Rockford & Interurban Streetcar 217, Rockton-State Line

Unused.

The picture

A single-truck city streetcar, number 217, standing on a track beside an unpaved road; one young man in a uniform cap and long coat stands on the front step, another stands on the ground beside the car's side; the car has an open front vestibule, a clerestory roof, a trolley pole reaching to the wire, and destination boards reading HIGHLAND on the roof end and ROCKTON-STATE along the roof side; evergreen trees behind.

• Printing: real photo · monochrome
• Lettering in the picture: HIGHLAND (end destination board, first letter partly hidden); ROCKTON-STATE (roof-side destination board); 217 (on the dash and twice on the side); [ROCK]FORD & INTERURBAN RY. CO. (side panel, start hidden behind the standing man)
• Condition: none visible on the card; the photograph itself is grainy and soft, with a pale washed-out area at left

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: POST CARD · PLACE STAMP HERE · CORRESPONDENCE HERE · NAME AND ADDRESS HERE
• Stamp box: PLACE STAMP HERE (with a small triangle at each corner)
• Condition: clean, bright white stock; no toning

Who

• No one is named on the card.

When

How	Date	Basis
card-features	after 1907-03-01	divided back: allowed in the US from 1 Mar. 1907

The readings

Part	Status	Readers
signature	in message

Uncertain readings:

• front, side lettering: [ROCK]FORD & INTERURBAN RY. CO. — the first letters are hidden behind the man on the step; 'FORD & INTERURBAN RY. CO.' is legible
• front, printing: real photo (or modern reprint) — the back is bright white and unaged, with the same plain outlined 'POST CARD' design as pc-052; this is likely a later copy print of an old photograph

Reader's note: Unused, with no writing. The back is printed identically to pc-052's, which suggests the two came from the same modern reprint set.

Scans: Rockford & Interurban Streetcar 217, Rockton-State Line - 01.png and Rockford & Interurban Streetcar 217, Rockton-State Line - 02.png (sha256 66b126c13a60…, 8e60fa9a09e6…). Media: front — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [7, 0, 1074, 672]; back — edge not found (the card is as white as the scanner bed): left whole, checked by eye