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P&LE Postcards by Howard Fogg

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My  2009 layout is (loosely) based on the Aliquippa area operations of the Pittsbugh and Lake Erie Railroad, a subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad. Here, in tribute, are postcards created from watercolor prints painted by Howard Fogg. So far I have found 66 postcards that were bound into a booklet titled "Road to the Future" and 1 postcard not from the booklet for a total of 67 postcards.


ROAD TO THE FUTURE
THE PITTSBURGH & LAKE ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY

"Road to the Future" Booklet

Unless noted below, these scans are from cards in my collection. The text below each scan appears on the address (or back) side of the postcard. The first 66 are scans taken from a disassembled "Road to the Future" booklet published by the P&LE.  As you look at these, you will note that several have nothing to do with the P&LE even though they are titled "The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company".



Zinc Smelting Division of St. Joseph Lead Company
Josephtown, Pennsylvania
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Blast Furnaces of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, Brier Hill Works, Youngstown, Ohio.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Interchange with the Western Maryland Railway at P.& L.E.'s Dickerson Run Yard, near Connellsvile.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Westbound unit coal train rounds College Curve, near Beaver Falls, PA.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

West portal of tunnel under Pittsburgh Works, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

The Christmas Season Arrives at Gateway Yard

Structural Steel Works of Bethlehem Steel Company, Rankin, Pa.
Form Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Roemer Works of the Sharon Steel Corporation, from original painting by Howard Fogg.

Port Perry (Pittsburgh), Pa.
With four heavy tonnage railroad lines converging here, and with coal moving by barge on the Monongahela River adjoining,
Port Perry has the unique distinction of being the point of maximum freight concentration of the entire world.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle -- 1960, from original painting by Howard Fogg.

The plant of the Pittsburgh Steel Company surrounds
P&LE main line through Monessen, PA. One of a
series of paintings by Howard Fogg of the Pittsburgh
and Lake Erie Railroad and the industries it serves.

Pittsburgh Steel Company at Monessen, PA
From original painting by Howard Fogg

Pittsburgh Plant, Fisher Body Division of General Motors Corporation.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Pittsburgh Forgings Company, Coraopolis, Pa.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

P&LE Terminal and General Office Building, Pittsburgh, PA.
One of a series of paintings of the P&LERR by Howard Fogg.

Ohio Works, United States Steel Corporation, Youngstown, Ohio.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Industrial switching on Ohio River Branch at Kobuta Works of Koppers Company.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

The New York Central's "Missourian" shown arriving at Staatsburg, N.Y., after run from St. Louis MO.
From original painted by Howard Fogg in 1949.
Reproduced through courtesy of the painting's present owner, Mr. J.H. Link.

New York Central passenger train along the Hudson River, near Bear Mountain, N.Y.
From original painted by Howard Fogg in 1950.
Reproduced through courtesy of Alco Products, Inc.

New York Central Night Freight for Boston.
From original painted by Howard Fogg in 1954.
Reproduced through courtesy of the painting's present owner, Mr. A. L. Prentice.

New York Central multi-level automobile trains rolls through the scenic Hudson River Valley.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.
Night scene at throat of Gateway Yard, near Youngstown, Ohio.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Newell Plant, General Chemical Division of Allied Chemical Corporation.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Neville Island Plant of Pittsburgh Coke & Chemical Company.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

P&LE Train No. 274, the "Morning Steel King", Cleveland-Pittsburgh, passing Phillips Power Station,
Duquesne Light Co., South Heights, Pa. From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Mesta Machine Company, Homestead, Pennsylvania.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

 (Mark's note: Mesta Machine helped pay my way through Carnegie Tech in the 1960's.)

Lowelville Works, Sharon Steel Corporation, across Mahoning River from east end of Gateway Yard, near Youngstown, Ohio.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Loveridge Mine of the Consolidation Coal Company, near Fairview, W. Va.,
served by the Monongahela Railway, an affiliate of the Pittsburgh and Lake Eire Railroad.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Lewis Foundry & Machine Division of Blaw-Knox Company, Coraopolis, PA.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Koppel Pland of Babcock & Wilcox Company, from original painting by Howard Fogg.

Irvin Works of United States Steel Corporation.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Industrial scene along the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Mills of the Homestead District Works of United States Steel Corporation, surround the mail line.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

General Foods Corporation, Boardman Ohio.
From original painting by Howard Fogg

Federal No. 1 Mine, Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates, Grant Town, WV, served by the Monongahela Railway, an affiliate of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad.

