Santa Fe Mail Trains.

Santa Fe Mail Trains

History:

Mail trains on the Santa Fe are interesting historical and modeling topics. The Santa Fe had an ideal mail route with a mainline stretching to the California coast and connections to eastern roads in Chicago. I will be focusing on trains running from the 1950s into 1968. While the Santa Fe had mail contracts before this, the equipment used from the 1950s to 1968 generally stayed the same during this period.

The Santa Fe's main mail train was the Fast Mail Express, trains 7&8. This train ran from Chicago to Los Angeles with service to Oakland via Barstow. The Fast Mail was made up of all baggage/mail/express cars including lightweight and heavyweight baggage cars, railway post offices, express boxcars, express reefers, flexi-vans, and container on flatcars (COFC). The distinguishing feature of this train was the coach on the rear. This coach was required by law so paying passengers could ride the first class train. The train usually consisted of deadheaded passenger cars, baggage/express cars, railway post offices, more express/mail cars, and a coach on the rear. This train was highly variable and usually discernible in photographs by the high volume of baggage/express cars, marked by the single coach on the rear. Because this was the main mail train for the Santa Fe, many express shipments from New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh were handled through Chicago on this train. It wasn't uncommon to see foreign road cars such as Missouri Pacific cars (St. Louis), Pennsylvania heavyweight mail/baggage cars (Philadelphia), and New York Central express cars (New York) regularly included in the consist.

Train #7, the Fast Mail Express crests Cajon Summit in the summer of 1962. Note the green flags, indicating a second section of this train is running behind it. Andy Payne slide. Nathan Zachman Collection.

Santa Fe's other mail train was the Grand Canyon Limited, the 23/123&24/124. This was a "secondary" passenger train that wasn't up to snuff with the Chief or the El Capitan. This train played clean up for the Fast Mail and carried the overflow, especially during the various shipping seasons. While the passenger section of the train usually consisted of coaches, a lunch counter/dorm, diner, and sleepers, the train often ran with excess express/baggage cars up front. During the strawberry season in California, this train often handled about five express reefers each day filled with strawberries headed east to Chicago and New York. The Christmas season was a free-for-all on the mail trains with every available express/baggage/mail car being used to accommodate the heavy load.

The head end power generally consisted of F3s, F7s, and PA/B-1s. I have noticed in photographs that the PAs powered the Grand Canyon Limited in the early '50s, but moved over to handling the Fast Mail in the '60s. On the other hand, the F-units handled the Fast Mail early on and took over on the Grand Canyon Limited in the '60s.

All this mail by rail changed in 1968 when the Post Office decided to ship mail by air and truck, instead of by rail. The Fast Mail was discontinued in 1967, and the Grand Canyon Limited was slashed to just a baggage car and two coaches until the Amtrak era.

Modeling:

When modeling the Santa Fe mail trains, finding the right cars can be a challenge. Most cars are available in brass if your budget allows for it. Below is a list of cars and their manufacturers.

Express Boxcars - Athearn, Walther's

Express Reefers - Atlas, Walther's, Athearn

Baggage/Storage Mail - Walther's, Athearn, IHC, Brass.

Flexi-Vans - Walther's

This list is likely not complete, as there may be more manufacturers out there with available cars, but this is what I've run across. Luckily when modeling the mail trains, there is a lot of flexibility since the train consists changed daily. Also many foreign road cars that can be included in your trains are available from Walther's, Atlas, Athearn, and other manufacturers . The Pennsylvania, New York Central, and Missouri Pacific were most often represented in the mail trains, but never much more than one car from each road.

Sources:

 http://santafe.gmbus.com/