BurlingtonBulletin

No.B

BurlingtonBulletinOfficial Publication of the

Burlington Route Historical SocietyP0 . Box 456, LaGrange, Illinois 60525An Illinois Not-For-Profit Corporation

Directors

Anthony E . Doyce, Al Hoffman, James R . Miller, James Sandrin,F. Hol Wagner, Jr.

Officers

James R . Miller PresidentDave SartherMembership SecretaryAl Kamm, JrRecording SecretaryA1 Hoffman Treasurer

BURLINGTON BULLETIN is published on an irregular scheduleand is included with membership in the Burlington RouteHistorical Society. Regular membership is the society is $30 .00per year, and sustaining membership is $60.00 per year. Singlecopies and some back issues of the BURLINGTON BULLETINare available. Dealer inquiries are also invited .

B Burlington Bulletin solicits material for publication,scrip both manuscripts and photographs. Materials arestanc submitted with the understanding that no monetarytion. compensation will be paid upon publication . Sendrelati material for publication to : Editor, Burlington17111 Bulletin, PO. Box 456, LaGrange, IL 60525 .

Copyright 1983 by the Burlington Route Historical Society. All rightsreserved .

F. Hol Wagner, Jr Editor

The Otto Perry, Joe Schick and Van Patten photographs used inthis issue are from the collection of the Denver Public Library West-ern History Department (abbreviated DPLWHD in photo credits)and are reproduced with the permission of the library .

On the Cover :

The cover illustrations depict several aspects of RailwayMail Service on the Burlington . In addition to an RPO cancel-lation and line drawings of a catcher arm and the nation'sfirst true RPO car, the photos show a mail train catching apouch on the fly at Sandwich, III ., around 1905, and sortingmail in an RPO car on the Chicago-Kansas City run in the1890's. Note the Pintsch gas lamps and the skylights abovethem in the roof of the clerestory .- Left, Bernard Corbin col-lection; right, BN collection

2

anti-ider-lica-enceBox

Burlington

Route

From the EditorIncluded in this issue dealing with railway mail service on the

Burlington should be a little something for almost everyone . Nearlyall periods are dealt with, from 1860 through 1970, and specific subjectmatter includes equipment, operations, personnel and even RPOpostmarks. In addition to numerous exterior and interior views ofRPO cars through the years, there are action photos of trains fromthe steam, motor car and diesel eras . Plans included range fromdetailed scale drawings to diagrams and cover wooden, steel andstainless steel equipment .

Special credit is due to those who provided some of the more vitalelements of this issue . The Mobile Post Office Society, headqurteredin Omaha, kindly provided us with the all-time listing of BurlingtonRPO routes . More data on MPOS can be found on page 17 . RPOpostmarks come primarily from Gerald Edgar and from my owncollection . Society member Bill Glick loaned us a number of RPOcar drawings he has made . Due to space limitations, we have repro-duced some of the drawings in a rather small size ; the originals areall HO scale and will be the major portion of a book covering Burling-ton passenger equipment on which Bill is now working . Rostermaterial-data on builders, dates of construction, dates of conver-sion and dispositions-comes from a car-by-car roster of Q passengerequipment prepared over a period of years by Joe Douda . Withoutthis roster, there would be countless unanswered questions aboutBurlington passenger equipment. And, of course, Bernard Corbincame up with material unavailable anywhere else . We are particu-larly honored to be able to publish Bernard's very first railroadphoto-a real gem taken in December 1920 in his hometown, NewMarket, Iowa .

By singling out the above individuals, we certainly do not meanto slight any of the others who also contributed invaluable material .Our sincere thanks to all of you .

This issue began as a suggestion by Al Hoffman and initially metwith some resistance on my part because I didn't feel we would beable to turn up enough material for a thorough coverage of the subject .Material literally came out of the woodwork . For example, afterfinding drawings of the standard RPO catcher arm, we began look-ing for companion drawings of a mail crane, but to no avail . Then,while attending the April 30 society meeting in Red Oak, severalof us were rummaging through a number of condemned B&B carsin the yard at Pacific Junction when what should appear in a pileof "trash"-you guessed it! The result appears on page 20 .

Material WantedWe are in search of material of any sort on the following topics for

use in future Bulletins : D-4-A and D-4-B 2-8-0's; C&S/FW&DB-4R12-8-0's; Aeolus ; Creston, Iowa ; 9900 ; multi-story depots/divi-sion offices at Aurora (Ill . ), Lincoln, McCook, Alliance, Casper andSheridan ; World War II aircraft parts cars (fuselage containers onflats and "high-cube" wooden boxcars for wings) ; all BurlingtonE-units; A-2 4-4-0's, all Burlington business cars ; SD45's 516-530;M-4 and M-4-A 2-10-4's ; refrigerator cars, and stock cars .

Burlington Bulletin

caLoenooAND

SOUTHERN

No. 8-Second Quarter 1983

NewsSpring meet held in Red Oak

Over 50 people attended the first spring meeting of the society,held April 30 in Red Oak, Iowa, to honor long-time Q fan and historianBernard Corbin . Through the day there were railroadiana and modelexhibits at the Holiday Inn, a tour of railroad equipment displayedat Dodge Park in Council Bluffs, and perhaps of greatest interest,tours of Corbin's home and famed 0 gauge model railroad .

At an evening banquet, Corbin's 76th birthday three days earlierwas commemorated with a cake, and the guest of honor was thenpresented a brass lifetime membership card from BRHS, a plaquefrom the society in appreciation of his years of effort in collecting,

Below : Society members visited railroad exhibits at Dodge Park in Coun-cil Bluffs, including Q waycar, K-4 Ten-Wheeler 915 and lounge carOmaha Club .-Hol WagnerBottom: Members Al Holck (far left) and Al Hoffman (glasses) discussHolck's Q railroadiana with other attendees . Holck is completing a bookon the Burlington's 100 years in Lincoln .-Hol Wagner

Second Quarter 1983

For current mailing addresses and e-mail addressfor directors, officers, editors, or coordinators,

please check the society web page at :www.burlingtonroute .com,

or write us at PO . Box 456, LaGrange, IL 60525 .Annual membership in the society is $30 per year.

preserving and publishing Q history, and honorary citizenship fromWest Chicago, the "home of the Burlington ."

Following the presentations, John Brunner of Omaha entertainedthe audience with a Burlington slide presentation covering steam,motor car and diesel operations in the Omaha-Lincoln area .

Plans are now being completed for the society's annual meeting,to be held this October in Burlington, Iowa .

Below : Rod "Bat" Masterson and Gerald Edgar check out features ofone of Masterson's kitbashed Q freight cars . Members Jim Sandrin andDave Flood also displayed scratchbuilt, kitbashed or superdetailedmodels.-Hol WagnerBottom : Bernard Corbin poses with plaque presented him by BRHS inappreciation of his efforts in collecting, preserving and publishing 0 photosand data . Flanking Corbin are Hol Wagner (left) and BRHS President JimMiller.-Al Hoffman

3

Postal workers in Chicago load mail into stainless steel RPO car Silver Post for an overnight run to Omaha on the Fast Mail . - CB&Q photo, StateHistorical Society of Missouri collection

Railway Mail Service on the BurlingtonE ARLY IN 1859 the Burlington-backed Hannibal & St . Joseph's

Railroad succeeded in completing a 206-mile rail connectionbetween its namesake cities, thus linking the Mississippi and MissouriRivers across the state of Missouri with the nation's furthest westwardrailhead .

The next year an event occurred which brought national prominenceto the Hannibal & St. Joe and forever linked the Burlington withthe transportation of the U .S . mail . At 12 :20 p.m. on April 4, 1860,a CB&Q train arrived in Quincy from Chicago with the first messengerfrom the East bringing mail to be turned over to the new Pony Expressin St . Joe . Then, as Richard Overton relates in Burlington Route,A History of the Burlington Lines (Alfred A . Knopf, Inc ., New York,1965) :

"Captain Taylor of the Quincy ferry got him across the river inexactly six minutes ; the Quincy and Palmyra Railroad [a subsidiaryof the H&StJ] sped him to the junction with the Hannibal and St .Joseph at Palmyra in just twenty-three minutes more . There a specialtrain with a single car was waiting to make the dash westward . Addi-son Clark was at the throttle of the `Missouri' ; his only instructionswere to make a record run that would last 50 years . This he pro-ceeded to do by covering the 192 miles to St . Joseph in a little overfour hours ; total time of the messenger from river to river was fourhours and fifty-one minutes, including stops . Considering that theHannibal's roadbed was hardly seasoned, that its rails were light,its grades abrupt, and its curves sharp, it was something of a miraclethat the train made it at all . In St . Joseph, an immense crowd wason hand to watch delivery of the mail sacks from the rail vav to thePony Express rider, who dashed for the ferry and on to his ten-milestint in the saddle . Nothing could have been done to bring the Han-nibal and St . Joseph more into the limelight as the farthest westernextension of the nation's rail network ."

Though the Civil War and completion of the first transcontinentaltelegraph line abruptly killed the Pony Express in less than two years .4

By Hol Wagner

the overland mail to points beyond St . Joseph continued to movewest over the Hannibal & St . Joe for transfer to stage coaches atthe Missouri River. Unfortunately, as noted above by Professor Over-ton, the H&StJ was anything but a high speed mainline railroad,and the daily train frequently arrived in St . Joe too late for the overlandmail to be sorted in the post office and still make the tight connec-tions with westbound stages, causing a full day's delay in the forward-ing of correspondence .

One concerned observer of this situation was William A . Davis,a Democrat who served as St . Joseph's postmaster from 1855 untilhe lost this patronage position with the advent of Lincoln's Republicanadministration in the spring of 1861 . So highly regarded was Davis,however, that his successor, J .L. Bittinger, placed him in charge ofthe overland mail with the title of assistantt postmaster .

Frustrated with the frequent missed connections due to the mailhaving to be sorted in the St . Joseph post office after its arrival fromthe east, Davis conceived the idea of sorting the mail in transit onthe H&StJ between Quincy and St . Joseph .

Davis communicated his idea to Bittinger, who, quite impressed,forwarded it on to Washington on May 23, 1862 . The Post OfficeDepartment promptly dispatched Special Agent A .B. Waller westto Missouri to determine the idea's practicality . Convinced, Wallerrecommended the concept be adopted on an experimental basis, andon Jul% 7, 1862, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair ordered theestablishment of a railway post office on the Hannibal & St . Joseph .

Davis took his plans to Hannibal to see about having the cars spe-cially constructed for the service . He talked with Master Car BuilderGeorge Nettleton and Car Repair Superintendent H .C. Whiting atthe H&StJ shops, and they agreed that two cars could be easily andquickly built . With the approval of H&StJ General SuperintendentHayward, work on the pair got under way at once .As H.C. Whiting recalled in 1884, "I immediately drew the plans

and proceeded to erect the cars, which were . . . 30 feet long withBurlington Bulletin

side and no end doors . The cases for letters and papers were con-veniently arranged, and were nearly as good as the present style ofpostal car, with the exception of fine finished workmanship, whichwe wisely omitted until they proved successful. Mr. Davis visitedthe shops frequently during the construction of the cars and madesuggestions from time to time in regard to the design of the severalparts of the interior arrangements ."

But Davis was anxious to get the service started, and, as he toldAssistant Postmaster General G . W. McLellan in an Aug . 5, 1862,letter : "Finding that the mail cars had not been arranged accordingto promises made to Mr. Walter, instead of going to Quincy [to startthe service], I proceeded to Hannibal and succeeded in getting thecars temporarily fixed, in which (though with some inconvenience)I think the work can be done until the new cars are ready ."

But even before the two "temporarily fixed" baggage cars couldbe sent up to Quincy to be placed in service, Davis himself wentto Quincy, determined to begin the great experiment. So it was thaton July 28, 1862, the first U .S. mail was sorted in transit . W ILGordon, who was a train baggageman on the H&StJ, later recalledthe inconvenience of that first trip : "I arranged my car for him [Davis]to so distribute the mail by placing, re-arranging my baggage to makeroom for him so to do : further . . . I swept the floor of the car, andon that trip he distributed his mail on the floor of the car . Soon afterhe had a temporary case placed in one end of the car." This latterwas one of the cars then being "temporarily fixed" in Hannibal, andas Car Repair Superintendent Whiting remembered, "I put up acounter and temporary case in one end of the baggage car, whichwas used by either Mr. Davis or -Fred Harvey or John Patton in thefirst attempt to distribute mail matter in transit ."

Fred Harvey (yes, the Fred Harvey of Harvey House and SantaFe dining car fame), John M . Patton and WE . Reeves were U .S .Mail route agents on the H&StJ who became the nation's first RPOclerks when the service began .

The problems experienced by the H&StJ in getting the mail acrossMissouri on time are exemplified by the fact that on the first west-bound run, the train-and some accounts say the mail car itself-derailed, delaying arrival of the train in St . Joe . But since the overlandmail had been sorted enroute, it was carried directly across theMissouri River to its stage coach connections in plenty of time . Thenew service was an immediate success .

John G . Prosser, a Hannibal & St. Joe baggageman between 1859and 1862, remembered in 1885 that, "There were many difficultiesto be overcome in getting cars properly arranged to facilitate the distri-bution enroute . The first cars had boxes arranged across one endof the car with names of stations from Hannibal to Saint Josephpainted thereon . This did not satisfy Mr . Davis, as he wished to distri-bute the immense overland mail before reaching Saint Joseph . So,after a while, cars were sent out from Hannibal which were arrangedwith distributing boxes at each end of the room ; one end as beforefor local stations, and the other end for points north, south and westof Saint Joseph . I believe I first suggested to Mr. Davis the idea ofhaving the boxes arranged in oval shape, as being more convenientto distribute, and also as an economy in space, room at that timebeing an important consideration ."

The first two all-new RPO cars, H&StJ 1 and 2, were completedby the Hannibal shops in August 1862 and immediately placed inservice .The H&StJ roadbed continued to be a problem . Addison Clark,

the engineer on that first record-setting Pony Express run back in1860, recalled in 1905 : "The track on the Hannibal and Saint Josephwas very rough and the cars, being very short, got off the track quiteoften . Mr. H. W, Farley, the Master Mechanic, put two iron rodsalong the top of the car for the postal clerks to hang onto while thecar was off the track and it proved to be an excellent safety appliance ."

This initial experimental RPO route lasted only a year or two,however, "on account of having no money to pay the employees, andthe Saint Joseph Post Office objecting to have their pay charged tothe office when they were running on the road as postal clerks," accord-ing to Charles E . Macy, an employee of the St. Joe post office atthe time.

