This hand-colored postcard claims to show the eastbound Oriental Limited ascending west towards the Great Northern’s old Cascade Tunnel. To reach the tunnel, which opened in 1900, the old line made a 180-degree turn at Scenic (the site of a … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Postcard
These cards are blank on the back, so aren’t meant to be used postally. But they are the same dimensions as a standard postcard. Click image to download a PDF of this card. The Texas Zephyr tells passengers they can … Continue reading
This postcard has a white border, indicating it was probably published in the 1920s or possibly the late 1910s, when black-and-white photos were hand colored before being made into postcards. Photos like this one show that the colors the artist … Continue reading
This postcard shows off what is quite possibly the most awesome city park in the United States, if not the world, and gives the Burlington Route the opportunity to brag that it was donated to the city of Colorado Springs … Continue reading
The description on the back of this postcard says “Santa Fe streamliner ascending Raton Pass, New Mexico.” At more than 7,600 feet, Raton Pass was the highest point on the Santa Fe Railroad. Since the pass is almost exactly on … Continue reading
In the 1880s, the Santa Fe reached Los Angeles by building a line through Cajon Pass over the mountains that separate Barstow from San Bernardino and Los Angeles. The pass actually separates the San Gabriel Mountains on the northwest from … Continue reading
In 1926, the Chief replaced the California Limited as Santa Fe’s premiere train, with a faster schedule, extra fare, and, of course, an all-Pullman consist. The Indian images used to promote the train later inspired the warbonnet paint scheme used … Continue reading
As previously noted, despite celebrating its 75th anniversary in 1925, the Burlington Route declared that its 100th anniversary was in 1949. Here is a postcard noting that “Burlington was first to operate a railway postoffice car; first to inaugurate a … Continue reading
When Burlington replaced the 1936 Twin Cities Zephyr (the trains of the gods and goddesses) with the vista-dome Twin Cities Zephyr in 1947, it put the 1936 trains to work between Chicago and Lincoln, via Omaha. The re-christened Nebraska Zephyr … Continue reading
The fourth Zephyr built, after the original Zephyr and the Twin Zephyrs, was the Mark Twain Zephyr, which operated between St. Louis and Burlington, Iowa via Hannibal (Samuel Clemens hometown). Burlington had not yet started to name all its stainless-steel … Continue reading