To Russia with Love, NOT!

The picture on the front of this post card was taken on August 25, 1956. They are locomotives working for Eagle Picher. In 1927, the Eagle-Picher Lead Company was one of the largest white lead and zinc companies in the United States. Its assets exceeded $45,000,000, with ore refineries in Kansas and Oklahoma as well as Missouri. However, the locomotives in the picture are much older than the 1956 picture. These are ex-Frisco

locomotives and were some of the last true Russian Decapods in existence at that time. Here is the history on each of the locomotives as taken from this website: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4762780 This website (in orange, below) has a book about the Russian Decapods. I have taken some information from the first page. If you are interested, I am sure it will make for some fascinating reading. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43518384 In the early 1900s Russia ordered a huge fleet of 2-10-0 type locomotives known as Decapods. A. I. Lipetz, the chief of the locomotive division of the Russian Mission on Ways of Communication, managed the design and construction in the US. They were originally built for the 5-foot gauge Russian State Railways to haul 1300 metric tons at a speed of 8 to 10 miles per hour over grades of .8%. The Bolshevik revolution forced cancellation of undelivered locomotives, so the builders sold them to American railroad companies. Eventually, the locomotives served on at least 42 different railroads, mostly in the east and south. These locomotives were considered by some to be the ugliest locomotives ever built. They had low drivers, very high boilers and enormous steam domes. Some American railroads made cosmetic adjustments to change the appearance of their Decapods.

The post card was published by Bob Fremming of Dallas, Wisconsin. The picture was taken by Richard Wallin of Kirkwood Missouri. I searched the internet over and over and found no information about either of these people.

Focus on the Train, Not the Battle!

The picture on this post card is of a Baltimore & Ohio train crossing over

Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware. I bought the post card because of the train on the front. Evidently, the publishers of the post card were more interested in the history related to the site. The description on the back of the post card focuses on a battle that was fought there in the Revolutionary War on September 11, 1777 which led to the occupation of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the British Army. I went on line and looked up the bridge. This website gives an excellent description of the history of the bridge and the railroads that are related to it. https://historicbridges.org/delaware/brandywineviaduct/inventory.pdf Delaware’s most visually impressive stone arch bridge is the 1909-1910 Brandywine Viaduct built by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad over Brandywine Creek in Wilmington. The seven-span bridge is slightly less than 1,000’ long and rises over 110’ above the creek. The bridge was built as the railroad’s replacement of an 1888 iron deck truss bridge, which had proven inadequate to heavier locomotives. Although the B&O could have chosen to build another steel truss bridge, or a reinforced concrete bridge, there were few bridge types that spoke to permanency and stability as well as a stone arch, even if stone construction was very costly. The iron truss bridge in the background of this picture on the post card was abandoned by the railroad in 1910. It was then transferred to the City of Wilmington, which converted the bridge for use by pedestrians and motorized vehicles. Today, the railroad bridge is owned by CSX.

The post card was published by a company from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This may account for the interest in the historical aspect rather than the railroad aspect of the scene. The company, the Post Card Distributing Company, existed from 1911 to 1919. They have a great logo – see the picture of the statue of William Penn on top of City Hall in the top middle of the post card back. The post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich. His numbering system (to the right of the statue, above the word POST) suggests that this card was printed in 1917; probably early 1917, since the post rate went from one cent to two cents on November 2, 1917 and the rate for this card is one cent.

Plummer Junction, You Say??

The picture here is a Real Photo Post Card. It was made by Charles A. Lane care of Los Angeles Railway at 7th and Central Avenue in Los Angeles, California. The pencil writing on the back tells us that this passenger train is on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad (CM&SP). It is climbing a steep grade from Ste. Marie to Plummer Junction in Idaho in April of 1922. I have blogged in the past about the CM&SP so I went on line to see what I could learn about Plummer Junction. This website gives a great, photograph-filled tour of Plummer Junction and the surrounding railroad related area. The photographs are from the 70s. I highly recommend that you visit the site. https://www.milwelectric.org/palouse-to-cascades-trail-virtual-tour-plummer/ Plummer Junction was a relay office as well as a train order office. In addition to delivering orders to trains, the office also bridged telegraph circuits to pass along messages.

Allen Miller drew this map of Plummer Junction that shows the configuration of the wye, location of water tank, depot and the old U.P. line that went under the legs of the wye. The Plummer Junction depot was located inside the wye off the main line between Malden (west) and St. Maries (east). Trains from Spokane would come in from the east (right) and have the option of going either direction on the main line. The Union Pacific line from Tekoa to Wallace also came through Plummer. Today the St. Maries River Railroad comes in from the east on the Milwaukee Road main line and interchanges with the Union Pacific at Plummer. The Union Pacific comes in from Spokane on the former Milwaukee Road line to interchange with the St. Maries River Railroad and to service the Plummer mill.

