1930's through the 1960's, the railroad's main line was rebuilt to accommodate the various river dam projects constructed on the Snake River and Columbia River. As time went on, the O-WR&N name slowly fell into disuse. Although in later years steam locomotives still carried that name, the tenders of the locomotives had the Union Pacific emblem on them. All diesel locomotives came lettered and painted in Union Pacific colors, and therefore the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation company name become much less visible as time went on. Although corporate existence of the O-WR&N would continue afterward, for practical purposes of this brief history, the Union Pacific will be considered to have become the successor to the O-WR&N around 1950.

The post card was published by the short-lived Portland Post Card Company. The company only existed from 1908 to 1916. While it was around it published many view-cards of scenes from the American West coast including Alaska. They were the official publisher of postcards for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909.

The code in the bottom-center of the post card leads me to believe that it was printed by Curt Otto Teich. 1908-1928 Cards numbered A or R 1 to 124180. The cards they printed for Woolworth have a W prefix. The letter N prefix was used to designate a reprinted image from this series. The number at the bottom, when interpolated into their numbering system, put the card as being printed in 1913. That is a real possibility because the railroad company used that name in that year, too.

Adding to the Intrigue of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroad

There is definitely a picture of a train on the front of this post card. However, the caption on the back does not tell us the type of locomotive it is. When one looks more closely, one can think that the reason they do not tell us what kind of locomotive it is, is because it is drawn in. They have drawn in a 4-6-4 (Hudson) engine.

The fact that the tracks are on the north shore of the Columbia River tells me that, more than likely, it is on the line owned by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Company. On March 23, 2022 I blogged about how this company came into being and how it made it into Oregon, against all odds. It is a good read; I like rooting for the underdogs. The back of the post card tells us that this picture is of the Cape Horn Palisades and the North Bank Railroad tunnel. The following information was taken from this website: http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/north_bank_road.html The Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railroad, competitors in the transcontinental business, launched the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway in 1905 and built a line along the north side of the Columbia River. This line was known as "The North Bank Road", "The North Bank Railroad", "Columbia River Scenic Route", and "The Northwest’s Own Railway". The tracks were started in October 1905 and completed in February 1908, with a celebration being held on March 11th at Sheridan Point upstream of the Fort Rains Blockhouse location. On March 19th, regular passenger service between Vancouver and Pasco was begun. The journey took eight hours.

The post card was printed by our good friend, Curt Otto Teich. The code at the top of the card (A-55943) gives a hint that this may have been printed in 1917. The post card is from the White Border Era, so the year is a real possibility. This website: http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/post_card_history.html tells us about the publisher, Lipschuetz & Katz from Portland, Oregon. Oregon’s biggest event happened just as Post Cards began to boom in popularity. The Lewis & Clark Exposition opened in 1905 as Portland took center stage in its own World’s Fair. This event was single-handedly responsible for the production of 450 different post cards. Beautiful European-produced lithographs made up the bulk of these post cards. Also produced at the fair were leather, wood, copper and aluminum post cards. Several Portland post card publishers got their start at the Lewis & Clark Expo: B.B. Rich and D.M. Averill, as well as E.P. Charlton. Lipschuetz & Katz started publishing post cards in the years after the Expo.

Logs!! Lots of Logs!!!!!!

This black and white picture is on the front of a "Real Photo" postcard.

