POSTCARD ENGINE

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5 Village Common Colchester, Vermont 05446

My grandfather had a store up in the tiny village of Eden, Vermont. This was in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the next town of Lowell was the asbestos mine. Along with his storekeeper activities, Grampa Shattuck was 'into' photography, and used some of the shots of local views, scenery and the like for postcards, which were then offered for sale in the store. Well, the photo above is a print from an old postcard he made up and shows the large steam traction engine the talc mine used to haul ore or whatever around. Off to the right of the engine was a large field, and although not shown in the photo, my mother says she was standing when the picture was taken. This monster broke numerous bridges, and culverts, and the likes, and kept a crew busy repairing them after the rig went by. Mother says she and her young companions for that matter, quite a few grownups were very leery of getting too close, as it made lots of noises, literally shook the ground when in motion, belched steam and smoke. Just the thing to keep the neighborhood kids at bay!

To the best of her recollections, this was about 1910. With a magnifier you can read the name on the stack 'The Geiser Manufacturing' and then the print becomes unreadable. I don't know for sure what model or horsepower this rig was, but it sure is a fine piece, and one I'd love to own. It's long gone, of course. I'm fairly sure we still have the very camera that took the shot.