I know nothing about the photographer who would also be the publisher. But I am reproducing the back of the post card here for your viewing pleasure.

A Mighty Midget

The information about the locomotive on the front of this post card was taken from this website: http://hawkinsrails.net/industrials/lclc/lclc.htm About 1920, a small 2-6-0 was sold to the Williams Lumber Co. at Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and sold again in May 1921 to the Joseph Rathborne Lumber Co. Rathbone closed in 1929 and was sold to the Joyce interests of Chicago. The Joyce family also operated rail lines at Rainey River, Minnesota and Manistique, Michigan. The Ponchatoula mill was reopened on July 15, 1936 as the Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co.

The little 2-6-0 was renumbered to #2 and served as backup to the company's road locomotive #1, a 2-6-2 built by Porter in 1921. For about a year before the mill closed in January 1956, Cypress imported mahogany logs from Honduras to cut up at the Ponchatoula mill. The logs were shipped to New Orleans by steamship and then transported to Ponchatoula in Illinois Central gondolas. #2 was used in regular service as the switcher at the mill to switch the gondolas while #1 was out on the road. This map shows where in Louisiana the locomotive did its work.

Remembered with Love

The Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad (BC&G) was an 18.6 mile long coal-hauling short-line that operated in central West Virginia in its original form from 1904 through 1965.

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a 2-8-0, “Consolidation”. Number 13 was owned by the BC&G. The photo was taken in April of 1963. BC&G Consolidation #13 was built by the Alco's Brooks works in 1920 as c/n 61579. She was acquired by the BC&G in 1950 from the Kelly's Creek and Northwestern. BC&G Consolidation drew the assignment to be on the point of the final scheduled train from Widen before the Rich Run Mine closed. The date was December 30, 1963. Engine #13 had a life after the BC&G. She was sold in 1964 to the South Penn Museum, then went to the Lakeshore Central System before going to the Logansport & Eel River. She is currently owned by the Ohio Central Railroad. She served there in tourist service for a number of years. The engine is now at the AGE OF STEAM museum in Ohio, but is currently not in service. The history of the Buffalo Creek & Gauley can be broken into four fairly distinct periods. The first runs from the formation of the Elk River Coal and Lumber Co. and the chartering of the BC&G in 1904 until the final closing of the BC&G in 1965. The BC&G bought only one engine new, Baldwin Consolidation #4, in 1926, but it continued to acquire steam engines long after other railroads had dieselized. Consolidations #13 and #14 were purchased from the Kelly's Creek and Northwestern in 1950. The logging line had three Climax acquired new over the years, and acquired their last steam engine, Shay #19, from the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company as late as 1957. This engine, and other geared engines, traveled into the woods along the Lilly Fork. The Lilly Fork varied in length over the years but reached about 9 miles into the woods. The second period is the 1970's and early 1980's when the Majestic Mining Company reopened the line for a while. The third period was in the early 1990's when The Elk River Railroad, Inc. used a portion of the former BC&G track. The final period is, fortunately, the present. This includes the work being done by the BC&G Co-Operative to establish a tourist line on the former BC&G track. The above information was gleaned from this website. The website reflects some people's love and concern for keeping the memory of the Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad alive. Take a look at what they have to say. www.buffalocreekandgauley.com

The post card was published by Railcards.com. I know nothing about the publisher even though I have 204 of their post cards in my collection.

What Kind of Driving Gear is That?

