Milwaukee Road Post Card with Hiawatha #2

What a week. I know I said things were going to slow down around here but I'd like to do it on my own terms and not have technology slow me down. After a long frustrating period of fighting with my old modem and router (constantly unplugging and re-plugging in the devices to boot them up and get them running again) we finally got an upgraded modem/router combo. I decided on the Motorola SURFboard SBG6580 and  it's nice to be able to sit at the computer for a whole 15 minutes in a row and not have to re-start the Internet.

It's been awhile since we've posted any Milwaukee Road stuff so today Toys & Stuff will feature two different postcards. They both have the same artwork on the front - the Hiawatha #2 speeding down the rails - but the reverse is different on each.  Enjoy! Even my Wife Enjoy's it:)

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 20

Today Toys & Stuff features the last of the 20 post cards in the United States Postal Service's series of 'Trains & Locomotives' released in 1999. Another iconic streamline design, only this time a diesel engine, was the Santa Fe's Super Chief. The red, yellow, and black 'Santa Fe' logo on the front of the engine is referred to as the Warbonnet design and is one of the most iconic graphic images of 20th Century America. Me & My Wife Like it allot Enjoy The Berg's :)

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 19

Our next installment of the 'Trains & Locomotives' series of post cards issued by the USPS in 1999 is Streamline Design and features a gorgeous graphic of the New York Central's 20th Century Limited. If the Milwaukee Road Hiawatha is my favorite engine, this is my second favorite - and a close second it is too! The whole streamline design ethic was a common thread throughout the 1930s and could be seen in Art Deco styled buildings and furniture, automobile, train, and other design mediums. No longer were we tied to Victorian or Edwardian era design. Heavy, dark, ostentatious were out - light and sleek was in. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 18

The Stourbridge Lion holds the distinction of being the first steam engine to operate on United States soil but it was really a technology display and not meant for revenue. The first practical steam engine locomotive had been built in 1814 by George Stephenson, a British engineer but it wasn't until 1825 when the first practical steam engine was developed. America would receive most of its first engines from England and the Lion arrived in New York Harbor in 1829. Railroads had already been in existence for some time but either depended on horse-drawn carriages or wagons or were gravity based - moving coal down mountainsides and such. Forward looking people were trying to find a way to haul more goods and people for less and their vision was set on the latest technology of the time - steam engines. The Lion only ran twice on the tracks of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The run was six miles round trip and although the engine performed well, it was six tons of hardware on track built to support only four tons. Over time the Lion has disappeared - probably taken apart, its bits an pieces used for other engines or scrapped. My Wife & Me Like it and so can you Enjoy The Berg's :)

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 17

The First Transontinental Railroad was a significant achievement in the building of a still young America and was significant milestone in world history as well being the first time a continent was joined by one continuous railroad line linking two oceans. The Central Pacific (CP) worked East-to-West, while the Union Pacific (UP) worked West-to-East. The two met at Promontary Summit, Utah Territory where on May 10, 1869 the Golden Spike Ceremony was held.  The CPs Jupiter was nose-to-nose with the UPs No. 119 while the CPs President Leland Stanford drove the ceremonial last spike made of 17.6-karat gold and weighin 14.03 troy ounces. While the original Golden Spike survives and is a part of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University in Stanford, California, the Jupiter had been sold to another railroad and ultimately scrapped in 1909. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 16

The Camden and Amboy's John Bull now holds two distinctions. Originally built in England but operated over here, it was the first engine to be fitted with a "cowcatcher" designed to push obstructions off of the track, and it became the world's oldest operable steam engine when the Smithsonian operated it in 1981. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 15

What a coincidence, as I was preparing this post it occurred to me that it was 150 years ago today that Andrew's Raider's rendezvoused in Marietta, Georgia for what history would call The Great Locomotive Chase. The Great Locomotive Chase or Andrew's Raid is a fascinating event in American History which has gone down in lore and been popularized by Hollywood in such films as Buster Keaton's silent film comedy The General and by Walt Disney's movie The Great Locomotive Chase of 1956 starring Fess Parker. The General locomotive was a key player in an American Civil War military raid led by Union Army civilian scout James J. Andrews starting on April 12, 1862.  With the intent to destroy as much of the South's Western & Atlantic Railroad as possible, he and 23 other Union soldiers seized the northbound loco at Big Shanty, Georgia, and in a running saboteur action tried to destroy as much rail line, switches, telegraph lines, etc. The raiders had intended to meet advancing Union forces in Chattanooga but only got as far as just north of Ringgold, Georgia where they ran out fuel and abandoned the engine. Andrew's and all of his men were captured in two weeks. All the men were tried and convicted in military courts or courts martial and, because he was a civilian, Andrew's was found guilty as a spy. He and seven other men were hanged and the others sent to prison camps. The General itself survived the war and now resides in the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Georgia. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 14

