Re: (erielack) Phoebe Snow knows

["J. Henry Priebe Jr." <root_@_net.bluemoon.net>]

On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 Lynne penned:

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> I brought home the other five Phoebe Snow postcards and scanned them. I will
> post them to the list over the next few days.

I have an 11x22 reprint of that postcard on the wall of my office. I think I
bought it at Steamtown back in the spring of 1998 and had it mounted and
sealed on a wood backplate.

> I appreciate all the helpful information about Phobe Snow, but would like to
> ask one last thing about it/her to make sure I understand the answers
> correctly. I was confused by the dates of the 'streamliner Phoebe Snow'
> because I collect vintage clothing and I could see by the clothing on Phoebe
> Snow that the era in these postcards (which are later reprints) was about
> 1905 -- the era of the pigeon-breasted clothing women wore. When I saw the
> answers about the Phoebe Snow arriving after WWII I wasn't sure I understood
> this all. 

Phoebe was the DL&W's "mascot" in advertising from about 1900 to 1917. The
train ran from 1949 to 1961 and was briefly resurrected by the EL in the
60's (1963?) and finally had its last run in November of 1966.

The character "Phoebe Snow" dressed in white to travel on "The Road of
Anthracite" (the DL&W) to illustrate how burning hard coal (anthracite) in
steam locomotives didn't get you so dirty when you traveled by passenger
train on the DL&W as on railroads which burned bituminous (coal) in their
steam locos which resulted in more soot blowing out of the loco's stack.

> Am I correct now in understanding that the Phoebe Snow thing was just an ad
> campaign ca. 1905-1910 (or for what years?) but the train called the Phoebe
> Snow did not appear until after WWII? Was it just the engine that was called
> Phoebe Snow, or was the whole train properly called The Phoebe Snow? 

The whole train was the Phoebe Snow. "Route of the Phoebe Snow" also appeared
on the sides of DL&W boxcars for many years.

Henry


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