You can see on the right-hand side of the card that the locomotive belongs to the "Columbia and N..." Scratched onto the picture, in the top, is are the words, "Columbia and Nehalem R.R. yard B. Goe. and J.T. Labbe collecton" I have written the narrative below about the Columbia and Nehalem Railroad. I have taken content from these two websites, which I encourage to visit: http://www.twrps.com/history/columbia-river-logging/the-columbia-and-nehalem-valley-railway-company/ http://www.brian894x4.com/Kerryrailroadhistory.html On March 7, 1902, the partners by the surnames of Goodsell, Giltner, and Sewell of Portland form a company. They plan a train terminal at Columbia City and another at Pittsburg. Columbia City is north of Portland Oregon on the Columbia River, just after the river turns north, and Pittsburg is west of that about 25 miles. On April 25, 1902, The Columbia City Railroad (to be renamed to the Columbia & Nehalem River Railroad) is designed to be 10-12 miles long and will run from Columbia city westward to the waters of Oak Ranch Creek. It will use 6 logging engines. Four years later, on June 29, 1906, a large timber land deal was made. 5,000 acres were sold by Giltner and Sewell to Peninsular Lumber Co. for $200,000. The deal includes a logging railroad five miles long with dockage on the Columbia River front near Columbia City. The sales price is based on stumpage of $1.25 per thousand. The Peninsular Lumber Company operates a sawmill near St. Johns and will raft logs up river (another 25 miles) to the mill. Enter Albert S. Kerry. Albert S Kerry’s venture into the logging and lumber industry dates as far back as the 1890s and spanned the state of Washington and the Canadian Yukon Territory. Kerry’s Oregon venture, the subject of this article, dates as far back as 1912, when Albert S. Kerry apparently united with the Wright Blodgett Company, the Blodgett Company, Limited and the Oregon-Washington Timber Company to build a new railroad from the Columbia River into the Nehalem Valley. Significant building of the railroad towards the Nehalem valley began in approximately 1912, when some 6000 acres of A.S. Kerry timber holdings had burned. To salvage the dead trees, they have to be logged within three years. Construction of the railroad began on February 17, 1913 at a point near the Columbia River, called Kerry Island, a little more than 1 mile east of the town of Westport, Oregon. By June, 1914, 8 miles had been completed. A year later, the mileage was 14. By July 1, 1915, the first train ran over the line. By July 16, 1916, the initial mainline of the new Columbia & Nehalem River railroad was completed with 24 miles of track laid. By the end of the year, the line would reach 27 miles. This route would take the line from nearly sea level to straight up the North Oregon Coast Mountain Range, an elevation over 1100 feet, and into the Nehalem River Valley. It was nearly all completed by labor using hand-made carts, pulled by mules over 20lb steel rails. At the summit, the line passed through one of the few logging railroad tunnels ever to be built. The line begins at the log boom at Kerry Island, which consisted of about three miles of water frontage along the Columbia River slough. A log dump trestle approximately 1 mile long was built, with as many as 6 separate log dumps. A separate spur left the log dump and connected with the Spokane Portland & Seattle RR, (I have blogged about this railroad and its shrewd owner on March 23, 2022) which ran past the Kerry log dump. The Columbia & Nehalem River Railroad, most commonly known as the Kerry Line, was one of the most famous early 20th century logging railroads in the Northwest. What distinguishes the Kerry line from most of the hundreds of other logging railroads that operated from the late 1800s through the 1930s in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, was the sheer number of logs that were hauled from the woods between 1915 and 1938…over 3 billion, 104 million board feet of timber. It began by pulling out all of the timber that had burned in the forest fire and just kept on continuing. Another thing that distinguishes the Kerry line from most other logging railroads was its 1875 foot long tunnel. It was one of the longest of the few logging railroad tunnels that ever existed in the Western U.S. and Canada. And one of only three logging railroad tunnels in Northwest Oregon.

The back of the post card shows that it was published by The L. L. Cook Co. of Milwaukee. All rights are reserved. I have 5 post cards in my collection from this publisher. The L.L. Cook Company was founded in 1921 and was one of the two largest postcard publishing companies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin up to the 1960s, producing thousands of postcards with scenes from different cities and states across the country. In 1969 the L.L. Cook Company was sold to the General Aniline & Film (GAF) Corporation and shifted focus from producing postcards to maintaining a photofinishing business. It formally dissolved in 1980.

Let's Go to Mohler

Today, there is a railroad that runs from the Oregon coast to Portland. The predecessor to the Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad was a line built by the Pacific Railway and Navigation Company between 1906 and 1911. The line, whose reporting mark was "PR&N", was sometimes known as the "Punk, Rotten, and Nasty" because of the wet and muddy working conditions for crews building the railroad through the Coast Range. The line became the Tillamook Branch Line of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1916. The above information was taken from Wikipedia. That is everything that I could find out about the tracks on which the train on the front of this post card is travelling.

The title on the card says that it is near Mohler. I found out why some people would want to live in that area. I include it below. The first tidbit of information is from this website: http://www.smalltownoregon.com/01northcoast/mohler.html If you want to take a nature drive from the coast back to Portland take Highway 53 eastbound off Highway 101 at the Nehalem junction just north of Wheeler. Better take your Dramimine before you start. You will quickly come to Mohler, the last settlement until you reach Highway 26 at the Necanicum junction. We just about dismissed Mohler on the day we passed through, but the place had a winery and that caught our attention. The next thing you know they will have a Starbucks! As you can see from my pictures we took only a few. Needing some filler for my page I did some research and I am pleased that I did. The Mohler family in America dates back to the 1700's. The family icon made his first money producing wheelbarrows for the gold rush in California. After the rush died down he returned to the mid-west to continue his career as an industrialist and eventually developed the Studebaker automobile! The story is amazing and the Mohler family keeps a nice picture web site of the whole thing! This is more information about area as taken from this website: https://oregonwild.org/waters/protecting-oregons-waterways/nehalem-state-scenic-waterway The Nehalem River is one of the most impressive waterways in the Oregon Coast Range Mountains. It is one of Oregon's longest free-flowing (ie undammed) rivers. It has outstanding wildlife, recreational, and scenic values that make it a great place to visit, or call home. After a two year vetting process the Oregon State Parks and Water Resources Commissions both unanimously recommended the river be designated as a "State Scenic Waterway" by Governor Brown, which she signed in 2019. This designation will protect the river corridor, recreational opportunities, wildlife, private property rights, and scenic values.