Ahh, finally, my favorite engine, the Milwaukee Road Hiawatha. The Postal Service would have been remiss had they not included this engine. Why? Well, not because it's my favorite but it was notable for several reasons. The locomotives were the first Class A locomotives to be designed and built from the beginning as streamlined engines. The original design is credited to famed industrial designer Otto Kuhler who worked for the American Locomotive Works (ALCO), the builders contracted by the Milwaukee Road. Each originally designed engine wore its shroud from birth to death. It was the first class of locomotives built for daily operation at speeds exceeding 100mph and they hauled the fastest scheduled passenger trains in the world by 1935. The first engines were 4-4-2 Atlantic's and were among the last Atlantic types built in America. Last but not least, they were gorgeous! Unfortunately not one of the Hiawatha engines survived the wrecker's torch but I believe there is only one Beavertail observation car and a passenger car, of the original 50 cars built for the various Hiawatha routes, which survive. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 13

Records are meant to be broken and pulling more than 100 cars during railroadings' infancy was a milestone which the Gowan & Marx  broke in 1840 by pulling 101 cars. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 12

Here's another beautiful 19th Century steam engine, the Pennsylvania RR's Ely's No.10. As a prototype for a new express engine sporting large drive wheels (those two big wheels  towards the rear of the engine) higher speeds were possible. But this wasn't the only experiment with large drive wheels. Both here and in Europe, engines with only two very large wheels (unlike the four drive wheels on the No. 10), were tried with mixed results. The larger wheels allowed for greater speed but overall had poor traction and weren't good for pulling freight trains. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 11

With this post card, the Postal Service honored those classic toy trains many of us remember, and now collect, with an image extracted from the 1929 Lionel catalog. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 10

I love artwork depicting those fabulous steam engines of the early to mid-1800s. Eddy's No. 242 engine is one of those gems of a by-gone era and the USPS had honored it with both a stamp and this post card from 1999. We Enjoy it my Wife & Me and so can you The Berg's :)

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 9

The Southern Pacific's Daylight is one of the most beautiful trains in the world. Here we see the Daylight in all her 1938 finery. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 8

The Pennsylvania's Congressional takes front and center today as we continue our featured series of USPS post cards from 1999. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 7

I grew up in the '50s and '60s and even back then knew about "The Ballad of 'Casey' Jones" and the legend behind it. The song tells of a railroad engineer, John Luther 'Casey' Jones, who when trying to make up for lost time, stayed at the controls of his speeding Cannonball even when he noticed a stopped train ahead of him. Casey made a gallant attempt to apply the brakes and urged his fireman, Sim Webb, to jump to safety. Casey reversed the throttle, put on the brakes and reduced the trains speed by approx 40mph and in the ensuing collision, Casey was the only fatality. Debate still lingers as to whether or not Casey was at fault for the accident but his name survives today as a legend among railroad men. Here's the post card featuring the stamp honoring Casey. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 6

"I feel the need for speed": Maverick to Goose, Top Gun, 1986

Mankind moved at a fairly slow pace for untold thousands of years until the harnessing of steam power. A boiler sitting on a frame with four wheels and all of a sudden we were spritzing along at breakneck speeds of 25mph - OR MORE! WOW! If only we could go back and hear the conversations of awe and wonder as people talked about the marvel of the age and watched as these Iron Horses plied the land. Never before had humankind seen anything like this. But, man being what he is, wasn't content resting on his laurels and in never ending competition with one another, continually strove for bigger, better, faster. Buchanan's No. 999 marks a milestone for humankind in the quest for speed, being the first man made contrivance (upon which humans could ride that is - we can't count bullets and rockets here) to reach speeds of 100mph+. This quest for speed races ahead unimpeded as evidenced by the various so-called bullet-trains in use throughout the world. The No. 999 is next in our featured USPS post cards from 1999. Me & My Wife Love it so Enjoy The Berg's :)

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 5

The next in the series of 'Trains & Locomotives ' post cards issued by the USPS in 1999 is the 'Brother Johnathan' locomotive of 1832. Each of these cards is a mini history lesson and this card is no exception. By adding a front truck to the locomotive to help guide the heavy boiler around curves, the Brother Johnathan was the first distinctly American locomotive.

At the time (1832), basically only Europe and America were pushing forward with railroad construction but there was some distinct differences in their approaches to railroad construction. Have you ever noticed when looking at photos of European engines why they often don't have a separate set of small wheels at the front of their road engines? Even early on in railroad development, the Europeans were building with stout rails and long sweeping curves along well planned and built trackbed allowing engines and rolling stock to enter the curves gradually, thus negating the need for a set of wheels in the front to guide the engine.  Americans got cheap. Plain and simple. Our entrepreneur's, put profit ahead of safety and good sense and did everything they could to save a buck (so that ultimately more $$$ could go into their pockets). Trains running on crappy track on poor roadbed around tight curves necessitated the need to be able to ease those heavy boilers into a curve. Thus the leading truck as seen first on Brother Johnathan. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 4

Today's featured 'Trains & Locomotives' post card is 'The Best Friend of Charleston'. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 3

The third of the USPS 'Trains & Locomotives' post card series is featured today: the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Enjoy!

TRAIN TIME: USPS Trains & Locomotives Post Card Series 1999 - Card 2

Our second of a series of trains and locomotives post cards issued by the US Post Service back in 1999: The 20th Century Limited. Enjoy!