Still Going Strong After All These Years

The Nevada Northern Railway was built over a century ago to service what would become one of the largest copper mines in North America. Today, several of the original coal-fired standard-gauge steam locomotives that were ordered and delivered new to the railroad over 110 years ago are still in operation! The Nevada Northern Railway is the best-preserved example of a standard-gauge short-line left in North America.

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is a “Ten-wheeler” owned and operated by above mentioned The Nevada Northern Railway Museum. You can check out the Nevada Northern Railway by going to their website. This is their address: https://nnry.com ........They have a fan club and the following information was taken from their website: https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/Nevada_Northern_No._40 The Nevada Northern No. 40 is a 4-6-0 ten-wheeler type, steam locomotive which was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in July 1910 for the Nevada Northern Railroad Company. It originally served as the main passenger locomotive during the years when the Nevada Northern was a US Class 2 railroad. It served as the lead locomotive for the railroad's crack passenger train, the "Steptoe Valley Flyer". Before the Nevada Northern retired the locomotive in 1941, the locomotive was given a complete overhaul in secret by the shop crews in the Ely roundhouse. The locomotive was then put onto standby service. Afterwards, it was used in 1956 for the railroad's 50th Anniversary excursion and for pulling a charter train for the Central Coast Railway Club in 1958 before being tucked back into retirement in the very back of the Ely roundhouse, preserved along with several passenger cars . This was the last time the locomotive operated in revenue service. When the Nevada Northern shut down in the 1980's, the City of Ely was given the historic locomotive and train, along with the entire East Ely Yard, which was unaltered since being built in 1906, and any of the equipment and all of it which was inside the donated property. It is now currently used as a mixed traffic unit with the other Nevada Northern steam and diesel locomotives. But, its most famous role is the main locomotive for the "Ghost Train of Old Ely" excursion train.

The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs in Earlton, New York after 1983. I know this year because the American zip code has the combination of 5 digits, a dash, then 4 more digits. This system was introduced in 1983 in the United States. I can get even closer to the publishing date, because the words on the back of the post card describing the scene on the front tell us that this was a run that was made on October 31, 1992. So, while the picture looks old because of the 110 plus year-old locomotive and the collection of cars behind it, it is really probably less that 30 years old.

The Empire Express

The following information was gleaned from this article: https://www.american-rails.com/york.html#History

The modern New York Central Railroad map was a collection of predecessor properties which merged or were acquired over many years. The earliest component was one of the industry's pioneers, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad (M&H). The M&H was incorporated on April 17, 1826. The M&H holds historical significance as one of the earliest railroads ever chartered and built, opening 16 miles between Albany and Schenectady on August 9, 1831. At first, it primarily handled only passenger traffic since New York had recently opened the Erie Canal. Six other small roads comprised what later became the NYC's main line between Albany and Buffalo. These systems included the Utica & Schenectady, Syracuse & Utica, Auburn & Syracuse, Auburn & Rochester, Tonawanda Railroad, and Attica & Buffalo. At the time in which the company was still known as the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad as it would not become known as the New York Central System until around 1914. The Empire State Express's creation was thanks to George H. Daniels who was then the railroad's General Passenger Agent but had only been with the company since 1889. On May 10, 1893 the train broke a land speed record of 112.5 mph using 4-4-0 #999. Interestingly, the rather small American, at just 37 feet in length, maintained the record for an entire decade. Over the years the train lost a bit of its allure, especially after the 20th Century Limited was unveiled as the line's flagship ran to Chicago. However, during the streamliner era the NYC upgraded the Empire State with such status, including a sleek and matching steam locomotive that truly made the train stand out. That is the train you see on the front of this post card.

The picture is actually a painting that is kept as part of the Merrill Collection at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California (all rights are reserved). The post card was published by Pomegranate Publications out of Petaluma, California.

The Rock Island Line was a Mighty Fine Line

The Mikado (the wheel arrangement name "Mikado" originated from a group of Japanese type 9700 2-8-2 locomotives that were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the 3 ft 6 in gauge Nippon Railway of Japan in 1897)

in the picture on the front of this post card turned in some fine performance records while in operation on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. Unfortunately, their accomplishments (and that of the diesels that replced them) was not enough to overcome the financial situation of the railroad. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chicago-Rock-Island-and-Pacific-Railroad-Company tells us that... The Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad Company, its official name, was also known as the Rock Island Railroad, or The Rock. It was a U.S. railroad company founded on February 27, 1847 as the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company to build a line from Rock Island to La Salle, Illinois. Construction began in earnest on October 1, 1851 after the first $300,000 was raised. The first train ran on the tracks on October 10, 1852 between Chicago and Joliet, Illinois. Construction continued on through La Salle, and Rock Island was reached on February 22, 1854. This made it the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River. By 1866 its lines extended from Chicago, Illinois to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Management in the late 19th century was extremely conservative, but new interests took over in 1901. By 1907 the line attained its peak length of 14,270 miles (22,975 kilometres) in 13 states, but this rapid expansion impaired its credit and it was reorganized in 1917 and again in 1947. In the 1960s the Rock Island again began to decline. Merger discussions with other railroads failed, and it began bankruptcy proceedings in March 1975. Federal loan guarantees kept it running, but in January 1980 a federal judge ordered the railroad liquidated on the grounds that there was no way of reorganizing it for profitable operation. Its properties were sold off piecemeal in the early 1980s. This post card was published by Bob Fremming from Dallas Wisconsin. Unfortunately, I cannot find any information about him or the company that printed this post card. But, here is the back for you to admire.