Federal Enameling & Stamping Company, McKees Rocks, PA, served by the Pittsburgh, Chartiers & Youghiogheny Railway, an affiliate of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad.
From original painting my Howard Fogg.

Extra west picks up at Aliquippa Yard. Blast furnaces and ore and limestone stockpiles of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation in background.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.
(Mark's note: The P&LE interchanged with the Aliquippa & Southern Railroad which served the steel mill.
My grandfather, Camillo DiVecchio, worked for the A&S, my father, Patsy DiVecchio, worked for J&L.)

Ellwood City Branch overhead crossing of the P&LE's main line, near Wampum, PA.
One of a series of paintings of the P&LERR by Howard Fogg.

Edgar Thomson Works, The Untied States Steel Corporation, Braddock, Pennsylvania.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Duquesne Works of United States Steel Corporation.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Crescentdale Plant, Medusa Portland Cement Company, from an original painting by Howard Fogg.

Colonial Steel Division of Vanadium-Alloys Steel Company, Monaca, PA.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Mather, PA Collieries of Pickands Mather & Company.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

College Curve along Beaver River, west of Beaver Falls, Pa.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Clairton Works of United States Steel Corporation, from original painting by Howard Fogg.

Christmas Mail -- 1907 -- Stoops Ferry, PA.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Christmas Eve 1961 -- McKees Rocks Locomotive Shop, from original painting by Howard Fogg.

Carrie Furnaces of United States Steel Corporation.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Campbell Works, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Campbell Works of  The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, Youngstown, Ohio.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Buffalo-Pittsburgh Express -- Christmas 1956
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Blast Furnaces of The Republic Steel Corporation, Youngstown, Ohio.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Blast Furnaces of the National Tube Division, The
United States Steel Corporation, McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Blast Furnaces at Aliquippa Works, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation.

Berkshire Hills Milk Run on the New York Central's Harlem Division.
From original painting by Howard Fogg in 1952, and borrowed from the artist's private collection.

Beaver Station and Ohio River Bridge, in December, 1949.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

Banning No. 4 Mine of Republic Steel Corporation, near West Newton, PA.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Mine run pickup service, Banning No. 2 colliery, Republic Steel Corporation, Jacobs Creek, Pa.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

An Eighty Mile an Hour Drink
Niagara Type Locomotive on the New York Central's Twentieth Century Limited
scooping water from track pans - along the Hudson River at New Hamburg, N.Y. -- October 1948.
From painting by Howard Fogg, copyright owned by W.H. Miner, Inc., Chicago, and reproduced with
their permission by the P&LE in commemoration of the "Century's" Sixtieth birthday, June 15, 1962

A Christmas Memory of the Age of Steam.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

2-8-4 Berksire Type Locomotive at Dickerson Run -- 1948, from original painting by Howard Fogg.

"The Steam Locomotive Speed King", New York Central & Hudson River RR locomotive No. 999 on "The Empire State Express" -- 1893.
The locomotive that ran at a speed of 112 miles per hr. on May 10, 1893, the first machine to operate in excess of 100 m.p.h..
The original painting by Howard Fogg commemorates the presentation on September 25, 1962,
of this famous engine to the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.

Niagara Type 4-8-4 Locomotive, Class S-1-b, on New York Central Train No. 50 -- "The Empire State Express", in the Highlands of the Hudson, 1948.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.

Train NY-2 "The Early Bird" a standard bearer of the New York Central freight service crossing Peekskill Draw Bridge. The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad adds a scene along the parent company's line in the Hudson River Valley to its series of paintings by Howard Fogg.

P&LE Train No. 273 "Afternoon Steel King", Pittsburgh-Cleveland, passing Phillips Power Station, Duquesne Light Co., South Heights, Pa.
From Original Painting by Howard Fogg.

The "20th Century Limited" on the New York Central main line between Elkhart, IN and Toledo, OH.
From original painted by Howard Fogg in 1949.
Reproduced through courtesy of Alco Products, Inc.



I don't have the original postcard for this one. The image is a scan found on the Internet. This postcard was not in the "Road to the Future" booklet.


Christmas operations -- Freight trains passing Headquarters.
From original painting by Howard Fogg.
(Mark's note: This postcard is not in the postcard booklet. It's the only one not in the booklet - as far as I can tell.)

