P&LE Railroad - Fogg Paintings

Following the completion of his MONON paintings Fogg was enjoying considerable fame as a rail artist accepting commissions from individuals, railroads, railroad authors and corporations for paintings, postcards, book illustrations, and greeting cards.

In the mid-1950’s the New York Central commissioned Fogg to complete a series of Pittsburgh & Lake Erie themed paintings for display in railroad offices and board room. The P&LE was for many years a small but highly profitable regional railroad serving the steel industry in the greater Pittsburgh, PA – Youngstown, OH area. Although the railroad operated independently under its own corporate identity, the P&LE was in fact an operating subsidiary of the much larger New York Central system. In its heyday the P&LE flourished carrying coal, coke, iron ore, limestone and other commodities involved in steel making as well as being a bridge route for traffic originating beyond its terminus points. With the shrinking of the American steel industry in the latter part of the 20th century resulting in the so-called RUST BELT, the P&LE was soon deemed expendable and ceased formal operations in 1992. What trackage still exists today in spots is now part of CSX.

Like Fogg’s earlier MONON work the P&LE paintings were also made into postcards in standard size chrome format again by the Curt Teich Corporation in Chicago. Production was just over a decade in length spanning the years 1957-1968. The message half of each postcard is imprinted with the logo of the NYC and a description of the subject content of the painting. The postcards, like their MONON predecessors, are unnumbered but contain the Curteich production numbers providing for an identity and year of production.

While the early focus was on the P&LE and its industries and service area, some additional postcards in the series feature scenes in other parts of the New York Central system.

Towards the end of his P&LE production, Fogg also accepted another railroad commission from the Missouri-Kansas-Texas for similar artwork. While I now believe my P&LE/NYC checklist to be complete, I have added four additional postcards featuring the MKT effort. Very similar in format to the P&LE postcards their numbering indicates manufacture was 1965-1968. One of the four postcards in my collection is postally used with the stamp obscuring the production number. If and when ever identified, a correction will be made to the listing. I am also less certain at this time as to how many other MKT scenes may exist. More may yet come to light. I have also seen three Christmas themed P&LE images that may have been originally intended for uses other than corporate paintings. Their production into postcards was by Curt Teich but in their P Series numbering format and date 1957-1959.