Consequently, the claim to first official U.S. Mail RPO route goesto the C&NW's Chicago and Clinton, Iowa, route inaugurated on Aug .28, 1864 . In 1867, however, the Quincy, Hannibal and St . Joseph routeSecond Quarter 1983

This photo, which appeared in a 1929 publication commemorating the 70th anniver-sary of the H&StJ in Brookfield, Mo ., purports to show the first mail car. It mightpossibly be a latter-day view of one of the temporarily outfitted baggage cars usedin July and August 1862, but we are unable to confirm this . - State Historical Societyof Missouri collection

PNNIe~

Z JUL 289 AM1962

CENTENNIAL OF U . S .MAIL SORTED IN TRANSIT

1862 - 1962

For the Century of Progress Exposition in 1932-34, the Q decided to build a replicaof the first true H&StJ RPO car. The work was done at Aurora and was completedin time for the Exposition's last season, under an AFE dated Feb . 27, 1934. Thecar used for the project had been built in December 1871 as H&StJ 42' coach D .It subsequently carried this sequence of CB&Q numbers : 90133, 211354 (1904renumbering), 9004 and 250912 (applied 4/30/29) . All but 9004 were company servicenumbers. As 9004, the coach was used to shuttle cement plant workers to and fromtheir jobs in Hannibal . In rebuilding, the car was stripped to the frame, and 12'was removed from the middle . As rebuilt, the car featured mule hide roofing andyellow paint with gold leaf lettering . After years of display use, it was donated, alongwith restored 4-4-0 35, to the Patee House Museum in St . Joseph in 1969. Aboveis the car before rebuilding, seen at Galesburg in 1930 ; below, the replica mailcar on display at Des Moines in 1938 . - Above, Bernard Corbin ; below, Van Pattenphoto, DPLWHD

5

6

was reinstated, becoming the first official RPO route on the Burling-ton lines . It was followed in 1869 by the connecting Chicago-Quincyroute on the Q proper and by a run between Peoria and Burlington .

From Burlington's 1866-67 annual report, we learn that in June186 7 the Q had a total of 88 passenger cars, of which 29 were bag-gage, mail and express cars . Of these 29, nine were equipped withRPO compartments-five in cars with six-wheel trucks and four infour-wheel-trucked cars-even though the Q had no official RPOroutes until 1869.

By 1877, RPO routes linked Chicago with Kansas City and Coun-cil Bluffs, Council Bluffs with Kansas City, and Peoria with Galesburg(this latter one as the final leg of an Indianapolis-Galesburg route) .As the railroad expanded, new RPO routes were added almost asquickly as new passenger train service commenced .

In 1884 the Post Office Department felt that the steadily increas-ing volume of mail across the country, primarily from east to west,had reached the point where the operation of a series of westboundall-mail trains from coast to coast was warranted . Interchange wasstill in its infancy, so separate but connecting trains would be runon as many roads as necessary to span the country . Since 1875 theNew York Central & Hudson River/Lake Shore & Michigan Southernhad been operating a Fast Mail train over the New York-Chicagoportion, and the Union Pacific/Central Pacific "transcontinental"route was the only logical choice for the western end of the run . Andsince the UP originated in Council Bluffs, across the Missouri Riverfrom Omaha, the Post Office had but to find a road to move themail from Chicago to Council Bluffs .

Postmaster General Walter Q . Gresham, Assistant PostmasterGeneral Frank Hatton and Railway Mail Service SuperintendentCaptain James E . White canvassed the Chicago roads for a likelycandidate . None of the railroads wanted the task, for it seemed allbut impossible to take the eastern mail arriving in Chicago at 12 :35a.m . and forward it to Council Bluffs, some 500 miles distant, intime to connect with the UP mail train departing at 7 :59 p .m. thatsame day . The monetary incentive offered by the Post Office simplywasn't enough to interest anyone, and the prestige of holding an exclu-sive contract to move all mail between Chicago and the MissouriRiver wouldn't pay the bills .

The Burlington, as previously noted, was already operating RPO'son the Chicago-Council Bluffs route, but the road just wasn't inter-

Above, an often-published and heavily retouched view ofthe Fast Mail with two 60' white RPO cars, taken about 1888 .The locomotive, 4-4-0 78, had been built by the Q in 1884 ;it became class A-5 1078 in 1898, was renumbered 462 in1904 and was retired in 1909 . The first mail car is the 908,built at Aurora in April 1884 and apparently wrecked -common fate of many early mail cars - as it was replacedby a second 908 in December 1893 . The other car, 914, wasbuilt at Aurora in May 1888, became the 2184 in 1904, wasconverted to baggage car 1321 in 1916 and was finally scrap-ped at Eola on June 3, 1952 . - BN collection

At right is white RPO car 907, a sister of the 908 above .This 60'91/2" car was turned out by the Aurora shops inApril 1884, a month after the Fast Mail was inaugurated .It became the 2213 in 1904, was converted to baggage-mailcar 1815 around 1915, and entered company service as the250644 in 1930 . - BN collection ; original donated in 1932by Jacob Krill to Aurora Historical Society

ested in what the Post Office Department was proposing : an exclusivecontract to operate a solid mail train from Chicago to Council Bluffs,499 miles, six days a week, in just 15 hours and 50 minutes . That'san average speed of 311/2 miles per hour! At that time, Q train No .1, the Denver and Pacific Express, took 20/2 hours to cover the sameroute

But the Post Office officials persisted . Burlington was their choicefor the job, and they kept up the pressure until Q Vice PresidentThomas Potter finally relented on March 10, 1884, and signed anagreement to operate the train . Queried by Postmaster GeneralGresham as to when the railroad would be ready to begin service,Potter calmly replied, "Tomorrow morning, General ."

The very first Fast Mail train left Chicago, as Potter promised,at 3 :00 a .m. the next morning, March 11, 1884 . Behind the 4-4-0on the point were just three cars : one full of mail from New Yorkwhich had arrived at midnight, a carload of Chicago newspapers,and a business car carrying the Postmaster General, his party andBurlington's Potter. The engineer, a man named Paradise, wasinstructed to "open her up and get to Aurora as fast as God willlet you ." He made the 37-mile rune in just 43 minutes, and a tradi-tion was begun .The Fast Mail engendered legends almost from the outset . The

Burlington never had a better public relations tool, and the railroadused it wisely. At the time the train was inaugurated, Burlington wasjust beginning to paint its passenger equipment Pullman green insteadof the previously standard yellow . To set the Fast Mail cars apart,the Q followed the precedent set back in 1875 by the New York Cen-tral lines and painted the mail cars solid white . The full road name,Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, appeared on the letterboards, flankedby the names of the terminal cities, Chicago and Omaha . "The FastMail" was lettered centrally on the car sides below the windows, whilecoats of arms were painted at the outer ends of the sides, represent-ing the states on the Fast Mail's route: Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska .(The train always operated through to Omaha, although until 196 7,the RPO actually terminated on the Iowa side of the Missouri Riverat Council Bluffs .) This striking paint scheme unfortunately lastedonly about a dozen years, and by the late 1890's nearly all the carswore the more sedate Pullman green .

Speed was a popular topic of discourse in the late 1800's, and Burl-ington mesmerized the public with the Fast Mail's dizzying pace .

Burlington Bulletin

Three Belpaire-boilered class M 4-4-0's were built in 1892-93for service on the Fast Mail . Rogers-built No . 550 wasdisplayed at the Columbian Exposition in 1893 before enter-ing service . As noted in the text below, it was then assignedto Creston and worked the western end of the train's run .Above, it races north from Pacific Jct . to Council Bluffs witha four-car Fast Mail on Sept . 6, 1897. At right, No . 612, thefirst class M (built at Aurora in 1892), pauses with the FastMail at the Galesburg depot for a portrait in 1893 . The classM engines were reclassed A-6 in 1898 and joined that yearby six identical sisters . But by 1900 their days on the FastMail were over. - Both, Bernard Corbin collection

No less than 10 times between 1884 and 1897, the schedule of theFast Mail was shortened, and the public responded with awe . FastMail engineers were idolized by a - whole generation of women andyoungsters .

In the booklet Fast Mail, The First 75 Years, published by theBurlington in 1959, Trains magazine Editor David P. Morgan describedthe public fascination with the train :

Rival roads, jealous of the prestige that went with the mailcontract and aware that more and more mail was being moved,began to race the Burlington to Council Bluffs by setting upcompetitive schedules to win the favor of the Post Office Depart-ment. And just as often as the attempt was made, Burlingtonfought back with faster schedules-and still arrived on time,virtually every time . Iowa newspapers, attuned to the publicexcitement attached to the Fast Mail, began reporting the trainand its exploits in a manner reserved today for moon rockets .On Christmas Eve 1894 the Ottumwa Daily Courier breathlesslyreported one speedup in which "when the train reached Chari-ton it was 19 minutes behind time but began to redeem itselffrom that point westward. When it reached Creston quite acrowd had gathered at the depot to witness the movement andsee how it came out . The stop there consumed one minuteand three seconds during which time the mail for that placewas delivered and engine 550 with Engineer Kelley at the throt-tle was hitched on . A pusher helped to give the train momen-tum and she seemed to be a thing of life as she moved in heronward course . The train scored a minute between Crestonand Cromwell making the distance, 6 miles, in as manyminutes."

As readers clamored for more, eager to champion their ownrailroad, the press virtually camped on the right of way .

There was scorn for a delay, as when the Chicago Recordarchly noted that "six more minutes were dropped by a bungledjob in taking water."

Second Quarter 1983

There was sympathy for the victims of speed : "At Biggsvillea horse attempted, at the last moment, to cross just ahead ofthe train . He figured wrongly though, and when last seen hewas skimming through space . . . his spirit had flitted to horseheaven."

There was praise and wonderment expressed over theengines: "A large class M never working more smoothly . . .No. 92 is the regular Fast Mail engine between Ottumwa andCreston and it seemed natural for her to get down to business. . . She is a perfect model of the locomotive builder's art . Ofcourse, the west enders are doubly proud of her for on herrapidity depends the reputation of the road . She is relied uponto make up any lost time which may be lost on any of thedivisions between Chicago and Creston, and she usually doesit . "

Enthusiasm was rampant in an age wherein the railroadsteam locomotive represented man's crowning technicalachievement, and it was richly deserved by the Fast Mail-and never more so, before or since, than on the climactic nightof February 17, 1899. That night the Mail was held in Chicago1 hour 17 minutes awaiting its connection from New York .Thereupon Burlington managed to cover the 500.2 miles intoCouncil Bluffs in a running time of 524 minutes, excludingstops .

Small wonder that in a day when there were sheet-musicsales instead of TV programs, Burlington sponsored a popularsong entitled "The Fast Mail" and a booklet called "How the'Greyhounds' of the Burlington Beat the Rising Moon ." Smallwonder, too, that the train's engineer was included in a boy'sbook, "Careers of Danger and Daring," or that in years tocome people in railroad towns were to say almost reverentlyof a retired engineman, "He ran the Mail."From the time of the Fast Mail's inauguration in 1884 until the

end of Railway Mail Service in the early 1970's, RPO operation

7

These four obviously posed views made by the Burlingtonin 1900 depict aspects of work aboard the Fast Mail .Clockwise from upper left, the photos show : loading mailsacks into the RPO car ; a clerk holding the catcher armsteady in preparation for catching a mail pouch on thefly ; sorting mail in the Pintsch gas-illuminated car, andtwo clerks pausing for what was captioned a "midnightsnack." A 1902 change in physical requirements for RPOclerks might have adversely affected one of these twosnacking clerks, but certainly not the other : The generalsuperintendent of the Railway Mail Service noted of thechange that, " . . .the increase in the requirement in heightfrom 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches and as to weightfrom 125 to 135 pounds, will give us a class of men muchbetter fitted for the arduous duties of a postal clerk .Experience has shown that men 5 feet 4 inches in heightare not tall enough to reach the top boxes in the lettercases in our standard cars, and one whose weight isbarely over 125 pounds is not heavy and strong enoughto do the heavy lifting sometimes required withoutbecoming too fatigued to continue to work on a long andtiresome run ." - BN collection

8

Working the Fast Mail

~g U R~\APR

Q 1909 pTR22 ,~R . P

During the 10-year period from 1891 to 1901, the Burling-ton regularly used Moguls in passenger service, thoughgenerally not on the Fast Mail. Ten-Wheelers and Atlan-tics eventually supplanted the 2-6-0's, and the Mogulswere relegated to lesser service . The top view here isof a day train passing through Sandwich, Ill ., around 1895 .On the point is H-2 2-6-0 530, a 68"-drivered Rogersproduct of 1893, similar in many respects to class M 4-4-0550 turned out by the same builder that same year. A60' full RPO car and three cars of storage mail, expressand baggage trail the Mogul's tender, followed by threecoaches .

The center view finds B&MR H-4 2-6-0 342 ready to departDenver Union Station with an eastbound in 1900 .Equipped with larger 72" drivers and piston valvecylinders, the 342 was an 1899 Baldwin product thatbecame Q 1228 in 1904 .

Finally, the bottom photo shows a westbound passengertrain on the B&MR in 1900, probably at McCook, Neb .Up front is brand new K-4 4-6-0 27, a product of B&MR'sown Havelock shops . In both of these B&MR photos,the first car is a member of the road's rather unusualfleet of 52' full RPO's which, because they had no enddoors, featured full length running boards along the bot-tom edge of the carbody and handrails fastened to thebottom edge of the letterboard, giving it a scalloped ap-pearance . The car in the center view is identifiable asB&MR 70, which was built at St . Joe in October 1888and became Q 2126 in 1904 . It was converted to baggagecar 1236 in 1912 and entered non-revenue service onDec. 21, 1935, as 0 250817 .

In all three of these photos, the RPO car is immediatelybehind the locomotive . A 1902 Post Office Departmentpublication notes that : "The department has arrangedwith many of the larger railroads to have a car betweenthe mail car and the locomotive, which it is hoped willlessen the number of serious accidents, the mail carhaving in the past been usually next to the tender, therebyreceiving the full shock of collision ." - Top and center,Bernard Corbin collection ; bottom, Colorado RailroadMuseum collection

Second Quarter 1983 9

changed very little . Passenger service extensions or cutbacks, fre-quency of service and competing railroads all influenced the selec-tion and continuation of RPO routes . And the same basic changesin American society which brought about the eventual demise ofpassenger train service were also responsible for the end of mailtransportation and sorting aboard such trains .

Shortly after the turn of the century, when RPO service was atits peak, there were some 1,300 routes nationally, with 63 of themon the Burlington . By 1951 the number had dropped to just over700 routes nationally, with but 29 on the Burlington . As more andmore mail-and passengers-moved over the nation's growing net-work of highways and airways, passenger trains and RPO routesbecame highly interdependent. Loss of mail contract usually servedto kill a marginal passenger train, and of course, discontinuance ofa mail-carrying train automatically eliminated an RPO .

A sure sign of the changes taking place was the 1949 switch fromthe long traditional and very specific title, Railway Mail Service,to the generic Postal Transportation Service . By 1961, only 262 RPOroutes remained, with a scant 14 on the Q and C&S/FW&D . ThePost Office Department, after numerous efficiency studies, had con-cluded that the country was growing at such a rapid pace that RPO'sand their cousins, Highway Post Offices, could not possibly cope withthe future .

Discontinuances of passenger service in the Sixties became publi-cized, bitter, even bizarre events . Burlington applied to drop the Lin-coln-Billings passenger service, trains 42-43, and the Denver-Billingsservice, trains 29-30, in March 1967 . After ICC hearings, permissionwas granted to drop trains 29-30 on Aug . 31, 1967, but trains 42-43were required to remain in service . The Post Office, however, diddrop the Middle and Western Division RPO's on trains 42-43 fromAlliance to Sheridan (M .D .) and Sheridan to Billings MD .) at thistime. Only the Eastern Division between Lincoln and Allianceremained in service, though still as the Lincoln and Billings RPO .

