Bryan J. Howell
Dear Mr. Howell,
As a member of the Board of Directors of the
Burlington Route Historical Society I was wondering if you could direct
me to someone in the society who would be knowledgeable about Burlington
RPO service in Minnesota...and secondly, would have information on
Burlington RR Train 29...
The Fast Mail...between Chicago and Omaha.
I am a free lance writer and son of a Railway Post Office Foreman/Clerk
in Charge (my dad ran out of the Twin Ports of Duluth/Superior on the
Great Northern RR
Gopher and
Badger trains that ran between Duluth and St. Paul on the
Duluth & St. Paul RPO in the late 1950's -early 60's and the Burlington RR between Minneapolis and Chicago on the
Chicago, Savannah & Minneapolis RPO). I wrote several articles in
Classic Trains Magazine Fall 2006 issue that featured the Railway Mail Service (see:
http://ctr.trains.com/en/sitecore/content/Magazine%20Issues/2006/Fall%202006.aspx ).
I am presently writing an article for the 150th Anniversary of RPO in 2014 for the Minnesota Historical Society's
Minnesota History Magazine on
The History of the RPO in Minnesota. Minnesota was a critical hub for the
Railway
Mail Service for RPO mail service to the Pacific Northwest for mail
routed in this direction through Chicago from the east coast. I hope to
tell this story to underline how, in a partnership between railroads and
the US Postal Service using RPO's, they connected Americans in
many ways and became America's first information highway, long before we
had phones and the Internet.
Any information or assistance in
telling this story to include the role of the Burlington Railroad in
Railway Post Office service in Minnesota would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
David A. Thompson
dathomps68@gmail.com