Mr. Elmer Oberholtzer lived on a Rural Delivery Route outside the borough of Ephrata in Lancaster County, PA.

Ephrata, northeast of the city of Lancaster, is still surrounded by rich agricultural operations and businesses.

In March of 1919, Elmer was given a postcard photograph.

Although addressed and stamped, the postcard was never mailed.

I am confident that Elmer received the postcard as it was given to me with other postcards of the extended Oberholtzer family.

The postcard was made, however, circa 1906 – so there is some mystery about why the postcard was dated in 1919.

It is possible that the “3.19.19” is not a date – perhaps a postcard club member number or an alpha-numerical code for the initials, “C. S. S.”

           +           +           +           +           +           + 

The face of the postcard bears a photograph of the “R. & C. Railroad Depot” in “Ephrata, Pa.”

This is the Reading and Columbia Railroad, one iteration and subsidiary of the great conglomerate, the Reading Railroad Company.

This rail line connected towns and communities in an arc across northern Lancaster County – with a significant depot in Lititz PA – before reaching Columbia on the Susquehanna River.

https://www.abandonedrails.com/reading-and-columbia-railroad

Columbia, PA was a junction of the R. and C. Railroad with the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad that carried passengers and freight across the Commonwealth and to points west.

In this photograph, we see a train stopped at the Depot in Ephrata.

I believe that the train is headed toward Columbia.

This depot has been preserved as the Visitor Center in Ephrata – there has been no train service since 1981.

https://wanderlog.com/place/details/2095461/ephrata-visitors-center-old-train-station

           +           +           +           +           +           + 

Because there is no place for a message on the “undivided back”, the sender inscribed a short message on the margin of the face.

The amusing line purports to be written by “the train”.

The train admonishes, “You know you will have to keep off the track”.

Elmer seems to have appreciated the photograph and the sentiment as the postcard was preserved in good condition for more than a century.