It was a beautiful ride.

Before I went to the East Coast to go to college from the Los Angeles area, my Dad and I took a trip to Northern Arizona, where I grew up. As part of that trip we took a scenic train ride through the White Mountains area. It was a side gig for the Apache Railway Company. Their main line of income was logging trains.

The train on the front of this post card is the train that my Dad and I took back in the early 1970s. This website will tell you more of the history of the Apache Railway: https://www.american-rails.com/apache.html The common-carrier Apache Railway was originally built to handle logs and paper products, owned by the Apache Logging Company. The history of the Apache Railway begins on September 5, 1917 when construction commenced from a connection with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway at Holbrook building southward to tap timber reserves for a paper mill. A year later, almost exactly to the day on September 6, 1918 the railroad completed its line as far south as Snowflake and two years after that in the summer of 1920 the route was opened to McNary, a total of 72 main line miles. The railroad would reach a peak size of 140 miles, which included several branches and spurs. In 1924 the railroad was acquired by the Cady Logging Corporation. From October 1, 1931, until 1936, amid the Great Depression, the APA was placed in receivership. In 1935 it again changed ownership to Southwest Lumber Mills. Finally, in 1960 the railroad was purchased by Southwest Forest Industries. The Apache owned steam locomotives but was well-known during its diesel years for operating venerable American Locomotive Company products. A tourist railroad, the White Mountain Scenic Railroad, operated steam powered passenger excursions over the Southwest Forest Industries-owned line from McNary to the logging camp of Maverick, AZ, beginning in 1964. As track conditions deteriorated, the excursions were cut back in later years to a point about half of the way to Maverick. In the final years, it operated north from Pinetop Lakes to a place called Bell Siding on U.S. Route 60. In 1976, the White Mountain Scenic Railroad ceased operations and moved its equipment to Heber City, Utah to be used on an excursion there known as the "Heber Creeper." In 1984 it abandoned its line south of Snowflake, reducing its property to 33 miles. The railroad was hit hard by the 2012 closure of its largest customer, the paper mill in Snowflake.

The post card was published by Norm's Publishing House. The company's address was 610 McLellan in Mesa, Arizona. The interesting thing about the company listing on this post card is the phone number. "... for a train ride on the steam powered WHITE MOUNTAIN SCENIC RAILROAD, Phone 245 or write Box 496, McNary, Arizona. The phone number only has three digits. This post card is a photochrome sytle of card. They first came out in 1939. The address of the railroad does not have a zip code; those came out in 1963. Given these facts, I would guess that this card is from the late 1950s or the very early 1960s.

From Brand New to Run Down to Brand re-New

The train pictured on the front of this post card is leaving the new Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. This website gives the history of the station from the railroad perspective: https://www.american-rails.com/kcus.html Kansas City, which laid some 250 miles away from St. Louis, across the state of Missouri, was situated at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. It was originally established on June 1, 1850 as the town of Kansas during efforts to settle the West and later renamed Kansas City. Following the Civil War the United States government expedited this process by funding the Transcontinental Railroad to push economic growth far beyond the Mississippi River. One federally chartered line, which eventually became the Kansas Pacific Railway, was the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western of 1855. The railroad began construction from Kansas City in 1863 and extended to Lawrence by 1864. In August of 1870 the road reached Denver and was acquired by Union Pacific in 1874. From the east the first line to reach Kansas City was the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, which opened a branch there on July 3, 1869. In the succeeding years more and more railroads reached KC, which established itself as the dominant center of trade in the region and became somewhat similar to St. Louis in this regard. With a growing city it was clear a centralized rail terminal was needed and Union Depot opened on April 8, 1878 between Union Avenue and present-day West Bottoms near the riverfront. It was designed partially in the Gothic Revival style by lead architect Asa Beebe Cross. While a beautiful structure with a central clock tower, arched windows, and dormers of various size, alas, after just two decades of service it proved inadequate and was prone to flooding (there also lacked enough room for needed expansion). And so, as early as 1903 plans were drawn up for a new terminal. As railroads and the city worked out the details the former established the jointly-owned Kansas City Terminal Railway for the purpose of operating the new facility. There were a dozen railroads involved in the project including: St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco), Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (Santa Fe), Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (Burlington Route), Milwaukee Road, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (Rock Island), Union Pacific, Chicago Great Western, Alton Railroad (later owned by the Baltimore & Ohio and then sold to Gulf, Mobile & Ohio), Kansas City Southern, Missouri Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy)and the Wabash. The city sought a terminal that rivaled those in New York and hired architect Jarvis Hunt to design a magnificent facility. Hunt was already known for his work having conceived recently-built 16th Street Station in Oakland and Joliet Union Station in Illinois. All three were dressed in the Beaux-Arts style. Kansas City Union Station employed wide open spaces and ornate decorations on the walls and ceilings including a magnificent clock in the Grand Hall and three huge chandeliers. It took several years but finally opened on October 30, 1914 after eight years of construction, then the second largest in the country. The facility was also designed to handle the city's streetcar and interurban traffic. Despite being opened during the heyday of rail travel the terminal's peak passenger traffic did not occur until 1945 when it witnessed nearly 680,000 travelers pass through its doors! This website gives the history from today’s perspective. http://news.visitkc.com/facts/union-station#:~:text=HISTORY%3A%20Design%20for%20Union%20Station%20began%20in%201906.,the%20Station%20just%20after%20midnight%20on%20Nov.%201. Design for Union Station began in 1906. By the time the Station opened to the public in 1914, the construction cost had topped $6 million. Its first arrival, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Flyer, pulled into the pulled into the Station just after midnight on Nov. 1. Railway use peaked during World War I, with Union Station witnessing the arrivals and departures of more than 79,000 trains. Passenger traffic began to decline during the '50s and '60s as the airline industry gained momentum. In 1985, Amtrak discontinued its Union Station service. Passed by voters in 1996, a bi-state cultural sales tax—the first of its kind in the country—funded nearly half of the Station’s $250 million renovation. The remaining money was raised through private donations and federal funding. The fully-restored Station reopened to the public in 1999 with new shops, restaurants, theaters and a science center. Amtrak returned to Union Station in December 2002, offering several daily departures. The organization that operates Union Station is a non-profit organization, Union Station is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