The Q continued to refile its discontinuance application, and abitter battle ensued, with residents of the sparsely populated areaserved by the train teaming with labor unions and local politiciansto put up a surprisingly vocal opposition . In January 1969 the U .S .District Court in Cheyenne issued a temporary restraining order block-ing discontinuance of the trains . Then in April the ICC finally grantedits approval of the discontinuance, but not while the restraining orderwas still in effect. Court proceedings dragged on into the summerof 1969. When the court eventually ruled on Aug . 14 that the trainscould be dropped immediately, Burlington, after more than two yearsof fighting, jumped at the order and stopped the trains dead in theirtracks . No. 42 had already departed Alliance, so it was stopped atHemingford, some 18 miles up the line . The passengers and pouch

mail were transferred to a bus, and the train was backed to Alliance .So great was the outcry over this literal interpretation of the courtruling that the matter was taken to the U .S. Supreme Court, whichimmediately issued a 10-day stay order, putting the trains back inservice for a final 10 days, but the Eastern Division RPO, droppedon Aug . 14, was not covered by the stay and so did not operate duringthe trains' final 10 days . When the Supreme Court chose not to con-sider the case, the trains were dropped when the stay expired .

In 1965, the Burlington began its last five years of corporate exist-ence with just 13 RPO routes remaining . Seven of these were discon-tinued in 1967 alone . By 1970, just one route remained : Chicago &Kansas City, a 466-mile route begun back in 1889 . At the end, trains19 and 20, the Kansas City Zephyr, carried the RPO car, and inthe final months the train actually terminated at the North KansasCity freight yard rather than operating all the way into Union Sta-tion . The trains and the RPO both survived the Burlington North-ern merger of March 2, 1970, but the 107-year history of in-transitmail sorting on the Burlington drew to a close on July 10, 1970, whenthe Post Office Department discontinued the route .

The Last Five YearsRPO Route Discontinuances : 1965-1970

1965Alliance & Casper disc . July 31Lincoln & Billings MD and WD disc . July 311966Chicago & Council Bluffs chg . t o Chicago & Omaha, April 23Council Bluffs & Kansas City chg . to Omaha & Kansas City, April 231967Denver & Amarillo disc . March 31Amarillo & Ft . Worth disc . March 31Burlington & St . Louis disc . April 7Alliance & Denver disc . July 7Billings & Denver ND and SD disc . Sept . 1Chicago, Savanna & Minneapolis disc . Sept . 2Omaha & Denver disc . Oct . 121968Omaha & Kansas City disc . Jan . 121969

/U' T11 '2 'I-% 400MUNN„Chicago & Omaha disc . June 27Lincoln & Billings ED disc . Aug . 141970Chicago & Kansas City disc . July 10

A Texas-bound C&S passenger train highballs south out of Denver at 55 mph behind C-3H Ten-Wheeler 324 on June 23, 1922 . The C&S and FW&Dhad a penchant for combination RPO-coaches, owning a total of 28 such cars (including two on the Wichita Valley), while parent CB&Q rosteredbut 16 . This configuration had the effect of forcing the RPO car back next to the passenger-carrying cars and away from the locomotive, accomplishingjust what the Post Office Department wanted . Here the car behind the baggage car is a 60' RPO-coach from C&S series 328-331 . - Otto Perry photo,DPLWHD

10 Burlington Bulletin

PTS

Postal regulations requiring all-steel con-struction of RPO cars brought about consistsby the 1920's which saw steel mail cars fre-quently trailed by wooden baggage cars andcoaches. A Twin Cities train leaves Chicagoaround 1925 behind S-2 2942 . A 1910-seriessteel baggage-mail car is followed by a steel-sheathed wooden baggage-dynamo car anda mixture of wooden and steel coaches . Notethe steel diner in the coachyard .-HolWagner collection .

This common occurence in thediesel era wasunusual in steam days: two complete pas-senger trains combined for a portion of theirrun . In this case, a pair of Atlantics, the 2571and 2564, leave Alliance, Neb ., with combinedtrains 303 and 31 on July 5, 1931 . At North-port, 37 miles south of Alliance, the trains willsplit ; 303, with its Alliance & Denver RPO, willcontinue on south to Denver, while 31, carry-ing an Alliance & Casper RPO, will turn westand head for central Wyoming .-Otto Perryphoto, DPLWHD

Four years later, this is what train 31 lookedlike as it approached Casper, through the oilrefineries of Evansville . Behind S-1-A 2814 isan 1889-series 60' baggage-mail car con-verted from one of the early 2300-series steelRPO cars built for the Q in 1914 .-Otto Perryphoto, DPLWHD

Second Quarter 1983

A 60' full mail car and a combinationbaggage-mail car, both with mail catcherarms ready, trail S-1 Pacific 2810 on train No .9, the Colorado Limited, as it nears Denver onthe morning of Jan . 2, 1928, with eight cars ata leisurely 30 mph . The advent of steel mailcars allowed them to once again be safelyplaced immediately behind the locomotive .-Otto Perry photo, DPLWHD

11

5T. v0v TR 41-16Z FEB24 U

1962R P . p .

The last motor car RPO run in the countrywas on the O in the form of trains 15-42 and41-16 between Lincoln and St . Joseph . Theclassy consist normally included silver motorcar 9767 (with a large 30' RPO compartment)and chair car Silver Pendulum . Shown here atLincoln on Dec . 4, 1960, the motor car madeits last run a year later on Dec . 28, 1961,although the train and RPO route lasted intoearly 1962 .-Bernard Corbin

Gas-electric and later diesel-electric motorcars prolonged the lives of many local pas-senger trains, and with them, many RPOroutes. Burlington operated more motorcarsthan any other road, and this view is typical ofmost of the runs . Car 9845 pauses for mailand passengers at Maryville, Mo ., while oper-ating as train No . 30 between Creston, Iowa,and St . Joseph on Sept . 24, 1957. The Creston& St. Joseph RPO route was operated con-tinuously from 1882 until 1959 .-CharlesZeiler collection

All the western subsidiary roads operated motor car RPO's . At left is C&S 401 running as train 31 north of Fort Collins, Colo ., on June 2, 1935, with the Billings& Denver Southern Division RPO . At right is Burlington-Rock Island 63 at Dallas Union Station in 1940, just in from Houston with the Dallas, Waxahachie& Houston RPO . - Left, Otto Perry photo, DPLWHD ; right, Everett DeGolyer, Jr., photo, Hol Wagner collection

& Gq <

Q TR 56 NJUN 301960

R-P .o-"-.,

The Peoria & Galesburg RPO route ran from1882 to 1897, from 1906 to 1911, from 1918 to1921 and finally between 1948 and 1960 as amotor car run . Here motor 9772 and trailer,operating as train No . 56, sit at the Peoriadepot on May 27, 1958 .-Dick Wallin col-lection

Of the early shovelnose Zephyr trains, only the 9900 and 9903 had RPO compart-ments in the actual power unit . Other Zephyrs had mail compartments in trailingars, except for the Twin Cities Zephyrs, which never carried RPO's since Milwaukee

Road had the high-speed Chicago-Minneapolis mail contract . The Pioneer Zephyr'smost famous RPO route was its first one, between Council Bluffs and Kansas City,although the train later ran on a number of other routes . Above, with catcher armplainly visible on the RPO compartment door, 9900 arrives in Kansas City as train No .20 on a chilly Jan . 18, 1936 . At right, 9900's RPO compartment is not much differenthan compartments in cars of 50 years earlier .-Above, Otto Perry photo, DPLWHD ;right, Hol Wagner

P191~:0

1 eau

FFS&~r~

2 0m DEC ..,

`~ 19 3 9R p0

Last shovelnose unit in service, and conse-quently the last to hold down an RPO run,was the 9908 . After being bumped fromLincoln-St . Joe service by motor car 9767, itmoved east to the local run between Bur-lington and St . Louis until the trains werediscontinued . Here it appears with a 1910-series heavyweight baggage-mail car on trainNo. 1 near Hannibal in August 1961 . The lastrun (see cancellation) was made on April 27,1963.-Dick Wallin

Catching mail on the move has always been one of the most fascinating aspects of RPO service . Here the Denver Zephyr flies east through Brush,Colo., at 80 mph on June 11, 1939. A mail pouch has just been snatched from the trackside crane and is visible in the RPO's catcher arm . - JoeSchick photo, DPLWHD

I

13

14

Besides Chicago-Omaha Fast Mail service,for years there was a Chicago-Denver mailrun which was anything but fast . Trains 7-8made virtually all the local stops on their1,000-mile journey and encompassed twoRPO routes : Chicago & Council Bluffs andOmaha & Denver. Here, a lengthy No . 7 pullsinto Denver on the morning of Sept . 9, 1951,behind a pair of ETs .-R. E . Andrews photo,Hol Wagner collection

Mail trains most frequently made nocturnaldepartures from their terminals, waiting untilthe day's mail had been assembled for tran-sit . In this view, an unusual phenomenonfinds E8 99398's numberboard reflected bythe camera lens and seemingly projected inthe sky above in this December 1961 view of amuch smaller No . 8 being readied for depar-ture from Denver Union Station .-Ken Cristphoto, Hol Wagner collection

Lincoln-Billings train No . 43 and Alliance-Caspertrain No . 31 load mail and passengers at theAlliance depot one August morning in 1964 . No .31 was discontinued in 1965, but No . 43,renumbered 41 in 1968, lasted until Aug . 14, 1969,becoming the most notorious service discontin-uance in Q history .-Hol Wagner

Last mail service on the western half of theoriginal RPO route was this Brookfield-St .Joe local, seen at Chillicothe, Mo ., in August1958, a year before the run was discontinued .The interesting consist includes E7 9919B, a1910-series baggage-RPO and experimentalchair car Silver Pendulum .-Dick Wallin col-lection

Burlington Bulletin

Burlington RPO Routes: 1867-19701867-1869 Quincy, Hannibal & St . Joseph1869-1872 Quincy & St . Joseph (H&StJ)1869-1877,1884-1889 Chicago & Quincy1869-1877 Peoria & Burlington1870-1871 St. Joseph & Council Bluffs (KCStJ&CB)1871-1878 Kansas City & Council Bluffs (KCStJ&CB)1871-1878,1882-1898

Burlington & Council Bluffs1872-1880,1882-1883,1884-1889 Quincy & Kansas City (H&StJ)1874-1877 Indianapolis & Galesburg (CB&Q

and Galesburg only)1877-1898 Chicago & Burlington1877-1881,1882-18831879-18881879-18811880-18821881-18841881-19531882-19481882-1897,1906-1911,1918-1921,1948-19601882-18841882-18881882-1883,1884-18891882-1883,1884-18941882-18861882-1893,1905-19171882-18831882-1883,1912-1915,1915-1915,1916-19331882-18821882-1917,1919-1920

Peoria & GalesburgGalva [III .] & Keithsburg [III .]Aurora [III .] & Forreston [III .]

(H&StJ)

Buda [III .] & Yates City [III .]

Yates City [III .] & Rushville [III .]Shabbona [III .] & Rock Falls [III .]

Sterling [III .] & Rock Island [III .]Litchfield [III .] & Jacksonville [III .] (J&StL)

between Peoria

Galesburg & QuincyChicago, Forreston [III .] & Dubuque [Ia .] (C&I)Omaha & Kearney Jct . [Neb .] (B&MR)Chicago & Cameron [Mo .]Omaha & Hastings [Neb .] (B&MR)Burlington & QuincyChicago & Streator [III .]

CJ AUG f0

19 _. TFt49 r

19 08

'~ . P,

Mendota [III .] & Clinton [Ia .]London Mills [111 .] & Havana [I11 .] (FCNG-3' gauge)

Galesburg & Havana [I11 .] (FCNG-3' gauge until1905)

1882-1917,1918-1935,1944-1961

Rock Island [III .] & St . Louis1882-1917 Quincy & Louisiana [Mo .]1882-1897 Quincy & Trenton [Mo .]1882-1882 Bethany Jct . [Mo .] & Albany [Mo .]1882-1899

Bethany Jct . [Mo.] & Grant City [Mo .]1882-1885,1887-1888 Albany [Mo .] & St. Joseph (StJ&DM-3' gauge until

1885)1882-1882

Chariton [Ia .] & Grant City [Mo .]1882-1885,1887-18881882-19591882-18851882-19661882-18831882-18841882-1889,?? -1892,

1915-19171882-18831882-18841882-19171882-1897,1906-1921,1922-19271882-1883,1945-1948

Second quarter 1983

Chariton [Ia .] & Albany [Mo .]Creston [Ia .] & St. JosephCameron [Mo .], St . Joseph & Atchison [Kan .]Council Bluffs & Kansas CityKeokuk [Ia .] & St . LouisBurlington & LaClede [Mo .]

Villisca [Ia .] & Bigelow [Mo .]Burlington & Keokuk [Ia .]Keokuk [Ia .] & Albia [Ia .]Mt. Pleasant [la .] & Keokuk [Ia .]

Des Moines & Albia [Ia .]

Des Moines & Osceola [Ia .] (DMO&S-3' gaugeuntil 1897)

FrX

TR 20 1-APR 2 3 n1966

R . P . O

1882-1883,1905-1917,1934-1936

1882-18831882-1893

1882-1885,1885-18861882-1885,1887-1888,1890-1892,?? -1917

1882-18871882-18821882-18841882-18831882-1890,1893-19001882-1884,1884-18881882-1883

1883-1884,1894-19331883-19121883-18831883-1888,1898-19071883-18841883-1967

Burlington & St . Louis1883-1901

Humeston [la .] & Shenandoah [Ia .]1883-1898,1929-1930

Clarinda [Ia .] & Corning [Ia .]1883-1884,1884-18841883-18851883-18841883-18891883-18841883-1884

DEC 281953A. P ,0

Burlington & Brighton [Ia .] (B&NW-3' gauge)Des Moines & Decatur [Ia .] (DMO&S-3' gauge)Central City [Neb .] & Nebraska City [Neb .] (B&MR)Nebraska City [Neb.] & Beatrice [Neb.] (B&MR)Hastings [Neb.] & Kearney [Neb .] (B&MR)Hastings [Neb.] & McCook [Neb .] (B&MR via RedCloud)

1884-1903,1917-1923

Galva [III .] & Burlington1884-1885 Burlington & Bogard [Mo .]1884-1884,1884-1903 Burlington & Oskaloosa [Ia .] (B&W-

3' gauge until 1902)1884-1885,1885-1886,1951-1953

Keokuk [Ia .] & Centerville [Ia .]1884-1886 Nebraska City [Neb .] & Grand Island [Neb .] (B&MR)1884-1884 Crete [Neb.] & Oxford [Neb .] (B&MR)1884-1888 Table Rock [Neb .] & Concordia [Kan .] (B&MR)1884-1884,1887-1892

W

Omaha & McCook [Neb .] (B&MR-via Red Cloud in1884)

1884-1884 Omaha, Red Cloud [Neb .] & McCook [Neb .] (B&MR)1884-1887 Omaha, Kenesaw [Neb.] & McCook [Neb .] (B&MR)1884-1885,1885-1886,1951-1953

Keokuk [Ia .] & Centerville [Ia .]1884-1886 Nebraska City [Neb .] & Grand Island [Neb .] (B&MR)1884-1884 Crete [Neb.] & Oxford [Neb .] (B&MR)1884-1888 Table Rock [Neb .] & Concordia [Kan .] (B&MR)1884-1884,1887-1892 Omaha & McCook [Neb.] (B&MR-via Red Cloud in

1884)1884-1884 Omaha, Red Cloud [Neb .] & McCook [Neb .] (B&MR)1884-1887 Omaha, Kenesaw [Neb.] & McCook [Neb .] (B&MR)1884-1898 Pacific Jct . [Ia .] & McCook [Neb .] (B&MR-via Red

Cloud until 1887)1884-1898 McCook [Neb .] & Denver (B&MR)1885-1949

Burlington & Carrollton [Mo .]1885-1887,1888-1890 Des Moines & St . Joseph

§. P . o

15

Burlington & Washington [Ia .] (B&NW-3' gaugeuntil 1902)Winfield [Ia .] & Martinsburg [Ia .] (B&W-3' gauge)Fort Madison [Ia .] & Birmingham [Ia .](FtM&NW/CFtM&DM-3' gauge until 1891)

Centerville [Ia .] & Humeston [Ia .]

