Kaslo & Slocan Railway - Short but Important

Silver was discovered in the mountains above New Denver and Kaslo in 1891. Soon, the town of Slocan developed to support the mining operations. But, there was still a need to get the silver to market quickly. Kaslo was served by steam ships that plied the waters of Kootnay Lake; they connected the town with places like Nelson that already had rail service. It was natural to want to build a railway to bring the silver to these railway connections through the steamship service already in place. The Kaslo & Slocan Railway was a narrow gauge railway that connected Kaslo (on Lake Kootnay), Slocan (at the southern-most point on the Slocan Lake), and the mining community of Sandon

– the picture in this post card was taken at Sandon – (in the mountains between the two lakes). It operated 55 kilometers of track between 1895 and 1955. It was first operated by the Great Northern Railway. Later the operations were taken over by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which changed it over to standard gauge track. With financial backing from the Great Northern Railway (GNR), construction on the line started in 1895. GNR had a line that ran to Spokane, Washington and getting the silver to market would provide traffic (and revenue) for the GNR. The railway proceeded up the Kaslo River toward the pass of Seaton Creek, and continued across the mountains to Sandon. There was a switchback at one point because the grade was so steep. The labourers built more than 30 bridges between Kaslo and Sandon on steep mountain sides (Payne Bluff

- where the picture in this post card was taken - had a steep drop of over 1,000 feet) that would make my heart stop. As was the standard operating procedure in those days, the only tools used by this brave crew were dynamite and the typical hand tools. The railway began service on November 20, 1895. In its first year of operations, the railway made more than 500 round trips carrying 23,734 tons of freight and 28,307 passengers. But, less than 20 years later the railway was starting to lose money. The silver had been depleted, the treacherous terrain and weather had taken their tolls so that repairs were costly, and the number of passengers was dwindling. In 1912, the CPR agreed to lease the K&S for 999 years. The CPR rebuilt it to standard gauge and connected it with its already existing Nakusp & Slocan line by abandoning the exposed section across Payne Bluff and building a 6-mile extension from Zincton to Parapet and thereby establishing a line from Nakusp through to Kaslo in November 1913. The CPR operated the line until it was abandoned. The final blow came in 1955 when torrential rains washed out a large section of track at Three Forks. Ore traffic had been dwindling for years and the CPR decided not to rebuild. Its right-of-way was used to build a new road to New Denver. Neither of these post cards were printed in that era. The pictures on their fronts are reproductions by the Pioneer Postcards Company from Kelowna, British Columbia. The were printed by Wayside Press, Ltd. out of Vernon and Kelowna.

Nicholas Morant

The picture on the front of this post card was taken by Nicholas Morant.

For those of us who are "foamers" along the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) right of way west of Calgary, Nicholas Morant is a sort of icon or hero. Although he photographed many aspects of Canadian life and he was a great nature photographer, we "foamers" know him for the pictures of the CPR in the Rockies and the curve that the CPR named after him near Lake Louise at milepost 113 on CPR’s Laggan Subdivision. This post card shows the actual Curve that Morant made famous:

On the main line, so that the engineers and conductors can see it, there is a sign that says: "Morant's Curve" straight down from where the photographer of this picture is standing. This is looking west from an observation point along Highway 1A (Bow Valley Parkway). The picture on the front of this post card, below, is facing east from the same vantage point:

I strongly suggest that you look up Nicholas Morant on line, or in the library, to see what wonderful Black & White as well as colour photographs he developed. There is one book of which I am aware that features his work: Nicholas Morant's Canadian Pacific by J. F. Garden.

At only 19 years old, Nicholas Morant from Kamloops, British Columbia, began his photographic efforts with the CPR in 1929. He was hired on as the “special photographer”. He worked with the CPR almost continuously (there were 2 "shifts" not with the CPR) until he retired in 1981. He died March 13, 1999, in Calgary, Alberta at the age of 88.

