Welcome to Vintage Railroad Postcards!

Thank you for stopping by! This is the blog for the Russell P. Panecki Collection of vintage railroad-related postcards. The entire collection consists of nearly one thousand so far with images dating from circa 1904 to the 1950s. To leave a comment, ask a question, to contribute or correct historical information, a comment box is located to the left for your convenience.

Each page, including this homepage, has an index located in the lower portion of the page. In addition to the index, posts were updated with historical information, new postcards added from storage files, while some posts were completely rewritten or edited for corrections. Three articles have been added and are worth reading. They include how vintage postcards were made, the history of Pennsylvania Station, and the history of Grand Central Terminal.

My apologies, but the postcards in my collection and on this blog are not available for sale, copying, or for contribution to projects. Please keep in mind that I reserve all rights to the images and content of this blog.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Wooden Trees and Iron Men




Postmarked 1909, this card shows a crew in charge of hauling logs out of the nearby logging operation. The diameter of the logs give us an indication of just how tall the trees prior to cutting. The locomotive is typical for the job: a Shay geared engine with vertical pistons and drive shafts visible in front of and below the cab. This drive arrangement gave Shay locomotives excellent traction as well as the ability to navigate rough track. Note the rail ties made of available lumber and the 'link-and-pin' coupler on the front of the locomotive. The engine's stack sports a spark arrester, necessary for preventing sparks from blowing out and causing forest and brush fires.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)