Indianola [Ia .] & Chariton [Ia .]Red Oak [Ia .] & Eastport [Ia .]Central City [Neb .] & Calvert [Neb .] (B&MR)Central City [Neb .] & Nebraska City [Neb .] (B&MR)Nebraska City [Neb.] & Tecumseh [Neb .] (B&MR)

Columbus [Neb .] & Atchison [Kan.] (B&MR)

Crete [Neb.] & Red Cloud [Neb.] (B&MR)Hastings [Neb.] & Culbertson [Neb.] (B&MR via RedCloud)

Buda [III .] & Rushville [I11 .]Mendota

& Fulton[111 .]

[111 .]Jacksonville [111 .] & Smithboro [III .] (J&StL) & sJacksonville [III .] & Centralia [III .] (J&StL) TR 2Galesburg & Kansas City

1885-1892,1901-1933 Des Moines & Cainsville [Mo .] (DMO&S-3' gauge

until 1897)1885-1935 Creston [Ia .] & Cumberland [Ia .]1885-1885,1886-1896,1945-1951

Keokuk [Ia .] & Humeston [Ia.]1885-1894 Cameron [Mo .] & Atchison [Kan .]1885-1885,1896-1916 Lyons [Colo .] & Denver (DU&P-3' gauge until

1889)1886-1917

Shabbona [III .] & Sterling [III .]1886-1888 Nebraska City [Neb.] & Broken Bow [Neb .] (B&MR)1886-1887,1887-1888,1892-18991887-18871887-18881887-1888,1913-19361887-18881887-1902,1904-19351887-1893,1897-19041887-18881887-18881887-18881887-18871887-1888,1888-19001888-18911888-18911888-1913,1936-19401888-18891888-18881888-18881888-19021888-18881888-18881888-1890,1894-19021888-18891888-1893,1897-19411888-1889,1895-19001888-1901,1934-19501888-1892,1895-1898,1900-1916,1919-19191889-19701889-18941889- ?? ,1892-1933,1938-19401889-19051889-18911889-18891889-18951890-18941890-1897,1900-19511890-19311890-18921890-18931891-18921891-18921891-18951891-1901,1905-19171892-19181892-18961892-18941892-18951893-19011893-1939

16

Hastings [Neb.] & Oberlin [Kan .] (B&MR)St . Paul & Savanna [III .] (CB&N)Minneapolis & Savanna [III .] (CB&N)

Red Oak [la .] & Nebraska City [Neb .]Stromsburg [Neb.] & Fairfield [Neb .] (KC&O)

Fairmont [Neb .] & Chester [Neb .] (B&MR)

Aurora [Neb .] & Arcadia [Neb .] (B&MR)Dewitt [Neb .] & Superior [Neb .] (B&MR)Edgar [Neb .] & Curtis [Neb .] (B&MR)Orleans [Neb .] & Blakeman [Neb.] (B&MR)Red Cloud [Neb .] & Oberlin [Kan .] (B&MR)

Kansas City & Oxford [Neb .] (KCStJ&CB/B&MR)Chicago & Forreston [111 .1Minneapolis & Oregon [III .] (CB&N)

Red Oak [Ia .] & LincolnPacific Jct . [Ia .] & Schuyler [Neb .] (B&MR)Nebraska City [Neb.] & Whitman [Neb.] (B&MR)Stromsburg [Neb .] & Fairbury [Neb .] (KC&O)McCool Jct . [Neb .] & Fairbury [Neb.] (KC&O)McCool Jct . [Neb .] & Alma [Neb .] (KC&O)Niota [Neb.] & Alma [Neb .] (B&MR)

Lincoln & Alma [Neb .] (B&MR)Lincoln & Alliance [Neb .] (B&MR)

Palmer [Neb .] & Burwell [Neb .] (B&MR)

Edgar [Neb .] & Sterling [Colo .] (B&MR)

Lincoln & Concordia [Kan .] (B&MR)

Orleans [Neb .] & St . Francis [Kan .] (B&MR)Chicago & Kansas CityBuda [111 .] & Canton [III .]

'61OENAll MAYU

TR .3 iDUd

0a WW .I'D '

v TR 35OCT S1967R .P .o

Villisca [Ia .] & St. JosephPlattsmouth [Neb .] & Schuyler [Neb .] (B&MR)Lincoln & Crawford [Neb .] (B&MR)Edgar [Neb.] & Cheyenne [Wyo .] (B&MR)Nebraska City [Neb.] & Cheyenne [Wyo .] (B&MR)Peoria & St . Louis

Chariton [Ia .] & St. JosephSioux City [Ia .] & O'Neill [Neb .] (SC&W)Valley [Neb .] & Alma [Neb .] (B&MR)Columbus [Neb.] & Kansas City (B&MR/KCStJ&CB)Chicago, Oregon [III .] & Dubuque [Ia .]Minneapolis & East Dubuque [III .]Lincoln & Deadwood [S .D .] (B&MR)

Aurora [Neb .] & Kearney [Neb .] (B&MR)Chicago, Oregon [III .] & MinneapolisDes Moines & Leon [Ia .] (DMO&S-3' gauge)Valparaiso [Neb.] & Alma [Neb .] (B&MR)Republican City [Neb .] & St . Francis [Kan .] (B&MR)Savanna [III .] & Rock Island [III .]Fort Madison [Ia .] & Ottumwa [Ia .]

1893-1896,1898-1916 McCook [Neb .] & Imperial [Neb .] (B&MR)1893-1897 Aurora [Neb .] & Burwell [Neb .] (B&MR)1893-1897 Palmer [Neb .] & Arcadia [Neb .] (B&MR)1893-1895 Edgemont [S.D .] & Sheridan [Wyo .] (B&MR)1894-1898 Cameron [Mo .] & Leavenworth [Kan .]1895-1900 Nebraska City [Neb .] & Superior [Neb .] (B&MR)1895-1896 Lincoln & Sheridan [Wyo .] (B&MR)1895-1946,1947-19491896-19011896-19691897-1906,1921-1922,1930-19481897-19011897-19121897-19011898-19181898-19661898-1915,1917-1929,1930-19331898-19011898-1905,1905-19171898-19081898-19001899-1900,1901-1904,1929-1930,1941-19491899-19001900-19581900-19531900-1903,1903-19501900-19351900-1900,1904-1905,1905-19171900-1904,1905-1909,1911-19161901-19051901-19171901-19391901-19141901-1907,1917-19241902-19041902-19061902-19061903-1917,1923-19521903-19061903-19031904-19201904-19191904-19351904-19121904-19071904-19411904-19041904-19051904-19171904-1905,1909-19111905-19451905-19671906-19061906-1931,1942-19501906-19171906-19081907-19091907-19171907-1917,1930-19311908-1967

Deadwood [S .D.] & Edgemont [S .D .] (B&MR)Keokuk [Ia.], Humeston [Ia .] & Des MoineLincoln & Billings [Mont .] (B&MR)

Peoria & Des MoinesQuincy & Council Bluffs [Ia.]Chariton [[a .] & Kansas CityVan Wert [Ia.] & Gainesville [Ia .] (DM&KC;Chicago, Aurora [III .] & Rockford [III .]Chicago & Council Bluffs [Ia .]

Clarinda [Ia.] & Bigelow [Mo .]Pattonsburg [Mo .] & Kansas City

Cameron [Mo .] & Kansas CityPacific Jct . [Ia .] & Denver (B&MR)Orleans [Neb .] & Atwood [Kan.] (B&MR)

Galesburg & Rushville [III .] (via Rio)Leon [Mo .] & Grant City [Mo .]Lincoln & Kansas CityColumbus [Neb.] & Lincoln

Holdrege [Neb .] & Sterling [Colo .]St . Joseph & Oxford [Neb .]

Rulo [Neb .] & Atchison [Kan .]

Alliance [Neb .] & Guernsey [Wyo .]Sterling [III :] & Davenport []a .]Keokuk [Ia .] & Red Oak [Ia .]Quincy & Kansas CityOmaha & Concordia [Kan .]

Sutton [Neb.] & Alma [Neb .]Stromsburg [Neb .] & Chester [Neb .] .Fairmont [Neb.] & Fairbury [Neb .]Toluca [Mont .) & Cody [Wyo .]

Galesburg & BurlingtonBurlington & Des MoinesHoldrege [Neb .] & Holyoke [Colo .]Galesburg & Rushville [III .] (via Yates City)Streator [III .] & Walnut [III .]St . Louis & St . JosephDiff [Mo .] & Elmer [Mo .]Stromsburg [Neb .] & Sutton [Neb .]Aurora [Neb .] & Sargent [Neb .]Alliance [Neb.] & Sidney [Neb .]Alliance [Neb .] & Brush [Colo .]Carson [Neb.] & Sidney [Neb .]

Bridgeport [Neb .] & Guernsey [Wyo .]Omaha & Schuyler [Neb .]Alliance [Neb .] & DenverSioux City [Ia .] & Ashland [Neb .]

Sioux City [Ia .] & LincolnFairmont [Neb.] & Endicott [Neb .]Toluca [Mont.] & Worland [Wyo .]Jacksonville [III .] & Herrin [III .]Monroe [Mo .] & Mexico [Mo .]

Stromsburg [Neb .] & Alma [Neb.]Omaha & Denver

~0\ L L ~~S E P tP

i IJ1Z ~~> T R 4 1O

Burlington Bulletin

1908-1910 Toluca [Mont .] & Kirby [Wyo.]1908-1916 Frannie [Wyo.] & Cody [Wyo .]1909-1915,1924-1928

Concord [III .] & Herrin [III .]1910-1910

Billings [Mont .] & Kirby [Wyo .]1910-1914

Billings [Mont .] & Thermopolis [Wyo .]1911-1917 Peoria & Quincy1911-1935 Sterling [Colo .] & Cheyenne [Wyo .]1912-1917 Sedan [la .] & Elmer [Mo .]1912-1922 Chariton [Ia.] & Bethany [Mo .] & St. Joseph1913-1924

Lincoln & Falls City [Neb .]1914-1934 Omaha & Wymore [Neb .]1914-1934,1950-19511914-19671915-1915,1915-19161915-19241916-1919,1919-19501916-1920,1922-19651917-1918,1923-19241917-1918,1922-19301917-19451918-19481918-19521918-1935,1944-19521919-19331920-19221920-19301920-1929,1930-1933

Second Quarter 1983

Wymore [Neb .] & Concordia [Kan .]Billings [Mont .] & Denver

Aurora [III .] & Clinton [Ia .]Concord [III .] & Centralia [111 .]

Oxford [Neb .] & St . Francis [Kan .]

Alliance [Neb .] & Casper [Wyo .]

Savanna [III .] & St . Louis

Peoria & Creston [la .]Keokuk [Ia .] & Shenandoah [Ia .]Chicago & Rockford [III .]Chicago & Savanna [III .]

Minneapolis & Rock Island [III .]Streator [III .] & Denrock [111 .]Galesburg & Vermont [III .] (via Yates City)Galesburg & Lewistown [111 .]

Galesburg & Vermont [III .] (via Rio)

O

TR 29 iAUG 3 I A1967 0,

Colorado & Southern/Fort Worth & Denver(Including Wichita Valley and Trinity & Brazos Valley/Burlington-Rock Island]1882-1882 Cheyenne, Boulder [Colo .] & Denver (CC)1882-1886

Fort Collins [Colo .] & Denver (CC)1882-1884, Denver & Leadvilie [Colo.] (3' gauge-DSP&P/DL&G1885-1937

until 1898)1882-1893 Denver & Georgetown [Colo .] (CC-3' gauge)1882-1886 Wichita Falls [Tex .] & Fort Worth1883-1884 Buena Vista [Colo .] & Gunnison [Colo .] (DSP&P)1883-1888,1903-1904 Denver & Pueblo [Colo .] (D&NO/DT&G until 1898)1884-1887 Como [Colo .] & Gunnison [Colo .] (DSP&P/DL&G-3'

gauge)1886-1886 Harold [Tex .] & Fort Worth1886-1887 Vernon [Tex .] & Fort Worth1887-1888 Quanah [Tex.] & Fort Worth1888-1888,1902-1903 Clarendon [Tex .] & Fort Worth1888-1902,1936-1944 Denver & Fort Worth1888-1891 Wendover [Wyo.] & Cheyenne (C&N/UPD&G)1891-1892 Douglas [Wyo .] & Cheyenne (UPD&G, Wendover to

Cheyenne)1892-1895 Orin Jct . [Wyo.] & Cheyenne (UPD&G)1893-1897,1900-1927 Denver & Silver Plume [Colo .] (UPD&G until 1898)

(3' gauge)

1927-1930,1948-1953 Des Moines & Ottumwa [Ia .)1928-1956

Beardstown [III .] & Herrin [III .]1929-1936 Nebraska City [Neb.] & Lincoln1929-1930,1931-1935 Stromsburg [Neb .] & Hastings [Neb .]1929-1930 Hastings [Neb.] & Alma [Neb .]1931-1934

Burlington, Washington [Ia .] & Oskaloosa [Ia .]1931-1942

Lincoln & O'Neill [Neb .]1933-1939

Buda [III .] & Peoria1933-1935

Rock Island [III .] & Rushville [III .]1933-1937

Streator [III .], Mendota [III .] & Clinton [Ia .]1933-1935 Des Moines & Van Wert [Ia .]1933-1945 Des Moines & Weldon [Ia .]1933-1938

Villisca [Ia .] & Corning [Ia .]1933-1938

Villisca [Ia .] & Napier [Mo .]1934-1959 Cameron Jct . [Mo .] & St. Joseph1934-1935 Ashland [Neb .] & Schuyler [Neb .]1935-1944 Minneapolis & St . Louis1935-1941

Davenport [Ia .] & Rushville [III .]1935-1950 Table Rock [Neb .] & Oxford [Neb .]1937-1947

Streator [Ill .] & Clinton [Ia .]1938-1941

Beatrice [Neb .] & Holdrege [Neb .]1939-1950 Quincy & Milan [Mo .]1940-1949 Red Oak [Ia .] & Hamburg [Ia.)1946-1947 Deadwood [S .D .] & Alliance [Neb .)1948-1951

Chicago & Zearing [III .]1949-1950

Burlington & Centerville [Ia .]1950-1953

Quincy & Kirksville [Mo .]1950-1958 Wymore [Neb .] & Oxford [Neb .]1952-1967

Chicago, Savanna [III .] & Minneapolis1953-1953

West Quincy [Mo .] & Kirksville [Mo .]1953-1955 Burlington & West Quincy [Mo .]1958-1962 Lincoln & St . Joseph1966-1969 Chicago & Omaha1966-1968 Omaha & Kansas City

1895-19141901-19121902-19031903-19041903-1936,1944-1967 Amarillo [Tex .] & Fort Worth1904-1936,1944-1967 Denver & Amarillo [Tex .]1904-1907 Cleburne [Tex.] & Mexia [Tex .]1906-1907 Byers [Tex.] & Seymour [Tex .]1907-1914 Fort Worth, Teague [Tex .] & Houston1907-1917

Wichita Falls [Tex .] & Abilene [Tex .)1910-1938 Stamford [Tex.] & Spur [Tex .]1912-1914

Cheyenne & Fort Collins [Colo .]1913-1917 Denver & Falcon [Colo .]1914-1935 Cleburne [Tex.] & Houston1917-1931

Denver & Como [Colo .] (3' gauge)1929-1950 Childress [Tex .] & Lubbock [Tex .]1935-1952 Dallas, Waxahachie [Tex .] & Houston1938-1949 Stamford [Tex .] & Lubbock [Tex .] (WV,

Spur)Teague [Tex.] & HoustonWaxahachie [Tex.] & Houston

Orin [Wyo.] & Cheyenne (UPD&G until 1898)Denver & Colorado SpringsDenver & Clarendon [Tex .]Pueblo [Colo.] & Amarillo [Tex .]