He spent many hours at the Stoney Creek Bridge in Rogers Pass atop a specially constructed scaffolding where he photographed the special passenger train in the first post card, above, in 1955. This train is a special edition with Princess Margaret aboard. It is following the tracks of the famous Canadian transcontinental service.

As you can imagine, photographing around a railway in the mountains can be hazardous. An example of this is the story of when Morant and a Swiss guide encountered and were attacked by a grizzly bear. It happened in 1939. The guide eventually died of his injuries while Morant spent three months recovering in a hospital. The incident happened near the Morant's Curve featured in the other two post cards.

The first post card was published by Vanishing Vistas. It is copyrighted by Lyman E. Cox out of Sacramento, California in 1974. The middle post card is published by Altitude Publishing - the photo is copyrighted by Douglas Leighton. The bottom post card is the result of the efforts of The Postcard Factory from Markham, Ontario, Canada.

It Is NOT All About the Trains!!

First of all, Happy Birthday to my sister, Mary. You made it all the way to 65!!! Secondly: I know that the theme of my blogspot is “About My Trains”, but, if you are a regular reader, you know that the posts have not been 100% about the trains on the front of the post cards. Today’s blog really takes this to the nth degree.

The two pictures on these two post cards do not have trains on them. They are, however, part of my train post card collection. The top one is a set of tracks that go over a bridge in the Royal Gorge in Colorado. The bridge is an engineering achievement that allowed the trains to traverse a very narrow spot in the canyon. Those girders are holding up the bridge because there was not enough mass below to support it. This bridge is the subject of many of my post cards about the Royal Gorge. The second post card is a picture of a sunset over Pikes Peak, also in Colorado. Again, I have many post cards that depict the route of the Pikes Peak cog train. I have this one as a supplement to those post cards. BUT, the reason that I am posting these two cards in not because of what is on the fronts of them. I noticed

that, on the backs, both of them have a red-ish, purple-ish rubber stamp on the bottom left of the card that says, “THE RICHARDS-SCHEBLE CANDY CO.” Both post cards were printed by the same company, even though the printer does not identify itself on the card. But, the distributor was kind enough to identify itself. So, I thought to myself, “What was the Richards-Scheble Candy Company?” This brought me down quite the maze of information that ended with intrigue. I first found this in newspaper clippings sent to me by John Green; I found him through the Hutchinson News facebook page. The company was a partnership between Misters Richards and Scheble. In 1901 D.E. Richards started selling candy out of the back of a feed store on Main Street. The Richards-Scheble Co. They were in business from 1902 to 1954. They specialized in hard candy, peppermints, hot caramel and chocolates. The Richards-Scheble Candy Company was especially famous as the home of Donatti Chocolates. The store was located on Elm Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in Hutchinson, Kansas. Hutchinson is very close to the geographical centre of Kansas. Another article intrigued me, too. A.R. Scheble was killed by the elevator while at the candy factory. It seems that at 12:40 P.M. on January 30, 1934 that “he was found with his head and neck wedged between the elevator and the planks of the first floor”. It was deemed an accident. Then, another article included this: “Basil Wilson said A.R. Scheble, a 52-year-old candy manufacturer, was killed in the building while on the freight elevator. After her husband’s death, Junia Belle Scheble asked that the elevator never be used again. A second freight elevator was built and it’s still used today to bring heavy wood pieces to the wood shops. Junia Belle Scheble kept the candy factory open and produced Donatti Chocolates, hard candy, peppermints and hot caramels, but it closed in 1954.” This is when the intrigue really built up in me. In another article I read this: “He [the current owner in 2009] tells the story of a couple coming to the former candy factory to purchase a used car from him. Wilson explained they stood outside when the woman said she was clairvoyant and was getting a feeling that a tragedy had happened in the building. “The woman had never been in the building and she went right to the elevator,” he said. “She said that a person had been murdered and the hat held the answer.” Scheble always wore a hat, and it was found lying on the floor after his death, Wilson said. He admits that sometimes he feels there is another presence in the building. “I don’t think he’s uncomfortable with me,” Wilson said. And, so, I decided to blog about this part of my post card collection. It isn’t ALL about the trains.

