Historical Inspirational Images

An original photograph of Lehigh Valley Railroad Engine No. 1145. Written on the back is "Minne and me playing on an engine 1927." One of the young ladies is believed to be Mrs. Helen Marie Schwartz of Stryker, Ohio.

An original photograph from Mrs. Schwartz of a locomotive. The photograph is simply dated "1902." Note the telegraph poles in the background with glass insulators, and the light rail used in the trackage. I love the very dapper gentleman's bowler hat.

An original photograph from Mrs. Schwartz of a 2-8-0 camelback locomotive, sometimes called a Mother Hubbard. The crew must be taking a break. The photograph is simply dated "1912." It must be late summer, as the corn in the background is tall, but the leaves on the trees have not yet turned or fallen.

An original photographic postcard showing a wreck on the Western Maryland Railroad. This postcard is labeled "WMRR Train Wreck Hoist." Steam still escaping from the two locomotives now welded together from the force of the collision. The viewer should take note of the locomotive's coal tender which has been shoved half-way through the wooden box car from the force of the impact. The locomotive's cab is being crushed to splinters by the impact of the tender from behind. We can only hope the crew jumped for it.

An original photographic postcard showing the wreck from above; however, from a different angle. This picture shows us the degree of force of this head on collision. The lonely trucks, and the lone gentleman looking down in the photo show us that energy, force, and motion won this struggle. The centrifugal forces on the downgrade proved too much to stop in time. After the coal tender and first box car impacted into the engine, the other cars just simply continued over the side, straight down the embankment.

This original photographic postcard shows the bridge work being done on a Western Maryland Railroad bridge. It is labeled "WMRR Catoctin Head On Wreck 1915."

An original photographic postcard dated 1907 and postmarked Milford, Michigan with the railroad postal stamp. Mailed to Mrs. E. B. Gibson in Ann Arbor, Michigan from Dr. Theodore Gibson. The correspondence reads "Am having a fine time here. Canoe has not yet arrived." The photograph is of the Pere Marquette Railroad (4-4-2 Atlantic Type Locomotive) daily passenger at Milford Depot with a horse drawn omnibus waiting to take passengers and mail.

An old original photograph of a 4-4-0 American Type "Modern" meaning 1900ish pulling a wood coach passenger train at speed. This was the time when crews took pride in cleaning their beautiful machines, wiping them down every day with oily rags to keep the passenger locomotives shiny, polishing the wood and keeping the gold pinstripes and letting crisp. These were the space rockets of yesteryear capturing the imagination.

An original photograph from the 1870s. This photograph is labeled on the back in very faded ink "Dee & James When They Worked Together. PRR." The railroad crew in the photo are digging a cut into the rock to prepare the ground for laying the track. Notice the diversity of the work crew. The Pennsylvania Railroad not only were instrumental in supporting the United States Military Railroad in the Civil War, they were also very open to hiring freed slaves and African-Americans.

An original postcard of the St. Paul R.R. bridge at Watertown, Wisconsin. It depicts a double-headed freight train across a stone viaduct. Postmark stamped Watertown 1908. It was mailed to Mrs. Carl Litts of Jamesville, Wisconsin. It reads "From Ruth, all is well and happy."

An original photographic post card. Postmarked St. Louis Feb 12 11:30AM 1909. The card is marked: Passenger Train Leaving Union Station , St. Louis, Mo. Note... the signal bridge above the train uses semaphore type signals. This was mailed to Mr. Arthur E McCashland. Hand written on the front in a fine hand... "How does this look? Would you like to see it-" Written on the back "It is a wonder you wouldn't write your sister a letter some time." Hopefully, Arthur did.

An original colorized postcard of Sanford and Springvale station, Maine. Postmarked Sanford, September 9th 1910. Mailed to Mrs. G. Carrcir in Rhode Island. Written on the back "Will be in (name hard to read) next week, will see you then. Mabel" This is an interesting postcard as it shows a double headed train at the station.

An original photo postcard showing the milk train with passenger cars. Titled: The Milk Station, Whitney Point, New York, 1910.

An original photographic postcard from around 1910. Women have been working as telegraph operators practically since their invention in the late 1840s. Also known as telegraphers, they were required to know Morse Code and how to operate equipment. They were also able to receive compensation for their work. It's hard to see, but she is holding a candlestick phone in front of her, which was first made in 1892 and is likely something that comes to mind when thinking of a vintage telephone.