Q

P

2a 1950 ?

R, P .0

Stamford to

Data for this all-time listing of Burlington RPO routes was provided by the Mobile Post Office Society, a non-profit corporation devoted to the interests of col-lectors of covers, cachets, postmarks, history and data of transit markings of all kinds, including railway, highway and waterway . The society, which is affiliateNo. 64 of the American Philatelic Society, is headquartered in Omaha under the able direction of Edwin R Bergman . a former Union Pacific RPO clerk . Withover 600 members, MPOS publishes the bi-monthly Transit Postmark Collector covering society news and articles of interest . The society also publishes booksand monographs relative to the interests of the members . Three forms of membership are available : Regular, at $6 .00 per year plus a $1 .00 initiation fee; Sus-taining, at $15.00 per year and including two free paperbound monographs each year ; and Patron, at $50 .00 per year and including all paperbound mono-graphs published during the year and a 40% discount on any hardbound publications. Contact MPOS in care of Edwin P . Bergman, Secretary, 5030 AspenDrive, Omaha, Nebraska 68157 .

17

The Fast Mail at age 75Excerpted from Fast Mail: The First 75 Years by David P.Morgan, published by the Burlington in 1959 on the 75thanniversary of the Fast Mail

E VERY EVENING at nine o'clock an ancient, honorable,unsung ritual takes place a few hundred feet beyond the con-

course and gates of [Chicago] Union Station, along a track thatpassengers never ride, in the basement of the largest building of itskind in the world . The ritual involves two organizations, one publicand the other private . The party of the first part is the United StatesPost Office Department ; the party of the second part, the Chicago,Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company . These two institutionsforgather under the lights of track 30, on a concrete loading dockstacked with locked canvas sacks and alert to the activity of men inkhaki work clothes with little silver badges . And there each night at 9the P.O. and the CB&Q renew an historic agreement .

The government entrusts the railroad with a solid train of mail,and the railroad undertakes to move it west to the MissouriRiver-dependably, rapidly, on time . For all its want of ceremony,this ritual is now in its third generation . It has survived three interna-tional wars, outlived the station in which it was born and the steamlocomotion that made it possible, matched the sternest competition,and accommodated immense increases in loadings .

This is train No . 29, the train that doesn't appear in the familiarred Burlington timetable, the train of somber, businesslike cars thatseem at home in the shadows, the train nevertheless with a name :Fast Mail . It is just that . Its doors are open to anything that bearspostage, from a post card to a package-that and that alone . All thepersonnel aboard are there to work . This includes seven or morePostal Transportation Service clerks for the P .O. and the engine crewand three trainmen for the railroad . No. 29 is important butunadorned, without a trace of the glamour of Vista-Domes and stain-less steel, pretty dresses, silverware and window drapes of the KansasCity Zephyr arriving across the way in Union Station . The men whosponsor and operate train 29 don't give a fig for frills, only perform-ance .

The performance begins early in the evening when a yard enginespots the storage mail cars and Railway Post Office car on track 30and the loading begins for the West-for Burlington and Ottumwaand Creston, Council Bluffs and Omaha, Denver and San Franciscoand ports across the Pacific . The pace picks up when another yarddiesel noses in with the through cars from the East . Twenty minutesor so before the hour, the road diesels idle back through thecrossovers and dwarf signals to track 30 and lock couplers with the

18

lead mail car. Carmen mate air-brake hoses and steam-heat lines .No. 29 is being born again . A few hours ago it was just a string ofempty cars ; now there is mail aboard and power ahead .

The expressionless, inexorable clocks along the track 30 platformtick toward nine o'clock and discipline tightens . Doors slam shut onthe storage cars as the foreman of the loading dock surveys his crea-tion . At 8:56 four bags are flung into the R .P.O . car, at 8 :58/2 onemore sack appears . Then the seconds drain away, the foreman liftshis arm, and Burlington, the party of the second part, is ready to roll .Up front, diesel engines pick up on the rpm's . the generators converttheir torque into direct current, which flows silently to the axle-mounted, truck-suspended traction motors . The long silverylocomotives move . . .and with them move 15 cars of mail .

The Fast Mail is under way, a ritual has been observed .And a proud seventy-five-year-old tradition is intact and

perpetuated .. . .Tonight . . we've got 15 cars of mail . . and No . 29 sometimes

departs Chicago in two sections with as many as 25 cars .. . .The R .P.O. is officially CB&Q car No . 2332, a 60-foot vehicle

custom-constructed to meet rigid P.O. specifications . Inside arepigeonhole cases for sorting letters, pipe racks to hold the open-mouthed canvas sacks and pouches, tables and storage space . Sevenor more men work here . . .standing up . At peak output they coulddepart Chicago with 150 pouches, each containing up to 3,(X)0 let-ters ; pick up 150 more pouches en route ; and process all 300 beforeNo. 29 terminates at 5 :45 a .m. across the river in Omaha . All this in aspace just 60 x 10 feet . A far cry, indeed, from the tiny wooden car onthe Hannibal & St . Joe that inspired it all .

. . .The essence of mail handling is twofold, if reduced to itssimplest terms. The mail must be transported . The mail must besorted. Train 29 does both jobs, simultaneously . For as the Fast Mailrolls along, the clerks are opening up sacks of mail labeled for areasand states ; making separations of the mail by sorting it into thepigeonholes ; finally pouching it for stations en route and connectingtrains . In this specific Railway Post Office-which is officially"Chicago & Council Bluffs 29"-the crew is making 72 "mixed"separations for such Western states as Wyoming and Utah ; 36 forMissouri ; 108 for Nebraska ; and 204 for Iowa-not to mention 96 forthe city of Omaha itself, where the car finally stops .

Before dawn the R .P.O. will have pouched mail for a total of 22connecting trains and Highway Post Offices ("hypos," the clerks call'em l, plus even more mail for Star Route trucks . Example: Mail issorted for such en route Iowa destinations as Burlington, Ottumwa,Albia, Osceola and Creston, then unloaded at Galesburg, Ill ., andheld there for train No . 3 . which follows in about two hours and picksup the pouches for fast delivery . Another example : The clerks of train29 will sort mail for towns through which the Fast Mail hurtles evenwhile the pigeonholes bearing their names are filling up . No worry,though, for these pouches are simply dropped off for pickup by theeastbound Denver Zephyr's Railway Post Office for morningdelivery. Yet another example : Mail for Omaha "proper"-the city itself-will be sorted so specifically that the letter carriers canpick it up at the station without the need for the pouches to even enterthe post office building .

And just as a dining car can turn out a meal a minute from agalley whose size a housewife would complain of, so can a RailwayPost Office separate mail in a volume which a sizable brick-and-mortar and immobile Post Office would be hard pressed to emulate .Foot for foot, man for man, in fact, there exists no equal of an R .P.O .

The Fast Mail doesn't dawdle . It never has . From a standingstart in Chicago Union Station the big diesels require just 36 minutesto eat tip the 37.7 miles out to suburban Aurora . The next lap toGalesburg, 1241/2 miles, is taken at an even faster clip, the averagespeed being 71 .8 miles per hour. The air-horns blasting for countrygrade crossings and the clickety-clack of the wheels on rail joints in-ject a sense of drama that even a mail clerk of 20 or 30 years' seniorityis susceptible to . . .but the sustained speed of the diesels seemsautomatic by the standards of yesteryear .

. . .It is an honorable history that today's Fast Mail continues asNo. 29 thunders across Illinois and Iowa toward the Missouri River .Galesburg, 11 :20 p.m . Burlington, 12 :07 a .m. Ottumwa, 1 :46 a .m .At each stop a postal transfer clerk or a Burlington employee recordsthe loading and unloading of pouches . And back along the train,

Burlington Bulletin

railroad employees open the bulk cars of parcel post, loading andunloading the bags of packages .

This is not mere freight but rather human expression and deedwhich the clerks in the Railway Post Office sort into pigeonholeslabeled Pawnee City, Wahoo, Grand Island, Lincoln, also (in the in-stance of Omaha "proper") Grain Exchange Building, University ofOmaha, UP, Offutt Field, Federal Reserve . The pouches are open-ed, the mail separated, the pouches locked, the mail loaded andunloaded as Train 29 races the dawn into Council Bluffs .

A few minutes past two o'clock one of the clerks in the R .P.O .slides back the door, watches for a familiar landmark in Chariton,where he puts off a couple of sacks . No . 29 rolls on . Osceola, 2 :44a.m. Creston, 3 :16 a .m .

No. 29 is the flagship of an impressively large Burlington mail-carrying fleet which provides the Post Office Department daily serv-ice on 17 different lines covering 5,008 route-miles of railroad in 10states . A roster of 231 cars are allocated to this service, of which 63are Railway Post Offices . In addition, the railroad provides mailstorage and handling facilities at 521 on-line communities and cities .

The Post Office Department makes payments to the railroad inthree ways : a basic payment per mile for an R .P.O. car, regardless ofload ; a payment per linear foot of space occupied in a storage mailcar; and a payment per sack handled on loading docks and platformsby railroad employees . The P.O. is vested with authority to placemail upon any passenger train Burlington operates, from an Iowalocal to No. 1, the gleaming Vista-Dome Denver Zephyr ; to fine therailroad for tardy or otherwise inadequate service ; and to establishthe specifications for mail-carrying equipment. The Post OfficeDepartment places the mail on the basis of cost, time and service.P.O. men are notoriously impartial about their business . The carrierthat performs carries the mail-it's that simple .

All of which helps to explain why Burlington men are quietlyproud of their Fast Mail. Since that epic night in March of 1884[when the Fast Mail first ran], one generation after another of engi-neers and firemen, conductors and trainmen, dispatchers and train-masters, section foremen and presidents has jealously preserved, thetrain's reputation for delivering the mail-on time . The task has notbeen routine .

No mass transportation job ever is . A draft board can thin theranks of skilled employees in time of war . A thunderstorm over Iowacan swell a river, push a thousand streams over their banks .Christmas mails can stack the sacks 8 feet high in every last car therailroad can beg or borrow. But the mail moves regardless .

No man on today's Burlington knows that better than Harry C .Murphy, present occupant of the president's chair in the BurlingtonBuilding near Union Station, Chicago. As a young man he was wontto hang over the railing of the old Spring Street overpass in Aurorawhen the high-wheeler hauling the Fast Mail came blasting throughtown on her way west to keep an appointment on the banks of theMissouri . As a man in the ranks he acquired a wholesome admirationfor locomotive engineers of whom it was said simply, "He ran theMail." As a district maintenance engineer and later division super-intendent at Creston he had programmed the work of the sectiongangs whose mauls and strong backs surfaced and aligned the trackthe Fast Mail pounded down toward Council Bluffs and Omaha . Aspresident, he makes it the first business of the day to examine Bur-lington's morning report, the sheet of terse figures that spell out howthe trains are operating on 11,000 miles of high iron in 14 states . Onthe sheet is No . 29 . It had best be labeled "on time ." It almost in-variably is-as it was at that Spring Street overpass .

And as it is today when the diesels of the Fast Mail roll into Coun-cil Bluffs at 4 :59 a .m.-on time . Here at the vast, mechanized mailhandling center, jointly sponsored by Burlington and Union Pacific,No. 29 all but dissolves . During the night one car of storage mail was.cut off at Burlington, one at Ottumwa, and another at Creston .Several cars are destined for Council Bluffs itself ; others will beswitched into the Transfer so that their contents can be unloaded anddistributed onto other trains; and certain loads are destined for themail train for California . Which leaves the Fast Mail reduced to justits diesels, its Railway Post Office, and storage mail cars for Omaha .

Switching completed, No . 29 eases off into the faint, breakingdaylight, trundles across the bridge spanning the wide, muddyMissouri, and rolls into Burlington's Omaha station . The diesels areSecond Quarter 1983

cut off . . .the flagman takes down the marker lamps from the rearcar . . .the Railway Post Office clerks pick up their grips and climbdown from their car . . . The railroad has observed its nightly ritualwith the United States Post Office Department, moved all the mail itwas offered, rolled it to the Missouri River on time .

75T" ANNIVERSARYFAST MAIL1884 -

1959

Opposite and above : loading and sorting mail in 1948 RPO car Silver Post.-CB&Q photo, BN collection. Below: working the Fast Mail's RPO in the1890's . Note the skylights.-A.A. Green photo, BN collection

19

Postal CarsFrom the 1925 Car Builders Cyclopedia

THE TRANSPORTATION OF MAIL requires the use ofspecially designed cars equipped for operation in passenger trains .

These cars are constructed along the same general lines as baggagecars and other passenger train equipment but are provided with inter-ior fittings especially designed to facilitate the handling of mail . Somecars are provided with facilities-letter cases, pouch racks, etc .-forsorting mail en route ; other cars-mail storage-are designed onlyfor the transporting of mail .

In order to standardize this class of equipment, the Post OfficeDepartment of the United States Government, in 1912, after confer-ences with a committee of mechanical engineers appointed by therailroads, issued specifications and floor plans for postal cars andfixtures for use in United States Mail Service .

In 1915 the specifications and floor plans were adopted as Recom-mended Practice by the Master Car Builders' Association .

Modifications of these plans, which provided for optional stan-dards, were issued in September 1917 ; these optional plans were sodesigned that the mail compartments can be converted from one stan-dard length to another when service conditions make it necessaryto increase or decrease the space devoted to handling mail . Furthermodifications were made under date of February 2, 1920 .

