Last Log

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This last log is about Bob's love -- steam trains. The first batch are from Steamtown, Scranton, PA, including the trolley, and the second batch of photos are from Strasbourg, PA, Amish country where some earlier photos were taken out of the train window. So far in our travels, Bob and I have ridden 20 different trains, almost all steam, some trains several times.

The PHOEBE SNOW ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN -- (from Wikipedia)
Rail travel around the year 1900 was not pleasant. After a long trip on a coal-powered train, travelers would frequently emerge covered in black soot. The exception to that rule were locomotives powered by anthracite, a clean-burning form of coal. The Lackawanna owned vast anthracite mines in Pennsylvania, and could legitimately claim that their passengers' clothes would still look clean after a long trip.
To promote this fact, their advertising department created Phoebe Snow, a young New York socialite, and a frequent passenger of the Lackawanna. For reasons never explained, Miss Snow often travelled to Buffalo, New York, always wearing a white dress.
The first ad featured the image of Phoebe and a short poem:
Says Phoebe Snow about to go upon a trip to Buffalo,
"My gown stays white from morn till night upon the Road of Anthracite."
Phoebe soon became one of the United States' most recognized advertising mascots. During World War I, anthracite was needed for the war effort, and its use on railroads was prohibited, thus ending her career, but her legend remained alive among railroad fans.

For photo people: The most popular camera used by Travel Bloggers is a Panasonic Lumix (though they're now using a somewhat different name, Panasonic's upgrade I guess. That's my secondary camera. The 5th most popular camera, a Nikon D80 SLR, is my primary camera.

Thanks for following Bob and me on our journey this year!

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Photos

Sterling family plaques
Two Harry E. Sterling's, one died in 1905 and one in 1984, plus two more Sterlings

Phoebe Snow
Photo taken from a movie we were watching.

Bob's special train
Bob is almost sure that this is the very same train his Granddaddy took him on when he was a little kid. Long story.

Big wow
This was in the Strasbourg Museum.