The post card was printed by the Pacific Novelty Company with branches in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. This publishing company printed many postcards that were duplicates of postcards published by Edward Mitchell. Mitchell was a partner with other photographers in this publishing company; then, at some point, he bought the others out. A major publisher and printer of view-cards depicting California in halftone lithography. They produced cards in different styles, most of which were printed in Germany. They eventually sold off their own printing department to Herman Vogel who renamed it Quadricolor Press. Pacific Novelty went on to produce photochromes that were manufactured in the United States. They existed from 1908 to the 1960s.

Last of this Series

This is the last of the post cards about which I will blog, from the collection of cards that my friend gave to me from his family's history. This post card shows the train depot at Clatskanie, Oregon. It is a station on the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway. I will be blogging about this Railway and the devious manner in which it came into existence to compete with the Union Pacific Railroad. I could find very little about Clatskanie on the internet. It was close to an ammunition depot used by the military. So it is probably where the families and members of the military got off the train to go to the base. I looked at a map of the town today. There is a set of tracks that go through the town, still, and there is a Depot Street near the tracks. But, AMTRAK does not stop there. If you want to take AMTRAK, they do provide a bus to pick you up to take you to the nearest actual AMTRAK station.

The post card was published by the Patton Post Card Company out of Salem, Oregon. Oregon State University has three collections of works by this company. Edwin Cooke Patton was born August 12, 1868 in Salem. In 1908, he operated a Post Card Studio and the largest post card store in the Northwest in conjunction with Patton Brothers Bookstore in Salem. Patton’s studio was responsible for many early real photo views of Northwestern Oregon and the Coast. Patton was a magician in his spare time. He died December 24, 1929 in Woodburn, Oregon.

One Hundred and Eleven Years Ago Today AND the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909

Happy Birthday to my sister, Mary!!
I am dedicating this blog entry to her - even though she was not born in the year when this post card was mailed; she was born on the same day and month as it was mailed.

This post card shows a train as it winds it way with passengers through the beautiful scenery of Cow Creek Canyon in Oregon.

The Southern Pacific Railroad built the original line by following the natural terrain of Cow Creek. It is, as you can see from the map below, a short north and south route between Glendale, Oregon and Riddle.

This map is taken from: http://www.alpharail.net/corp/cowcreek/cowcreek1.htm I recommend that you visit their website for a more recent tour of the canyon than this post card.

Between Glendale and Riddle, Oregon the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad takes a scenic detour from Interstate 5 and civilization through Cow Creek Canyon (green line on the map above). When the Siskiyou Line was originally surveyed in the 1800's it followed natural drainages rather than tackle the mountains of southwest Oregon. For years the Southern Pacific was the sole means of transport through the Canyon.

The post card was mailed on December 2, 1908.

That is one hundred and eleven years ago, today at 3:00 PM. The message on the back is a friendly response to another message.
"Dear Friend. Rec'd your card Was glad to here (sic) from you. We are all well, hopeing (sic) this will find you the same. We are having fine weather here now. I am going to the skating Rink at Newberg, Ore tonight. From your loving friend, John W Sheppy" He is writing to a MISS Myrtle Walter in Bonanza, Oregon. Bonanza is down toward the California border. He is writing from Dayton, Oregon. It is half-way between Portland and Salem. I have to point out that some savage pulled the stamp off of the post card!! How shameful! The post card was printed in Germany and published by The Portland Post Card Co. They had offices in both Portland, Oregon (I bet you are surprised by that) and Seattle, Washington. Speaking of Seattle, did you notice the little round seal in the bottom left. It is advertising the upcoming "Alaska - Yukon - Pacific Exposition" soon to happen in 1909.