Selected U.S . Government Postal Car Specifications

35. INTERIOR EQUIPMENT-The following equipment shall befurnished . Railway Mail Service drawings should be followed wherethese details are shown; otherwise details to be as per railway com-pany's standard .Bag Racks

MirrorBroom

Paper-boxesCatcher arms

Paper rakesChair or stout stool

Portable binsCinder guards

Register cagesDisinfectants

Sack and pouch racksDistributing tables

Shelf and letter dropDeck-sash opener

Slip caseDustbrush

Scheme caseDumping tray

StepladderFire buckets

Torch for lighting gasFire extinguishers

Toilet-paper holderFolding washbasin

WardrobeHopper

Water coolerLetter cases

Water tankLetter-drop, Chute and Scoop

Wrecking toolsLock rods

Wire screens for letter case

20

To Suit Cons//ucho, of1JooiPo,l

-Hardwood hi

,t

7oSof1 Cons/rvchonafOoor1%/

Pouch CalcherArranyemen!

Nole. Soder/inedS,mmtronsOnly aybeVariedthenNoad ~~Conddiont Require a Pr,ecllon 6realerThan O6/ainaNe by

Ex1-,JmyOoorBrac6e1s1oRoadsClearan¢sAny/a6rvenMur/6elvamlome ~ FR

Note 0/atehrofllole/nPoorBrac6,1,lo heJ6rea/erThan/'amdvof 5traigh/Rodof to/chef Aim

Standard Mail Pouch Catcher Arm

4

37. PAINTING-The painting of car body and trucks shall be inaccordance with railway company's specifications for steel cars . Light-color enamel paint shall be used for interior finish above side plate ;below that line the car shall be painted a medium shade of darkercolor, preferably light buff or light brown, with dull finish . The let-tering and numbering of postal cars shall conform to Railway MailService requirements and the railway company's standards . The insidelength and width, the car number, and title of the company owningshall be painted at a convenient place inside the car . End doors andend door posts must not be sanded .

LETTERING-Lettering on outside of mail cars shall be substan-tially as shown on Railway Mail Service drawing sheet 64, datedFebruary 2, 1920 . On 60-foot full R .P.O. cars lettering should pref-erably be central with respect to side door opening . On 30-foot apart-ments, lettering should be confined to the side wall of the apartment .On 15-foot apartments the lettering shall be abbreviated and in threelines, thus :

U .S . MAILRAILWAY

POST OFFICEand lettering should be confined to side wall of the apartment, ifpossible .

la/,her Backe/

Safely gar a.7dBrache13c Pve N /h a Pipe Cap o" One End anda Forked Enda~ er' SSrrEdTo 6e5, /if :/edloraSo/id//%5d

Standard RPO Door Safety Bar and Brackets

1)nw-17

43 ,71 ~

----7o .5f~il- --

rap of roil

-

rojw/ComGudion

-- C

f Door Posf

ourimc .f alr..m I n . fr„~ meJ ~ .~

I I c.nl.r liad mal bag ca1 .6.r • .

III

i

C.r.l.r I,n .

i

r Pr. a .,l mo1 mF c,.r

41-

^ i II

I

"-1 1

;Prop.e d c .r Foor .f

~

-}

oSrea, Sine 4 .0 :.

G

10

NOTE : Full 11,0 . 1nd10.t. 100.110, of mil pouch fur promT ¢e . [n1n0.11 c end iO-ca, Ch1 .go-Denver Zephyr Trot,. . 0000 .d lln .. End l0., .11-1- of ..11 pouch for ..il 0.r of .tr-ltn. Zephyr t r .in . 9900 end 9903 .

CB&O Double Arm Burr Mail Crane Application

Burlington Bulletin

1

Burlington RPO CarsCB&Q: 1904-1970

Auxiliary Engine-Baggage-Mail950-951

84'

Stainless Steel-1936 DZ

Builder's photos of cars constructed at the Aurora shops are rare,but this Sept . 29, 1904, view shows just-completed 60' mail car 2221,one of three dozen similar cars built there during the first decade ofthe 20th Century. Because of the 1912 regulations restricting the useof wooden mail cars in mainline service, most of the wooden 60-foot-ers became baggage cars by 1924, with 2221 becoming the 1346 in1915.-CB&Q photo, BN collection

Second Quarter 1983

C&S: 1906-1970

FW&D: 1900-1970

Passenger Motor CarsCoach-MailCB&Q 9625-9629CB&Q 9665-9666Baggage-MailCB&Q 9724-9735CB&Q 9765-9773CB&Q 9900, 9903

(Pioneer, Mark Twain Zephyrs)FW&D M-20

(Originally WV 20)B-RI 61-63

(Originally T&BV 61-63)

Coach-Baggage-MailCB&Q 9811-9818CB&Q 9835-9853C&S 401

21

Baggage-Mail10-13 40'-42' Wooden-Narrow Gauge250 40' Wooden251 51' Wooden252-256 70' Steel257-260 60' Steel Sheathed320 86' Stainless Steel-Became 0 1605(2)

Coach-Mail40-43 42' Wooden-Narrow Gauge322 60' Wooden323-327 50'-51 ' Wooden328-331 60' Wooden

Baggage-Mail

1600-1614(1) 40'-45' Wooden1600-1601(2) 69' Stainless Steel1602-1603(2) 82' Stainless Steel1604(2) 70' Stainless Steel1605(2) 86' Stainless Steel1650-1659 45'-50' Wooden1700-1719 50'-52' Wooden1750-1761 55'-60' Wooden1800-1828 60'-63' Wooden1850-1851(1) 65' Wooden1850-1852(2) 40' Steel1889-1899 60' Steel1900-1909 70' Wooden1910-1949 70' Steel

Mail2000-2004 28'-30' Wooden2025 35' (?) Wooden2050-2062 30'-44' Wooden2075-2080 40' Steel2100-2101 45' Wooden2125-2133 52' Wooden2150-2151 55' Wooden2175-2245 60'-62' Wooden2300-2346 60' Steel

Coach-Baggage-Mail2600-2605 45'-50' Wooden2625-2639 50'-52' Wooden2675-2678 55'-60' Wooden2700-2714 60'-66' Wooden2715-2716 65' Steel-former motor cars2725-2726 75' Steel-former motor cars2750-2751 70' Wooden2752 70' Steel

Coach-Mail3000-3002 45'-49' Wooden3003-3004 40' Steel3025-3031 50'-53' Wooden3050-3053 54'-55' Wooden

Baggage-Mail26 50' Wooden-Reblt . to Coach-Baggage-

31-34 70'Mail

Steel150 86' Stainless Steel

Coach-Mail22-25 52' Wooden27-28 60' Wooden29 61' Wooden30 64' Wooden

Wichita ValleyBaggage-Mail110 42' Wooden

Coach-Mail130-131 52' Wooden

T&BV/B-RIBaggage-Mail76-85 60' Wooden

Six unusual 40-footersP RIOR TO THE issuance of Post Office Department standards

for mail cars in 1912, RPO compartments were built to any con-venient size, and very short RPO cars were quite common, even onmainline passenger trains . Only such all-mail trains as the Chicago-Council Bluffs Fast Mail rated big 60' RPO's . Consequently, whenthe Q renumbered passenger equipment in 1904, there were 21 fullRPO cars on the roster which were under 50' in length (some beingas short as 28'), along with another 10 cars of 52' or 55' length .

A good many 60' RPO's had been constructed by the Aurorashops during the 1880's and 1890's for mail train service, and Aurorabegan building these cars once again in 1902, turning out another 36of the wood-bodied 60-footers by the end of the first decade of the20th Century .

Then in 1911, just a year before the mail car standards were pro-mulgated, the Q acquired its first all-steel RPO's . The six cars, builtby American Car & Foundry in June and numbered 2075-2080, wereintended primarily for secondary and branchline service and wereonly 40'7" long . Next year, when the first standards were released,they called for all-steel construction of new cars, but they alsoestablished RPO compartment lengths of 8', 10', 15', 30', 60'-no40' compartments were authorized, so the year-old cars were alreadyobsolete . The standards were shortly modified to allow ready conver-sion of a compartment from one length to another, but placing a .30'compartment in a 40' car didn't make much sense, and the Q didn'tparticularly need a smaller compartment than that at the time . For-tunately, the nation's railroads were given a number of years to comeinto compliance with the federal standards, so the Q had time todecide what to do with the little 40' RPO's .

Beginning in 1912 the Burlington began buying 00' full RPO's(2300 series) and 70' combination baggage-mail cars with 30' RPOcompartments (1910 series) and by 1922 had acquired a total of 81steel RPO cars meeting the federal standards . This gave the road anabundance of acceptable cars, so the many wooden RPO's wereeither retired or converted to baggage or company service, and the six191140' steel cars were converted to baggage cars 1094-1099, tradingtheir twin 2'6" doors for a single 6' door on each side .

But the tale of the 40-footers doesn't end here-not by a longshot . In just six more years, four of the cars once again sported RPOcompartments-standard compartments this time .

Baggage cars 1099 and 1094 in December 1928 became baggage-mail cars 1850-1851 . They kept their central 6' baggage doors andregained a 2'6" door on each side to serve the new 15' RPO section .

Cars 1095-1096 similarly were outfitted with a 15' RPO compart-ment served by a 2'6" door on each side . But instead of a baggagesection, they were totally rebuilt at Aurora with a coach sectionseating 30 . This modification involved adding a vestibule to the newcoach end, increasing the overall length of the two cars by justover 3' .

Only cars 1097 and 1098 remained as baggage (or mail storage)cars for the rest of their careers . And their lifespan was the shortest ofthe six 40-footers : 1097 was destroyed in a wreck at Shabbona, 111, in1944, while 1098 was cut up at Aurora in 1949 .

But the other four were far from finished . In 1943 the 3004 lost itsRPO compartment, becoming baggage-coach 3550 . It retained thisconfiguration until it was dismantled at Eola in 1956 .

--

-

00I n

:'-1. Zq-*C,

RPO cars 2075-2080, as built

00

1

TRKClA'~l~f1O

__

LI Ef000000000

-

JD TRUCK 1+ 1 11+ 111,

Coach-Mail cars 3003-3004Sister 3(x)3, after a stint in Texas on the FW&D's Wichita Valley

lines in the 1940's, also lost its RPO compartment in favor of a bag-gage section . But the work was done unofficially (sometime around19521, and the car was never renumbered . Its last use was as awaycar on the Eola-Oregon (I11 .) way freight, and it was finallydismantled at the Eola reclamation plant early in 1966 .

This leaves baggage-mail cars 1850-1851 . The latter lastedwithout further modification until 1961, when it was scrapped at Lin-coln . But the 1850 was once more converted into a full baggage car,this time in 1950. It emerged from the Aurora shops as the 1300, stillequipped with a 6' door and a 2'6" door on each side and even withone of its RPO compartment windows intact . In this configuration itwas used in mainline service until joining the 3003 at the Eolascrapyard early in 1966 .

Quite a varied set of careers for six little RPO cars which, hadthey been ordered just a few months later, would probably never havebeen built due to the advent of the postal car standards .

As the need for RPO cars declined through the 1930's and 1940's, anumber of the standard steel RPO's (2300's) and baggage-RPO's(1900'sI were converted to other configurations-either with smallerRPO sections and added baggage space, or as straight baggagecars-but none underwent as many changes as the unusual little40-footers .

Only photo yet discovered showing one of the 40-footers as a full RPO is this unusual view of a westbound passenger train near Keenesburg, Colo .,in April 1920. Immediately behind S-1 Pacific 2829 is the RPO - the only all-steel car in the train . The other six cars - baggage, baggage-coach,

22

chair car, diner, two sleepers and a solarium lounge - are wooden cars with steel underframes . - Joe Schick collection, DPLWHD

O

OC KeK

D.

B U F~.I =11

IU.S . MAIL. mr7A I L. W A Y -

POST OFFICe

(_. 1 N

1850

I T O

RAILWAYGKPRELSAGENCY

Second Quarter 1983

L.--- 7'-6 -

-- 40' - 7Y2'-'---

28 -Q"

Above, the 1850 in Chicago around 1950, shortly before it lost its RPO com-partment for the second time, becoming a full baggage car, also for thesecond time .-Lee Hastman collection, courtesy Jerry AlbinAbove right, baggage car 1300, formerly the 1850, at Lincoln in January1961. Little has changed since the photo at left . The RPO compartmentdoor and window remain (though the window is partially plated over), themail slot has been removed, the stove and its stack are gone and the letter-ing has been modernized .-Hol WagnerAt right is coach-mail combine 3004 at Red Oak, Iowa, around 1942 . Theaddition of a vestibule at the coach end has lengthened the car some 3', butthe 15' RPO compartment is identical to those on cars 1850-1851 . In 1943this car lost its mail section in favor of a baggage compartment and wasrenumbered 3550.-Bernard Corbin

14 - 0",

Baggage-Mail cars1850-1851

HO scale drawings byBill Glick

RPO 2075 converted to Baggage 1094,10/22 ; converted to Baggage-Mail 1851,12/14/28 ; dismantled at Lincoln, 8/31/61 .RPO 2076 converted to Baggage 1095, 9/23 ; converted to Coach-Mail 3003, 7/28 ; converted to Coach-Baggage 3003,

c. 1952 ; dismantled at Eola, 1/13/66 .RPO 2077 converted to Baggage 1096,1/22 ; converted to Coach-Mail 3004, 7/28 ; converted to Coach-Baggage 3550,

8/28/43 ; dismantled at Eola, 10/8/56 .RPO 2078 convertedd to Baggage 1097, 8/22 ; destroyed at Shabbona, III ., 8/9/44.RPO 2079 converted to Baggage 1098, 5/22 ; dismantled at Aurora, 9/30/49.RPO 2080 converted to Baggage 1099, 8/22 ; converted to Baggage-Mail 1850,12/14/28 ; converted to Baggage 1300, 8/3/50 ;

dismantled at Eola, 1/13/66 .

23

24

Above is a well known view of a train from Savanna, Ill ., at the Gales-burg depot in 1905, a year after Burlington's general renumbering oflocomotives and cars . On the point is K-3 Ten-Wheeler 677, a formerChicago, Burlington & Northern engine . Behind it, and enlarged atright, is diminutive mail car 2001, thought possibly to also be ofCB&N origin . Burlington records list it only as former CB&Q 905-presumably second 905 . The abrupt end of the clerestory roof clearlyshows that open platforms have been removed from both ends ofthe car. The tiny 28' RPO is so small that it rides on the same No . 7trucks used by Q waycars .- Bernard Corbin collection

Mail car 2001HO scale drawings by

Hol Wagner

f

u R L I N T O

Remarkably, for a car that was off the rosterby 1915, yet another photo of 2001 exists . Thisview, on the former Keokuk & Western DesMoines & Cainsville RPO route at Cainsville,Mo ., around 1910, shows one window to havebeen removed, the door to have been modi-fied slightly and the roof details to havechanged considerably.-Bernard Corbin col-lection

Burlington Bulletin

I

I

I

TT... u 1 1

1

~~C .;20 1

.&is & o .i~ q ;II,III l

llrrl' ''II

u. & o .

