The Western Pacific Railroad completed its line from Salt Lake City to Oakland in 1909, just two years after the Post Office allowed people to send postcards with messages written on the back. WP encouraged postcard companies to publish cards … Continue reading
Before the Moffat Tunnel opened in 1928, the Denver & Salt Lake Railway crossed the Rockies over Rollins Pass, which was more than 11,600 feet in elevation. Ascending and descending the pass required numerous tunnels, trestles, 180-degree curves, and at … Continue reading
Although Burlington trains didn’t come any closer to Glacier Park than Billings, about 400 miles away, it issued a number of postcards advertising Glacier. Of course, the Great Northern, which did go to Glacier, owned nearly half of the Burlington. … Continue reading
The first card today is postmarked April 6, 1916. The fact that it doesn’t have the “See America First” slogan in large letters or a little rhyme on the back suggests that the cards with that slogan were only used … Continue reading
Great Northern opened the Glacier Park Hotel in 1913 and popularized the “See America First” slogan to encourage people to visit the park instead of taking a trip to Europe. These postcards were part of this campaign and all have … Continue reading
Many Baltimore & Ohio streamlined trains were really just remodeled versions of heavyweight trains. This included the Cincinnatian, which began operating in 1947, when new equipment was hard to obtain because manufacturers were backed up with postwar orders. Click image … Continue reading
The Baltimore & Ohio started publishing an eponymous employee’s magazine in 1912. In 1927, the magazine asked its staff artist, Herbert Stitt, to do a dozen paintings portraying the history of the railroad for use on the magazine’s covers. The … Continue reading
While many of the locomotives on the postcards presented yesterday were replicas or were rebuilt to look like locomotives older than they really were, the remaining locomotives on B&O’s centenary postcards are authentic (although one was renumbered). Four of the … Continue reading
To celebrate the centennial of the start of its construction, the Baltimore & Ohio held a two-week-long Fair of the Iron Horse in September and October, 1927. Part of the fair was a daily presentation of restored or replicated historic … Continue reading
Here are five more postcards from around 1913 contributed by a Streamliner Memories reader. These aren’t quite as offensive as yesterday’s. The first one even makes the chief appear able to read English, which wasn’t true for most Indian elders … Continue reading