One Intrepid Photographer!

This posting isn’t so much about the train on the front of the post card, as it

is about the photographer who took the picture. The following is taken from Wikipedia: Charles Roscoe Savage (August 16, 1832 – February 4, 1909) was a British-born landscape and portrait photographer most notable for his images of the American West. Savage converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his youth while living in England. He served a mission in Switzerland and eventually moved to the United States. In America he became interested in photography and began taking portraits for hire in the East. He traveled to Salt Lake City with his family and opened up his Art Bazar where he sold many of his photographs. Savage concentrated his photographic efforts primarily on family portraits, landscapes, and documentary views. He is best known for his 1869 photographs of the linking of the First Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory, Utah. This is the picture that Charles Savage took. All American train fans are familiar with this famous shot:

The post card was published, not by Charles Savage, but by the

Frederick S. Lightfoot Collection of Huntington Station, New York. This post card is number 13 and it is part of a larger series of 50 post cards that the Lightfoot Collection published. You can see more of the collection at the website listed below here: http://www.wallywombatscollectables.com/Master-Photographer-by-Lightfoot.php The series was published prior to 1963 (the clue is that there is no zip code in the address on the back of the card). There are more than just trains in the collection.

The First Train to Have a Vacuum Cleaner

Wikipedia says: The Great Northern Railway (reporting mark GN) was an American Class I railroad. Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Great Northern's route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S. It is on this route that the picture on the front of this post card was

taken. The title says that the shot was taken near Scenic, Washington – a town about 75 miles east of Seattle. The train in the picture is the “Oriental Limited. This website: https://www.gnflyer.com/1924original.html tells us this about the Oriental Limited. The Great Northern Railway inaugurated transcontinental passenger service between Seattle and St Paul on June 18, 1893 and continued operations until April 1, 1971 when Amtrak assumed all passenger service. During the intervening 78 years, Great Northern provided first class passenger train service over its routes to the Northwest. During most of this period, there were two first class trains serving the route, although one was always regarded as the premier train. That premier train carried several different names through the years. Between 1893 and 1905 the railway's standard bearer carried the monikers of the Great Northern Flyer, the Oregonian, and the Great Northern Express. Between 1905 and 1929, the Great Northern Railway's crack transcontinental was called the Oriental Limited, named for the Asiatic commerce which had been one of J.J. Hill's motivating objectives in building the railroad itself. From 1929 until the end of passenger service operations, the premier train was known as the Empire Builder, in tribute to Mr. Hill. The new Oriental placed in service on May 23, 1909, carried an RPO/Bag, Day Coach, Tourist Sleeper, Diner, 12-1 and 16 section Standard Sleepers, and a Five Compartment Observation. 12-1 sleepers bore the names of Oriental ports such as Tokio (sic), Fujiyama, Yokohama, Manila and Foochuo. The Oriental's Observation Car had mahogany and cocoa finish like an English club and featured a large oval smoker separating the compartments from the lounge. This train was the first Oriental to be equipped with a vacuum cleaner.

The post card was published by The C.H. Shaver News Service out of Seattle, Washington. I could find no information about the company. I do know that there were many news distribution companies that ended their names with “News Service” or “News Company” who were partners with The American News Company (ANC). The ANC was the printer of this post card. They worked out of 119 Nassau Street, New York, NY between 1864 and 1969 and claimed to be the largest publisher and distributor of books, magazines, newspapers, and postcards in the United States exclusively through their national network of affiliated news agencies. Their earliest cards were printed as black and white views, followed by their lithographic Polychromes. Other series were added each being printed in a different manner. Some of these techniques have a specific letter prefix to their numbers, while others kept adding letter prefixes sequentially from A as they ran out of four or five digit numbers assigned to that card. Many cards with undivided backs were later reprinted with divided backs after 1907. Many small publishers also contracted out postcards though the American News Company. Their printers in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin, Germany produced most of their cards, but many were manufactured in France and the United States as well. They produced cards by various processes using different trade names... This post card

used the Excelsior trade name. It was a gravure card printed in Germany. It was marketed as their highest quality black & white card, and most customers chose this type over the cheaper halftone version. Almost all cards in this series are printed in black & white, but there are some examples issued in monochromes of blue and sepia as well as more rare cards that were printed in color and hand colored. Prefixes A, B, D, F (1904-1920), Prefixes AA for Blue, Sepia & Hand colored cards (1908-1925). This information about the American News Company came from the Metropolitan Post Card Club of New York. http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersa1.html