O1~ ~y

33"

There were no combination baggage-RPO cars as short as the 28' full RPO's, but there were a number 40' to 45' long in the 1600-1610series . One is seen above at Bucklin, Mo ., on the old H&StJ around 1920 sandwiched between K-4 4-6-0 703 and a 1910-series steel bag-gage-mail car. Note the wooden mail crane beside 703's cab . Below is car 1603, a 44'2" car very similar to the one above . Built at Aurora in1877 as baggage car 167, it was subsequently renumbered 662, rebuilt to baggage-mail car 887 and renumbered 1603 in 1904 . Modifiedwith a standard 15' RPO compartment after this photo was made, the car lasted in branchline service until being renumbered 250619 onOct. 20,1928.-Above, Otto Perry photo, DPLWHD ; below, Bernard Corbin collection

One of the oldest cars on the post-1900 roster,venerable baggage-RPO 1655, here trailingcoach-baggage motor car 9529 at New Mar-ket, Iowa, in 1935, was built way back in Feb-ruary 1867 at Aurora as Q baggage-expresscar 25 . It was subsequently converted to bag-gage-mail car 889 and, after removal of itsend platforms, was renumbered 1655 in 1904 .The 49' car, shown working the Keokuk &Shenandoah RPO route, was finally scrappedat Eola on July 23, 1946, the year after itssouthern Iowa RPO route was discontinued .- Bernard Corbin

Second Quarter 1983

25

26

In the 0 1700-series were nearly three dozen wooden baggage-mail cars between 50' and 60' in length . Many received standard 30' RPOcompartments after 1912 and continued in branchline service as late as 1947. One of the 1700's appears above with A-2 468 and a 57'coachnear Beardstown, Ill ., on Dec . 30,1917- Bernard Corbin collection

Some 29 wooden 60' baggage-mail cars occupied the 1800-1828 series . Typical are cars 1805-1806, represented in these drawings showinglatter-day appearance . The 1805 was built at St . Joe in 1887 as StLK&NW 106 and was scrapped in 1945 ; the 1806 was turned out by Barney& Smith in 1888 as B&MR 69 and was scrapped in 1942 .

Baggage-Mail cars1805-1806

Last wooden mail cars acquired by the Q were 70'9'/2" steel underframe baggage-mail cars 1900-1909, built by AC&F in February 1911 .Since they didn't meet the 1912 standards but were too new to relegate to branchline service, they became baggage cars 1490-1499 in1923-24. One of the 1900's is seen behind P-2 Atlantic 2535 approaching Denver on Oct . 1, 1922.-Otto Perry, DPLWHD

N

RAILWAY II•fe ~ . • "^~~~ER~Ia[es

I80G 4a cHCr veer orr,ee

There were 12 different narrow gauge RPOroutes on Burlington predecessors/affiliates,not including the C&S . None, however, wereon the famous Black Hills lines . This 1903scene at Galesburg finds Fulton County Nar-row Gauge 4-4-0 66, baggage-mail car 4 andan unidentified coach ready to depart on theGalesburg & Havana RPO route, whichremained 3' gauge until 1905 .-Bernard Cor-bin collection

e .

~

'. fY hYF"~r~~

C&S baggage-mail car 13 was built by the UP in 1880 for the Denver, South Park& Pacific, passed to the Denver, Leadville & Gunnison in 1885 and became C&S114 late in 1898 . Renumbered 13 in 1906, it lasted to the end of narrow gaugepassenger service in 1937, then was sent with the C&S display train to the 1939New York World's Fair. Subsequently stored at the Q's Aurora shops, it nextbecame "Deadwood Central" car Buffalo Bill in the Q's operating exhibit at theChicago Railroad Fair of 1948-49, where its RPO compartment cancelled mail .The car survives today-but just barely-on the Black Hills Central touristoperation in South Dakota .-Above, George Lundberg photo, Hol Wagnercollection ; right, CB&Q photo, BN collection

Second Quarter 1983

27

On the C&S and its predecessors, there werea total of six 3' gauge RPO routes . HereUPD&G train No. 52 pauses at Empire, Colo .,on April 7, 1894. The Denver & Silver PlumeRPO was being worked by baggage-mail car30, one of three 1880 cars (30-32) whichbecame C&S 110-112, later 10-12.-UnionPacific Historical Museum collection

C&S train No. 71 pauses at Dickey tank onApril 6, 1937, with the tri-weekly Leadville-to-Denver passenger run, which was discontin-ued just four days later. Behind leased Q 2-8-0537 is baggage-mail car 13.-Frank Kelleyphoto, Hol Wagner collection

Seen at the Galesburg depot one morning around 1905 is a 4-4-0-powered two-car local . Ahead of coach 5005 is coach-baggage-mail car2630, one of 47 cars of this type owned by the Q since the turn of the century . This particular car, built at Aurora in June 1881 as coach 140and subsequently converted to coach-baggage-mail 671, is quite unusual in having a central RPO section . In November 1909 the car'scoach section was removed and it became baggage-mail car 1716, lasting as such until Dec . 7, 1935, when it was scrapped.-BernardCorbin collection

Bernard Corbin's first railroad photo, below, taken in December 1920, shows a very similar 4-4-0-powered two-car local, but this time thescene is Corbin's hometown of New Market, Iowa . The American type is A-2 No. 398, the coach is unidentifiable, and the other car is amore commonly configured coach-baggage-mail with the 15' RPO compartment up front .-Bernard Corbin

Second car on this westbound passenger train nearing Denver at Derby, Colo ., in July 1918 is one of the Q's 163000-series coach-mail cars .From outward appearances, it is probably the 3027, a 49'10" car built at Plattsmouth in 1900 as B&MR 32, as it was the only 3000 newenough to be outfitted with the enclosed vestibule this car features, although such a vestibule could have been retrofitted . The photog-rapher's motorcycle is visible near the rear of the train .- Otto Perry photo, DPLWHD

NCc

Le/%,-1;7y for S. G. Coach I Mai/ Cars 328 - 33/

r

LIGHT IN6

11

y0 0 0

g~0 0 02?

MAIL-

0

00

0

J

1"LENGTH INS OE 5D'-WIDTH INSIDE_')L0 MAIL 8,6 9"PASSENGER.INTERIOR FIN15H _MAILENDA__ ___N PAHEATMAIL END~TEAM& STOVE PRS

PINTSCHGAS

3 z'

0 a

tcZtlS O ZS 'rHTIF-- IFZr--.T

u

"~ coMp0 Tc3i ~RV~ ns

.UNITED STATES MAIL..RAI LWAY POST OFFICE` ''I

CON1 INATION MAIL & PASSENGER CARS NO° 2TT0Z

~'I •rz

NALE. LBURN COUPLER SIMPLE9A_W 9.RM,14'kIZ" DRAFT GEgR$BUFFER P'IINEECLA55(~,-STANOgW

PLUSH WEIGHT

?7-108,4001.85 .85z8-IOI, OOOLBSPANTASOTE BUILDER rULLMAj CQ

2$ DATE tSUILT1902RE qVIIT FW&O 1909

KIND OF SEATSAIR BRAKE

SiMANOGRNY UPHOLSTERING _S.[NpDAKER CURTAINS

SEATINGCAPACITY

C IBS R Y DE!VVL R 6-29-/8 . 4786--R .

60 Comb /Ma,/ondPassCo,4 3.'8C&J./5' ~B46 43/7E

Above, 1918 lettering diagram and 1916 floorplan of C&S coach-mail cars 328-331 . Thesefour were built by Pullman in 1906-07 ; the 329was destroyed by fire in 1924, and the otherswere converted to steel-sheathed baggage-mail cars 257-259 in 1925-26 . Car 259 was des-troyed in a 1938 collision, and the two survivorsbecame baggage cars 228 and 230 in 1941 and1943. The 230 was dismantled in 1955, but the228 survives in June 1983 as tool car 99070 .

FW&D coach-mail cars 27-28, left, were 1909conversions of unpopular cafe cars 251-252,built by Pullman in 1900 . C&S identically con-verted its cafe car 625 into coach-mail 322, andFW&D also converted two slightly longer cafecars (253-254) into coach-mail cars 29-30 . Afterremodeling the mail compartments to meetstandards, all four FW&D cars were finallyscrapped in the mid-1930's . C&S 322 becamebaggage-mail 260 in 1927, baggage car 229 in1941 and was wrecked in 1948.-All, Hol Wag-ner collection

8'-A4

I I I 1 I

43'- 3 -

Class MA-10 Steel Mail Cars 2315-2324

I 1

HO scale drawings by Bill Glick

Joe Legner collection

1!

I

14'-~%

w

Builder's end view of car 2319, taken at theAC&F plant in August 1916 .-Joe Legnercollection

Although the Post Office Department first issued mail car standards in 1912, they didn'tbecome mandatory until 1915-16 . Burlington bought its first all-steel 60' mail cars, the2300-2304, from Standard Steel Car Co . in April 1912 and followed with 10 cars (2305-2314) fromAmerican Car & Foundry in March 1914 . None of these cars met the new interior configurationstandards, and consequently by 1924 all had either been rebuilt to comply or were rebuilt tobaggage or baggage-mail types . In August 1916 AC&F delivered cars 2315-2319, and sisters2320-2324 followed in October 1917 . Strangely, none of these 10 met the interior standardseither. They were classed MA-10 by the Q and featured an unusual window arrangement, withtwo three-window pairs on one side and a two-four window grouping on the other . As the post

Modified with a standard interior, car 2323 shows the resulting window arrangement . Lincoln,October 1965.-Hol Wagner

Two builder's interior views of the 2319,showing the non-standard interior of theMA-10's as built .-Joe Legner collection

office began to enforce the new standards, all but three of the MA-10's were modified with stan-dard interiors which caused the window spacing to be changed to a set of five on each side .Cars 2316, 2317 and 2319, instead of being standardized, were converted in 1923-24 into bag-gage-mail cars 1897-1899 and outfitted with standard 30' RPO compartments . Cars 2321 and2324, although modified to meet the standards, were similarly converted to baggage-RPO's in1936-37, becoming the 1892-1893 . Then in 1941 the 2315 and 2318 were converted into baggagecars 1316-1317. The three survivors lasted almost until the end of RPO service, with 2322-2323being sold for scrap in 1967 and 2320 becoming a building at Galesburg in January 1970 .

Baggage-mail car 1892, converted from the 2321, at Alliance in October 1964 . Car 1893 was iden-tical ; 1897-1899 were similar. - Hol Wagner

Class MA-11Steel Mail Cars2325-2346

Drawings byBill Glick

32

pmo

- 43 -!

J[ OTO1

-1-

1r

5111E

Ii111lll111-1111liiiII

mlirI

3 1'2

Largest single group of full RPO cars on the Q roster was the 2325-2346,22 cars turned out in December 1922 by Standard Steel Car Co . and fullycomplying with Post Office Department Standards, even to the pair ofskylights over the letter cases, where it was impossible to place win-dows. As more powerful lighting became available, the skylights wereeventually removed . Cars 2327 and 2335 were destroyed in the disas-trous Aurora shop fire of Sept . 2, 1931, but all the others lasted into themid-1960's and beyond . One of the cars spent three full seasons can-celling postcards at the 1932-34 Century of Progress Exposition in Chi-cago. In the mid-1950's, cars 2330 and 2337 were equipped with rollerbearing journals and painted silver for Zephyr protection service . Uponits retirement in 1968, the 2330 was donated to the National RailroadMuseum in Green Bay, Wis . The accompanying builder's photos showthe as-built appearance of the class MA-11 cars, which changed littlethrough the years. -Jerry Albin collection

Burlington Bulletin

R LI I

1 L_J I ~,

RA~LWnY s~ o FC,C LC 5

The Q began buying all-steel baggage-mail cars in 1913 with the acquisition of the 1910-1919 fromAC&F, followed in 1914 by the 1920-1934 from the same builder. Standard Steel Car Co . added cars1935-1944, C&S 252-256 and FW&D 31-34 in 1922 (as part of the same order as cars 2325-2346, oppo-site), and AC&F -completed the group in November 1924 with a final five cars, classed MB-23 andnumbered 1945-1949 . Also, as part of this last AC&F order, C&S car 253 was rebuilt from the railsup, having been virtually destroyed in a derailment near Casper, Wyo ., on Sept . 27, 1923 . All 49 ofthese cars were similar in appearance and construction, featuring standard 30' RPO compart-ments, and nearly all lasted into the 1960's . Two were destroyed in the 1931 Aurora shop fire, fourwere converted to baggage cars around 1950 and eight more became baggage cars in the earlySixties, but the rest remained essentially as-built until the end . A few gained or lost RPO compart-ment windows through the years, and car 1947 was given roller bearing journals and a coat of sil-ver paint for Zephyr protection service in the mid-Fifties. Three of the cars are preserved today :1923 at the Illinois Railway Museum, 1942 at the National Museum of Transport in St . Louis andC&S 254 at the Colorado Railroad Museum .

Class MB-23 Steel Baggage-Mail Cars 1945-1949

Second Quarter 1983

B U

53'-3"

70'-B/,

Above, Hol Wagner collection ; below, Joe Legner collection

Drawings by Bill Glick

N G T 0 ti

11'-3 %a

n

I 4'-L'

33

Builder's end and interior views of C&S baggage-mail car 253, taken in November 1924 . This rebuilt car was identical to CB&Q 1945-1949 .

Joe Legner collection

A member of the Q's very first batch of all-steel baggage-mail cars, the 1914 appears atLincoln in October 1968, a year before it wassold for scrap . Built back in June 1913, the carhas four RPO compartment windows ratherthan the more common three .- Hol Wagner

Turned out by Standard Steel Car Co . inNovember 1922, FW&D 32 was photographedat Fort Worth in December 1966 . By this timeits third RPO compartment window had beenremoved (to allow extension of the lettercases), but the letter slot remained just belowthe former location of the third window. Thiscar became tool car X-316 in March 1968 .- Hol Wagner

Q 1947, one of the 1924 AC&F cars, has alsolost its third RPO compartment window infavor of a larger letter case, but more signifi-cantly, it has been equipped with roller bear-ing truck journals and painted silver (actuallyaluminum) for Zephyr service. It is seen leav-ing Denver Union Station on No . 10, the Den-ver Zephyr, during the 1962 Christmas mailrush . The car was sold for scrap five yearslater, in December 1967.-Hol Wagner

34 Burlington Bulletin

In May 1925 the Q completely re-equipped its Black Hills locals, Edgemont-Deadwood trains 141-142, by converting two 1903 coaches into parlor-coaches425-426 and rebuilding 1905 AC&F coach-baggage combines 3502 and 3510into coach-baggage-mail cars 2750-2751 . These latter two had a large centralbaggage compartment with a 15' RPO compartment forward and a nearly-as-small coach section aft. The wooden cars all lasted on 141-142 until 1940, whenthey were replaced with all-steel equipment . Above, No . 141 leaves Edgemontbehind K-2 665 on Oct. 15, 1933 . At right, with leased C&S Ten-Wheeler 330 onthe point, No . 141 rolls through the hills north of Edgemont on June 20, 1936 .- Otto Perry photos, DPLWHD

As mentioned on page 28, the Q owned a total of 47combination coach-baggage-mail cars . Only fivewere of all-steel construction, and four of thesewere converted gas-electric motor cars . Car 2752,then, was a one-of-a-kind gem, purchased from Pull-man in 1927 as part of lot 6068, which also includedchair cars 4520-4527, coaches 6161-6170 and fivelounge cars, including the Omaha Club . Also equip-ped with a 15' RPO compartment, 2752 had a muchlarger coach section than 2750-2751 . Apparentlyused all its life on branchline and mixed train serv-ice in eastern Nebraska, primarily out of Lincoln,the car survived the BN merger as a mixed train way-car - by this time stripped of its RPO section . It wasscrapped in the early 1970's . These three Pullmanbuilder's photos depict the car ready for delivery onSept. 2, 1927.-Joe Legner collection

