Capturing a Real Historic Moment

The picture on the front of this post card is a capture of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States. The picture was taken at Gold Station, California, which is about 92 kilomters northeast of Sacramento, California. This picture is of a work train of the Central Pacific at Dixie Cut near Gold Run Station May 1865 at the rail head in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California when the grade was being cut above Auburn for tracks of the first transcontinental railroad. This website has been very valuable in helping me to find any information about the picture on the front of the post card. https://calisphere.org The picture was taken by Alfred A. Hart (1816 – 1908) Alfred A. Hart was born in Connecticut in 1816. In 1865 he was commissioned to photograph the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) and was promoted to the CPRR's official photographer in 1866. Hart would photograph along the CPRR line in the summers between 1865 and 1868. Hart was terminated from the CPRR in 1869. He died in 1908 in Alameda County, California. There are many stereographs of the Central Pacific Railroad taken by Alfred A. Hart depicting the construction and surrounding landscape of the Central Pacific Railroad in northern California and Nevada between 1862-1869.

This post card is part of the MASTER PHOTOGRAPHERS series that was published by the Lightfoot Collection in Huntington Station, New York. Last week's post card was number 21 in the series; this post card is number 25. You can see all of the Masters at this website: http://wallywombatscollectables.com/Master-Photographer-by-Lightfoot.php

Did Robert Louis Stephenson Ride This Train?

I have a poster on the wall downstairs. It is an advertisement by the Canadian Pacific Railway for people to ride the train west. I never did think much of it until today. The railroads, in both the United States and Canada, depended on getting people to settle in the west so that the railroads could make money by selling the settlers the land that was granted to the railroad with its charter. This website has some background about these “Emigrant Trains”, as they were known.

The picture on the front of this post card is of an “Emigrant Train”. The picture was taken by Thomas C. Roche (a Civil War photographer) during his tour of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads in 1870. https://legacysunfoldingjourney.blogspot.com/2011/07/take-ride-on-immigrant-train-advance.html In order to sell as much of this land as possible, the railroads had to compete for immigrants. So, they covered Europe with advertising promoting the American Dream of religious freedom, upward mobility, and cheap fertile land. So why did so many immigrants choose the U.S. and not countries closer to their homes? Well, there was genuine opportunity and freedom, too. But mostly it was good advertising. The Burlington Northern Railroad alone had over 850 agents roaming Europe selling the virtues of life in the United States. “A Congressional report in the early 1870’s estimated that every foreign laborer landing on our shores was economically valued at $1,500. The report stated that in less than ten years, these people would add $4.8 billion to the wealth of the nation” (“Across America on an Emigrant Train”). http://eyewitnesstohistory.com/emigranttrain.htm It was 1879 and twenty-eight-year-old Robert Louis Stevenson - future author of the novels Kidnapped and Treasure Island - was in love. Her name was Fanny Osborne. She was an American, ten years his senior and married to another man. The two had met in France three years earlier and Stevenson had fallen hopelessly in love. She returned to California and her husband, but in 1879, Stevenson received a cable from her that immediately set him off on a voyage to be by her side. Stevenson's parents were not happy with his plans and refused to fund his journey - so the young author decided to travel to America as an emigrant. This allowed him to take advantage of the low one-way fares to America offered by the American railroads. Special "Emigrant Boats" sailed to America's eastern ports and were met by "Emigrant Trains" that carried the foreign passengers to their final destinations. Stevenson kept a journal of his experience and soon turned this into a book. The picture on this post card was taken by T.C. Roche. This website gives us some of his history: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/t-c-roche-civil-war-photographer.71797/ T.C. Roche (1826–1895) was a photographer who worked with Alexander Gardner and Matthew Brady. Not much is know about him. In 1858, Roche became interested in photography and was listed as an agent at 83 South St. in Brooklyn, New York. In 1862 he went to work for E. & H. T. Anthony & Company. Over the years, Roche was Anthony's principal photographer and senior advisor and one of their most valuable assets, developing many patents for the company's products and processes. Roche is probably best known for, and counts among his many accomplishments, the roughly 50 stereoviews taken on April 3, 1865 following the fall of Petersburg, Virginia. These include the "death studies", at least 20 stereoviews of the dead, allegedly taken inside Fort Mahone. After the war, Roche returned to work for the Anthonys, with whom he published a book on photography.Thomas C. Roche was quite an inventor, and has a number of patents that you can find on Google Patents - most of them have to do with photography.

