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.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Kennebec River Ferries

The Maine Central Railroad operated a railroad ferry service across the Kennebec River beginning as far back as 1871 connecting Bath, Maine, with Woolrich. While earlier ferries could only carry passenger and freight cars, The "Ferdinando Gorges", seen below circa 1910, also carried locomotives allowing an entire train to be loaded on board. Ferry service ended in 1927 with the construction of the Carlton Bridge that carried both railroad and automobile traffic.



In this circa 1908 view, we see a switcher locomotive pulling cars from a docked ferry prior to the "Ferdinando Gorges" being put into service and ending  the need for only passenger cars to be carried.




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