Yi sti [r ~-

~: •: - ~ lr~r ∎ialflrA~~~~~wtror ~~~•srrE®~®rww•

rwwwwllo®~ww :

sl

8

Four motor cars were de-engined in 1941 and1943 and converted into coach-baggage-mailcars. The 9096 and 9724, both 65' cars,became 2715-2716, while 75' cars 9839 and9847 became 2725-2726. They were used asmotor car trailers and/or mixed train accom-modation cars . 2715 and 2725 were scrappedin 1957-58 ; 2726 lasted until 1964, and 2716was finally sold for scrap in August 1967. Here2726 nears the end of its career in the Cres-ton, Iowa, yard on Oct . 11, 1964 .-CharlesZeiler

35

HO scale

The Q bought its first standard lightweight baggage-mail cars from Budd in 1940 . Cars 1600/Silver Sheen and 1601/Silver Mail were 70' stainless steel cars with 30' mail compartments- simply modernized versions of the standard baggage-mail car in use since the turn of thecentury. Another very similar 70' car was purchased from Budd in October 1952 . Externally,the 1604/SilverPouch was more modern - a postwar design - and had three RPO compart-ment windows rather than the two on cars 1600-1601 . All of the lightweight mail cars lasted

U R L N G T O

47" Z" T4~cK Cf~ f¢5

7Z '(17uPLf0

N

0 PI=_

w

Budd Co. drawings, Hol Wagner collection

in service through the 1970 BN merger, but with the end of railway mail service on the Q thatsame year, the cars became redundant . When Amtrak was formed in 1971, it had no interestin them, so they were either placed in company service or scrapped . Below left is 1601/Silver Mai/ just out of the Denver wash rack in May 1963, and below right is 1604/Silver Pouchwaiting to be loaded at Lincoln on Sept . 29,1968 .- Left, Hol Wagner ; right, Bernard Corbin

The Burlington system owned four lightweight stainless steel baggage-mail cars over 80' in length . Two were bought from Budd in 1940for the Texas Zephyr (C&S 320/Silver Tidings and FW&D 150/Silver Messenger) . These 86' cars had 30' RPO compartments and long bag-gage sections . In 1948 the Q bought cars 1602ISilver Post and 1603ISilver Page, 82' cars with large 60' RPO compartments and shortbaggage sections - just the opposite of the C&S/FW&D cars . When passenger service on the subsidiaries ended in 1967, Silver Tidingswas sold to the Q, becoming the 1605 in January 1969, and Silver Messenger was converted into FW&D tool car X-326 in July 1970 . Above,Silver Tidings at Pueblo, Colo ., in April 1965 ; below, builder's photo of Silver Post at Budd's plant in Philadelphia on Jan . 17,1948 .-Above,Hol Wagner; below, BN collection

In addition to its Budd lightweight stainlesssteel mail cars, the Q owned two other light-weight cars with RPO compartments-oneeach for the Empire Builder and North CoastLimited, which operated over the Burlingtonbetween Chicago and the Twin Cities . CB&Q41 was an 81' baggage-mail car built by AC&Fin 1950 as part of a Great Northern order andpainted GN's standard Omaha orange andPullman green . Q 479, built by Pullman in1947, was originally Northern Pacific 430 andwas purchased and renumbered by the Q in1954. The two-tone green car, seen here inDenver in May 1969, had a 30' RPO compart-ment and 52' of crew dormitory space .-HolWagner

Second Quarter 1983

Budd Co. end view of 1602/Silver Post, far left .-BN col-lection

Builder's interior view of Sil-ver Post's 60' RPO compart-ment shows it to be quitesimilar to those of cars builtin the 1880's .- BN collection

37

38

©o No V Qo L I,T

(0000C R -8CR

LEM~a G11KRIDDE

00" 0 ,1

l/V q J Il

001, 0ABOVE TO RC STCnOLED CCnTh'A., _r .NSOr JF CAQON N000 .Or C c,- 57N0

00000 LIM `TO RC JTCNC,~CO O,iCP SIDE A ORS

TO BC AT OPPOSITE COOS ON CARS N/Tn 4 DOOR5 OR MO5E

P PER ROSES a,OOLORC PC'ISUEDCO,JECL/TIVEL_r eeo,N/NG w/roBOXNEAREST J,OC 7005 NEST TO MOPPER

7nE Aeorc /Nes,os LErteslIW^ To LL' /•,fTANOwOD LACK OLOCK /GVRE' .f IN ECTEID -i

USEO CN' ME7AL STEAM CONNC0TONS ONLY

j- STEAM HEAT ®.K.--

-AN 8B° ®' ®L

ON 57(4,4 7RAP5

T

~ty

CYL LlKRAOfGJM[NiNlICnCi

- i" C u Io )Lm ~D O~X 00@~_TO SESTET00,_EOOn cr4. 5x

L0(IERE s,Af/LYE•90 PROMS/DE Y L'OS

PREFERABLY NEAR AIR 5551'( CYLINOER-

rI1'

l1 if O©DOOO . 1 1'a

POP NEW CORK CAR COTD 0M. r STATION

- "-

71 0:ii Au . ~e ®®

TO SC STE/CLEJ ON BOTH / ,D5 Ce 5074 OUTS/DE SOOT BOLSTERS,.STATION, MONTH AnD YEAR 7 ASRCE N,Tn STAT/ON, "0- AND YEAR CAR:5 TsR~CO WT

NEW

AU 'TTOO! STENCILED 'YA;,( TANKS ANf20 (AS/LYPESOFPOMJ:DEOFCA JrfNCIL710BEMA/NT4,NEOFOR7YP5 FPOM DATE v APPLICATION CAP CO . TO OM?5rA7/ON-FOP FOE C TNT! IXCIL TORE (.1550 IT TIME01115"C101 .91, 00- 12 08/7

j CLEANED®IILED

I TESTEDL. ALT. VD'®~

70 OE 5TEACJLED ON 23R- C C CYL- NNCPE EASILY R5A0 PROM SIDE OP C05FOR NEW WORK CAR, O. TO OMIT STATION.LETTER/YB ON UNDER /'AAC DOVE N wwre LCAD-

NOTE / :4LL 14N9/LETTERS TO L'E ROUNDBLOCK LCTTEQ/NG

FOEM/SC1L L!TTEP7N6 SEE ORW6'/i P0

5 E'.-' Of C AQ„EFT NAT, 9519E FAC/N6 CAR

NorE '3-ALL 3 rC1YCIUn6 DONE N Nn1T5 EAC 577. CT

KNEEL NUMBER 'EaCILEDON SAC'r PEDESTALTO GUT9DE OF CON TCRTER ON EACH TRJCK,N FOIRES / ~2H,Gn . CONSELUT/VELY FROM / 70 /2, EVEV NUMBERSQv O E SIOC 00D NUKISSES 0/, OP OSITE Slag . SEEOPA6.T 2579

~ ARUCO' NACE Pb.4I~r "Cr55 NUMBER f

CTTCRTO AC,STlwC'ILED ON pwr,S,OC SNOOP CACNWHEEL P,ECE AS SHOWN

ToE ABCY'C rgLICK LCTTCR/NG PtR NEW EQU/PMCN7

ii 5

10 DAY

lc~e1

AU 00 0 0 00

N ore 'ZOR NEW PULL SIZE

JTO 4e7e'cN6 SEEDF6s--03 .6/029,4/030,6.03/?6/032

° Oo LET) R P1 CHT1DI

I' L ETTERS w 7NO PLXE3 a'+ TNECAR 4, TNC OAOMAL CLWIC+RS,017N--Z .15 aIT E 7RLC1 FAC.NG 7LYYRPD CENTER pF 045.

AF" STD LETTE/P/NG FORMAIL CARS OTHER

THAN ,STAINLESS STEELMO

-.10-IV/7069 W><I

- ;-bC8 'QRR

II

Burlington Bulletin

a o0

RAILWAY

i

' _~~~--~-pFXPRE89

T O xOY T DDD l ~~i UNITED ST EB MAIL - _

9089

RAILWAY FO- OFFICL~i0 A

A" C CK7CB .' ariEs.M Pv ,S. CLweAtiD ww- cwa 7b

7~L Yeu.avcrcePrew n7AGE

oI•Ir wcK wr v

~L. Lcv P i f S~!CR G M tc S

P,IUN . AP

r~~-~ ~ . IL J ® ® ~ ~ ®

LTC710000

Qr wl,MyC 70x3TM. C 7 7'RALL ' .K1~ Y C* d'/

O © l ® ~: -~1-

~OTC 3rµOS,M~CNC LISA, GNiLC

A1000 ArEACPIft,!70 SCSTNCIA-CD ON CTR JILL h'7CRC GSILY READ

OQPQC~O~

CAM, PCICRAd_ t, MW ALR QRAKCPRLM7 JIDC OF

w'+lxAw;~Cw'!.,, A.N'Ih 7CMp~,00~T~1,, U . G . 'ea

I ('

00000 LOS7DOCJTEN&rDOYCRSIDE000"

M&C/OJVVTCWXZ-DQ Sor,CNaYC,007f,WrJIGC000YRtA-MM,>TAr7DA6RCE N/TN JTAT/LYI{ Ap1V7N,W0 YCA4 LM.5

YOSCSTECN.CDO,'.£ 15CAOI TW/CP INIIIIJ ";7

#'EcwzlmK To 01MVIOEG~COV73IrOW

LENGTH MODE 00' 0"

E` M" MEMS °"` Oft /2870 '°°n°"0

-Z+IE9R

a-POSre>.oe,eeeeRws.i :G7o

MUTHl OaS001 000020"

~Amurr

A~'CLCT7CRIVi70StJTCACM-VONPMODLOCKCRO~IIILC/1OO-CAP

TO CCJTENC/LEDONw/R77InvC7NNERECAJ/LYREAD C

~r7qSLPSSWS'OE 01 CAP 119-1 TO RG AcA/Nr;NNCOPot77-PJ.PSOMOPT!OFAPPUCATONCASCO,TOOM/7

ro-SMIMAMON0V1 t74a E 0fWMCCLPWCEO ~NS 0 /s'OBW OP RNF /TA7T SE

(450SrTi_s

AS ?'pMV.

ZCLEANEIID7HE

Ate=?MACK cE 7EWO Porn AEw GIDL0-*rNT

AV-or eOmn -Vc xD w M^fwREDCCI4SCcurlwECr aesrm v A7i7I amAlma-TSDE poor CXT ro NYPCR

r - ESTEm ;m(OX ~Aa(. a/C /YTL7dAr LCTrCR W 7b BE /-

450ALACK

S A1 A~. W 160F

~~r ~'I~ ~}~ Fl0. p~Y TEAR(

p~ y I( 1=[NMPE

nec57a aLmaw AwarWA MM AM

(De OeAW

>,p~G°47- U 5•9

3," L ~

rL aThuA+ucESownSC.aq,N

aw 7W

TuSCDAV

.77CAY1Cd1YILC70'USO9LY

!-eT7Z)ftWO`L~POMWD eEtIRIfILEI~IR -GVA

~Y71C/rFCfra

fL~- TEAM HEAT GLK . AVr-- - 5TANCIPM LETTttws "f ALL[wvorccrrcR~ roarRVUw

flum A~

&®,

0-6

ALOGC LCTTCRlMD

pop.ON 3T(44 T)rAAS.

C0mda"&*-lA.tAR3 ..PoPM/JCC.LCTTEP14 ifLBI/r* .~/1CM

r A

L-Jr 1 T I I

I I

I

ilUNITED STATES MAIL GSLQQ,

0000 JI RAILWAY POST OFFICE ~- i

r

L etteriny forNG. Bagyaye £ /Wail Cars /D-/2 .

II

II

I

lIIIIII

fIIII

IIIII

II

9

2

0

c O L O R A D

UNITED STATES MA11rT1'RAILWAY POST OFF1CIL

Br S

Ctt.S.RY DENVER s-27-18 . t7E'1 A.

X-3 -V

Ve r-4

BAG GAGI

'i!+ EXPRE S s C OIPANYr ~ O :4 s

Cy nc+

Three drawings : Hol Wagner collection

Lettering forS G, Bayyaye and Nai/ Car 2SO C. .CS RX DENVER 7~6 /a 47$6 .

r

COLOR

AD O 8c S O is "r -i 1 1

0 o I o 0 0 0 0 0 o I 1 1 1 o

BA11GAGE_.ADAMS_EXPRESSC OMPANI;-~4

i

f

4UNITED S TATS S tMAILRAILWAY PO ST OFFI CE

1

Second Quarter 1983

I I I I I

39

NG. CoLettPriny for

ach t "all Cars 9o-43

CAS RY DENVER 6-21-18 . ~77.SR,

I

i

I

I

I

I

I

i

I

1

l

1

1

I

I

I

t

I

I

1

1

I

I

I

I

I

C OL OR AD S OiSTHERNI

1 1 I I

I L

I I

1 1 I f

I I

I I I

UNITED STATES _ fA1T,-+'RAILWAY P O S T OFFICE

© © ~) 0

FLOOR PLANS OF 60 FT ., FULL POSTAL CAR AND 30 FT., 15 FT ., AND 15 FT. 8 IN. COMPARTMENTS, SHOWING ARRANGEMENT OF DOORS, WINDOWS, ETC ., AND LOCATIONLETTER CASES, POUCH RACKS, STANCHIONS, ETC .

F,- PR ." r0R 3-- IBF, N1 . A--,-

L

(1) 60 ft. Full Car-Floor plan showing doors and windows arranged for 60 ft, car, or for converting to a 30 ft .or 15 ft . compartment . Windows shown in full lines and three skylights shown by dotted lines for 60 ft, car ;windows shown r n dotted lines may be installed complete firn original constnreticn, or provision made for completionwhen required . So that part or entire car may be used in other than distributing mail service, extra posts may beprovided in side walls of such nature as will permit widening the doors at minimum cost .(2) 30 ft . Compartment-Doors and windows located to permit compartment being reduced to 15 ft . without changein this respect . It originally fitted up as a 30 ft . compartment, windows shown in full lines and the skylight in dottedFoes are required ; windows shown in dotted lines can be installed complete or provision made for completion whenchange to 15 ft, compartment is made . If contemplated that car may be changed into a 60 ft, car, the additionaldoors, windows and skylights shown on the 60 ft . plan can be installed complete, or provision made for completionas required.(3) 15 ft.-15 ft. 8 in . Compartment-Optional, in lieu of the standard plan shown on R .M .S . Sheet F, revisedFebruary 2 1920 . Designed to permite compartment being extended to 30 ft . or 60 ft . without change in doors orwindows. Involves use of side doors cf same width as in 30 ft . and 60 ft, cars, and same space for toilet as in thelarger units. The compartment is 8 inches longer than the 15 ft, shown on Sheet F, although there is no increase inthe facilities in the compartment and it is rated the same as the 15 ft . Compartment .(4) If inside length of car exceeds 60 ft . the excess should he added between side door opening and end of car .If excess is greater than 3 ft . stove should be located at same end of car, on opposite side, and adjacent to thedoor opening, with a bulkhead of insulated metal plates to height of stove and wire netting panel above ; face ofbulkhead to he flush with edge of door opening.

FLOOR PLAN FOR STANDARD 60" MAIL CAR

FLOOR PLAN FOR I5° (I5"'B'") MAIL APARTMENT

S

Hol Wagner collection