An original photograph by C. T. Andrews. It shows camelback engine Number 322, a 2-8-0, from Jersey Central Lines (note the sandy soil of New Jersey). The men in the photo are likely the engine/train crew. Judging by the way they are dressed and the foliage in the background, it is spring-summer. You can see the gauges in the fireman/brakeman's rest on the left-hand side of the cab. This locomotive must have been scrapped in the 1920s because in 1930, Number 322 of the same line was an 0-8-0 yard switcher.

This Souvenir Post Card is stamped from Brooklyn, NY with a Station C flag and dated November 7, 1907. It's addressed to Mr. Leon Newman in Belford, New Jersey. The name seen in this picture is that of the sender, William McKay. The locomotive is Number 213 , one of seven engines, though only three in the same year, of its type built in Schenectady, New York (for the Central Vermont) in 1904 specifically for fast passenger service. She is an I-6-b 4-6-0 type engine. Of the seven engines of that type, four were scrapped in 1928, one was scrapped in 1935, and two were scrapped in 1941. Since there are pictures of her dated 1936, we can determine that she must have been one of the two scrapped in 1941. The locomotive likely survived longer than her cars because the opulent wooden palace cars were withdrawn starting in the 1920s across the United States due to major safety concerns regarding survivability (splintering, crushing, and telescoping) in a train crash.

This post card is addressed to Mr. Harry Yonkers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It is stamped from Essex Junction, VT on January 4, 1909 at 8pm. The message reads, "This is the train we came in from Boston on. Quite a fine looking one. Don't you think? We are having a fine time. We were thru (through) the country where we all spent our childhood. We got a Kodak picture of the first schoolhouse your mother attended. -Addie." If this train looks familiar, that's because it is. It's the same train depicted in another illustration above. Here it is depicted moving at speed near St. Albans, Vermont. Watching number 213 stretching her legs (thundering by) must have been a sight.

This is a private printing postcard from around 1900. This postcard is very interesting as it has two pictures of the same locomotive. The photographs show the 4-4-0 American locomotive moving at speed with a passenger train behind. Perhaps it belonged to a member of the locomotive crew.

This is an original photo postcard simply labeled "wreck 1912." Though the particulars of the wreck are unclear, you can still see that some sort of collision has happened, which has caused at least two of the cars to lift off the track and form and upside-down 'v' shape. Also, notice the broken rail underneath the locomotive.

This is a colorized photo-postcard from around 1910. The artistry that went into the colorization is truly astounding. Notice the double track main line. On the larger railroads this helped eliminate the problems of having to use single track working on a main line. This helped trains pass each other and made head-on collisiotns less likely.

What a disaster! The piles of material from the shattered wooden boxcar are bales of cloth. This original cabinet photo from the 1890s-1900s shows what happens when the locomotive suddenly stops and the train does not. Central Railroad of New Jersey camelback 95 and her train wrecked near Brainards, New Jersey. The tender for the locomotive was crushed and buried underneath the boxcar and a loaded gondola.

Here is an amazing photograph of a mill or factory in New England. The pencil was faded to the point of being unreadable on the back. However, the photograph shows some interesting details. It was sold to us as being an "1860s Mill in New England." The original photo being taken 1860s is possible, but it is definitely a later copy of that photograph. What is interesting is that the House Cars ("Box Cars" to you and I in modern times) have only one truck with hand brakes. They also have link and pin couplers.

This colorized photo postcard is from 1905 and shows the station at Old Orchard Maine. Simply marked on the back "The Dummy Line, I miss you, Dan." What is interesting is this was never posted.

There is a lot going on in this colorized photo postcard from 1900. The large express passenger engine with its train is taking on water on the main, a smaller engine with the local is just leaving the station in the background, and a small switching engine is working in the freight yard. It even shows a track gang on a hand car waiting for the local passenger to pass.

This photo is marked "the wedding party 1908" on the back. Here we see Rock Island Railroad Caboose number 12183. Presumably, the bride is easily spotted standing on the coupler in her light-colored clothing. It's also safe to say that the bridesmaids and groomsmen are present. But what about the groom? Is he the gentleman on the roof? Could be, as he's the only one wearing a visible boutonniere. Either way, we hope the couple had a long and happy marriage, without too many shenanigans.

There is so much going on in this 1900s postcard along the New York Central. You can see 2 passenger trains on the mainline passing each other. You can also see 2 freight trains passing each other on the secondary mainline next to them. The action in this photo is what makes this photo-postcard unique to me! Think about the amount of railroad traffic every day that passed by this spot.

Here is a very early photo reprinted for a postcard dated and stamped as mailed in 1909. However, it has no writing or address on the card. This gleamingly shiny 4-4-0 locomotive (in pencil is marked DL&W) is pulling a trainload of coal jimmy's sometime in the 1860's or 1870's.