The following information was taken from: http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/digital-document-libraries/the-1909-alaska-yukon-pacific-exposition

The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE), held in Seattle from June 1 to October 16, 1909, followed on the heels of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon. Initial inspiration for the fair came from a group of Alaska's gold rush pioneers in 1905. In 1906, Seattle businessmen altered the original plan, postponed the 1907 date (so as not to conflict with the Jamestown, Virginia tricentennial celebration) until 1909, and sought financial support for an enlarged scope. The AYPE followed a tradition established in 1876 when Philadelphia held a Centennial Exposition. It was an opportunity for Seattleites to display pride in their heritage and their patriotism. Although the anticipated influx of people and the anticipated stimulus to economic growth did not materialize as a result of the Exposition, the City and promoters counted AYPE as a success. Traffic was handled well, the boulevard system was completed in time for visitors to enjoy the scenery, and the police ably protected "the lives and property of the citizens and visitors during the Exposition." The University benefited by the expansion of its campus. Permanent benefits for the city included many additional miles of streetcar tracks, additional fire alarm boxes, a boulevard system, and a statue of William Seward.

One more "Then and Now"

We are moving back into Oregon for the subject matter of this posting. The picture on this post card is a view of a train arriving at the Union Station in Portland, Oregon prior to June 2, 1911. That is the date the post card was mailed.

Union Station does not look like the initial design which was created in 1882 by McKim, Mead, and White. If the builders had followed the blueprints of the original plans, the station would have been the largest train station in the world.

However, a smaller design was introduced by architects Van Brunt & Howe, and accepted in 1885. Construction of the station began in 1890. It was built by the Northern Pacific Terminal Company at a cost of $300,000. It opened on February 14, 1896. The signature piece of the structure is the 150 ft. tall Romanesque Revival clock tower.
This is a view of it taken in this century:

Neon signs were added to it in 1948. The signs read "Go by Train" on the northeast and southwest sides and "Union Station" on the northwest and southeast sides. The station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

The back of the card tell us that it was posted in the mail on June 2, 1911 and it was published by Gray News. Gray News was situated in Salt Lake City, Utah from 1906 to 1922. They were known to be a publisher and distributor of regional lithographic view-cards. Many images were produced of sparsely populated rugged areas, perhaps like Portland, Oregon in the early 1900s???

Then and Now

The bridge in this post card was designed by the famous architect, Ralph Modjeski, the chief engineer for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge which began construction in 1933. The Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Company built the bridge by cantilevering it out from rock walls on both sides of the canyon.

The first steel for the bridge arrived on site on May 18, 1911, and was lowered by derrick to the bottom of the gorge. Men climbed down rope ladders to attach cables to the steel beams and the steel was hoisted back up both sides of the canyon as the beams were needed. The first train crossed the bridge only four months later on September 17, 1911.

The crossing of the Crooked River played a critical role in the competition to build a railroad up the Deschutes River Valley. The incentive for railroad construction was reaching the vast stands of timber south of Bend. The Oregon Trunk Railway, owned by Jim Hill of the Great Northern Railway, started up the west side of the Deschutes. In the meantime the Des Chutes Railroad, owned by Edward Harriman of the Union Pacific, started up the east side. At 126 miles both railroads had to cross a major tributary of the Deschutes, the Crooked River. There was only one place where the cliffs on both sides were close enough to build a bridge. Jim Hill had obtained the rights to the location when his Oregon Trunk Railroad acquired the Central Oregon Railroad Company on December 1, 1909. The Central Oregon had laid no track and the rights to the bridge site were its principal asset. Hill's acquisition of the location forced Harriman to negotiate a settlement whereby the Oregon Trunk would own almost the entire line from the Columbia to Bend but Harriman's company would have the right to use the track.

Through a series of mergers the rail line and the bridge has become part of the BNSF Railway. The Union Pacific still has the right to use the track.

This is what the bridge looks like today:

The post card was printed and published by the H. H. Tammen Curio Company. They were located at 1516 Arapahoe Street in Denver, Colorado from 1896 to 1953. The picture on the front does not have a white border around it, and the back is divided. From this we can conclude that the post card was printed some time between 1912 and 1915.

Life Before the Dam

American Falls:
The picture on the front of this post card is of the American Falls, a landmark waterfall on the Snake River, named after a party of American trappers whose boat went over the falls. The Wilson Price Hunt expedition in 1811 camped at the falls one night and the expedition of John C. Frémont was here in 1843. The Oregon Trail passed north of town, through the present-day reservoir. Power plants first sprang up at the falls in 1901.

American Falls was the first town in the U.S. to be entirely relocated; it was moved in 1925 to facilitate construction of the nearby American Falls Dam. The old town site sits at the bottom of the reservoir, northeast of the present city. A larger dam was completed in 1978, downstream from the deteriorating 1927 structure, which was later demolished. The first dam, designed by Frank A. Banks, at American Falls was begun in 1925 by the Bureau of Reclamation and was completed in 1927. The river was temporarily impounded while the new concrete structure was put in place.