This post card is one of 50 that were sold by the Lightfoot Collection in Huntington Station, New York. This is the website where you can see the other 49 post cards. They are not all about trains. I have numbers 13, 21 and 25 from this collection. http://wallywombatscollectables.com/Master-Photographer-by-Lightfoot.php

The Picture is OLD, but not the Post Card!

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43519828 provides us with this information about the locomotive on the front of this post card, called the “Catawissa”.

It belonged to the Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company (LSRR). It was ordered from Edward Bury of Liverpool, England for delivery in 1833. It was of the 0-4-0 type of wheel arrangement and weighed a little over eight tons. The purchase prose was $5,000 ($150,000 today with inflation factored in). The Catawissa was first used on February 27, 1833 for the trial trip. March 9th was the date for the second trial. The locomotive ran off a turnout and destroyed the 13 cars it was pulling. However, it did have a long career with the railroad. When this railroad was leased by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (see below) in April of 1863 the Catawissa went as part of the deal. It was not used after 1865. The Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company (LSRR) was a railway company in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The main line ran from Port Clinton to Tamaqua, for a total of 28 miles. The railroad received a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on February 28, 1826. Construction began in 1830. The tracks were constructed with strap iron on wood rails. Beginning with horse-drawn cars in 1831, the LSRR operated between Tamaqua, located at the end of the coal-rich Panther Creek Valley and the Port Clinton terminus of the Schuylkill Canal. It later made a rail junction with the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company. In 1833, the railroad acquired two steam locomotives, built in Liverpool, but the wooden tracks did not support the engines, requiring a resumption of animal-powered operations. This over-extended investment nearly bankrupted the young company. Only in 1845 did iron "T" rails replace the wooden rails, allowing the costly English locomotives to return to regular service. In 1854, the LSRR completed a junction with the Catawissa Railroad at Tamanend (also called Little Schuylkill Junction). In 1857, it built a roundhouse in Tamaqua, housing 21 locomotives and a turntable. In 1863, the company was leased by the Reading Railroad for 93 years. It formally merged with the Reading in 1952.

The post card was published by the Tamaqua Historical Society in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania after 1963. There is a zip code in the address on the back and zip codes were introduced in 1963. However, there is a better indicator of the age of the post card. The caption on the back refers to the 160th Anniversary of founding of this railroad: from 1831 to 1991. That makes the post card 32 years old and they are celebrating the 192nd Anniversary this year. Here is a link to the historical society’s web page: https://www.tamaquahistoricalsociety.org/ Each year, the historical society sponsors and conducts train rides departing from the Tamaqua Station during the Summerfest and at Christmas time. The train rides are presented in cooperation with the Reading and Northern Railroad.

Cincinnati Southern Railway - Yes, There is Such a Thing!

The train crossing the bridge on the front of this post card belongs to the Cincinnati Southern Railway. It is crossing the highest bridge in Kentucky. The Cincinnati Southern is a very unique railroad in as much as it is owned by a city. This website gives a concise history of the Railway: http://cincinnatisouthernrailway.org/ The City of Cincinnati is the only municipality in the country to own an interstate railroad. An Ohio law enabling the creation of the Cincinnati Southern Railway was enacted on May 4, 1869. Cincinnati voters adopted a resolution designating Chattanooga as the southern terminus one month later. Workmen spiked the last rail in place on December 10, 1879. The first freight train completed the route from Cincinnati to Chattanooga on February 21, 1880. The first passenger train followed on March 8. Thus began an innovative, visionary and complex commercial enterprise intended, from its first considerations in 1835, to expand the economy of Cincinnati. The enterprise continues today, under a long-term lease with Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP), generating revenue annually for capital infrastructure improvements and repair throughout the City of Cincinnati. The bridge over which the train is crossing is described well in this website: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/kentucky/high-bridge-ky/ High Bridge opened as a part of the Cincinnati Southern Railway in 1877 and soared at a height of 275 feet and 1,125 feet long. It is the first cantilever bridge constructed in the United States. High Bridge was officially dedicated in 1879. Many people gathered for the dedication in hopes of seeing then President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was in attendance. Notably, also in attendance was General William Tecumseh Sherman. Over a century later and the bridge continues to stand as one of the tallest and most impressive in Kentucky. At the time it was built, High Bridge was the tallest bridge above a navigable waterway in North America and the tallest railroad bridge in the world until the early 1900s. In 1911, a new bridge was built around the existing one and then in 1929 an additional set of tracks was built to accommodate increased railroad traffic and the original limestone towers were removed.

