Trains on US Advertising Covers and Patriotic Covers
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HARTFORD STEAM BOILER CO

The Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance and Inspection Company provided insurance for railroads on the boilers in their locomotives. Founded in 1866, they are still in business. These covers are some of my favorites, because I like seeing the variations over time, and from city to city - I am always on the lookout for more.

Here is a link to the History of HSB on its web site.

The locomotive in the company logo is the Comet: (from HSB website)

When HSB was founded in 1866, the Directors of the new company decided to use the image of the "Comet" as the company's logo, since it was assumed the company would mostly be insuring the boilers on steam locomotives. The Comet was a brand new locomotive owned by the Hartford and New Haven Railroad. It was one of the first coal-burning engines on the line, and was considered to be as modern and up-to-date as you could get. Sure enough, HSB succeeded in writing a policy on The Comet as well as on the Hartford and New Haven's other locomotives.

Historical records in HSB's archives show that the Comet was constructed by local Connecticut builders under the supervision of John A. Nichols, master mechanic. However, many details reflect the influence of William Mason, a contemporary locomotive designer and builder from Taunton, Massachusetts.

The Comet was of the eight-wheel type, with a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. This means that it had a four-wheel leading truck or "bogie" , four driving wheels, and no trailing truck. With a boiler pressure of 125 psi working in cylinders 15 inches in diameter by 22 inches stroke, it was a powerful locomotive for the time. And, with the relatively large driving wheel diameter of 68 inches, it could have maintained speeds of 50 to 60 miles per hour over the line between Hartford and New Haven. An early photograph shows the Comet fitted with the large balloon stack used when fueled with wood. The caption, however, refers to the "coal-burning passenger locomotive." It may be that the locomotive was equipped to burn both coal and wood.

The Comet is still on HSB's logo. The original image faced to the left, but during HSB's centennial celebration in 1966, the image was reversed to face to the right, as you see it today. It is a proud symbol of HSB's roots in the technological past and its success in staying on the leading edge of sophisticated engineering risk management.

OTHER BUSINESSES

These are covers for businesses that used a train image to say something about their products or services, rather than as part of the scenery around their store or factory. Some are very clever.

The cover immediately below is my new favorite in this category, mainly because it's my newest acquisition. Dated April 13, 1897, the train connection is the name of a cigar brand - the San Joaquin Valley Railroad Cigar. Let's hope the cigar did not taste like the smoke from the engine in the cachet. Stockton is in the San Joaquin Valley, so presumably the cigar was a local label, and not widely distributed outside the area. The name is kind of cute - if you say it aloud, it has a nice rhythm and it rhymes - "The S J V R R Cigar". The SJVRR later became a part of the Southern Pacific RR.

The train shown is a somewhat crude, almost cartoon-like representation of a standard American-type 4-4-0. Note the way the two leading wheels overlap. The four-wheel tender and short baggage car were already anachronisms when this cover was produced, as was the long, center-door passenger car. Note the lack of a gap between the baggage and passenger cars, another departure from reality. But it's still a nice cover, with a nice train image.

More on the SJVRR

There have been 4 San Joaquin Valley Railroads.

The first was a short line absorbed by the Southern Pacific RR in the late 1870's or early 1880's, if I recall correctly.

The second was a 26 mile line that ran from Fresno to the San Joaquin River at a point called Hamptonville. Hamptonville was re-named Pollasky when the railroad opened for business on November 24, 1892, by the railroad's builder, Marcus Pollasky -- in honor of himself, of course. This SJVRR was also absorbed by the SP, in October of 1893. The SP referred to it thereafter as its Pollasky Line, and later its Clovis Branch.

The third San Joaquin Valley Railroad was actually the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad, built by Claus Spreckels, the sugar magnate. That railroad was acquired, soon after its 1896 completion, by the Atcheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe RR.

The fourth and present San Joaquin Valey Railroad calls itself the SJVR (one "R" only). It is in no way related to any of the three earlier SJVRR's, and none of the earlier SVRRs are in any way related to each other.

Here's where this gets even more interesting: I have recently (September) been in touch with a member of the Pollasky family and have learned from her that one of her ancestors was a manufacturer of cigars. I believe we now have a link, and a clue as to which SJVRR the cigar may have named for.

Rus Stolling (r.stolling "at" sbcglobal.net)

We thank Mr. Stolling for all that fascinating history, and hope his research yields further information about the cigars. He welcomes email correspondence on the topic.

More Two-sided Covers

This one still contains advertising pamphlets, but no train connection on those, so I won't show them here.

The cover is messy, but the invoice more than compensates for that.

Note that these three images are from two covers from the same company - the front and back are dated 1916, while the simpler windowed front is 1936. They kept the same logo, but changed to a cheaper style.

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