If you look carefully, you will notice that the driving mechanism on this

locomotive does not look like the usual drive bar pushing the wheels around, like the standard steam locomotive that we are used to seeing. This Shay Locomotive has a gear-driven drive system that is extremely useful for going up very steep grades like those found in the mountains of eastern Tennesee. For a detailed explanation of how the Shay locomotive works, I recommend this website: https://www.shaylocomotives.com/trucks/trucks.htm The next website has provided the history of the locomotive on the front of this post card. I summarize the content below. http://hawkinsrails.net/shortlines/brim/brimstone.htm The locomotive on the front of this post card was built by Lima Locomotive & Machine Company (one of 1,557 built by this company) in August of 1910. It was commissioned as Lima #2366. The wheel arrangement is that of a Class C Shay 3 truck locomotive. It was energized by coal that heated water into steam that powered the drive train. It was originally sold to Raleigh & Southwestern RR as #35; then it went to Smokey Mountain RR in 1921; in 1938 the W.M. Ritter Lumber Company took possession; they sold it to Brimstone in 1942. After Brimstone, the locomotive went to the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum then to the Yolo Short Line and finally to the Silver Bend Tree Farm in 1995. And this website gives the history of the Brimstone Railroad, the railroad on which this locomotive is pictured. Again, I have summarized the content below. https://abandonedonline.net/location/brimstone-new-river-railroad/ The Brimstone Railroad was chartered in May of 1942 in eastern Tennesee, by the W.M. Ritter Lumber company of Virginia, and followed Brimstone Creek in northern Tennessee. As typical for a logging route, each hollow featured a railroad branch;switchbacks were used to ascend steep grades via three shay locomotives. The Brimstone Railroad primarily hauled timber and coal, with two underground coal mines located at Hughett and Lone Mountain. Timber was taken to the W.M. Ritter Mill at New River and later to a mill in Verdun. The railroad reorganized as the Brimstone & New River Railroad in 1965, and as the New River Railway in 1966 after the W.M. Ritter Company was acquired by Georgia Pacific Corporation. The line was purchased by the CNO&TP in 1970. Traffic along the New River Railway became increasingly scarce because the high-sulfur coal found in the region had become less desirable and the last active coal mine along the route closed in 1980.

The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs in Earlton, New York after October of 1983. The address on the back of the post card includes the 5 digit zip code plus the 4 more digits that were added after October of 1983.

Still Around. You Just Won't Recognize It.

On the front of this post card a 2-6-0 Mogul, one of the main stays of the Boston & Maine Railroad, pulling a passenger train on the Central Massachusetts Division between Boston and Clinton.

Here it is just about to cross the Fitchburg Division main line in Weston, Massachusetts in February of 1955. This is about one year before it was replaced by a diesel locomotive. The Boston & Maine Railroad still exists on paper. This website will provide a concise history of the railroad. https://www.bmrrhs.org/history-of-the-b-and-m-railroad/ I have taken excerpts from it below. The article was written by Rick Nowell, Archives Chairman Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society August 12, 2016 The Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) was the successor to the Andover and Wilmington Railroad which opened in 1836. Over the next 65 years the B&M gained control (through lease, purchase, or stock ownership) of the Eastern, Boston and Lowell, Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers, Concord & Montreal, Connecticut River, Fitchburg, Portland and Rochester, and Worcester and Nashua railroads, most of which themselves were agglomerations of shorter, earlier roads. All had their main lines and branches that wove a tight web of steel through northern Massachusetts, southern Maine, the state of New Hampshire, and eastern New York and Vermont. At its peak B&M maintained over 2,300 route miles of track, 1,200 steam locomotives, and a force of 28,000 employees. The road’s principal shops were located at North Billerica, Mass. and Concord, N.H. Major freight yards were built at Boston, East Deerfield, Rigby, and Mechanicville. In 1955 financial operator Patrick B. McGinnis gained control of the Boston and Maine. His principal contribution to B&M history was to oversee the completion of dieselization, the discontinuance of many passenger routes and runs, and the closure and sale of railroad stations and equipment. Ultimately he was convicted of and imprisoned for taking kickbacks on equipment sales. In the late 1950s and 1960s profitability was elusive; Government insisted that the B&M should keep commuter and long-distance passenger trains running in the face of mounting deficits and decreasing patronage and made it impossible for the B&M to break even. Bankruptcy came in 1970, but ironically it seems to have been the catalyst that the B&M needed to reinvent itself. Alan Dustin (president 1974-84) reduced operating expenses and plowed the savings back into track improvements. The sale of rights of way in the commuter zone to the MBTA (1976) provided cash to satisfy creditors and in 1980 the B&M had its first profitable year, on an ordinary income basis, since 1957. An improving outlook led to the purchase of the B&M by Timothy Mellon’s Guilford Transportation Industries in 1983 and its emergence from bankruptcy. In 1999, in cooperation with Norfolk Southern, Pan Am began running a dedicated intermodal train between Ayer and Mechanicville. This evolved into an agreement with Norfolk Southern in 2008 to own, as a joint venture named Pan Am Southern, former B&M track between those two points, and elsewhere, using NS money to upgrade the track and to finance improved distribution facilities. The Boston and Maine Corporation still exists. Although its name is no longer used the rail system the B&M began 180 years ago lives on in a form suited to the needs of our time.

This post card is part of my 333 post card collection of Audio-Visual Designs post cards. The photograph was taken by "Skipper" Clark.