Santa Fe Mail Trains.

Great Northern Mail Trains

History:

The Great Northern Railway had a large part of the Post Office mail contracts serving the Pacific Northwest. The first dedicated mail train was the Fast Mail which began service in 1909 between St. Paul and Seattle. This train had a working railway post office (RPO) and carried any combination of mail/express/baggage cars in and out of Seattle. Before 1941, all cars in the consist would have been painted Pullman Green with gold leaf lettering. The consist of the early Fast Mail trains would have been baggage and storage mail cars with a RPO in the mix and a coach on the rear. This coach acted as a caboose for the crew, and allows passengers to ride the train. Beginning in 1941 and becoming more prevalent in the post-WWII era, more and more cars, including heavyweight storage mail cars were painted in the Empire Builder Scheme. Also in the post-war era, newer express refrigerator cars and express boxcars were used. These cars came in the Empire Builder scheme, and were seen regularly on the Fast Mail. Foreign cars were also more common in the post-war era with New York Central, Milwaukee, and CB&Q cars included in the consist. In 1960 the Fast Mail was consolidated with the Western Star.

Western Star westbound on Marias Pass sometime in 1966. Note the two express boxcars and two storage mail followed by an RPO at the front of the train. Photographer unknown.

The Western Star was a lightweight passenger train created from cars previously used on the Empire Builder. The name was a result of rebranding of the Oriental Limited.  The train carried minimal mail until 1954 when the Western Star and Fast Mail were combined between Seattle and Spokane. In 1960, the two trains were combined for the full route between Seattle and St. Paul. The train consisted of baggage, mail, express, and RPO cars up front, followed by coaches, a lunch counter diner, several sleepers, a mountain series observation car, and more mail cars tacked on the end. This created some of the longest mail/passenger trains in the country at the time. When identifying the Western Star in photographs, it would have lightweight passenger cars, but no domes. The domes were reserved for the Empire Builder and never saw service on the Western Star.

Head end power for the trains will only be covered in the diesel era. As soon as the F3s and F7s were received by the Great Northern in 1947 and 1950 respectively, they would have been placed into service on the Fast Mail and then later onto the Western Star. All Great Northern passenger F-units were numbered in the 200-300 series and were visually distinguished by the double headlight on the front of the locomotives. In 1966 the SDP40s would have been used in passenger service. They were commonly seen on the Western Star with 2 SDP40s back to back with a F7 B-unit sandwiched in the middle.

Great Northern storage mail car. Jerry Quinn collection.

Great Northern express refrigerator car. Jerry Quinn collection.

Great Northern express boxcar. Jerry Quinn collection.

Modeling:

Modeling the Fast Mail and Western Star can require a lot of modification to your models. Not all the models are available in plastic, so without supplementing the expensive brass equivalent, scratch-building or kit-bashing may be required. That being said, a lot of the locomotives and passenger cars are available. Walthers makes almost all the required passenger cars, however most are lettered for the Empire Builder and in order to be used on the Western Star the lettering in the center of the car should say Great Northern.

All models include manufactures listed in HO scale. 

F3A and F3B - Intermountain, Athearn, Walthers, Broadway Limited

F7A and F7B - Intermountain, Athearn, Walthers, Bowser/Stewart

SDP40 - Athearn Blue Box.

SDP45 - Athearn

Baggage Cars - Walthers

RPO - Walthers

Storage Mail - Brass

Express Refrigerator - Atlas, Walthers, Athearn, Roundhouse

Passenger Cars - Walthers

In order to get all the variations for the different cars owned by the Great Northern, you would need to match each car to photographs. Many modifications are available, especially with the new brass sides from passenger cars available now. While these aren't the easiest trains to model, they are definitely worth the challenge and the history of spending time on! Enjoy!

Sources:

http://www.greatnorthernempire.net
http://www.gngoat.org