The Oregon Short Line Railroad:
The railroad bridge, pictured in this post card travelling over the river, had to be raised to allow for crossing the new reservoir of water that would build up behind the dam. It belonged to the Oregon Short Line Railroad.

The Oregon Short Line Railroad was a railroad in the states of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Oregon. The line was organized as the Oregon Short Line Railway on April 14, 1881 as a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railway. Union Pacific intended the line to be the shortest route ("the short line") from Wyoming to Oregon. In 1889 the line merged with the Utah & Northern Railway and 6 other small railroads to become the Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway. Following the bankruptcy of Union Pacific, the line was taken into receivership and reorganized as the Oregon Short Line Railroad.

The Oregon Short Line was independent for a short period of time until October 1898 when the newly reformed Union Pacific Railroad took control of a majority of the board of directors. In 1938, Union Pacific began consolidating operations and leased for operation a number of its subsidiaries including the Oregon Short Line. The railroad operated under the lease until December 30, 1987, when the OSL was fully merged into the Union Pacific Railroad.

This post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich’s company using the C. T. American Art name of the printing process. The number on the card (R-88257) indicates (using a bit of mathematical interpolation) that the year of publication is 1922. This is good news, because the company that published the card:

Gray News Company was only in operation from 1906 to 1922. They were centered in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were known as a publisher and distributor of regional lithographic view-cards. So in my catalogue I have put the date of this post card at 1922.

Quite the Pedigree

The engine in this picture is a 2-8-8-2 Mallet Compound Engine. It is pictured here in La Grande, Oregon. The first compound-compression locomotive with an articulated pair of drive wheel assemblies was designed by Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet (pronounced SORT OF LIKE: "Malley") in France. The front driver assembly included two low-pressure cylinders. The rear driver assembly included two high-pressure cylinders. The single boiler was rigidly attached to the rear driver assembly.

Mallet locomotives in the USA followed the design created by Anatole Mallet and were called Mallet locomotives as a result. Like Anatole's original design, these locomotives used compound expansion where steam was first used the two high-pressures cylinders and then exhausted to be used a second time in the two larger low-pressure cylinders in the front of the locomotive.

The USA later experimented with the same basic design but with four high-pressure cylinders. These were still articulated locomotives but were no longer true "Mallets" because they used simple expansion instead of compound expansion. Unfortunately, no good name for this design ever emerged, and they tended to be loosely called 'Mallets' as well.

This locomotive was built in 1909. Technically, it is classified as an MC-1 locomotive. The diameter of the driving wheels is a mere 57 inches with a tractive effort of 94,880 pounds. This is produced by cylinders that are 26 inches in diameter with a 40 inch stroke. It burned oil as the fuel of choice.

Built for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company as Number 451 in 1909, it was renumbered to the Oregon Washington Railroad & Navigation Company’s 701 in 1911. From this we can surmise that while the post card is from the divided back era and could be from between 1907 to 1915, the picture (valid from 1909 to 1911) tells us that the post card is from somewhere between 1909 and 1915.


The title of this blog is "Quite the Pedigree". That is referring to the line-up of Companies involved in the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. When I go to Wikipedia to look up the history of the O.W.R. & N. I find this at the beginning: “The Oregon–Washington was incorporated November 23, 1910, in Oregon for the principal purpose of purchasing and consolidating the properties of certain corporations which were then controlled through stock ownership by the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company.

Accordingly, on December 23, 1910, it acquired by purchase all of the properties of 12 corporations, except their corporate franchises and certain of their assets, and, on the same date, purchased a part of the properties of 3 other corporations. It subsequently acquired the property of 2 other corporations.”

Then a list follows… there are 34 transactions listed. They vary from “sold to”, to “conveyed to”, to “named changed to”. The list ends in the year 1916; but, it all starts with the incorporation of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company by a special act of the Washington Territory on December 16, 1860.

The post card is from the Divided Back Era (1907 - 1915) and it was published by the Pacific Novelty Company. The following is from the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York: This publishing company printed many postcards that were duplicates of postcards published by Edward Mitchell. Mitchell was a partner with other photographers in this publishing company than at some point he bought the others out. A major publisher and printer of view-cards depicting California in halftone lithography. They produced cards in different styles, most of which were printed in Germany. They eventually sold off their own printing department to Herman Vogel who renamed it Quadricolor Press. Pacific Novelty went on to produce photochromes that were manufactured in the United States.