Railroad Related Postcards!

Those take me right back, littleriverphil; I can smell the smoke & the creosote & the forest ...

Now that you can smell the smoke, creosote, and forest, I'll add sea air! I'm sure that everyone noticed that those railcars were carring one log each. Redwood logging trains, from the north coast of Calif., Mendocino and Humboldt counties. They were huge, as you can see on this card postmarked 1919 in Elk, Cal.


Mendocino County is isolated, and has a very rugged coastline with only four fairly large harbors, Point Arena, Casper, Mendocino, and Fort Bragg. At the turn of the century, there were no trains that connected to the inland raillines, and lumber was shipped on lumber schooners. Most of the loading points were slide chutes, bare points of rock jutting out into the Pacific Ocean. This chute was in Mendocino Bay and is a postcard made from a early photo, it is not used, all the rest of these cards were sent from the subject site.



The "harbor" at Elk was not really protected, but was a normally calm port because of the maze of reefs outside of the harbor. The mill was located at the south end of town on Greenwood creek, which was darned to provide mill ponds as seen here beyond the railroad tressle. After being milled the lumber went up the hill. Notice the steep incline behind the steam and smoke. That led to the lumber yard behind the large hotel to the left of the inclined track, and from there was hauled on small rail car by mule down a long pier that curved around the large rock island in the bay.
The mule, Maude, a local legend, live in the little "barn" to the left of the rail car of lumber.








Although the Elk Creek railroad was not a mail train, it did carry mail from the little logging town of Salsig.



The next port north was Mendocino, the largest bay on the coast, and one of Mendocino County's earlist post offices.

Casper is a few miles above Mendocino, and the second largest bay.



This train also carried mail from Northwestern, located about 10 miles east of Fort Bragg.












Darn post card collectors and scotch tape!

littleriverphil, Amazing history lesson!

Such wonderful postcards!! I'm in the same boat as Rileysan!

Thank you for posting them! Mud

The Rhatische Bahn (Rhaetian Railway) is the largest network among all private railway operators in Switzerland:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaetian_Railway

The Bernina Range (Berninagruppe) is among the tallest of the Alps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernina_Pass

The Morteratsch is a large glacier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morteratsch_Glacier



The publisher is in nearby St Moritz:


What a ride!



(Engineering note: if you did not electrify the line, you'd have to drag all that fuel up the hill.)

Cheers,

/s/ iikeyPikey

I guess the nine-digit-zip means that the ink is still wet on this postcard. Nice history on the locomotive, though.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

My father (z"l), who hobo'd his way on the rails, from New York City to Los Angeles, in the midst of The Great Depression, told me (albeit in a 50-odd year-old memory) that the big advantage that rail-based transport had over road-based transport was that trains are indifferent to precipitation.

My first thought on seeing this card was: "My father was wrong? About anything? Ever?"

Now that the shock has worn-ff, I'm thinking that he must have been speaking about the NYC subways versus the NYC buses, probably when looking out our windows at snow-bound traffic ...

... because if there is one thing this card demonstrates, it is that rail-based transport is not completely indifferent to snow.

Happiness is a full stamp box.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Curious is anyone will object to me reviving this thread after many months to post a couple of cards I found in a friend's mother's photos back in 2011.

I thought they were interesting (and at the time I was making a train themed collage for the friend's grandson). I always scan pictures and print them off rather than use the actual pictures.





I remember both cards were unused which is why I didn't bother scanning the backs.

I have no objections to your revival!!

"I have no objections to your revival!"

Me either, it gives me another chanced to include another logging train heading for the Union Lumber company mill in Fort Bragg, Cal.

I found this unused post card among some of my grandma's photos. She was born in Gilbert, Iowa in 1926.

It shows the A.J. Mabie & Son Elevator next to the railroad tracks.

The luck-of-the-lot, I call it: you never know what you'll find, even in a well-defined auction lot.

Ivory carvings, ebony mounts, moving parts.

http://www.warthers.com/ ... they're still at it!

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10049 ... an endorsement!

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Found another train car postcard, the mailcar of the Southern Pacific Rail Road, Sacramento, California. Found it in a 39 year span of 54 postcards to and from one logging family as they moved around the redwood logging operations. I'm showing front and back of this card which comes from the little town of Loleta in Humboldt county.

That depicts an SP motor car built by McKeen Motor Car Company of Omaha, with a mail car "trailer". It's a nice find, as postcard images of motor cars are uncommon, having been used mostly on lightly-traveled rural routes where there may have been fewer railfans or people with cameras. I believe the buildings in the background survive as part of the California State Railroad Museum at the former SP Sacramento Shops.