Road to the Future

Road to the Future Booklet (from a copy of the booklet in my collection). Contains 66 Howard Fogg P&LE postcards. Click on the thumbnail for a larger readable copy of each image.


Forward by John Barriger (inside front cover)

About the Artist (inside back cover)

Back Cover

"Along the right-of-way"

Note that in the forward of the booket, Barriger says "the P&LE will issue a separate booklet of larger size reproductions in bound form". I have a copy of that larger booklet. Ttitled "Along the right-of-way", it contains 64 of the 66 images in the postcard booklet. The portfolio book is 8½ " x 11".

Here is a sampling:


I found this posting on the "Clevelandrails" group on Yahoo! and it shedds some light on these paintings, postcards and prints:

P&LE and Fogg
Posted By: Anon Thu Sep 28, 2000 7:04 a


Some on this list may consider this off topic but we did discuss the B&O/P&LE/Erie passenger service and the subject below does contain two paintings which show the Morning Steel King and the Afternoon Steel King which were passenger trains between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. I am posting this here to increase the chances of getting some information about a subject I am very interested in. Since Cleveland and Pittsburgh are in the same region I'm hoping someone on this list will have some information about these paintings that so far isn't available from sources on the NYC list.

There has been an on again and off again thread on one of the NYC lists about the green and black scheme depicted on some P&LE Geeps by Howard Fogg in some of the paintings in the series he did for the P&LE. It is generally conceded that he used artistic license in doing so. I expanded the subject to ask for more information about the series and am pasting my post to the NYC list below.

Mark Nilges wrote:

> In reading all the posts about this locomotive I thought
> everyone was referring to the scene Fogg painted of two units leading a
> coal train around College Curve. How many more scenes included units in
> this scheme?

I'm going to partially answer my own question.

Until this past Summer I thought the College Curve scene was the only one with units depicted in the green & black scheme. When I go "back North" to visit with family I try to get out to a local flea market where a dealer has a large quantity of post cards. Even though he has a big selection I have never noticed that it seems to change that much so having just been there at Easter time I wasn't too concerned if I didn't make it back out in the Summer. As good fortune would have it though I found myself at the flea market with a few minutes to spare while the family shopped the other booths. I was flying through the postcards seeing mostly familiar ones when I suddenly stopped so fast that if I had been driving I would have left skid marks a block long. I have been looking at the Fogg P&LE scenes for over 35 years, ever since they were offered through ads in Trains magazine for $2.00 per set of either postcards or the larger portfolio format. There in front of me was a Fogg P&LE scene I had never seen before. It shows two of the green & black scheme Geeps pulling a coal train past DX tower with a green bay window caboose on the next track and the P&LE office building in the background. This scene is not in the postcard book or the portfolio. The scene is similiar to the picture on page 160 of McLean's P&LE book. Not only did Fogg use artistic license on the locomotives but apparently on DX tower as well. The photo in the book shows DX as a brick structure with a second story bay window and a peaked, possibly tiled, roof. The DX tower in Fogg's painting shows it as a more modern brick two story structure with a flat roof and an angled glass front on the second story. The book indicates that the tower had been removed since the photo was taken but no mention of it being replaced with a newer structure.

The portfolio contains 64 scenes and the postcard book contains the same 64 plus 2 more. In McLean's book it is stated that there were "about 50 pictures". Fogg in an article in L&RP from 1988 says that he thinks there was a total of 58 paintings. The Railroad Artistry of Howard Fogg states "The P&LE commisioned dozens of Fogg paintings..." and neither Fogg and Steam or Howard Fogg and the Diesel Image gives a quantity. Some of the scenes in the postcard book and the portfolio are actually NYC scenes and were not painted as part of the P&LE project. Even at least one P&LE scene falls outside of the Barriger commissioned project. I also feel that at least one of the NYC scenes is so much like the P&LE ones that it may have been a part of the project. In looking through the postcard book I think about 55 scenes can be identified as being from the P&LE project.

So now my question is: How many P&LE scenes are there that are not included in the postcard book or the portfolio but are part of the P&LE series that spawned those two publications? I believe the DX scene I described above is one since the painting style and the postcard style are just like the others. Are there others and if so what format are they in, postcard, Christmas card, print, or some other format?

Any further discussion of Fogg's P&LE scenes would be greatly appreciated.

Mark Nilges
Gibsonville, NC


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