The post card was published by Max Bernstein from Kansas City, Missouri. He was a publisher of lithographic postcards from the divided back era to the linens. Most of these cards depicted views and events of the American mid-West though other types of cards were produced as well such as Judaica. Many of Bernstein’s cards were printed by Curt Teich. His company was around from 1916 (two years after this Union Station opened) to 1932.

Different Publishers or Copycat?

These two post cards are pictures of the Twentieth Centry Limited leaving Chicago, Illinois. If these two post cards are not one a copy of the other, you can sell me a bridge in Brooklyn.

This post card was published by The Acmegraph Campany. It was mailed on August 24, 1914. They were a post card publishing company in Chicago from 1908 to 1918. They published other printed materials, too, but I am interested in their post cards. This website has a listing of many of their post cards that were recording the history of Chicago: http://chicagopostcardmuseum.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-will-chicago-postcard-information.html

This post card tells us nothing about the printer or the publisher. It tries to distract us from this fact by printing information about the train pictured on the front of the post card. It says, "51. THE TWENTIETH CENTRUY LIMITED - The Twentieth Century Limited on the Lake Shore & New York Central lines is the fastest long distance train in the world. Put into service June 14th, 1902, on the 20-hour schedule, and in 1904 put on the 18-hour schedule, which is the schedule of the train at the present time. All conveniences found in modern hotels is to be had on the train, including porters, maid and tailor who will press clothes on request. You can also secure a shave and bath on the train, including sea salt. The train is electric lighted throughout and is provided with every luxury for modern travel." I got distracted when reading the description. It is funny that there is a tailor who will press clothes on request. I don't know why they had to stress the "on request". I had a vision of a tailor wandering through the train making people take off their clothing so he could press them. Maybe.................... Here is what the backs look like: TOP ONE

BOTTOM ONE

Is this Part of a John Denver Song?

The train on the front of this post card is entering Wheeling, West Virginia. If you look very closely - I used a magnifying glass - you can see two boys greeting the train as it leaves the tunnel. https://eastwheelingreunionassoc.com/b-o-railroad-in-wheeling/eastwheelingreunionassoc.com The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Wheeling in 1818. Eighteen years later Wheeling was designated a US Port of Entry. In addition, the people of Wheeling were determined to have Wheeling become the western terminus of the B&O Railroad. They were well aware of the importance the railroad would have to the city’s urban development. The mountainous, 379 mile distance from Baltimore to Wheeling was seen as insurmountable by many engineers. The Allegheny Mountains intimidated all but the heartiest of railroad engineers. Newspapers reported that the route from Cumberland to Wheeling was so bad that even a buffalo couldn’t make the trek “without shaking out its teeth.” On Christmas Eve 1852, the last spike was driven on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore and the Ohio River. The event occurred at Rosby’s Rock near Moundsville. The Baltimore and Ohio—known as the B&O—changed the course of West Virginia history. It produced the first coal boom in the northern part of the state and led to the rapid growth of towns like Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg, Grafton, Parkersburg, Wheeling, and Clarksburg. During the Civil War, it played into the military strategies of both sides, and its tracks were repeatedly damaged and then repaired. When West Virginia statehood leaders carved out the new state’s borders, the eastern panhandle counties were included primarily to keep the B&O in West Virginia and outside of Confederate Virginia. After the war and well into the 20th century, the B&O was a major force in the economies of West Virginia and the nation. By mid-century, though, it was suffering economically. In 1973, the B&O name disappeared when it was merged with the Chesapeake and Ohio and Western Maryland railways to form the new Chessie System, which is now CSX Transportation. Even though I know nothing about the publisher or the printer of this post card, I will show you the back of it here:

You can see that it was mailed in September of 1911.

Really? The Toonerville Trolley?