Gone, but Still Around

The locomotive on the front of this post card is CP 8218 as pictured at

Revelstoke in British Columbia sometime between 1988 and 2015. This locomotive was built by General Motors Diesel (GMD) in 1957 as CP 8678. It was a class DRS-17 locomotive and the original paint scheme was that of the CPR Beaver. Here is some of its history as told by this website: http://www.cprdieselroster.com/Roster%20Archive/CP%208200B/CP%208218.htm It was built by GMD as GP9 #8678 in 1957. Then, it was rebuilt by CPR as a chop-nosed GP9u and renumbered to #8218 in 1988. On April 28, 2015 it was declared to be surplus. But, rather than scrap the locomotive, it was sold to Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad four months later on August 18, 2015 (my 63rd birthday!) where it became PN #8218. Then it was sold to the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad and it became NHRR #8218. It emerged from the shop in New Hope & Ivyland Railroad paint on September 27, 2017. It was after this date that 8218 officially began operating in revenue service for the Railroad. If you would like to see this locomotive today, contact the owner at this website to make arrangements for a sighting: www.newhoperailroad.com Special thanks to Paul Koprowski for some of the above information.

Revelstoke, British Columbia is a divisional point on the Canadian Pacific Railway. If one continues to head east out of the city one will enter the infamous Rogers Pass area. This is where the Connaught Tunnel was opened in 1916 to prevent loss of life from avalanches in the winter. The post card was published by Galena Publishing Company out of Nelson, B.C. Iknow that it was printed after 1974, because it has a bar code on it.

As I read the summary description on the back of the card I noticed a printing error: it says that Revelstoke is a CP Rainway divisional point; it should say CP Railway divisional point. I hope this makes it a collectors' valuable!!! Galena Publishing is out of Nelson, B.C. on this post card but, I have another post card that says that they operate out of Burnaby, B. C. Neither post card has a date on it to know which came first.

World Famous - at one time....

This is the third in a series of three related posts. They are all post cards of trains related to the current Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF). These three post cards have pictures of trains from the companies that merged to form the BNSF. The train in this post card is a Santa Fe passenger consist passing through the Cajon Pass.

This pass is notable because it was with the completion of this pass that gave the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway the status of transcontinental railroad.

Fortune magazine named the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) the Nation's Number One Railroad in 1948. The Santa Fe was the only transcontinental train route from Chicago to Los Angeles until December 22, 1982 - when the takeover by the Union Pacific Railroad of the Missouri Pacific Railroad became effective. The Santa Fe railway The Santa Fe was the brainchild of Cyrus K. Holliday. He helped to found the city of Topeka in Kansas and quickly realized that the city needed to be connected to the rest of the country in order to thrive economically. Being a lawyer by trade, he wrote the charter for the Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company in 1859. It's purpose was to connect the two cities (Topeka and Atchison) by railroad as it followed the route of the Santa Fe Trail. The charter was approved by the Kansas Territory governor Samuel Medary on February 11, 1859. Holliday was named a director and president of the new railroad on September 17, 1860. The company was given the right to raise one and half million dollars in stock, which the board realized could only be raised through the selling of land rights. Through the normal political machinations, the Santa Fe was included in the Pacific Railroad Act of 1863. When the Act was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863 the Santa Fe received the odd numbered sections of land for ten sections in width on each side of the track. The name of the company was also changed in 1863 to include “Santa Fe” because it seemed like Cyrus Holliday’s dream could come true. In 1867 Holliday was successful in raising funds within some of the local counties when they $350,000 worth of bonds. In 1868 the company purchased 338,766 acres of land from the Potawatomi Indians, which lands provided financial support when the lands were then resold to the new settlers. With these finances and the charter in hand, a ceremony was held on October 30, 1868 to celebrate the beginning of the building of the railroad. By 1870 gross revenue reached $127,000. The railroad reached the town of Atchison on May 13, 1872; you can imagine the celebration that day!! When the company was included in the Pacific Railroad Act, the grant of all that land was contingent on the rails reaching the border of Colorado before March 3, 1873. Granada, Colorado was reached on December 28, 1872 – 3 months to spare! The company continued to expand and grow attempting to reach the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. There were many challenges to overcome, some were geological, some were financial (though not significant), and some came from the competition. Most notable of these was the Colorado Railroad War between the Denver & Rio Grande and the Santa Fe railroads – which was won in court by the Santa Fe. By 1879, the railroad’s net income was $3.5 million. On November 15, 1885, the day that the final track work over the Cajon Pass in southern California was completed, the Santa Fe officially achieved transcontinental status. While the railroad was the brainchild of Mr. Holliday, that child was brought to life, nurtured and grew strong thanks to the efforts of William Barstow Strong; he was elected vice president and general manager in 1877 and spearheaded the developments that led to the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

