Sunday, March 4, 2012

A Small Collection Of Old Railroad Matchbooks

My father-in-law used to work as a traffic manager for the West Side Lumber Company back in the 1940's and 50's, and sales representatives from the various railroads would give him things, hoping to encourage him to route West Side's cars over their lines. We came across a number of vintage matchbooks from an assortment of railroads in an old coffee can, so I thought I would just share them with you today. This little box held matchbooks from the Cotton Belt Route:

Here we have Illinois Central, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway - "The Chessie System":
Rock Island, Chicago and NorthWestern System, and Erie Railroad:
The Cotton Belt Route (from inside that box, above), and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad:
Toledo, Peoria and Western, and The Wabash (perhaps you have heard the old song "The Wabash Cannonball"?):

My husband is a retired railroad man, and we love our RR collectibles!

5 comments:

Tina Dawn said...

Those are all fantastic! What lucky railroad collectors you are. I love old matchbooks! Love T

Poppy said...

Oh wow! What an incredible collection! I am so glad I found your blog through Mockingbird Hill. I'm very much looking forward to following your interesting postings!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Andy's Attic said...

Such a super collection!! And from your own family makes it a treasure. Love the Chessie as I love cats...
Annette

Sponge Curlers and Cupcakes said...

Oh these are great Heidi Ann! I love finding old matchbooks - they often tell such funny stories just by the art on them. I found a couple of fairly risque one's from bar's here in SacTown among my dad's things. I also love the old advertising ashtrays. Those were the "good ol days" of "pocketing" ashtrays from favorite places you visited! Nice memories to start the day. Thank you!
~Vickie~

yosemite faith said...

love these! of course my favorite is with the chessie kitty.