I Feel the Earth Move Under my Feet

The information in the first paragraph was taken from this website: https://yubanet.com/scitech/toppled-train-offers-insight-into-1906-san-francisco-earthquake/ The train laying on its side in the picture on this post card was near the

Point Reyes station north of San Francisco, stopped on a siding for refueling, when it took its historic tumble. An eyewitness to the event said the conductor had just climbed back into the locomotive: “when the train gave a great lurch to the east, followed by another to the west, which threw the whole train on its side. The astonished conductor dropped off as it went over, and at the sight of the falling chimneys and breaking widows of the station, he understood that it was the Temblor.” The eyewitness account of the train lurching east then west before toppling suggests that the hypocenter of the 1906 is likely to be south of Point Reyes, perhaps offshore of San Francisco and San Juan Bautista, as others have calculated.

The post card was published by The Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History, which is named after its founder, a U.C. Berkeley graduate in history who enjoyed a long career at the Oakland Tribune. In the mid-1960s, Jack Mason, along with his wife Jean, retired to his lifelong summer community of Inverness in West Marin County and began to document the history of the area, eventually writing eight books and publishing a delightful quarterly journal, Point Reyes Historian. The Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History is primarily an archive with some museum collections created to build upon local historian Jack Mason's extensive history collection. The Museum collects and preserves materials pertaining to the history of the Point Reyes Peninsula and Tomales Bay regions. Our mission is to enrich the community through exhibits, publications, outreach programs, and research opportunities. We seek to inspire public interest in West Marin history and to highlight its connection to contemporary life. This information was taken from: https://jackmasonmuseum.org/about/

The Post Card is a Impressive as the Train it Promotes

The train depicted on the front of this post card is the 20th Century Limited Express. The 20th Century Limited was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967.

The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along the railroad's "Water Level Route". NYC inaugurated the 20th Century Limited as competition to the Pennsylvania Railroad, aimed at upper-class and business travellers. It made few station stops along the way and used track pans to take water at speed. In 1938, streamlined train sets designed by Henry Dreyfuss were added to the route. The 20th Century Limited was the flagship train of the New York Central and was advertised as "The Most Famous Train in the World". It was described in The New York Times as having been "[...] known to railroad buffs for 65 years as the world's greatest train", and its style was described as "spectacularly understated". The phrase "red-carpet treatment" is derived from passengers' walking to the train on a specially designed crimson carpet. The amazing part of this post card is that it is as fancy as the train that it is showing off! First, the picture of the train itself is embossed on the card. When I run my fingers over the card I can feel the 3-D effect of the embossing. The dark spots (on the front tracks, on the front and sides of the train, and in the smoke) are actually little pieces of glitter that has been glued onto the card. The title of the card and publisher are also embossed into the card. This card is over 107 years old and the glitter is still there as strongly pronounced as ever!!

I do not usually publish a very large picture of the back of the post card, but I am making an exception this time. Look at the picture of the train; that is the result of the embossing process. This post card is from the pre-March 1, 1907 era. One is only allowed to write the address on the back of the post card. The information about the publisher of this post card comes from: Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersi.html This major publisher produced a wide variety of color halftone lithographic cards in series that were printed by Emil Pinkau in Leipzig, Saxony. Each city or location of their color card sets were assigned the same number prefix. They also published an unnumbered series of chromolithographic fine art cards that were printed in Dresden. Many of their early cards do not have their name on them, only their distinct eagle logo. Their best known cards are from a very large set that captured scenes throughout the City of New York. These cards tended to use brighter than average colors and were titled in a very distinct font. Similar cards, but with more subdued writing, appeared afterwards depicting scenes from the surrounding regions such as Long Island. Illustrated Post Card Company of 118 Chambers Street in New York was printing millions of cards at a time when picture postcards were at the peak of their popularity. Another address given for them is 520 West 84th Street, New York and they operated from 1905 to 1914. They published a wide variety of color halftone lithographic cards in series that were printed by Emil Pinkau in Leipzig, Saxony. Each city or location of their color card sets were assigned the same number prefix.Their best known cards are from a very large set that captured scenes throughout the City of New York. These cards tended to use brighter than average colors and were titled in a very distinct font. Similar cards, but with more subdued writing, appeared afterwards depicting scenes from the surrounding regions such as Long Island. In 1909 they stopped importing cards from Germany and began printing their own. A large number of black & white cards were produced in a more open halftone with some being poorly hand colored. These black & white cards were numbered consecutively.