The post card was printed in 1957.

I know that it was 1957 because the "Place Stamp Here" box has a Curt Otto Teich code in it: The post card was printed by a Curt Teich company. That is what the dividing line between the message and address tells us.
It was published by Western Publishing & Novelty Company out of Los Angeles, California. The company began in 1932 with a focus only on Southern California related tourist materials and post cards; it ended sometime in the 1970s.

Talk About Complicated!

Last week I wrote about the Chicago, Burlington * Quincy (Burlington Railroad) and how it became part of the Burlington Northern Railway - what is known today as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF). Today's blog is about one of the sister companies that make up the BNSF.
This passenger train, on the Northern Pacific Railway line, sits peacefully at Seattle's King Street Station waiting to depart to Portland Oregon. The picture does not reflect the turmoil and the complications that the railway had to endure in order for this passenger consist to exist at all.

It started serenely enough in May of 1804 when, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark set off to explore the newly acquired land included in the Louisiana Purchase. Their explorations included territory on which the future Northern Pacific Railway would also travel.
The railroad was approved by congress on July 2, 1884 to build a railroad that would connect Lake Superior with a port on the pacific coast. The original charter included a land grant of 40 million acres.
Unfortunately, the money did not come as quickly as hoped. It was not until 1870 that Jay Cooke brought $100 million dollars to the table. It was enough for the railroad to get started; but, in 1873 his bank went under and the building of the railroad slowed to a standstill. Then, in 1875, after a corporate reorganization, another $40 million in bonds was sold. In 1881 Henry Villard, the owner of a competing railroad purchased the line. He used it to compliment his own line. Finally, after overcoming many more financial and corporate challenges, the final spike was driven to complete the Northern Pacific Railway on September 8, 1883. James Hill, owner of the Great Northern Railway, purchased the company. It was added to his portfolio that also included the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
Despite all of the challenges it had to overcome to connect the two sides of the country, the Northern Pacific Railroad survived. It also contributed to the overall health and well-being of the railroad industry in the United States: initiated two designs of very powerful locomotives (rather than use many smaller locomotives linked together). The terrain that the railroad had to traverse energized the engineering creativity that developed in 1926 the 4-8-4 (Whyte classification) "Northern" locomotive. Then, in 1928 they came up with the 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone" Locomotive.
Other technical wonders of the railroad include the various tunnels and bridges that were needed to complete the line. An 1,100 meter (3,610 feet) tunnel was completed through the Cascade mountains and the 1,175 meter (3,850 feet) tunnel over Mullan Pass are two examples of tunnels they had to bore. Two examples of bridges include the 860 meter (860 feet) long by 70 meter (226 feet) high Marent's Gulch Trestle and the 550 meter (1,800 feet) long by 35 meter (112 feet) high O'Keefe's Canyon Trestle.
By the early 1950s, the Northern Pacific Railroad system traversed over 2,100 kilometers (6,888 miles). The two-tone green color scheme for the North Coast Limited was designed by the famed industrial designer, Raymond Lowey.

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.