The post card is an excellent example of a linen post card. In my opinion the Metrocraft Company is second only to Curt Otto Teich in the technique of making linen post cards. They existed in Everett, Massachusetts from 1939 to 1984. The company was a major printer of linen and photochrome postcards displaying a variety of subjects. They also printed postcards for many other publishers. A good number of Metrocraft’s early photochrome postcards retained the use of retouchers that had worked on their linens. These cards have a very distinct look before they went over to a completely uniform photographic means of natural color reproduction. I am very sad about what someone did to the back of the post card in order to put it into an album. Someday I will try to remove the black album paper from the post card!!

Two Great Northern Railway Locomotives

This first locomotive is "No. 1"; its name is "The William Crooks". In 1862 it powered the first train operated in Minnesota and a considerable area adjacent to that state. "The William Crooks" was the fist locomotive of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. This railroad was the predecessor of, and would become a part of, the Great Northern Railway. This website gives some history behind the name of this locomotive: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/07/19/william-crooks-first-steam-locomotive-run-state-minnesota/ William Crooks, named after the Colonel of the Minnesota Volunteers’ Sixth Regiment during the American Civil War (and later Chief Mechanical Engineer for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad), is a 4-4-0 steam locomotive that was the first locomotive to operate in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The locomotive was constructed in 1861 by Smith and Jackson of the New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Company of Paterson, NJ. On September 9, 1861, the William Crooks arrived in St. Paul by steamboat and on June 28, 1862, the locomotive hauled the historic first trainload of passengers in Minnesota a distance of 10 miles between St. Paul and St. Anthony (now Minneapolis). Regular service between St. Paul and St. Anthony began on July 2, 1862. The locomotive was originally a wood-burner with a tender that held just two cords of wood. Often, the tender’s wood was used before the train could reach a wood pile, forcing the crew to make use of the wooden right-of-way fences to keep the train moving. Later the locomotive was converted into a coal-burner. As built, the engine had a straight boiler, the balloon stack typical of wood burning engines, and three domes, the center of which was for sanding the rails to improve traction when needed. It weighs 28 tons (51 tons with tender) and is 50 feet, 8 ¼ inches in length. As the engine aged and parts replaced, its appearance changed. The engine received a diamond stack for burning coal, its boiler replaced with a tapered design and was reduced to a two dome configuration. The old locomotive had served almost 50 years and had eventually been assigned to runs in Montana and Washington. The William Crooks was in passenger service until September 30, 1897, after which it was retired and by the turn of the century, was sitting decommissioned in a corner of the Great Northern yard in St. Paul. It was placed on display at the Saint Paul Union Depot in June 1954. Today, the locomotive is owned by the Minnesota Historical Society and on display at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota.

The second locomotive is Number 3048. It is a 2-8-2 locomotive built by Baldwin between 191 and 1919. It was one of 145 2-8-2s built for the Great Northern Railway. They were all retired or sold between 1948 and 1958. One, Number 3059 is preserved; the rest were sold for scrap. On August 2, 1958, Number 3059 was donated for display near the Williston Depot in Williston, North Dakota and currently resides there. Both of these post cards were published by Bob Fremming.