The hand-written caption at the bottom of this post card reads, “The ‘Toonerville Trolley’ at the Grand Coulee Dam, Wash., taking tourists from the Vista House to the Powerhouse.” The Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the state of Washington. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, it was built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Construction began on July 16,1933 and it concluded on June 1, 1942. Evidently, soon after it was opened, and as part of the public relations campaign to convince the public of the need for the dam, they built a short railroad to take tourists on a tour of the dam. This train was called the “Toonerville Trolley”. That is what you see on the front of this post card. Researching something with a name like “Toonerville Trolley” in it is very difficult. There are so many paths to follow! Toonerville Trolley was part of a popular comic strip and many things became known as the Toonerville Trolley. I did find another post card on line and this caption was part of the front of the card. “Tourist Train, Grand Coulee Dam. One of the world’s shortest railroads – less than a half mile long – hauls more than 200,000 people each year from the Vista House to the power house for a personally conducted tour of the world’s greatest power producer.” The tourist train did not last very long. While doing more research, I found a picture from October 21, 1949. The caption reads, “Locomotive for tourist railroad being removed as first step in abandoning route for river-channel improvement work.”

This post card was printed using EKC paper. That process lasted between 1939 and 1940. This and the copyright date in the lower right-hand corner of the picture (1947) tell us the age of this post card. It was published by Western Souvenirs.

This Locomotive is not a Fake

You are looking at an authentic picture of a North Western Limited train - according to the message on the back of the post card.

This message is taken from the back of the post card. It describes why the picture on the front of the post card is this particular train. "The North Western Limited is one of four daily trains between Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis, via the double-track, block signal route of the North Western Line. It leaves Chicago northbound, and Minneapolis and St. Paul southbound every day in the year. The train equipment is electric lighted throughout and consists of buffer, smoking and library car, Pullman drawing-room and private compartment sleeping cars, and free reclining chair cars. The dining car service includes a splendid table d'hote dinner on the departure from Chicago. Other meals a la carte." This website adds more information about the railroad, itself: https://www.american-rails.com/twin-cities-400.html Of all the many granger railroads which sprawled out across the Midwest, the Chicago and North Western Railway is likely the best remembered of all. The train on the front of this post card featured modest, but very classy and tasteful interior designs (including lounges and parlor cars) and when it was streamlined in 1939 in a handsome livery of bright yellow and green (a paint scheme that would become the trademark of the 'North Western'). When the railroad was merged unto the Union Pacific in 1995 it was one of the oldest railroads in the Midwest, its name unchanged since 1859.

This post card was mailed on August 14, 1908 at 3:00 PM in Vancouver, British Columbia. That is Edward VII, King of England at the time, on the stamp. The post card was published by Raphael Tuck & Sons. This British company with offices in London, Paris and at 122 Fifth Ave, New York, operated between 1866 and the 1960's. They were founded in London, selling pictures and frames. Raphael Tuck was joined by his three sons in 1871 and published their first Christmas greeting card. In 1893 they were granted a Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria and most of their cards proudly proclaim "Art Publishers to Their Majesties The King and Queen". Adolph Tuck, one of the sons, produced their first picture postcard in 1894 of Mt. Snowden in Wales, which was sold to tourists visiting the site. They entered the postcard market in the United States in 1900 with an office in New York. American artists designed many of the postcards, but the cards were printed in Europe (Germany, Saxony, England) and then returned to the states for sale. Unfortunately, like many other postcard printers and manufacturers of their time, the history, records, original paintings and postcards of Raphael Tuck & Sons were destroyed during the bombing blitz of London during World War II. Raphael Tuck & Sons were prolific printers and produced Books, Postcards, Greeting Cards, Die Cut Cards, Fringed Silk Cards, Scrapbooks, Puzzles and more.

Is this Locomotive a Fake?

The train pictured on this post card is called “The Limited Express”. This really does not tell us much of anything about the train itself. The definition of a “limited express” is that it has fewer station stops than a regular passenger train. The locomotive in the picture may be a made-up locomotive. The number on the front stands out too well to be a normal number plate on a steam locomotive. It isn’t a Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive because their numbers were on a keystone plate. For the New York Central Railroad Number 231 was a yard switcher. I looked up several other railroads that served Chicago, but I could not find a Number 231 that matched the one in this picture.

This post card does not have an obvious date for its origin. However, the front has the same look as a post card printed before March 1, 1907. Before then, you could not write a message on the back of the post card – only an address. The kind printers would leave a bit of white space on the front of the card (it also saved them ink costs) for you to write your short message. The back of the post card says that it was printed between 1907 and 1915. This is known as the Divided Back Era of post cards. The sender could write a message on the left and add the address to the right-hand side of the back of the card. That is what we are seeing here, on this post card. It was published by the V. O. Hammon Publishing Company out of Chicago, Illinois (this post card was published out of the Chicago office) and Minneapolis, Minnesota. They existed from 1900 to 1923. They were a major publisher of halftone lithographic view-cards of the Great Lakes region. They also published novelty cards. Most of their cards tend to have a distinct look as they were printed in crisp RGB colors with small red block lettering. The V.O. Hammon Publishing Company, publisher of pictorial postcards, is listed in the Minneapolis, Minnesota city directory from 1904 until 1923.