Mail by Rail: The fast trains and elite crews of the Railway Mail Service
Fast Mail
Longtime Trains Editor David P. Morgan rides the Burlington Route's Fast Mail between Chicago and Omaha. Adapted from a booklet published by the Burlington in 1959 on the occasion of the train's 75th anniversary. With a sidebar by William W. Kratville on Council Bluffs Transfer, where Midwestern roads turned mail over to the Union Pacific.
By By David P. Morgan
The Few, the Proud
Retired Railway Post Office clerks, members of an elite corps of public servants, recall the adventure, hardships, and satisfaction of working on mail cars out of Kansas City. ONLINE EXTRA: See films shot by one of the retired clerks of mail trains on the Santa Fe in 1967.
By By Peter A. Hansen
Online video extra: Santa Fe mail trains in 1967
In the Fall 2006 issue of Classic Trains, we look at the fast trains and elite crews of the Railway Mail Service. These video clips are from 8mm moves shot by mail-car clerk G. W. Corben on the Santa Fe in 1967, as a number of Railway Post Office routes were making their last runs.
Mrs. Adkins Meets No. 51
In a series of photographs by Richard Steinheimer, the postmistress of Caliente, Calif., makes the daily exchange of mailbags with SP's San Joaquin Daylight in 1966.
By By Richard Steinheimer
RPO Rainbow
An all-color gallery of Railway Post Office cars, from tiny trolleys to 85-foot streamliners.
By By Robert S. McGonigal
Tales from a Coatesville Mail Helper
Bert Pennypacker recalls his first job: slinging mailbags at Coatesville, Pa., in the early 1940's. With a sidebar on the two biggest mail-haulers, PRR and NYC.
By By Bert Pennypacker
Classics Today: Snag that Bag!
Museums and tourist lines keep RPO history alive through static displays and pouch-catching demonstrations.
By By Karl Zimmermann
Racing into History
In 1967-68, historian Don Hofsommer recorded on film the final months of a classic Railway Post Office run, the Duluth & St. Paul RPO on the Great Northern's Badger and Gopher.
By By Don L. Hofsommer
Night Train Stowaway
On the Chicago & North Western in 1955, an 8-year-old boy stayed up all night to ride a mail car (and the locomotive) with his RPO-clerk father.
By By David A. Thompson
Boston to Seattle for 3 Cents
How a letter would have crossed the country in 1947.
By By David A. Thompson
Big Emmas over the Red River
Color photos of a New Jersey railfan's 1952 trip to Kentucky, where he bagged Louisville & Nashville M-1 2-8-4's crossing a spectacular trestle. ONLINE EXTRA: See movie clips of L&N Big Emmas on Kentucky Derby trains from the Herron Rail Video archives.
By By Ed Theisinger
Online video extra: L&N M-1 2-8-4's in action
In 1956, several L&N M-1 2-8-4's worked special passenger trains for the Kentucky Derby at Louisville. It was the last year for steam on Derby Day trains, and the only time "Big Emma's" were used. These video clips of Big Emmas on Derby trains is from the program "Reflections of American Railroading: The Action-Packed 16mm Films of Dr. Howard Blackburn" from Herron Rail Video.
Photo Section
Diesels on the Monon, Delaware & Hudson, Wabash, Grand Trunk Western, and New York Central in color. Lehigh Valley diesel and Jersey Central steam in color at Aldene, N.J. Southern Railway's diesel motor cars in color. IC steam in black-and-white and color. A black-and-white gallery of Sydney & Louisburg steam.
By by Jim Shaughnessy.
Bird's-Eye View
Jacksonville (Fla.) Terminal in the 1940's.
Online extra: Jacksonville Terminal train chart
Daily trains in and out of Jacksonville Terminal, 1946. Reprinted from June 1978 Trains magazine.
One Day at . . . North Platte, Nebr.
Run-through power predominates on a May 1970 morning
Departments
Editor's Page
Final Night for the Fast Mail
Fallen Flags Remembered
New York, Ontario & Western
True Color
N&W 611 at Iaeger, W.Va., in 1959
A Classic Year
1959: Motive-power Transition Continues
The Way It Was
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, by Edward J. Prendergast a€Ã