Slowly Being Retired and Replaced

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is one of 40 that were

built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Great Northern Railway. They were built between 1918 and 1919 and all retired from service between 1956 and 1958. The photo of this locomotive was taken on April 21, 1956 while it sat in storage. These locomotives were being replaced by GP-7 diesel locomotives made by Electro-Motive (a division of General Motors) on the railroad. Just as the steam locomotive was used for switching service, their replacements were, too. This website gives a nice, short history of the Great Northern Railway and James J. Hill's involvement in its making. https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/great-northern-railway The Great Northern Railway was a transcontinental railroad system that extended from St. Paul to Seattle. Among the transcontinental railroads, it was the only one that used no public funding and only a few land grants. As the northernmost of these lines, the railroad spurred immigration and the development of lands along the route, especially in Minnesota. On September 18, 1889, Minnesota entrepreneur James J. Hill created the Great Northern Railway from the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific and the Minneapolis and St. Cloud. On February 1, 1890, the Great Northern assumed control of his other railroad companies, among them the Montana Central Railway and the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba. From these beginnings the Great Northern Railway became a transcontinental railroad across the northern part of the United States. I have written about the Great Northern in past blogs, so I won’t take up your time here. Next week, I will share two post cards of locomotives that worked for the Great Northern Railway.

The photo was taken by Robert Anderson of Ironwood, Michigan and the post card was published by Bob Fremming in August of 1957.

Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad

The passenger train rounding the bend on Little Traverse Bay, as shown on the front of this post card, belonged to the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad.

Wikipedia does provide a longer and more detailed history of the railroad; I have condensed this history here. Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad according to Wikipedia: The company was formed on January 18, 1854. The company opened service between Bridge Street in Grand Rapids to Cedar Springs, Michigan, on December 25, 1867, a distance of about 20 miles (32 km). Six months later, in July of 1868 it had 2 engines in service: the Pioneer and the Muskegon. At that time the company also utilized a single passenger coach and single baggage car, six box cars, 24 flat cars and five hand cars. On June 21, 1869, the last rail connecting Cedar Springs to Morley, Michigan was laid. The track from the south into Grand Rapids was completed September 13, 1870. The line extended north to Big Rapids, Michigan, by October 1, 1870, and a train first traveled between Fort Wayne and Big Rapids on that date. In June 1871, the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad Company took control of the road and property of the Cincinnati, Richmond and Fort Wayne Railroad Company, extending the line south to Cincinnati. The line between Paris and Petoskey, Michigan, was completed November 25, 1873. The railroad was opened to Mackinaw City, Michigan, and the Straits of Mackinac on July 3, 1882. The total length of the line at this time was 529 miles (851 km). As of July 1888, the railroad had expanded its fleet to 66 locomotives and 3,100 cars. Its gross earnings were close to $2.3 million in 1887. In 1891 the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad featured the longest North-South line in the country. The railroad served to accelerate the settlement of Northern Michigan, which was largely a wilderness in the mid-19th century. On July 2, 1896, the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad reorganized as the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway. That is the railway that owned the train on the front of this post card. By 1907 four passenger trains were running north to and from Mackinaw City daily. Passenger train fares were not enough to support the railroad and ridership declined. In 1909 the railroad reported a profit of 24.4 cents for every passenger for each mile carried; by 1921 the railroad was losing 19.5 cents per passenger mile. The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad was bought by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1918.

The back of the post card has been ruined by some dark stain. The good news is that, whatever it is, it did not leak through to the front of the card. The post card was published by Alton G. Cook (1862 – 1923) from Petoskey, Michigan. Here is a quote from an article I found about Mr. Cook’s business. “His latest booklet is entitled Summer Resorts on Little Traverse Bay and is one of the handsomest souvenirs ever published of Petoskey and Northern Michigan. In addition to all of these, Mr. Cook finds time to take pictures for the G R & I Railroad company for the quantities of advertising matter they send out every year. The making of post cards, which he began about five years ago has proved one of the most successful lines he has yet undertaken and, as he is continually working to improve and enlarge it, it is hard to predict what he will accomplish in the future. He runs an exclusive Post Card Store at 208 Midway which is said to carry the most complete line of cards of any in this region.”